Morning had not yet fully risen over Cloudstride Gorge, yet the world felt as if it held its breath.
Mist clung to the mountain ridge like silent spirits, drifting in slow coils between ancient pines whose bark carried the scent of rain-soaked time. The stone steps beneath Lin Xuan's feet were cool, still trembling faintly after the awakening of the Third Dragon Vein.
He walked in silence.
Not because he wished to, but because the world itself seemed reluctant to disturb him.
Every step he took carried an echo—not in sound, but in resonance. The stone recognized him. The wind recognized him. Even the mist parted gently, as if bowing to an unseen current that now flowed through his body.
Yu Qinglin followed a half-step behind, her expression complex. "The mountain feels… different today."
Lin Xuan nodded. "The Third Vein's awakening disturbs Heaven's patterns. Nature reacts before mortals do."
"Then these omens…"
He looked toward the sky.
The heavens had not brightened with dawn. Instead, faint streaks of silver cloud lay woven like silk across the firmament, pulsing with a rhythm strangely similar to a heartbeat.
"It is Heaven watching," Lin Xuan said quietly.
He did not say what Heaven was watching for.
He did not need to.
Yu Qinglin closed her fingers around her sleeve, hiding the anxiety in her hands. "Do you feel pain?"
He shook his head. "No pain. But I feel… the world listening."
As if somewhere, behind the curtains of fate, a great will stirred.
Halfway down the mountain, the noise began.
A whisper.
A low hum.
A trembling that ran through the branches of every pine on the ridge.
Wu… wu… wu…
Not the wind.
Not beasts.
The trees were singing.
Yu Qinglin halted. "This sound…"
Lin Xuan rested his fingers lightly on the trunk of an ancient pine. Its bark vibrated gently, like a living string plucked by invisible fingers.
"It is not sound," he murmured. "It is Dao."
The natural qi of the mountain had begun circulating on its own, forming spirals around him. The pines were responding to his presence—their roots communicating through the earth, resonating with the pulse within his chest.
Yu Qinglin stared. "The mountain recognizes your vein?"
"Not mine," he whispered. "The Dao that sleeps within it."
As he stepped forward, the entire forest gave a shiver, the branches bowing as though greeting an emperor returning to his ancient throne.
Yet Lin Xuan felt no pride.
Only a solemn heaviness, like the entire mountain waited for him to make a choice he had not yet reached.
The Second Omen — Stillness of Beasts
By the time they reached the lower woods, even Yu Qinglin felt the change.
The forest was silent.
Utterly.
Not a chirp of birds.
Not the rustle of small animals.
Not the distant cry of hunting beasts.
"Where are the spirit creatures?" she whispered.
Lin Xuan closed his eyes.
Within his perception, he felt them—hundreds of small spirits hiding beneath earth, behind rocks, under leaves. Their breaths were shallow; their qi suppressed.
"They kneel," he said softly.
Yu Qinglin's heart jolted. "To you?"
"No. To the force awakening behind me."
He did not speak the name, but both understood.
The Third Dragon Vein.
It pulsed faintly beneath the earth, like a dormant dragon stretching beneath soil and stone. Its awakening had stirred the instincts of every living thing.
Spiritual beasts sensed Heaven more keenly than humans.
And Heaven's gaze was growing heavier.
When they reached the foot of Cloudstride Gorge, the sun finally broke the horizon.
Yet something was wrong.
The shadows cast by trees and rocks moved upward, climbing against the direction of light, stretching toward the mountain peak Lin Xuan had descended from.
Yu Qinglin's breath froze. "This omen… it is impossible."
Lin Xuan watched the moving shadows with calm eyes.
"No. Not impossible. Only rare. It appears when Heaven's Qi flows in reverse for a moment."
"Heaven's Qi can reverse…?"
"Yes. When fate itself tries to rewrite a line it cannot understand."
His gaze lowered to the faint jade light in his veins.
"Me."
Yu Qinglin's eyes trembled. "Is Heaven rejecting you?"
Lin Xuan shook his head slowly.
"Not rejecting.
Observing."
His voice deepened, becoming almost distant.
"When the Dao cannot see the end of a path, it watches carefully for the first deviation."
"And if the deviation is too great…?"
