The forest hissed with quiet tension.
Light qi curled above the moss like breath restrained. Lloyd moved between spirit-rooted trees, boots brushing emerald dew, fingers pulsing with residual energy. He'd been tracking a Silver claw beast for half a day—its core brimming with refined qi, perfectly suited for tempering. Each step forward was precise. Measured. Vault mist swept past his cloak in threads of cold color.
Then he saw her.
Collapsed beneath a blood-stained vine, half-covered by floral root bindings. A woman. Slim frame. Silken black hair draped like ink across fractured stone. Her skin shimmered faintly with dormant qi. She looked no older than twenty—but her aura said otherwise.
She was beautiful.
And poisoned.
Her breath came jagged. Veins beneath her eyes pulsed with violet-black lines. Her robes—faintly torn—revealed no sect sigil. A rogue cultivator, clearly. But her pressure? Peak Moon Realm. Two realms and three sub-realms higher than his own.
Lloyd halted. Eyes narrowed.
He considered walking away.
Vault beasts hunted instinctively. Pausing here would draw attention. Her injury wasn't his business. And yet…
Her hand trembled. Fingers reached weakly toward him.
"…Help…" she whispered, voice brittle as cracked porcelain.
Lloyd sighed. "Seriously?"
But something inside him shifted.
Not pity. Not obligation.
Just choice.
He stepped forward.
She passed out moments later.
Lloyd crouched beside her, scanned the discoloration threading her wrist. The poison was exotic—spiral-rooted. Likely traced to ancient Vault flora or beast venom. The type that destabilized not just qi but meridian harmonics.
He dug into his pouch, pulled out spirit herbs Jalen once taught him about: ghost moss extract, radiant-spine clover, and whisper leaf powder. He ground them quickly, applied compresses along her veins. Light qi pulsed from his palm, stabilizing her core.
No result.
His qi healed him naturally with time. But healing another required an actual technique—a sequence, a method of transfer and restructuring. He hadn't learned one yet.
She stirred once. Groaned. Fainted again.
Lloyd cursed under his breath. "Of course it's complicated."
Only one option remained.
He gathered more herbs. Crushed and steeped them into heated water drawn from a nearby spirit spring. Crafted a shallow basin from stone. Carried her—fully clothed—into it. Her body slackened beneath the warmth. The poison trembled inside her frame.
Then he placed his hands along the surface. Light qi surged outward.
He didn't use technique.
He used intent.
He shoved his qi inward—not forcefully, but persistently—coaxing the poison outward through pressure adjustment and ambient resonance. Her body reacted violently—grimacing, twitching, limbs curling in pain. But the toxins began to move. Black lines faded slowly. She groaned again. Her lips quivered. Then silence.
Hours passed.
Eventually, the poison fled.
Her qi stabilized.
She remained unconscious.
Lloyd sighed and pulled her from the pond, body still soaked but no longer shaking. He laid her beside the fire, wrapped her in a dry cloak. He thought of changing her clothes—then didn't. It would be inappropriate. She wasn't a mortal. If she woke and thought he defiled her…
She'd kill him.
She didn't wear sect robes—clearly rogue. But the pressure she emanated earlier meant she'd killed more beasts, more disciples, more threats than he could count.
So did someone like her get poisoned?
What had she faced?
He didn't ask.
Just kept the fire going.
___
Two days later.
Moonlight curved over the pond. Spirit beast cores floated in carved dishes beside it—cores Lloyd had fought for. He sat shoulder-deep in the water, letting the refined spirit qi seep into his bones.
His body pulsed with light.
Not flashy.
Just rhythm.
Even without Jalen, Lloyd trained. He tempered. He refined. He absorbed.
Slack was for fools.
And speaking of Jalen he missed the kid.
He opened his eyes slowly a hour later—just as the woman stirred on the bed he made of rocks and palm leaves for her decorated with spirit herb to help her heal.
He rose from the pond slowly, condensed qi pulling clothes over his form without touch. Light coiled around him naturally now. Not because he forced it—but because it followed him.
She tried to rise. Her knees buckled slightly. Lloyd stepped forward instinctively, offering a stabilizing pulse.
She caught herself.
"I'm fine," she said.
He stepped back.
"Thank you for helping me," She said. "I owe you a favor."
"I didn't save you for favors."
She stared at him strangely. "Any other cultivator would beg for a favor from someone like me."
Lloyd shrugged. "I'm not any other cultivator."
She reached out with spirit sense. Felt his core.
Confirmed it.
Seventeen. Enlightened Realm. No distortion. No amplification tricks.
She frowned. That shouldn't be possible, and yet here he was standing before her. Just what kind of technique does he even study, form what she can tell he uses light qi.
Lloyd who was very aware of what she did but couldn't stop it despite her being weak, felt offended and turned to leave.
"Now that you're healed, I best be going."
"Wait," she called.
But he didn't listen he continue and she appeared before him.
"Are you planning to bully the person who not only helped you survive that deadly poison, but looked after you and watch over you for the past two days?"
"Of course not," she scoffed offended. she might be a lot of things but ungrateful isn't one of them. "I just need your help with something."
"You're not exactly in the shape to go treasure hunting."
"I don't need your strength," she said. "Just your presence. Distraction."
He narrowed his eyes. "Distraction from what?"
"A beast."
She met his gaze.
"I can't tell you more."
"Then I can't help you."
He stepped around her, moving toward the tree line.
She appeared in front of him—qi flickering, unstable, but fast.
"Fine," she snapped. "It's a treasure. I need it."
"What kind?"
"I won't lie—it's dangerous."
"I gathered that when you were half-dead in a swamp."
"If you help me retrieve it," she said, "I'll give you something valuable. Worth your while."
Lloyd tilted his head. "And how do you know what's worth my while?"
The woman scowled.
"What do I have to do to convince you?"
"If you're about to offer your body, save it. I'm not that kind of desperate."
She blinked. "Who said anything about—"
"You're beautiful," Lloyd said casually. "But you're also ten times my age."
The woman bristled.
"Do you want to die, brat?"
"Would be poetic," Lloyd mused. "Saved your life, only to be buried by it."
She stared at him.
Then turned.
"Fine. I'll find it myself."
She vanished into the woods.
Lloyd exhaled.
Then he activated the masking technique Jalen had taught him—one that suppressed his qi signature entirely. His presence folded into the terrain, light threads dimming until even the mist seemed to ignore him. No aura. No sound. Just silence.
He became shadow.
And he followed her.