The man Yue Lingxi brought back was still alive.
That was the first mercy.
The second was that he had enough blood left to speak.
They laid him near the medical stones while Li Qingluan rushed over, sleeves already red to the elbow. His name, Qin Moxuan said after checking the bark ledger, was Sun Hao. Former warehouse worker. Assigned that afternoon to outer gathering duty under Yue Lingxi's group.
Now one side of his body looked as if it had been opened by hooked knives.
Three long wounds crossed his ribs. His left thigh had been torn deep enough that white bone flashed when he moved. Mud, leaves, and blood clung to him in equal measure. Every breath came out as a wet rasp.
Li Qingluan pressed cloth against his side.
"Hold him," she snapped.
Two survivors obeyed. Sun Hao screamed when she tightened the binding.
Ji Yuan crouched beside him, the cracked seal cold in his palm.
"What attacked you?"
Sun Hao's eyes rolled before finding Ji Yuan's face. For an instant, terror made him look like a child.
"Wolf," he whispered.
Han Yue's jaw tightened. "A wolf did this?"
"Not Earth wolf." Sun Hao swallowed. Blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth. "Big. Green eyes. Moss on its back. It came from behind the roots. No sound."
Yue Lingxi stood nearby, one hand pressed against her own shoulder where her clothing had been torn. Her face was pale, but her eyes were steady.
"It stalked us from the moment we entered," she said. "I thought it was watching only. Then Sun Hao stepped near a root hollow."
"Did you provoke it?" Qin Moxuan asked.
Yue looked at him coldly. "He picked up deadwood."
Qin lowered his gaze to the injured man. "Then the forest's definition of provocation is broad."
Li Qingluan did not look up. "If you are done analyzing the beast's legal reasoning, I need boiled water, clean cloth, and someone to stop him from bleeding into the mud."
Yin Meiniang barked orders near the fire. People moved.
Ji Yuan rose.
The clearing had changed since Yue's return. The Seven Rules still hung in the air, new and untested, but now fear had given them teeth. People glanced toward Qingmu Forest again and again. The trees beyond the mist seemed closer than before.
Han Yue stepped beside Ji Yuan.
"We need to check the edge," he said.
"I know."
Han's eyes narrowed. "You are not coming."
Ji Yuan looked at him.
Han did not soften. "You can barely stand straight. You do not know how to fight. If that thing attacks again and kills you, all this—" He gestured toward the medical stones, the graves, the cooking fire, Qin's ledger. "—collapses into shouting."
Qin Moxuan approached, ledger tucked beneath one arm. "For once, I agree with him. The bearer of the seal should not expose himself to a beast he does not understand."
"If I stay here," Ji Yuan said, "I understand even less."
"You do not need to see claws personally to know they are sharp," Qin replied.
Ji Yuan looked toward Sun Hao, who had fallen into a shivering half-consciousness while Li worked. Then he looked toward the forest.
"A lord who sends people into danger without seeing the ground they step on will soon be obeyed only by fools or slaves."
Han Yue exhaled sharply. "This is not about pride."
"No," Ji Yuan said. "It is about responsibility."
Yue Lingxi watched him for a moment, then said, "We do not go deep. Only to the place of attack. Five people."
Han Yue cursed under his breath.
In the end, the group was six: Yue Lingxi leading, Han Yue beside Ji Yuan, Zhang Bei carrying a sharpened branch, one young guard with a crude club, and Mo Tieheng holding a metal strip lashed to a broken pole. Ji Yuan carried what could generously be called a spear—straight wood, fire-hardened point, no balance.
Before they left, Li Qingluan caught his wrist.
Her grip was weak from exhaustion but firm.
"If you return bleeding, I will not prioritize your dignity."
Ji Yuan said, "Prioritize whoever needs it most."
"That is not comforting."
"It was not meant to be."
She released him.
They approached the forest in silence.
The clearing ended not with a line, but with a change in breath. One step, there was mud trampled by human feet. The next, roots rose beneath the soil like sleeping bones, and the air cooled. The blue-green trunks towered above them, their leaves turned inward, watching.
Yue moved slowly, crouching often. She touched broken stems, scraped bark, disturbed mud. Every gesture was precise.
"Here," she whispered.
They stopped near a shallow hollow between two roots.
Blood darkened the leaves.
Sun Hao's blood.
Beside it, a set of prints pressed into the mud. Ji Yuan had seen dog tracks before. These were similar only in the way a knife was similar to a sword. Each paw was wide, clawed, and deep, as if the creature carried more weight than its shape should allow.
On the nearest trunk, four claw marks slashed through bark and into pale inner wood.
Mo Tieheng touched one mark and swore softly. "It cut deeper than my metal strip would."
Zhang Bei's face had gone gray. "We should go back."
Yue raised one hand.
Everyone froze.
The forest had gone silent.
Not quiet.
Silent.
Ji Yuan heard his own pulse. He heard the distant murmur of Qinghe behind them. He heard Han Yue's breathing slow.
Then the leaves above shifted without wind.
Something moved.
It came from the side, not ahead.
A blur of dark fur and green moss erupted between roots. The beast was larger than any wolf Ji Yuan had known, its shoulders high, its body lean under patches of living moss. Green light burned in its eyes. Its jaws opened, showing teeth stained with red.
Han Yue shoved Ji Yuan aside before the beast struck.
The wolf hit the young guard instead.
The club shattered. The guard screamed as claws raked across his arm.
Han Yue roared and swung his axe handle. The blow struck the beast's shoulder with a crack that would have broken bone in an ordinary animal.
The wolf twisted, not broken, only enraged.
Ji Yuan stumbled, caught himself, and thrust his spear with both hands.
He aimed for the chest.
He struck empty air.
The wolf moved faster than thought. Its body slammed into him from the side, and the world became mud, pain, and green eyes. His back hit the ground. His spear spun away. Hot breath washed over his face.
For one naked instant, Ji Yuan understood with perfect clarity that a title could not stop teeth.
Then Han Yue was there.
The broken axe handle crashed into the wolf's jaw. At the same moment, Yue Lingxi drove her wooden spear into the beast's flank, not deep enough to kill, but deep enough to make it snarl and leap back.
"Up!" Han shouted.
Ji Yuan tried.
His legs did not listen.
Zhang Bei dragged him by the collar, face twisted with fear and fury. "Move, Lord of Mud!"
The wolf circled once, blood darkening the moss at its side. It did not look defeated. It looked offended.
Yue raised her spear again. Han placed himself in front of Ji Yuan. Mo held his crude pole with both hands, knuckles white.
The beast's eyes shifted from one human to the next.
Then, with a low growl, it vanished between the roots.
No one moved for several breaths.
Han Yue finally turned on Ji Yuan.
"You see the ground now?"
Ji Yuan's throat tasted of mud and shame.
"Yes."
"If you die proving courage," Han said, voice low and harsh, "you condemn everyone who has begun to believe your orders mean something."
Ji Yuan had no answer.
From deep within Qingmu Forest came a howl.
Wounded.
Furious.
Alive.
Before the sound faded, another howl answered.
Then another.
Then several more, scattered through the trees like green fire waking in the dark.