Even falling leaves remember the tree.
And Rael… remembered everything.
---
Two Days Later – Linhai, Inner Market District
The city had changed.
Or maybe Rael had.
Linhai's scent — once of steamed dumplings, river wind, and incense smoke — now carried undertones of iron and danger. Merchants flinched at shadows. Sect disciples moved in pairs. Rumors swirled like dust before a storm.
Rael walked through the stalls with a slight limp. His robe was clean, but plain. His hood shadowed his eyes.
He paused at a booth selling beast bone fragments and cleaned jade rings.
"Those talon shards," he said, pointing. "Red-scaled Nightroar?"
The merchant blinked. "Y-yes, senior."
Rael dropped two low-grade spirit coins. "Add a string of soul-thread bark. No core contamination."
The man scrambled.
Rael watched him work, quiet. His left hand flexed around the new Qi-forged ring he wore — a simple band of black silver, no inscription.
But it carried a whisper of Hollow Pulse within.
> [Trait Usage: 3/3 Remain – Soul Disruption Active]
[Expires in: 2 Days, 4 Hours]
A tool.
A reminder.
And when necessary — a weapon.
---
Elsewhere – Yue Clan Outer Hall
Yue Qingshi stood before her elders.
Moonlight slanted through latticed windows, painting silver patterns across the jade-tiled floor. Her posture was straight, robes pristine, veil absent.
But her heart thudded like a wardrum.
"You've been seen with him," said Elder Yue Yan, her uncle, voice hard as frost.
"I know."
"He carries the mark of fire and darkness. You jeopardize your standing, Qingshi."
"I jeopardize nothing. I observe."
"He's unpredictable. Dangerous. Barely controlled. His presence alone brings rot."
She smiled faintly.
"Then I'll see how deep the roots go."
An older woman — her grandmother — narrowed her eyes. "If you disobey direct clan orders again…"
Qingshi bowed deeply.
"Then I accept the consequences."
She rose and left before they could say more.
Behind her, tension bloomed like poison lilies.
---
Linhai – Abandoned Shrine Courtyard
Rael knelt before the cracked statue of an old war god — one of the forgotten minor spirits of the Eastern Sky.
He wasn't praying.
He was planning.
On the ground before him, a map.
Tattered. Ink faded. But enough.
The Scarlet Fang Sect — one of the criminal syndicates embedded in the lower city — had sent someone to tail him.
He'd let them.
And now he knew where their hidden compound was.
Near the South Fang Ravine, under the guise of a tea merchant guild.
"Five guards at night," he muttered. "Two formation anchors. Alarm glyphs—low grade."
> "Too risky alone," the devil's voice whispered. "Could wait."
"No. They sell children."
> "Ah. Then bleed them."
He stood.
Folded the map.
Then vanished.
---
Night – South Fang Ravine
The tea house looked quaint.
Paper lanterns. Quiet laughter. Soft music.
Rael crouched on a nearby rooftop, breath steady.
The Qi around him shifted — his movement art activated.
> [Breath of Dust – Level 2]
[Footsteps silent | Presence reduced 35% | First action critical bonus applied]
[Current Qi: 41/60]
He jumped.
Landed behind the courtyard wall. A guard passed — never saw him.
Two steps. Three.
One clean arrow through the neck — silent.
The man dropped without a sound.
Rael dragged the body behind a herb cart.
Then moved again.
He avoided the glyph — noted the flickering on the southern anchor. A fault.
> "Sloppy," he muttered.
Inside the tea house — two figures played cards. One drank spirit wine. The third polished a curved blade.
Rael pulled his bow.
Three shots.
Three deaths.
Clean.
Then he dropped smoke powder into the hall and kicked open the floorboards behind the counter.
A secret door.
Downward.
---
Hidden Chamber – Caged Wind
The smell hit first.
Rot. Urine. Fear.
Children — six of them — locked in narrow cells. Eyes wide, hands too thin.
Rael's heart cracked, but he didn't show it.
He broke the first lock.
The children stared, unmoving.
Then one girl whispered, "Are you… the ghost?"
Rael knelt.
"No. I'm worse."
> [New Condition Met: Hidden Karma | Timeline diverged]
[You have earned the mark of the Wandering Judge]
[Passive bonus: All enemies with negative karma are revealed within 100 meters for the next 12 hours]
He left with the children just as the guards outside finally noticed something was wrong.
He didn't look back.
---
Later – Linhai Riverbank
Yue Qingshi waited by the water.
Rael approached, cloak bloody, breath thin.
"You stink of murder," she said.
"Do I?"
"Not judging." She pulled out a peach and tossed it to him. "Just saying."
He caught it. Sat beside her.
They both stared at the moon's reflection in the slow-moving water.
Rael bit into the fruit.
Yue leaned close, voice soft.
"You saved them."
"I had to."
"You always say that. But no one else does."
He didn't respond.
She looked at him.
Not his face — but his eyes.
"They'll never let you rise, you know," she whispered. "Not the clans. Not the sects. Not the world."
Rael finished the peach.
Then stood.
"Then I'll make them kneel."
---
Meanwhile – Far West Border, Skyfall Citadel
A messenger knelt before a throne of silver flame.
"My lord. The one from the burned village… he lives."
The figure on the throne said nothing.
The flames behind him grew higher.
Then—
"Send the Bone Mirror."