Xu Yang learned quickly that the wild was quieter than the village.
No gossip, No suspicion, No eyes that lingered a second too long. He crouched beneath a fallen tree, rainwater dripping steadily from moss-covered bark onto his back. His black fur blended easily with shadow, but he did not relax.
Xu Yang remained crouched beneath the tree, staring blankly after it.
" I hate survival logic." Rain slid from a leaf directly onto his ear. He twitched hard.
" And I hate this forest." His stomach tightened painfully. A pause. " I especially hate being hungry in this forest." Another rustle nearby. This time smaller. His body immediately shifted again, instinct faster than thought. Then he stopped himself.
"No." he whispered more sharply, almost offended with his own body. "We are not leaving suspicious half-eaten animal evidence all over the wilderness."
A beat. His stomach responded with a painful twist. Xu Yang's ears lowered.
" You are being incredibly unsupportive."
Silence. Then, he said "I know I can hunt."
A pause. "I just… don't know who's tracking what anymore." His tail curled tighter around himself.
A bird landed briefly on a nearby branch.
Xu Yang stared at it. The bird stared back.
A long pause passed. " Don't test me." Xu Yang muttered. The bird flew away immediately. Xu Yang watched it go, deeply offended." Rude."
At night, he dreamed.Not clearly.
Fragments falling, claws scraping stone, a voice asking the same question again and again: Why won't you end?
Xu Yang woke with his heart racing, the warmth in his chest flaring painfully before settling again. He pressed his forehead against the dirt. "Not yet." he whispered, unsure who he was speaking to.
Miles away, above layers of cloud no demon could reach, Heaven moved. Not like a storm. Like a thought. A ripple passed through the Heavenly Registry soft, almost lazy. Names did not change. Laws did not shift. Across the Heavenly Registry, names remained untouched. But one absence
One distortion too small to name, too misplaced to ignore was marked without ink.
Far above all worlds, where laws existed before language, something spoke without sound: "Continue." And that single command passed downward through realms like quiet inevitability.
Across the world, certain beings paused mid-action. A cultivator's brush hesitated.
A spirit beast lifted its head. Wang Xiao, standing at the edge of the Demon Capital's outer gate, stopped walking.His breath caught. There it was again.
That pressure behind the eyes. That faint pull in the chest. Heaven was not commanding him directly. It was suggesting.
A region. A direction. A problem that would resolve itself if addressed. Wang Xiao closed his eyes..The image that surfaced was unclear blurred edges, indistinct shape.But the feeling was precise. Incomplete. Incorrect.Lingering. Wang Xiao opened his eyes slowly. " So you noticed," he murmured.
He turned without hesitation and began moving east.
Back in the forest, Xu Yang felt it the moment the directive passed.The warmth in his chest constricted violently, as if something unseen had wrapped cold fingers around it.
He collapsed to the ground, breath ragged.
This is it, he thought grimly. The pull.
Xu Yang hit the earth hard, claws digging instinctively into wet soil.
" Ah..." His breath caught sharply.
For one awful second, panic vanished
because the pain was too immediate for panic. So this is how it ends?
His body trembled. Seriously?
Rainwater soaked into his fur as he pressed against the ground, barely managing to breathe. I just got here. A pause.
I barely survived villagers, demons, shrine nonsense, and spiritual bureaucracy.
His chest tightened again and now I'm dying in mud? He coughed hard, vision blurring.
" No," he thought bitterly. "Absolutely not."
A weaker, far more offended thought followed. I haven't even eaten properly.
His stomach twisted painfully, which somehow made the entire situation feel more insulting. You cannot kill me before I get at least one decent meal. A beat. Let me eat something first. His claws dragged through the dirt as he forced himself to move.
At minimum, I deserve food before cosmic death. Another pulse of pain nearly dropped him again. Xu Yang's ears flattened.
" This is such garbage," he thought, half furious, half desperate.
Xu Yang forced himself upright and moved fast this time, abandoning caution. He sprinted deeper into the forest, leaping rocks, tearing through undergrowth, heart pounding. A scream echoed behind him.
Not human. A spirit beast twisted, eyes glowing unnaturally bright burst from the trees, charging straight toward him.
Xu Yang swore.They're being pushed.
He veered sharply, rolling beneath its claws, then scrambled up a slope too steep for the beast to follow easily. It snarled, confused, then retreated its interest already fading.
That scared Xu Yang more than pursuit.
They don't want me, he realized. They're being redirected. By nightfall, Xu Yang reached a narrow ravine where the land dipped sharply and spiritual currents tangled chaotically.A dead zone. He collapsed there, exhausted, fur matted with dirt and blood that wasn't his.
High above, Wang Xiao stopped again.
The pull weakened." You're hiding," he said quietly.Not accusing. Almost impressed.
He stood still for a long time, eyes fixed on the horizon. Then, against Heaven's silent urging. He did not move. Instead, he turned slightly aside, choosing a slower path. A longer one.
Wang Xiao's gaze remained on the horizon.
" You're impatient today," he murmured.
The pressure lingered.A faint smile touched his expression small enough to disappear almost instantly. "Interesting," he said softly.
A pause. "Even Heaven can't see clearly from here." The silence above did not vanish.
But neither did it force him. Wang Xiao stood there for a long moment.
The spiritual currents here twisted unnaturally, flowing backward in some places, stagnating in others. Cultivators avoided it instinctively. Spirit beasts lost direction. Even Heaven's guidance blurred when passing through.
Xu Yang lay motionless beneath an overhang of stone, black fur pressed flat against the cold ground.Then his stomach twisted so sharply it ruined the dramatic silence completely. " Can I eat now?" he thought weakly. A pause. " Seriously."
His tail twitched once against the dirt.
"I cannot tolerate this anymore." He squeezed his eyes shut.
He lifted his head slightly, deeply offended by reality itself. "If I survived cosmic nonsense just to starve under a rock, I'm going to be furious." A pause. Then, he said. "I don't even need luxury." His stomach growled.
" At this point I would accept suspicious berries." A beat. " Actually no. That's probably how things get worse." Xu Yang let his head fall back down dramatically.
"Just one meal," he thought miserably. "One decent, non-cursed, non-spiritually significant meal." His claws flexed weakly.
"Is that too much to ask?"
Xu Yang sensed it before he heard it.
A familiar heat in the air. A ripple that did not belong to Heaven. He did not open his eyes.
"You're terrible at hiding." Yan Luo said casually. "Good at choosing places, though."
Xu Yang exhaled slowly and pushed himself upright. "You followed me."
Yan Luo leaned against the ravine wall, arms crossed, looking entirely too relaxed for someone standing in a dead zone.
His crimson markings glowed faintly, resisting the distortion around them.
"I followed the mess." Yan Luo corrected. "Heaven's pull snapped like a bad thread the moment you came here. That doesn't go unnoticed."
Xu Yang's ears flattened. "Then leave."
Yan Luo's smile faded. "Too late."
Xu Yang stiffened. "What do you mean?" he asked. Yan Luo straightened.
The casual amusement drained from his expression, replaced by something sharp and focused. "Heaven escalated." he said. "Quietly." Xu Yang's chest tightened. "How?"
"They issued a layered directive," Yan Luo replied. "One that doesn't name you but rewrites probability around you."
Xu Yang understood instantly. "You won't die quickly." Yan Luo continued. "You'll starve Or bleed, Or be crushed by something that 'just happens." Xu Yang laughed softly. "That sounds like Heaven." Yan Luo watched him carefully. "You're not afraid." Xu Yang met his gaze. " I've already died once."