The courtyard was quiet again.
Not the peaceful kind of quiet, but the hollow silence left behind after something irreversible had happened. Blood pooled between cracked stones, slowly seeping into old grooves that had probably seen violence long before today.
Xu Yan stood still, breathing evenly.
His chest rose and fell with a rhythm that felt unfamiliar but workable. Each breath scraped against pain—deep, structural pain—but it no longer threatened to overwhelm him. Instead, it felt… informative.
He looked down at the body remained at his feet.
The disciple's eyes were still open, frozen in disbelief. Xu Yan crouched slightly, two fingers resting against the man's neck. No pulse. The heart was completely destroyed, not shattered outward but collapsed inward, like a structure that had lost its core support.
Clean, accurately precise, Xu Yan thought this body remembers how to kill.
He straightened and rolled his shoulders once.
The motion sent a dull ache through his spine, followed by a faint heat that spread outward, like muscles adjusting their alignment on their own. He paused, sensing it carefully.
That wasn't imagination.
Something inside him was… reorganizing.
Xu Yan closed his eyes.
Not to meditate. Just to listen what is happening to his body.
The body he inhabited was damaged—yes, badly. Meridians are fractured, internal channels twisted, qi circulation nearly nonexistent. By the standards of this world, this body should have been crippled beyond recovery.
And yet.
Where damage existed, there's something else followed behind it. Not healing in the conventional sense. There was no surge of warmth, no flood of energy. Instead, the injured areas in his body felt as if they were being studied—observed, examined, measured, tested against failure.
Then subtly adjusted and adapted itself automatically.
Xu Yan's brow lifted slightly.
"So that's how…you work-huh,"
he murmured.
The constitution he'd sensed earlier—deep, structural, bound to his soul rather than flesh—was responding exactly as it always had. Different laws. Different world. Same principle.
Pressure in. Correction out.
Slow, methodical, irreversible.
A sound interrupted his thoughts.
Footsteps. More than one.
Xu Yan opened his eyes and turned toward the courtyard entrance just as three figures rushed in, drawn by the earlier commotion. They stopped short the moment they saw the bodies.
One of them in the three figures—a young woman in gray robes—covered her mouth instinctively. And another man's face went pale. The third, older than the rest, stared directly at Xu Yan with narrowed eyes, observing, analyzing the situation…
"You…...You were supposed to be unconscious…How...How did you remain conscious and what's this situation"
The older disciple said slowly.
Xu Yan met his gaze calmly.
"I was, but it didn't stick right."
he replied.
The older disciple's eyes flicked to the corpse on the ground. His jaw tightened.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?"
Xu Yan considered the question honestly.
"Yes, I am…and here I corrected a misunderstanding, you thought I was harmless and crippled with the shattered meridians."
Xu Yan said.
The man laughed harshly, though tension crept into his voice.
"You killed a sect disciple, and you think a few tricks will save you now?"
Xu Yan took just one step forward.
The three of them flinched.
That reaction told him everything he needed to know.
He stopped, tilting his head slightly.
"Are you afraid, it's Interesting you know. A moment ago, you wouldn't have been."
he spoke.
The older disciple's expression darkened.
"You're seriously injured. Don't overestimate yourself you piece of shit."
Xu Yan glanced down at his own hands, flexing them slowly. His fingers still trembled faintly, but the motion was smoother than moments ago. The pain had changed—not lessened, but refined. Sharper at the edges. Clearer.
"I'm not overestimating myself, I'm just estimating you."
Xu Yan said.
The woman swallowed slowly.
"Se…Senior Brother… maybe…. maybe we should—"
It's Too late.
Xu Yan moved again.
But this time, they saw him start.
But they just couldn't follow the rest.
He crossed the distance in a blink, his foot sliding against the stone at a shallow angle. The older disciple reacted on instinct, qi flaring as he raised his arm—
Xu Yan's shoulder slammed into his chest instead. BAAAMMMM….
Not with brute force, but with alignment.
The man was lifted off his feet, thrown backward into the courtyard wall with a bone-breaking impact. He slid down, coughing blood, his qi dispersing chaotically.
Xu Yan didn't look back.
The remaining two froze.
"I don't enjoy repeating myself again, Leave."
Xu Yan said quietly.
The younger man hesitated, pride warring with fear.
"You think this ends here? The elders will—"
Xu Yan's gaze snapped to him like a predator looking its prey to be hunted.
Just a look and that's it.
The man's words died in his throat. He grabbed the woman's wrist and pulled her back, both of them retreating hastily from the courtyard without another word.
Silence returned again\.
Xu Yan exhaled slowly.
His knees buckled.
He caught himself against the wall, one hand balanced against cold stone. Sweat beaded along his temple. For a brief moment, his vision blurred.
There it is, he thought. The cost.
He slid down into a seated position, back against the wall, legs stretched out. His heart hammered now, fast and heavy. Muscles trembled with delayed strain. He realized this body was way too far from ready for prolonged conflict.
But still.
He smiled faintly.
Because the adaptation was accelerating.
The areas in his body that had taken the most strain & stress during the fight—his right shoulder, lower spine, left thigh—were already shifting. Fibers tightened. Bone density adjusted subtly. Meridians rerouted around fractures, bypassing weak points instead of repairing them.
Inelegant. Temporary.
But Effective.
Xu Yan rested his head back against the wall stone and stared up at the sky.
"So, this is the Xu Yan you were,"
he murmured softly, shifting through the lingering memories of this body's former owner. Years of silence. Endurance. Humiliation. Beatings. Tortures. Curses that swallowed him whole daily.
No resentment lingered in Xu Yan—only exhaustion.
Xu Yan closed his eyes briefly.
"I'll take it from here on, and watch me from the heavens"
he spoke. Not as a promise. Just a statement of fact.
Footsteps approached again—slower this time.
Xu Yan's eyes opened instantly.
An old man stood at the courtyard entrance. His robes were plain, his posture relaxed, his gaze sharp in a way that had nothing to do with cultivation alone.
He took in the scene—the blood, the bodies, Xu Yan's seated form—without visible reaction.
"You moved differently than before," the old man said after a moment.
Xu Yan studied him and spoke slowly
"You been watching the entire time"
"I only listen, Because the courtyard screamed."
Xu Yan chuckled under his breath, then winced faintly at the motion.
"Fair point."
The old man stepped closer.
"Your meridians are broken." The old man asked
"Yes." Xu Yan replied.
"You should not be able to stand."
"Yet here I'm standing".
The old man's eyes narrowed slightly.
"What did you do?"
Xu Yan met his gaze, expression calm, almost polite.
"I survived and did what I have to do to save me."
The old man stared at him for a long moment. Then, unexpectedly, he laughed.
"Good answer, young man," The old man said.
"Rest for now. Because the elders will come soon, and whether they decide to kill you or study you will depend on how well you behave between now and then."
Xu Yan tilted his head and asked the old man.
"And what will you do?"
"I'm undecided for now for what to do with you, and it's interesting which is rare for me."
The old man turned to leave, but paused at the threshold and told. "Xu Yan."
Xu Yan looked up.
"Yes?"
"Try not to die before tomorrow, Because, I dislike unfinished curiosities I've been listening to."
When he was gone, Xu Yan leaned his head back again, eyes half-lidded.
Tomorrow.
He smiled faintly.
Good, he thought. Let the world come closer.