Xu Tianyin stared at the ancient tablet, his pulse steady yet weighted with an unshakable sense of familiarity. The void within him didn't stir, but it didn't retreat either. It watched. It waited.
Bai Yeming remained silent, giving him time. But her presence was keen, sharp as a blade poised to cut through hesitation.
Tianyin knelt, brushing his fingers over the worn stone. The engravings shifted under his gaze, refusing to stay still, yet something in his mind whispered that he already understood them.
"This isn't just an echo," he murmured. "It's a tether."
Yeming's eyes glinted in the moonlight. "Explain."
He exhaled, pressing his palm flat against the tablet. The moment his skin touched the stone, the world around him trembled—not physically, but in a way only he could perceive.
The trees remained still. The air did not stir.
But something unseen had awakened.
A low hum echoed in his bones, threading into his veins like the murmurs of something ancient.
A presence.
It was not an external force.
It was a part of him.
And for the first time, he understood why the heavens had marked him for destruction.
His existence itself was wrong.
He ripped his hand away, breath uneven. The humming ceased, the world settling back into normalcy. But the knowledge remained, seared into his mind.
Bai Yeming observed him. She did not ask what he had seen. She didn't need to.
"It was always inside you, wasn't it?"
Tianyin nodded, swallowing hard. "Since the beginning."
A pause. Then, Yeming spoke—calm, measured, but with a certainty that left no room for doubt.
"Then we must reshape the path."
Tianyin blinked at her. "What?"
She gestured toward the stone, her expression unreadable. "Your cultivation is not something you can suppress. It is not something you can deny." She met his gaze. "But it is something you can carve into something new."
The weight of her words sank into him, heavy with implication.
The heavens had marked him as a mistake. His own existence resisted the natural order.
But if he could not walk the paths of others—
Then he would forge his own.
Tianyin inhaled slowly, closing his eyes. The void pulsed in response, waiting.
A dangerous, impossible path lay ahead.
And he was ready to take it.