Zu Tian's group and the wounded Stone Ridge survivors traveled together, moving cautiously through thickets of thorned bark and shadow pools that clung to the ankles like tar.
Then—
The broken sword pulsed. Hard.
Zu Tian froze mid-step.
"Everyone—stop."
The ground went silent.
Yen Mo whispered, "Senior Brother, what did you—"
Crack.
A single branch snapped in the distance.
Then another.
Then a third.
Something was approaching—no, several things moving aside to make space for it.
The air chilled.The crimson fog parted.And across the clearing…
A figure emerged.
Humanoid.Tall.Clothed in shredded monk robes blackened with age.Its skin? Nonexistent.It was a skeleton slick with dried blood, each bone inscribed with faint, writhing runes.
Its empty eye sockets glowed with pale green flame.
A Soul-Snatching Beast—a corrupted remnant formed from the remains of Vein-Carving cultivators.
One step.
The world trembled.
Wei Yunxiao made a strangled sound, breath breaking.
Zhao dropped his sword.
Then—
They ran.
Not fled.Not retreated.
They bolted in blind terror, screaming.
Yen Mo barked, "WEI YUNXIAO! STOP—!"
But they were gone.
Vanished into the trees, crashing through brush like panicked deer.
"By the heavens," Li Xueyao whispered, voice shaking. "What… what could scare a Stone Ridge prodigy into that?"
Bai Kuan's knuckles turned white. "Senior Brother…?"
Zu Tian didn't answer.
Because something else was happening.
The Soul-Snatching Beast was not attacking.
It wasn't even looking at them.
It was staring.
Directly at Zu Tian's broken sword.
Its green flames flickered.
Its bony jaw creaked open—not in aggression,not in hunger,
but in something that almost resembled recognition.
A low, vibrating growl escaped its hollow throat.
Then—
SHRRRK—
Its form blurred into smoke.
It vanished.
Not ran.Not retreated.
Simply disappeared.
The forest fell silent.
Yen Mo swallowed so hard it echoed."What… what was that? Why didn't it attack us?"
Li Xueyao whispered, "Zu Tian… did you notice? It was looking at—"
"The sword," Bai Kuan finished shakily.
Zu Tian stared down at the broken blade.
Cold metal.
Chipped edge.
Dull gray.
Yet warm to the touch.
He clenched his grip.
The sword remained silent, its surface dark and calm.
But somewhere deep inside the steel…
A faint pulse throbbed.
ting.
Like a whisper.
A reminder.
Something inside the gorge knew this sword.
And it feared it.
Or hated it.
Or remembered it.
Zu Tian exhaled slowly, eyes fixed on the direction where the skeletal beast vanished.
"…Everyone, stay close."
He sheathed the sword.