The bone-carving knife still felt warm in Rael's hand when they returned to the outer training grounds. His name now etched into the Bone Wall of Names, it wasn't glory he felt.
It was weight.
Another thread in the web pulling him forward.
He caught Yue Qingshi glancing at him sideways, her moon-silver eyes unreadable. She'd cleaned the blood from her sleeve, but not from the ribbon tied around her wrist. She didn't explain why.
Rael didn't ask.
Some bonds are chosen. Others, born of trial.
They now shared both.
---
By morning, word of their survival spread like wildfire across the Wandering Vein Sect. Not just because they returned—but because they returned together.
And that had consequences.
---
The Violet Heart Pavilion, one of the seven inner divisions of the sect, called for Rael.
He stood before a lacquered red gate, his outer robe darker than usual, patched with places where thread had burned during the trial. Two guards, both inner disciples, looked him over with disdain.
"He doesn't even carry a sect emblem."
"Trash from the outer compound."
Rael ignored them.
He'd been called here by Elder Fen. He didn't need to explain his presence to lowborn arrogance.
Inside the hall, Elder Fen lounged on a throne of curved jade, her fingers entwined with white spirit snakes. Her robes shimmered with translucent violet layers, and her smile was sharp.
"You drew attention, little crow," she said without preamble. "Survived the Hollow Path. Impressed Elder Huo. And now Elder Yue's little niece walks beside you."
Rael stayed silent.
"But birds that fly too high catch arrows, not wind."
A shadow stirred beside her—masked, cloaked, silent.
Rael felt the danger before he even turned. The room reeked of concealed weapons.
"Is this a threat?" he asked evenly.
"A lesson," Elder Fen replied. "Your path has caught the eye of more than one faction. Choose your allies carefully. Even snakes have clans."
She leaned forward.
"And your name... is not yet too heavy to erase."
---
Rael left the Pavilion without replying.
Behind him, the spirit snakes hissed softly. He didn't look back.
But a voice echoed in his head, faintly—like static across the spiritual root.
[Hidden Alert: Host has been observed by Unregistered Faction - "Hollow Blade Sect." Observation thread pending trigger.]
He exhaled.
Another thread. Another hook.
---
That evening, Yue met him near the mountain terrace.
"You went to the Pavilion," she said.
"I was summoned."
"Then they see you as a threat."
"I thought I was still just 'trash' from the outer sect."
Her lips curved. "Trash that survives the Hollow Path tends to stink of potential."
They walked in silence a while.
The mountains below gleamed in moonlight, mist rising from unseen rivers. In the far distance, Rael could make out a faint roar—beast howls, echoing from the direction of the Azure Dagger Plains.
"You'll be pulled into this war," Yue said finally.
"I already am."
"No. You're standing in the water. You haven't drowned yet."
He looked at her. "Will you drown with me?"
She turned her head slowly, the moon catching the arc of her lashes. "I don't drown. I drag others down."
---
Days passed.
Rael trained under Elder Huo's cold eye, cultivating the second layer of Marrow Resonance Flow, a rare but brutal technique that hardened internal bone density and allowed spiritual energy to reverberate like sound across nerves and ligaments.
It hurt.
But pain was a teacher he had learned to respect.
At night, he fought beasts in the northern ravines, gathering Cracked Spirit Cores and Flesh-wrapped Tokens, feeding them to his core furnace. The heat inside him twisted, re-shaping his base attributes.
Every kill bled into him.
Every risk carved him.
[Trait Gained: "Silent Predator – Minor" (Temporary)]
Enhances stealth movement and reduces spiritual noise by 15%. Duration: 6 days.
Warning: Prolonged trait stacking without mental tempering may result in backlash.
Rael read the message, then dismissed it.
The system gave.
The system took.
That was fair.
He would pay the price later. Always later.
---
Three nights later, the first sect-wide mission recruitment was announced.
Outer, inner, and core disciples would be chosen to represent Wandering Vein in a joint excavation with Stone Rebirth Sect and Skyward Fist Sect—an ancient ruin uncovered beneath the Whispering Tomb Mountains.
They called it The Gate Below Eyes.
Its doors had not opened in three hundred years.
Now they stirred again.
The mission was ranked Black-Gold.
Life-threatening.
But fame-making.
Rael stepped forward without hesitation.
Yue followed two paces behind.
And neither of them looked back.
---