The trees grew crooked and dense, their roots breaking the ground into uneven traps. Every step had to be deliberate. Every breath controlled.
Wu Chi moved without haste, without speed, threading himself between shadows while keeping the Fear Qi pressed inward, buried beneath his normal cultivation so it would not attract attention.
Too late.
Something massive shifted in the dark to his left.
Branches strained.
Leaves trembled.
Wu Chi froze mid-step, one foot hovering above the forest floor as yellow eyes flickered open between two giant trunks less than twenty paces away.
A Scaled Night Stalker.
Its body was long and low, plated in dull overlapping armor that drank in moonlight rather than reflecting it. Its tongue tasted the air in slow, patient sweeps.
Wu Chi's heartbeat thundered in his ears.
Not in terror.
In calculation.
If he ran, it would chase.
If he fought, the sound would draw worse things.
If he used Fear Qi…
It might draw something older.
He lowered his foot millimeter by millimeter and slid backward into the shadow of a fallen tree without allowing even a leaf to stir. The Stalker's gaze followed the space where he had been.
It sniffed once.
Twice.
Then its attention drifted elsewhere.
Only then did Wu Chi breathe again.
The forest did not relent.
He encountered another beast an hour later. Then another.
Some sensed him and moved on.
Others circled.
One followed him for nearly half a kilometer before being driven off by something even larger that Wu Chi never saw, only heard in the violent shaking of distant branches.
By the time the moon reached its zenith, his robes were torn in several places, his arms lined with shallow claw marks, his breath tight in his throat from sustained tension.
Then came the pain.
It arrived slowly.
At first, his legs simply felt heavy.
Then every step became a pinch, a tear, a grind deep inside the muscle.
Wu Chi staggered into the hollow of a dead tree and collapsed inside it, pressing his back against the rotten interior as his body finally gave in.
Blood soaked through his sleeve where a fang had grazed him hours earlier.
Ordinarily, the injury would have worsened by now.
Instead…
He watched in disbelief as the flesh slowly pulled itself together.
Not rapidly.
Not cleanly.
But deliberately.
Black-tinged Qi pooled along the wound's edges, knitting muscle fiber by fiber, sealing vessels that should have continued bleeding. The pain remained, but the damage retreated.
Wu Chi clenched his fist, feeling strength return inch by inch.
"…So this is what it means to carry his power."
His breathing shook.
Not from fear.
From exhilaration.
He could feel exhaustion trying to claim him, yet his body refused to fully concede. Even as his muscles screamed, something deeper kept him upright, kept him functional. He was wounded, but not broken.
And that terrified him far less than it should have.
"More power…" he whispered hoarsely into the hollow wood.
"…more missions…"
His lips twitched.
"…more rewards…"
The thought steadied him more than any meditation ever could.
The beasts roamed all night.
Wu Chi did not sleep.
He shifted positions whenever something passed too close, sometimes holding his breath for minutes at a time as shadows moved across the broken tree opening. Once, a massive shape brushed past close enough that he could smell its warm, metallic breath.
He remained perfectly still.
Not hidden.
Ignored.
By dawn, his spirit felt flayed raw by tension.
And his body was healing.
Slowly.
Persistently.
Unnaturally.
When the eastern sky finally bled pale gold through the forest canopy, Wu Chi crawled out from his shelter with stiff movements and cold eyes. The worst of his injuries had closed. The lesser wounds were already scars.
He turned his gaze toward the distant outline of Tiger Peak.
Then he began moving.
He did not take the shortest route back.
He did not take the safest.
He took the least traceable.
Through ravines. Over stony uplifts. Across dry streambeds where no footprints would remain. He did not allow himself speed until he was two full valleys distant from the lake.
Only then did he accelerate.
By midday, the mountain walls reappeared in the distance.
By late afternoon, Tiger Peak's outer ridges rose before him.
And as dusk approached once more…
Wu Chi passed through the sect's outer barriers unnoticed.
Elder Xu's chamber was exactly as silent as it had been when he left it.
Wu Chi entered without sound and dropped to one knee the instant he crossed the threshold.
His breathing steadied.
The weight of the mission finally settled.
From his robe, he produced three cold metal discs and placed them carefully on the floor one by one.
Cloud Valley tokens.
Then, wrapped in cloth darkened by sap and blood, he laid several strands of freshly harvested spirit herbs beside them.
He bowed low.
"Mission complete," Wu Chi said quietly.
His forehead touched the stone.
In his palm, beneath the floor, his heartbeat pounded like a drum awaiting command.