Bai Zixian stirred.
Pain greeted him first.
His body ached as if it had been beaten by a storm. His throat was dry, every breath scraping his lungs as consciousness slowly returned.
His vision was blurred, but his other senses recovered more quickly.
He tried to stretch.
He couldn't.
That was when his eyes fully opened.
He was tied to a tree.
Then his senses caught something he hadn't noticed before.
Voices.
He focused, straining to listen.
"What do you mean we shouldn't kill him?" The voice was feminine, hoarse, irritated. "You know what he is."
"Yes," another voice answered calmly. "But we can use him."
"Use him how?"
"They wield concepts and laws. That kind of power should be useful if we want to escape this place."
A pause. "They can't be trusted," the first voice said sharply. "They'll betray us the moment they get the chance."
"I know, Myrren." The second voice sounded tired. "But look at our situation. We need every bit of manpower we can get. The reset happens in two days. If we don't get out of the mist before then, survival will be the least of our worries."
A sigh. "Our priority should be escaping this place. Not racial arguments."
Bai listened carefully, but eventually their voices faded as his mind struggled to organize his thoughts.
Concept wielders. Racial discourse. Reset in two days.
He was the prisoner.
Bai tried to recall how everything had gone wrong.
Fragments surfaced.
He had left the nest with an army of insects. He had been weak then, searching desperately for shelter, food, water. Then something had happened. A sudden, violent clash. Something powerful had wiped out the army. And the last thing he remembered… a massive tree hitting him till he passed out.
Wonderful.
He decided not to do anything reckless yet. First he needed to understand the situation.
These people had clearly survived in the mist for a long time. They likely had access to food if they were harvesting fruit from the trees. They also wanted to escape the mist. And they had mentioned something called a reset.
More importantly… they had considered killing him.
If he fought in his current state, he would die.
The voices returned.
"Fine." "But I do the talking. If he isn't useful… we kill him."
Bai made his decision.
Memory activated.
The transition was immediate.
The world vanished. Suddenly he stood within the vast landscape of his head space. Pain slammed into him in waves before slowly settling into a dull, lingering pressure.
He didn't have much time.
What should he search for? There wasn't enough time to review every memory from the past few days. He needed something specific. Something useful. His thoughts turned toward the moment of his capture, the tree.
The memory formed instantly.
He saw himself again, leading the swarm of beetles and spiders through the mist. The fog had been thick, silent. No signs of life. He had continued moving deeper.
Then he heard it.
The clash of steel. The sounds of battle. Grunts. Shouts. Weapons striking flesh.
Bai watched the memory unfold.
He hadn't thought the situation through. He had intended to wait until the battle ended, then scavenge whatever spoils remained. But he had forgotten one crucial detail.
He had an army of insects behind him.
Subtlety had been impossible. His presence had been exposed before he even finished hiding.
Bai skipped forward through the memory. He didn't need to watch the entire battle. He needed leverage.
The end of the fight appeared. The group he now suspected were his captors hadn't actually won. They had retreated.
And that was when they encountered him.
More details should have followed. But the memory was fragmented. He still didn't know who they were. Or who they had been fighting.
Useless.
The concept deactivated. The mental world collapsed. Bai returned to reality and immediately blacked out.