When Yao Chen returned from the depths of the Beast Forest, the world seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.
No beasts roared.
No insects cried.
Even the wind that had moved through the ancient trees for countless years stopped between the branches, as if afraid that the sound of a single leaf might disturb something buried too long.
Lin Xiao noticed first. His hand went to the hilt of his saber, eyes sweeping across the forest.
"Why did it become so quiet?"
Huo Yuan's flames dimmed around his fists. "The beasts are hiding."
Xue Lian did not speak. Her gaze remained on Yao Chen.
The two swords were no longer visible. Sai Ka and Si Ka had returned to his Soul Sea, but their presence had not vanished. They rested within him like two sleeping abysses, one filled with prayer, the other with slaughter.
Everyone thought the forest had fallen silent because it feared them.
Yao Chen knew that was wrong.
The forest was not afraid.
It was remembering.
Beneath his feet, the dark soil trembled faintly. Thin lines of pale light surfaced across the ground, spreading like scars from old sword wounds. Roots twisted aside. Broken weapon fragments buried deep below began to shake, their rusted edges humming with grief.
A smell rose from the earth.
Not rot.
Blood.
Ancient blood.
Yao Chen's pupils narrowed.
In that instant, the Beast Forest was no longer a trial ground for academy disciples. It became something older. A battlefield whose dead had never truly slept. Beneath every tree was a fallen warrior. Beneath every root was a broken oath. The beasts that now lived here were only the later children of a land once soaked by war.
Then a voice sounded in his mind.
"You took the swords."
Yao Chen froze.
No one else reacted.
The voice was neither male nor female, neither angry nor gentle. It sounded like earth grinding against bone.
"Then carry the dead."
Sai Ka and Si Ka became heavy within him.
Yao Chen's shoulders sank by a fraction.
Rewards. Opportunities. Inheritances.
Cultivators loved those words. They made danger sound clean. They made karma sound like fortune.
But the two swords were not prizes.
They were debts.
Outside the Beast Forest, the elders of the five academies stood before the trial monument.
The black stone monument had measured generations of disciples. It recorded beasts slain, herbs gathered, treasures obtained, formations broken, and inheritances seized. To the academies, its judgment was law.
At that moment, the law began to fail.
The monument trembled.
Names shifted violently across its surface. Points rose, collapsed, and vanished. Several elders took a step back as spiritual light burst from the inscriptions.
"What is happening?"
"The trial formation is unstable?"
"That is impossible. It has endured for three hundred years."
Then one name appeared at the top.
Dao Realm Academy: Yao Chen
Trial Points: ???
Inheritance Obtained: Ancient Weapon Mark
Grade: Unable to Measure
Silence fell outside the forest as well.
A thin crack split the center of the monument.
The elder from Yu Academy inhaled sharply. "Ancient Weapon Mark…"
The Sovereign Academy elder's face darkened. "If Dao Realm Academy gains such a disciple, the balance of this trial will collapse."
Another elder frowned. "Can the monument not identify the grade?"
"It can measure spirit herbs, beast cores, weapons, and ordinary inheritances," the Yu Academy elder said slowly. "If it cannot measure this, then it is not an ordinary weapon inheritance."
Several gazes turned toward the Dao Realm Headmaster.
He did not speak.
His robe moved slightly in the wind, but his expression was colder than stone.
Only his eyes betrayed him.
Ancient Weapon Mark.
That thing should have remained buried.
Inside the forest, Yao Chen closed his eyes.
For a breath, his consciousness sank inward.
The Soul Sea opened before him.
It was vast and dark, lit by faint silver waves. Above those waves floated two swords.
Sai Ka shone with a pale, merciful radiance. Its blade seemed gentle, but within that gentleness were countless voices crying for release.
Save me.
Free me.
Let me return.
Si Ka hovered beside it, black and red light curling from its edge. When Yao Chen's mind touched it, he heard screams. Not helpless cries, but the last sounds of enemies cut down before they could regret their cruelty.
One sword saved.
One sword killed.
Both obeyed him.
Yao Chen looked at them for a long time.
He had once believed healing was the act of restoring what was broken. A wound closed. A soul soothed. A life pulled back from the edge.
But what if the wound had rotted too deeply?
What if one life could only be saved by cutting through ten thousand?
"If I must kill ten thousand to save one person…" he whispered within his Soul Sea, "can that still be called healing?"
Neither sword answered.
Perhaps they could not.
Perhaps they were waiting for him to answer first.
When Yao Chen opened his eyes again, Xue Lian was standing near him.
Lin Xiao and Huo Yuan were arguing in low voices about which direction they should take next, but Xue Lian had ignored them. Frost gathered faintly beneath her feet, not because she was using power, but because her heart had become still.
