The howl echoed through the bamboo stalks, closer this time. It carried a strange, hollow echo, like a beast barking through an iron mask.
Ye Chen pushed himself up from the soaked gravel. His body felt lighter, almost weightless, yet an unfamiliar heat still churned in the pit of his stomach. Beneath his linen tunic, the skin above his heart thrummed with a steady, emerald pulse.
Xiao Mei stood quickly, wiping the muddy water from her knees. Her knuckles were white where she gripped the small bronze sickle she used for harvesting wild roots. Her eyes darted from the dead courier to the mist-shrouded tree line.
"That wasn't a mountain wolf," she said, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "What did you get us into, Ye Chen?"
"I didn't choose this," he replied, kneeling beside the courier.
He didn't waste seconds asking questions. He stripped the dead man's pouch from his belt. Inside were three charcoal-black iron darts, a purse of coarse copper coins, and a small strip of oiled parchment stamped with a vermilion wax seal.
Before he could unfurl the note, the bamboo fence shattered into splinters.
A hound bounded through the wreckage. It was massive, the size of a mountain calf, its leathery hide covered in matted black fur and stitched with thick iron plates. Instead of eyes, two empty sockets burned with pale violet fire.
Behind the beast walked a slender man dressed in charcoal robes. A high silver collar covered his neck, and a cruel, curved saber swung at his hip. The coiled-viper emblem on his chest caught the gray daylight.
"Track ended here," the scout said in a bored, reedy tone, barely glancing at the two youths. "The trash died before he could deliver the seal. But you..."
The scout's pale eyes locked onto Ye Chen's chest. Even through the soaked linen, the faint green lines of the embedded jade were impossible to hide.
The man's bored expression vanished, replaced by wild, ravenous hunger. "The Celestial Key... merged with a mortal brat?"
The iron-plated hound lowered its snout, snarling as black foam dripped from its jaws.
"Xiao Mei, run behind the shed!" Ye Chen yelled, stepping between her and the beast. He had no weapon, only the blunt fire-poker leaning against the doorframe.
"Are you stupid?!" Xiao Mei barked back, refusing to move an inch. "That thing will tear you apart in two seconds!"
The hound lunged.
It moved with unnatural speed, claws gouging trenches into the mud as it launched itself toward Ye Chen's throat. Ye Chen threw his arms up, bracing for the impact of iron and teeth.
Deep in his chest, the green light flared violently.
An involuntary wave of scorching heat exploded outward from his sternum. The concussive burst struck the beast mid-air, snapping its ribs with a wet crunch and tossing it backwards into the mud.
Ye Chen fell to his knees, his vision going black around the edges. The sudden release had drained him instantly; his chest felt cold, his lungs burning as if he had swallowed dry embers.
"Kill the girl first," the scout sneered, drawing his saber with a sharp scrape of steel. "The boy's core is already collapsing under the Yang overload. He won't survive five minutes without an anchor."
The scout blurred forward, his blade flashing like a streak of cold silver aimed directly at Xiao Mei's neck.
Xiao Mei didn't freeze. Fear flared in her eyes, but it gave way to fierce, desperate instinct. Instead of dodging away, she threw herself toward Ye Chen, slamming both hands against his back.
"Take it!" she screamed through gritted teeth. "Don't you dare die on me!"
A wave of pure, freezing Yin Qi poured from her palms straight into his spine. It felt like plunging into an icy mountain spring after running through a wildfire.
The chaotic, self-destructive Yang energy burning Ye Chen's meridians instantly quieted. The two opposing forces caught each other in mid-air, spinning into a tight, golden-azure vortex behind his ribs.
Time seemed to slow down. Ye Chen felt every drop of falling rain, heard every rustle of bamboo leaves, and saw the exact angle of the scout's descending blade.
Ye Chen caught the scout's wrist bare-handed.
The impact sounded like two iron rods colliding. The scout's eyes went wide with shock as the momentum of his strike stopped dead against the palm of a mortal boy.
"Impossible—" the scout choked out.
Ye Chen didn't give him time to finish. Guided by an instinct that didn't feel like his own, he twisted the scout's wrist and drove an open palm directly into the man's sternum, releasing the combined blast of their Yin-Yang resonance.
A dull boom rattled the wooden walls of the cottage.
The scout was flung backward, crashing through the remaining section of the fence and tumbling down the muddy slope into the valley below.
Silence fell over the clearing, broken only by the steady drum of rain.
Xiao Mei slumped against Ye Chen's shoulder, her breathing shallow, her face pale as rice paper. Ye Chen caught her before she could hit the ground, his own arms shaking from the lingering aftershocks of the blast.
"Did we... kill him?" she whispered, clutching weakly at his sleeve.
Ye Chen looked toward the ridge below. Three distinct flares of violet smoke rose into the overcast sky from the road leading into Willow Creek.
"No," Ye Chen said, his voice grim as he helped her up. "He called the others. The sect isn't scouting anymore. They're surrounding the village."