Wei slept, when the signature arrived. It wasn't dawning yet, but night would end soon. His core glowed through his blanket — the warm pulse of a core that had stabilized temporarily after a forced march.

  The signature cut through the ambient field — neither displacing nor warring with the existing currents. It took up residence. Claiming its space with the authority of something that had been powerful long enough to forget what arrival felt like.

  Dao-Seeking stage. High Dao-Seeking — the register just below Immortal.

  This was not a scout. This was someone who didn't bother hiding. Someone whose presence was a statement: I am here and the fact that you know changes nothing.

  Iron Lotus Sect. The signature carried their school's fingerprint — the metallic undertone that their core method produced.

  I woke Wei. Hand on his shoulder, pressure. He was up. Eyes open.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "What?"

  "We're not taking the pass."

  "Why—"

  "Now."

  He packed. No argument. The trust built from months of learning that when I said now the situation had already deteriorated past the point of explanation.

  We turned west. Into terrain that punished travel and rewarded hiding.

  We arrived to a rest house at the mountain's base. Small, smoke-stained. We entered because Wei's legs needed rest and other people's presence provided at least some cover.

  The crowd was sparse. Two merchants. A wandering monk. Two farmers.

  Wei held a bowl of soup. Thin, over-salted. He ate nevertheless. I sat beside him and didn't.

  The merchants talked.

  "—the wanderer with the broken core. He asks in every town."

  Wei's spoon paused midair.

  "Which woman?"

  "No idea. But he pays in core fragments. Must have been someone important once."

  Core fragments. Each one a piece of Xu Ran's cultivation — his power, his identity. He was paying for me with himself.

  Wei looked at me. The look: I heard that. I know it connects to you. I'm not asking.

  I pretended to eat my soup.

  "Finish. We leave in ten minutes."

  He finished and left.

  The qi-signature of the elder pressed against my awareness. Closer now. Half a day, maybe less.

  I walked faster. Wei matched me. The hills around us rose to mountains and the pass we weren't taking faded behind us.

  The signature followed.