The moon was obscured by heavy clouds. The storehouse grounds were silent, save for the rhythmic snoring of the guards.
Captain Hu sat by a small fire on the edge of the camp, a jug of cheap wine by his side. He was a man of habit. Every midnight, he took the final watch alone.
A soft crunch of gravel made him reach for his spear. "Who's there?"
"It's just me, Captain," Xuan Ye said, stepping into the dim firelight. He looked shivering and small, clutching a thin cloak around his shoulders. "I couldn't sleep. The wind is too loud."
Hu relaxed, a mocking grin touching his scarred lips. "The life of a noble isn't easy, is it? Go back to bed, kid. The wind won't kill you, but the lack of sleep will make you useless by morning."
"I was wondering, Captain," Xuan Ye said, walking closer. His voice was soft, almost hypnotic. "How does the Stone Body feel? Does it make you feel like you're part of the earth, or just heavy?"
Hu's eyes widened. "How do you know about—"
He never finished the sentence.
Xuan Ye didn't move like a child. He moved like a shadow suddenly disconnected from its source. In one heartbeat, he was five paces away; in the next, he was in Hu's personal space.
Hu tried to circulate his Qi, but the air around him suddenly turned into a vacuum. The Book of Fate manifested in the physical world for a split second, its black pages fanning out like the wings of a crow.
"Absorption" Xuan Ye commanded, his voice barely a breath.
He didn't need to punch or stab. He reached out and placed his palm gently on Hu's forehead. The black ink didn't strike Hu; it entered him like a virus seeking the source code.
Hu eyes rolled back and a silent guttural gasp escaped him The Logic of his body the very thing that allowed his cells to be hard like stone was being extracted.
But it wasn't just the body. Xuan Ye felt a rush of foreign data flooding the Book.
[Acquired: Lesser Stone Body Blueprint.]
[Acquired:experience of a Northern Border Memory Segment (32 Years).]
[Processing... Rewriting Mortal Vessel...]
Xuan Ye felt his own bones begin to grind. The pain was absolute, like being crushed in a hydraulic press and rebuilt one atom at a time. He didn't make a sound. He bit his tongue until the copper taste of blood filled his mouth, his eyes wide and burning with a dark, terrifying joy. He wasn't just gaining durability he was gaining Hu's durability.
As the physical transfer completed, Xuan Ye focused on the second part. He sieved through Hu's memories: 32 years of guard duty, of boredom, of rare beast attacks. He found the moment he stepped into the firelight.
'No' Xuan Ye start rewriting hu memories, his will acting as the Unwritten Pen. 'That didn't happen.'
He isolated the memory segment of their conversation. He deleted his own image. He erased his voice. In its place, he wrote something else.
He didn't just tell Hu what to say he forced Hu's mind to experience a lie.
He crafted a memory of a shadowy, clawed entity, radiating a terrifying, ancient demonic Qi. He made Hu remember the specific smell of sulfur, the way the fire turned green, and the sheer terror that paralyzed his Stone Body. He made Hu remember being struck by a cursed palm and feeling his cultivation wither away under a demonic seal.
Xuan Ye pulled his hand back. The dark ink dissolved back into his skin, and the book vanished. He stood perfectly still, closing his eyes to absorb the memory of 32 years of border logistics. He now knew every secret path in this sector of the Great Forest, every guard shift rotation, and every hidden resource depot. Hu had unwittingly given him the entire board.
Captain Hu slumped to the ground. He wasn't dead, but his Qi had vanished, and his memories of Xuan Ye were gone. When he woke up, he would be a broken, mortal man, terrified by a phantom demon that Xuan Ye had created.
[Mortal Vessel: Level 1 - 10% Progress.]
Xuan Ye looked down at his own clean hands. He felt... complete. For the first time, he didn't just look like a mortal he felt stronger
He turned away, walking back into the darkness.
The Royal Hunt was only twenty-four hours away. Xuan Feng and the other Geniuses were coming
"It almost time to hunt" Xuan Ye said while waiting, and his pen was already loaded with the ink of another man life