The moment Shen Ziyan turned, the stillness of the Valley shattered like fragile glass. The countless glowing eyes that blinked open in the mist were accompanied by a low rumble, like ancient chains dragging across stone. The fog, once a blanket of silence, now churned as if stirred by breathless, hungry beasts.
Ziyan didn't flinch.
His body, reborn through marrow, felt heavier but stronger. With every heartbeat, power surged through his limbs—raw, unshaped, and waiting to be honed. The crimson veins beneath his skin glowed like molten ore.
The first creature lunged out from the mist.
It was a hound, or at least something that once resembled one. Gaunt, skinless, and stitched together with bones that weren't its own. Its fangs gleamed with black ichor, and in its hollow eye sockets flickered blue flames. The stench of rot and old blood poured from its gaping maw.
Ziyan sidestepped, swift as a phantom, and his hand struck like a blade across its neck. Bone cracked. The creature tumbled mid-air and landed in a twitching heap before dissolving into black ash.
Another followed.
Then three more.
And the shadows kept coming.
Ziyan moved like flowing water, dodging, countering, striking. Every motion of his reborn body screamed with newfound power and precision. The sword-shaped mark on his brow pulsed with each blow he delivered. Still, there were too many. Every creature he felled, two more emerged from the mist behind it.
"Just what kind of place is this...?"
His foot caught on a root. One of the beasts leaped.
A shadow swept past him. A whip of silver light cleaved through the air, bisecting the monster mid-leap. The pieces scattered and evaporated before they could even hit the ground.
"Late again," said a teasing voice.
Bai Yanyue appeared at his side, the long ribbons around her waist dancing with spiritual energy. In her hand was a fan made of moonlight and ice, now unfolding with a soft snap.
"I thought you left," Ziyan said between breaths.
"I did," she replied nonchalantly. "But it's boring watching you from afar. And I hate losing to monsters uglier than my ex-fiancé."
Ziyan raised a brow. "Ex-fiancé?"
"Mm," she smiled coyly. "Got boring too quickly. You won't, will you?"
Before he could reply, she turned and flung the fan into the fog.
WHOOSH!
A sweeping wave of cold energy erupted. The beasts screamed inhuman cries as the mist froze, then shattered. Twenty corpses crumbled into ash, silencing the onslaught—for now.
She caught the returning fan with a spin and grinned. "You were saying?"
"I wasn't."
More rustling came from the shadows. Dozens more eyes emerged.
Ziyan cursed under his breath. "They just keep coming."
"That's because they're drawn to your aura," Bai Yanyue said, stepping closer to him. "The Bone-Forging Pool enhances not only your body, but... wakes things that should remain asleep."
"You knew this would happen?"
"Mm-hm," she said. "That's why I didn't go in first."
Ziyan gave her a deadpan glare.
She giggled. "Don't look at me like that, I did save you. Kind of romantic, no?"
"Very romantic," Ziyan replied flatly. "Being hunted by corpse dogs together."
She leaned toward him, breath brushing his cheek. "It's our first date, after all."
The air shifted again.
But this time, it wasn't just beasts emerging.
Something else moved in the fog.
Slower.
More... deliberate.
Ziyan's eyes narrowed.
A humanoid silhouette approached, clothed in a tattered imperial robe, with six arms stretched wide. Each hand held a different weapon—a sword, a bell, a broken chain, a flute, a scroll, and a severed head that blinked.
Its face was covered in golden seals, and its presence was suffocating.
Even Bai Yanyue's playful smile faded.
"That's not a beast," she whispered. "That's a Forgotten Soul General."
Ziyan didn't recognize the title, but every instinct told him that this creature was on an entirely different level from the others.
"Do they often show up?" he asked.
"No," she replied, stepping back. "Only when the valley feels threatened by someone too powerful."
Ziyan's breath slowed. His reborn body itched for battle, but his rational mind warned him—this was no ordinary test. The valley was reacting to him. No... to something inside him.
The Forgotten Soul General raised its hand.
The scroll in its grip unfurled with a snap, revealing hundreds of names written in blood.
One of the names glowed.
Li Yuan.
Ziyan's heart thudded.
The scroll trembled, then burned the name in crimson fire.
The general stepped forward, six arms rising.
Then—
It moved.
Faster than any shadow, it appeared above Ziyan, all six weapons descending.
Ziyan barely managed to roll to the side. One weapon—a chain—scraped his shoulder and instantly burned through his flesh, down to the bone.
He bit back a growl and lunged with a counterstrike.
But the general had already vanished and reappeared behind him.
This time, Bai Yanyue intercepted with a spin of her fan, forming a frozen barrier between them. The sound of shattering glass echoed as the barrier broke—but it bought them time.
"Any bright ideas?" she said, panting slightly.
"I fight," Ziyan said simply.
"And?"
"You run."
She scoffed. "Don't be stupid."
"I'm not. You know more than I do. You'll find out what this thing is. I'll keep it busy."
"You won't last ten breaths," she said, her voice tinged with something uncharacteristically serious.
Ziyan looked at her.
"I'll last eleven."
She hesitated—then laughed.
"Fine. Try not to die. You still owe me dinner."
She flicked her fan and disappeared into the mist like moonlight dissolving in water.
Ziyan turned back to the general.
The seal-covered monster raised the severed head in one hand and opened its mouth.
It spoke.
In a hundred voices at once.
"You... are... not... Li Yuan."
Ziyan's grip on his blade tightened.
He remembered the blood cocoon. The pain. The marrow. The girl with silver hair. The old man on the bridge.
He didn't care if he was Li Yuan or not.
He would become more than that.
The general descended again.
Ziyan roared and charged, this time not dodging, but striking head-on. His fist collided with the general's blade-hand—and in the clash, the entire grove trembled.
But just as their blows connected—
A faint sound echoed from behind the obelisks.
A chime.
A bell.
The general froze mid-strike, head twitching toward the sound.
Ziyan, panting and bloodied, took a step back.
A figure emerged from behind the nearest obelisk.
Wearing white robes.
Face covered with a veil of stars.
Eyes like an empty sky.
She raised a hand and pointed at the general.
"Return."
The general trembled.
The scroll in its hand burned away, and with a scream that tore through the heavens, the monster dissolved into golden ash.
Ziyan collapsed to one knee, breathing heavily, his heart thundering like a war drum.
The veiled woman turned her gaze toward him.
And for the first time, Shen Ziyan felt something he hadn't felt since arriving in this world—
Fear.
Not because of power.
But because something in that woman's presence felt eerily familiar. As if she knew him. Not this body. Not Li Yuan.
Him.
Before he could speak, she was gone.
Only a single feather remained, drifting in the air, glowing softly.
Bai Yanyue returned moments later, breathless and pale.
"What the hell happened?"
Ziyan didn't answer.
He was still staring at the spot where the veiled woman had stood.
Because the feather that now rested in his palm...
Was identical to the one that had guided his soul to this world.
To be continued...