She did not ask what he had seen.
She did not ask why the forest had bowed into silence.
She simply looked at him and said, "I will not ask how much blood your path carries."
Yao Chen turned to her.
Xue Lian's voice was quiet.
"I will only ask one thing. When your hands are stained, will your heart still remember warmth?"
For a long time, Yao Chen did not answer.
Then he said, "If I forget…"
His gaze lowered to his own hands.
"Remind me."
Xue Lian nodded.
That was all.
No oath. No embrace. No fragile promise shouted beneath heaven.
Only two people standing in a silent forest, understanding that some burdens could not be removed, only shared without making them lighter.
A soft clap sounded from between the trees.
Lin Xiao instantly drew his saber.
Huo Yuan stepped forward, flames rising.
Three figures appeared from the shadowed path ahead. Their robes bore the mark of Sovereign Academy. The two disciples behind carried heavy weapons and colder expressions, but the young man in front walked with empty hands.
He was tall, dressed in white and gray. His features were calm, almost scholarly. His eyes did not burn with hatred or greed. That made him more dangerous.
"Yao Chen of Dao Realm Academy," he said.
Yao Chen looked at him. "And you are?"
"Bai Wujin. Sovereign Academy."
Lin Xiao clicked his tongue. "You people arrive quickly when there is treasure."
Bai Wujin did not look at him. "A forbidden inheritance cannot remain in the hands of someone untested."
His gaze rested on Yao Chen.
"Hand it over. Your companions may leave."
Huo Yuan laughed angrily. "You think we are decoration?"
"No," Bai Wujin said mildly. "I think you are loyal. That is why I am offering you a chance to live."
The two Sovereign Academy disciples behind him spread out. Their auras pressed down like iron pillars. The forest floor cracked beneath their feet.
Yao Chen remained still.
"I refuse."
Bai Wujin smiled.
"Good."
His aura changed.
The air grew heavy.
"Then prove you are not merely lucky."
Bai Wujin stepped forward.
The ground sank beneath his foot.
Huo Yuan roared and rushed to meet him, fire wrapping both arms. Their fists collided, and a shockwave exploded outward, scattering leaves and dust.
Huo Yuan was forced back three steps.
Bai Wujin did not move.
"Body cultivation," Lin Xiao muttered. "And not weak."
Bai Wujin's palm turned over. A golden pressure descended, shaping itself into a massive handprint.
"Sovereign Suppression Palm."
The handprint crashed down.
Xue Lian raised one hand. Ice spread across the ground in branching lines, altering the surface beneath Bai Wujin's stance. Lin Xiao moved at the same moment, saber flashing toward Bai Wujin's left shoulder.
Bai Wujin's elbow struck sideways.
Lin Xiao's blade trembled violently. He retreated with numb fingers.
Huo Yuan attacked again, forcing Bai Wujin to meet him directly. Flames and heavy aura collided again and again, each impact shaking the forest.
Yao Chen watched.
He did not summon Sai Ka.
He did not summon Si Ka.
The swords remained silent in his Soul Sea.
This was not the moment.
Bai Wujin's strength relied on domination. His aura pressed down first, his body followed, and his martial arts crushed whatever tried to resist. Against ordinary disciples, that method was nearly flawless.
But flawless things were often fragile in ways their owners never noticed.
Yao Chen's eyes followed Bai Wujin's breathing.
Three short breaths before each heavy strike.
A slight tightening in the right shoulder before using Sovereign Suppression Palm.
Spiritual energy flowed through three main meridians first, then gathered at the sternum before release.
Yao Chen lowered his hand toward the ground.
Around them, the Beast Forest was full of herbs. Some were poisonous. Some were medicinal. Some were harmless alone but dangerous when burned with the right flame.
He plucked three narrow leaves from a root cluster, crushed them between his fingers, and released a thin thread of Primordial Flame.
The leaves did not burn to ash.
They became smoke.
Colorless.
Almost scentless.
Bai Wujin's eyes moved slightly. "Poison?"
"Medicine," Yao Chen said.
Bai Wujin smiled. "Against a Sovereign Academy body cultivator?"
"No."
Yao Chen's fingers shifted.
"Against your rhythm."
Xue Lian understood first.
Her frost no longer tried to trap Bai Wujin directly. Instead, she froze certain paths and left others open, forcing his footwork to choose the most stable ground.
Lin Xiao stopped trying to cut deep. His saber began striking from strange angles, never dangerous enough to demand full defense, but irritating enough to disturb timing.
Huo Yuan laughed wildly and attacked from the front.
"You like direct clashes? Come!"
Bai Wujin's expression finally changed.
He still held the advantage.
His body was stronger. His cultivation was deeper. Each palm strike forced the three of them back.
