The province was dying.
Not in fire or blood—not yet—but in fear.
Word spread faster than Qi ever could. Markets closed early. Inns refused strangers. Caravans changed routes without explanation. Even birds avoided certain skies, sensing what men refused to acknowledge.
Mount Cheonroe had fallen.
And Murim was hunting ghosts.
Pung Hyeon felt it the moment they crossed the river marking the eastern boundary of the province. The land itself felt watched, saturated with probing intent. Formation marks lay hidden beneath dirt roads. Spirit threads clung faintly to trees and stone.
Verification arrays.
Detection nets.
Not meant to kill—yet.
Meant to confirm.
"They're not searching blindly," Pung Hyeon said quietly as they walked. "They're checking."
Noesin Cheon trudged beside him, a heavy pack strapped across his back. Inside were stones—useless weight added deliberately.
"For what?" Noesin Cheon asked.
"For proof that the Heavenly Lightning Clan is truly extinct."
Noesin Cheon's steps faltered.
Pung Hyeon did not slow.
"If they find even a fragment," he continued, voice flat, "they won't stop with slaughter. They'll dissect what's left."
Noesin Cheon swallowed and adjusted the pack.
"Both sides?" he asked.
"Yes."
That answer was worse than silence.
They traveled only at dawn and dusk.
Never at noon. Never under a full moon.
Righteous sect patrols controlled the main roads, their banners clean and bright, their smiles sharp. They questioned travelers politely, scanned Qi gently, and moved on—unless something reacted.
Demonic scouts were harder to spot.
They did not ask questions.
They simply watched.
Pung Hyeon felt them more than saw them—thin, corrosive awareness brushing against his suppressed aura like mold spreading along damp walls.
"They're circling," Noesin Cheon said one night as they rested beneath a cliff face.
"Yes," Pung Hyeon replied. "You're learning."
Noesin Cheon nodded.
He had not cultivated Qi in weeks.
Instead, his days were filled with motion.
Run.
Climb.
Carry.
Endure.
Pung Hyeon woke him before sunrise, tied stones to his limbs, and made him move until his muscles failed. Then he made him continue.
No lightning.
No Qi.
Only flesh and will.
The seal allowed this.
The seal encouraged it.
"You're not training to fight," Pung Hyeon said as Noesin Cheon collapsed beside a frozen stream. "You're training to survive pursuit."
Noesin Cheon gasped for breath, hands trembling.
"Will it be enough?"
Pung Hyeon looked toward the horizon, where faint ripples in the air betrayed distant detection formations.
"No," he said honestly. "But it's all you're allowed."
On the fifth day, they nearly died.
They had taken a narrow mountain path to avoid a righteous checkpoint when the air suddenly tightened. The sensation was subtle—barely noticeable to ordinary cultivators.
To Noesin Cheon, it was suffocating.
The seal flared violently.
He staggered, clutching his chest.
"Down," Pung Hyeon hissed.
They dropped behind a rock outcrop as a formation activated ahead—golden threads rising from the ground, weaving into a translucent net.
A righteous verification array.
"Lightning-sensitive," Pung Hyeon muttered. "High-grade."
Footsteps approached.
Three cultivators emerged, robes marked with the insignia of a mid-tier orthodox sect. Calm. Disciplined. Dangerous.
"Detection spike confirmed," one said. "Residual anomaly."
Another frowned.
"But it's inconsistent."
The third stepped forward, eyes narrowing.
"Search manually."
Noesin Cheon's breathing grew shallow.
Pung Hyeon leaned close, his voice barely a whisper.
"Do not react," he said. "No fear. No anger. Think of nothing."
Noesin Cheon clenched his jaw.
The cultivator's gaze swept over them.
"Travelers?"
"Yes," Pung Hyeon replied evenly. "Returning from the border."
The cultivator's eyes flicked to Noesin Cheon.
The seal burned.
For a heartbeat—
The air resisted the man's step.
Barely.
The cultivator paused.
"…Interesting."
Pung Hyeon moved instantly.
His Qi surged—not outward, but inward, collapsing his own aura like a dying star. The sudden absence disrupted the formation's balance.
The net flickered.
"Formation instability—!"
Pung Hyeon grabbed Noesin Cheon and leapt.
They plunged off the cliff.
Wind screamed past them as they fell.
Pung Hyeon twisted midair, slamming his palm into the rock face and shattering a ledge. They crashed into snow and stone, tumbling violently down the slope.
By the time the cultivators reached the edge—
They were gone.
They did not stop running for two days.
Noesin Cheon's legs bled. His vision blurred. His lungs burned like fire.
Still Pung Hyeon did not let him rest.
"You slow down," he said, "and both sects catch up."
On the third night, they hid inside the hollow of a dead tree.
Noesin Cheon lay curled in on himself, shaking.
"I felt it," he whispered. "When he looked at me."
"I know."
"My lightning wanted to answer."
"I know."
Noesin Cheon clenched his fists.
"Then what am I supposed to do when it happens again?"
Pung Hyeon was silent for a long moment.
Then he said, "You become someone else."
He reached into his pack and removed a thin metal token, etched with wind-shaped patterns.
"This belonged to someone who died a long time ago," Pung Hyeon said. "A nobody."
He pressed it into Noesin Cheon's palm.
"From now on, your name is Rin."
Noesin Cheon stared at the token.
"No clan?"
"No bloodline."
"No past?"
Pung Hyeon met his eyes.
"Especially no past."
Noesin Cheon closed his fingers around it.
"…Rin," he said.
The seal pulsed once.
Then settled.
As they crossed into the outer territories of the Central Plains, the atmosphere changed.
The pressure lessened.
Not vanished—but thinned.
Righteous patrols still existed, but their formations were defensive rather than invasive. Travelers were questioned but not dissected.
One sect's disciples escorted refugees away from a monster outbreak instead of exploiting it.
Another provided food to villages damaged by demonic incursions.
Noesin Cheon noticed.
"These ones feel different," he said cautiously.
"Yes," Pung Hyeon replied. "Not all righteous sects are liars."
He looked toward the distant plains, where wind currents danced visibly across the land.
"There are sects that value balance over dominance," he continued. "Control over conquest."
Noesin Cheon walked silently for a while.
"Is that where we're going?"
Pung Hyeon nodded.
"The Stormwind Clan."
Noesin Cheon repeated the name in his mind.
Wind.
Not lightning.
Movement, not destruction.
As they traveled, Pung Hyeon altered Noesin Cheon's training.
Less raw endurance.
More balance.
Footwork against shifting terrain.
Breath control while exhausted.
Striking without force—only timing.
Noesin Cheon struggled.
But something clicked.
He was lighter on his feet now.
Faster.
More precise.
And for the first time since the massacre—
The storm inside him was quiet.
Not asleep.
Watching.
Waiting.
By the time the distant banners of the Stormwind Clan's outer watchtowers came into view—
Noesin Cheon no longer felt like prey.
He felt like something hidden.
Sharpening itself.
End of Chapter 7