The visitor did not give his name.
That alone was already a statement.
He stood before the group, not invading their space, yet not stepping back either. His presence did not press with qi, nor with killing intent. It pressed with context. Like someone who carried too many truths for a single place.
"If you're going to speak about my father," Lin Ye said, "do it now."
The man nodded slowly.
"He was a coherence verifier," he replied. "Not of power, not of bloodlines. Of outcomes. His work was not to prevent wars… but to keep them from tearing the fabric of the world."
Yan Mo closed his eyes for a moment.
"That explains why he was eliminated," he murmured. "No one wants someone who can say, 'this shouldn't exist.'"
"He was not eliminated," the man corrected. "He was absorbed."
Silence fell with renewed weight.
"When the Hour disappeared," he continued, "it was not merely a malfunction. It was an incomplete correction. Something tried to close a contradiction… and your father stood in the way."
Lin Ye felt a dull pressure in his chest. Not from the Echo. From something older.
"And me?" he asked. "What was I in all of that?"
The man studied him anew.
"An unplanned point," he said. "A secondary consequence that was not meant to stabilize… yet it did."
He Lian let out a dry laugh.
"It's always comforting to know one wasn't meant to exist."
"Not in that way," the man replied. "You are different."
He turned to He Lian.
"You are friction. He—" he pointed at Lin Ye "—is a dangerous continuity."
The node vibrated softly, as if approving the distinction.
"The ancient nodes," he went on, "were activated only when a war threatened to break more than just territories. They decided whether a conflict should escalate, be contained… or be denied."
"Denied?" Su Yanlin asked.
"Cleanly erased," the man replied. "As if it had never happened."
Lin Ye pressed his fingers against the floor.
"And now?" he asked. "What does this node decide?"
The man looked at the incomplete symbols.
"Nothing yet," he said. "It granted you provisional authority because you closed a rift that should not have been closed… but also should not have been allowed to expand."
Yan Mo frowned.
"That doesn't sound stable."
"It isn't," the man admitted. "That's why I came."
He turned slightly, as if listening to something the others could not hear.
"The northern factions are already deciding whether to intervene," he said. "Not to capture you. To force you."
"Force me to what?" Lin Ye asked.
"To choose," he replied. "A side. A result. A conflict that justifies your existence."
He Lian shuddered.
"That's… twisted."
"It's political," Yan Mo corrected. "And very old."
The man nodded.
"If you remain here," he told Lin Ye, "this node will become a battlefield. Not today. Not tomorrow. But inevitably."
"And if I leave?" Lin Ye asked.
"Then the node will remain incomplete," he replied. "And that too will draw attention."
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
For an instant, he saw limits again. Transitions. Suspended thresholds.
"I always choose between bad options," he murmured.
"That's what makes you functional," the man said.
Before Lin Ye could respond, He Lian suddenly doubled over, clutching his head. A dark thread ran across his silhouette, like a poorly stitched shadow.
"He Lian!" Su Yanlin cried.
"He is paying," the man said gravely. "The node is trying to classify him… and it cannot."
He Lian was breathing with difficulty.
"It's taking… my references," he gasped. "Names… places…"
Lin Ye reacted without thinking and extended his hand, activating the Threshold just enough to interrupt the process.
The node responded with immediate pressure.
"No!" the man warned. "If you interfere further—"
Too late.
The Threshold collided with the provisional authority.
The result was a violent compromise.
The node yielded… but took something in return.
He Lian screamed.
Not from physical pain.
From loss.
When everything calmed, he collapsed unconscious.
Lin Ye was breathing heavily, blood seeping from the corner of his lips.
"What… did it take?" Su Yanlin asked in a trembling voice.
The man knelt beside He Lian and closed the young man's eyes.
"His last stable connection to the common world," he said. "When he wakes… he will no longer be remembered as a normal person."
Silence was absolute.
Lin Ye clenched his teeth.
"So this has passed from theoretical."
The man looked at him.
"Yes," he said. "Now you are in debt to someone whom the world will no longer properly recognize."
Lin Ye struggled to his feet.
"Then I've decided something," he said. "I'm not staying here."
Yan Mo looked at him closely.
"Where to?"
Lin Ye lifted his gaze toward one of the node's side exits, where the symbols were older, more eroded.
"To a place no one wants to use as a stage," he replied. "A useless place."
The man smiled for the first time.
"That," he said, "is a dangerous decision."
"I know," Lin Ye replied. "That's why it works."
The node emitted one final pulse, slowly powering down.
Very far away, a northern tablet cracked.
"He chose to move," a voice murmured. "Then we will have to reach him."