But Yao Chen's smoke drifted through the battlefield. Each time Bai Wujin inhaled, the spiritual energy in his meridians slowed by a hair. Each time he gathered force, the frozen ground forced a slight adjustment. Each time he adjusted, Lin Xiao's saber disrupted his breathing.
A hair.
A fraction.
A breath.
That was enough.
Bai Wujin raised his palm again.
Yao Chen's eyes flashed.
"Now."
Xue Lian stamped her foot.
Ice sealed the ground beneath Bai Wujin's right heel.
Huo Yuan drove both flaming fists forward.
Lin Xiao's saber struck Bai Wujin's wrist, not to wound, but to redirect.
Bai Wujin inhaled.
The colorless medicine smoke entered his chest.
For one breath, the spiritual energy gathering at his sternum scattered.
His Sovereign Suppression Palm failed to form.
Yao Chen appeared before him.
Primordial Flame burned at his fingertip, thin as a needle.
He touched Bai Wujin's chest.
Not hard.
Not violently.
But exactly where the scattered energy had gathered.
Bai Wujin's body stiffened.
The heavy aura around him collapsed.
Yao Chen turned his wrist and pressed forward.
Bai Wujin flew backward, struck an ancient tree, and slid to one knee.
The two Sovereign Academy disciples moved.
Bai Wujin raised a hand.
They stopped.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He looked down at the faint burn mark on his chest, then up at Yao Chen.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then Bai Wujin laughed.
It was not angry laughter.
It was satisfied.
Lin Xiao frowned. "Did we hit him too hard?"
Bai Wujin stood slowly. "No. You hit me exactly hard enough."
Huo Yuan's flames surged again. "You still want to fight?"
"No."
Bai Wujin brushed dust from his sleeve. "I was never here to steal the weapon."
Lin Xiao's face darkened. "That is a very strange thing to say after asking him to hand it over."
"I was here to see whether the Ancient Weapon Mark had chosen a corpse waiting to happen." Bai Wujin looked at Yao Chen. "If you had used the inheritance immediately, I would have marked you as prey."
Yao Chen's voice was calm. "And now?"
Bai Wujin smiled.
"You are not prey."
His gaze sharpened.
"That means the real hunters will come."
The forest seemed colder after those words.
Bai Wujin turned slightly and looked deeper into the trees. "The trial has changed. The Beast Forest opened a second forbidden place an hour ago."
Yao Chen's heart stirred.
"Where?"
"Soul Burial Valley."
Even Lin Xiao stopped breathing for a moment.
Huo Yuan frowned. "I have heard that name. Isn't it sealed?"
"It was," Bai Wujin said. "Now it is not."
Xue Lian's eyes narrowed. "Why tell us?"
"Because everyone will go." Bai Wujin's expression remained calm. "Sovereign Academy. Yu Academy. Dao Realm Academy. The others too. Soul herbs grow there. Rare ones. Old ones. Herbs that can stabilize damaged souls, awaken sleeping spirits, and repair incomplete soul foundations."
Yao Chen's fingers tightened.
Xuner.
If there were soul herbs powerful enough, perhaps he could help her awaken faster. Perhaps he could ease the silence surrounding her.
Bai Wujin saw the change in his expression.
"So you have someone to save."
Yao Chen did not answer.
Bai Wujin nodded as if that confirmed something. "Then go quickly. The valley is connected to the old battlefield. Once the stronger disciples enter, mercy will become expensive."
He turned to leave.
After a few steps, he paused.
"Yao Chen."
Yao Chen looked at him.
Bai Wujin said, "The next time we fight, I will not be testing you."
Then he vanished with the two Sovereign Academy disciples.
Lin Xiao lowered his saber slowly. "I hate calm enemies."
Huo Yuan spat to the side. "I prefer loud ones. At least they are honest about being annoying."
Xue Lian looked at Yao Chen. "Soul Burial Valley?"
Yao Chen looked into the distance.
Before he could answer, Sai Ka's voice sounded softly from within his Soul Sea.
"Master…"
The sword of salvation trembled.
"That valley is where one of your old promises died."
Yao Chen's eyes became still.
Old promise.
Dead promise.
The words settled into him like snow over a grave.
The Beast Forest remained silent around them, but the silence had changed. Earlier, it had been judgment. Now, it felt like waiting.
Waiting to see whether he would turn away.
Waiting to see whether the bearer of the swords would accept only their power, or also their karma.
Yao Chen looked toward Soul Burial Valley.
The wind returned.
It moved through the branches and carried with it the smell of herbs.
And blood.
He was silent for a long time.
Then he took one step forward.
Behind him, the forest bowed.
Not in respect.
In remembrance.
Because some paths were not walked for the first time.
They were merely walked again.