The Heaven of Resting Peaks was quiet.
Not the familiar stillness Lin Yuan had grown accustomed to, but a thinner kind—one where motion felt suspended rather than absent. The clouds below the mountain drifted more slowly than before, their edges blurring as if the air itself hesitated to let them pass.
Lin Yuan stood near the edge of the Immortal Courtyard.
He had been there for some time, hands resting loosely at his sides, gaze unfocused. Since entering the Heaven, moments like this had become common—standing, observing, thinking without urgency.
Yet now, something felt different.
The wind that usually flowed downslope weakened, then stopped altogether.
Lin Yuan noticed.
He did not tense, nor did he feel threatened. It was simply… unfamiliar. The Heaven of Resting Peaks rarely changed without reason.
Beside him, Qingshi appeared.
As always, there was no sound, no step, no sign of arrival. One moment the space was empty; the next, the attendant stood there, hands folded within his sleeves, gaze directed toward the sky above the courtyard.
"Something has drawn near," Qingshi said.
Lin Yuan followed his line of sight.
Above the Immortal Courtyard, the sky had shifted.
It was subtle—no裂, no rupture—but depth itself seemed uneven, like a distant surface disturbed by unseen pressure. The clouds closest to that region thinned, forming a pale ring that did not disperse.
"A fragment," Qingshi added.
Lin Yuan repeated the word silently.
Fragment.
He had never heard it spoken aloud before, yet it did not feel unfamiliar. As though the Heaven itself had introduced the concept long ago, without explanation.
Before he could ask further, something appeared.
A translucent panel unfolded before his eyes.
There was no sound, no voice accompanying it. The words were simple, steady, and unmoving.
Fragment Detected
Proximity established.
Integration possible.
Integration will expand Authority.
Authority governs domain stability and growth limit.
The panel did not flicker.
It did not urge.
It waited.
Lin Yuan read it once, then again.
He felt no excitement—only recognition.
For the past year, his cultivation had progressed quietly.
Spiritual energy entered his body as naturally as breath. There were no techniques to circulate it, no deliberate guidance. It simply gathered, settled, and deepened.
He had broken through without resistance.
Again and again.
Until one day, it stopped.
Not abruptly. Not forcefully.
It had simply… reached completion.
Since then, no matter how long he remained within the Heaven, no matter how calm his mind or how full the air felt, nothing more accumulated.
He turned to Qingshi.
"My growth ended," Lin Yuan said.
"Yes," Qingshi replied.
"Do you know why?"
"No."
Lin Yuan accepted that.
After a pause, Qingshi spoke again.
"Your Authority did not end."
Lin Yuan's gaze returned to the panel.
Growth limit.
The words lingered longer than the rest.
He understood, then—not as knowledge, but as alignment.
The Heaven of Resting Peaks was vast, yet incomplete. One mountain stood active and whole, while countless others remained distant, unreachable, existing more as promise than reality.
This Heaven was not finished.
And neither was he.
"What happens to the fragment?" Lin Yuan asked.
Qingshi answered without hesitation.
"Those within it will enter your Heaven."
Lin Yuan considered that.
There was no mention of conquest.
No language of subjugation or control.
Only entry.
"Is it forced?" he asked.
"No," Qingshi said.
The panel remained.
The sky above the courtyard held its distortion, unchanged.
Lin Yuan thought of the old man, seated quietly beneath the eaves. Of Xu Ran, standing uncertain yet steady. Of how cultivation had continued here, unimpeded, unclaimed.
This Heaven did not take.
It received.
"Allow it," Lin Yuan said.
The panel vanished.
Above the Immortal Courtyard, the sky responded.
Clouds parted in a slow, deliberate motion, revealing a circular aperture suspended high above the mountain. It was neither bright nor dark—only deep, like a passage cut into distance itself.
The Heaven did not shake.
It adjusted.
Qingshi turned toward Lin Yuan.
"Shall I go?" he asked.
Lin Yuan nodded once.
Qingshi stepped forward—and was gone.
The portal remained.
Lin Yuan stood alone beneath it, feeling the Heaven grow subtly heavier, as though something unseen had begun to lean inward.
Beyond the mountain, beyond the clouds, something had noticed him.
And it had begun to move.
End of Chapter 13