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The village was silent.
Not the peaceful kind of silence—but the kind that comes after something has been broken.
Dust hung in the air. A few villagers peeked out from behind walls and doors, terrified and confused. The road was cracked, a stone wall half-collapsed where the hunter had been thrown.
Lian Yue stood in the middle of it all, her hands still trembling.
She could still feel it.
That cold, ancient presence.
Like an echo that hadn't faded yet.
Li Yun was at her side in an instant. "Yue. Look at me."
She did.
His eyes were full of worry. "Are you hurt?"
She shook her head slowly. "I… I don't think so."
Lian Feng hurried over too, clearly shaken. "Sister… what was that?"
She swallowed. "I don't know."
They all looked toward the hunter.
He was slowly pushing himself up from the rubble, his armor cracked, blood at the corner of his mouth.
But he was smiling.
"That confirms it," he said hoarsely. "The seal is weakening."
Li Yun's expression darkened. "You should not be able to stand."
The hunter laughed weakly. "You should not be here."
He looked at Lian Yue again, his eyes no longer confident—now they were… excited.
"The Council will be very interested."
He raised his hand, and a strange symbol flared in the air.
A signal.
Li Yun cursed under his breath.
"We have to go. Now."
They didn't wait.
Li Yun grabbed Lian Yue's wrist, and with his other hand, he pulled Lian Feng close. The world blurred as he forced open a short-distance shift—something dangerous to do in the Mortal Realm, but they had no choice.
They reappeared in the middle of a forest several li away, stumbling slightly.
Lian Yue nearly fell, but Li Yun caught her.
Her breathing was fast and shallow.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean to—"
He shook his head. "This is not your fault."
"But it answered me," she said, her voice shaking. "Whatever is inside me… it answered."
Lian Feng sat down heavily on a fallen log. "I really don't like the sound of that."
Li Yun looked at the sky through the trees.
"They know now," he said quietly. "Not just that you're here. But that the seal is changing."
"So they'll send more?" Lian Feng asked.
"Yes," Li Yun replied. "And not just scouts."
They walked until nightfall.
No one spoke much.
Lian Yue's mind was a storm.
Every time she closed her eyes, she remembered the feeling—that sudden, terrifying power moving through her, like she was not alone in her own body.
When they finally stopped to rest near a stream, Li Yun set up a simple barrier and went to gather wood.
Lian Feng sat beside her.
"You're scared," he said gently.
She nodded. "I am."
He hesitated, then said, "But you didn't run. You protected us."
She looked at him. "I don't want to protect you with something like that."
He smiled faintly. "Then we'll just have to make sure you never have to."
Later, when Lian Feng was asleep, Li Yun sat across from her by the small fire.
"We need to talk," he said.
She nodded. "About… it?"
"Yes."
He stared into the flames. "What's sealed inside you is not just a source of power. It's a will."
Her heart tightened. "A… living thing?"
"In a way," he said. "It's something that existed before the current order of heaven. Something that the Council couldn't destroy. So they… buried it. In you."
She felt cold all over. "So I'm really just a prison."
"You are more than that," Li Yun said firmly. "But yes. That is what they made you."
"And it's waking up," she whispered.
Li Yun didn't deny it.
"The seal responds to danger," he said. "And to your emotions. The more you're pushed, the more cracks appear."
She hugged her knees. "What happens if it breaks?"
He was silent for a long time.
"Then the heavens will burn," he said finally.
Far away, the wounded hunter knelt inside a glowing formation.
Figures of light and shadow stood around him.
"The Sun God protects her," he reported. "But the seal has reacted. I saw it myself."
Murmurs filled the chamber.
"So it's true."
"The vessel is no longer stable."
A cold voice spoke from above. "Then we move to Phase Two."
The hunter lowered his head. "What are my orders?"
"Do not engage again," the voice said. "You are no longer needed."
The formation began to dissolve.
The hunter's eyes widened. "Wait—"
The light swallowed him.
In the forest, Lian Yue suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest.
She gasped.
Li Yun was at her side instantly. "What is it?"
She shook her head, breathing hard. "I don't know. It felt like… something just died."
Li Yun's gaze turned distant and unreadable.
"No," he said quietly.
"…Something was silenced."
And somewhere, far beyond mortal sight, the heavens began to prepare for war.