"Then Heaven moves," Lin Xuan finished.
"Either to bless…"
"Or to erase."
The morning wind grew cold.
The Village Below Receives the Omens
When they reached the small village nestled at the canyon's base, people were gathered around the well, fear in their faces.
Children clung to their mothers. Elderly men stared at the mountain with paling lips.
A woman spotted Lin Xuan and bowed quickly, trembling.
"Senior… is the mountain angry?"
Her voice quivered like a leaf.
"We heard the trees calling in the night… the shadows climbed the roofs this morning… the chickens refuse to crow… even the dogs hide under the beds…"
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
Yu Qinglin looked at Lin Xuan, unsure how much to reveal.
Lin Xuan lowered his voice, yet his presence naturally steadied the trembling villagers.
"The mountain is not angry," he said.
"But Heaven is shifting. It is only a momentary imbalance. Remain calm. Do not travel far from home today."
The villagers exhaled, visibly relieved just by his steady tone.
An old man stepped forward, cane trembling.
"Forgive my boldness… but those omens—do they… do they signal disaster?"
Lin Xuan looked at the sky, its silver clouds still pulsing faintly.
"They signal change."
The old man bowed deeply. "May Heaven bless us… and bless the young lord."
Lin Xuan said nothing.
He could feel it—
the way fate threads around him had begun tightening.
As the villagers dispersed, Lin Xuan felt a sudden ripple—
a distant tremor in the fabric of qi, too faint for mortals, but sharp as a needle to his senses.
He froze.
Yu Qinglin immediately noticed. "What is it?"
"The omens reach farther than Cloudstride Gorge."
His eyes narrowed.
Across the continent, in lands he had never stepped foot upon, ancient formations flickered as if awakened.
In remote sects, old masters opened their eyes from meditation, sensing an unfamiliar pulse.
In imperial capitals, court astrologers felt their celestial mirrors tremble, stars shifting subtly.
And in the depths of forbidden ruins long sealed away…
something old
and patient
stirred.
Yu Qinglin felt her heart tighten. "Do they feel the Third Dragon Vein?"
"They feel the Heaven-Qi that gathered around it."
He exhaled slowly.
"And around me."
They continued walking, yet for the first time, Lin Xuan sensed his steps growing heavier—not physically, but spiritually.
Every breath he drew felt watched.
Every thought felt weighed.
The Dao itself listened.
Yet the pressure did not break him.
If anything, it sharpened him.
Yu Qinglin watched him from the side, her gaze softening.
"You are quieter today."
Lin Xuan's eyes lowered, thoughtful.
"When the world becomes noisy…
silence becomes a shield."
He paused beneath an old willow tree, its branches swaying as though trying to veil him from the heavens.
"The Third Dragon Vein… It wants to merge entirely. But something holds it back."
"Something?" Yu Qinglin asked.
"Heaven's hesitation."
For the first time, there was a flicker of something resembling defiance in his eyes—not rebellion, but a calm, unmoving resolve.
"As though it cannot decide whether I should rise…"
His fingers gently brushed the willow leaves, jade light pooling faintly at his fingertips.
"…or fall."
A Sky That Opens
Without warning—
The air shuddered.
Clouds that had been hanging still suddenly spiraled inward, forming a rotating ring above the mountain. Light gathered within it, neither sunlight nor lightning, but the pure radiance of spiritual law.
Yu Qinglin gasped. "Heaven's Ring…!"
Lin Xuan lifted his head slowly.
A soft breeze brushed past, yet it carried the weight of ages.
The ring widened.
A single beam of pale gold descended, striking the earth not with violence but with solemnity—as if Heaven lowered a decree written not in words, but in intention.
"Lin Xuan," Yu Qinglin whispered. "This omen… why now…?"
He stepped toward the descending radiance.
"Because Heaven has decided."
"Decided what?"
Lin Xuan's eyes reflected the falling light.
"That my next step must be witnessed."
The ground beneath him trembled, and the mountain's qi surged like a rising tide.
Yu Qinglin reached out. "Wait! If you go forward—"
He turned his head slightly.
His voice was quiet.
Steady.
Ancient.
"Qinglin. The Dao does not call twice."
He walked into the radiance.
And Heaven responded.