The mountain did not breathe again. It roared.
The blast turned the world sideways. Roots twisted, soil poured like water, and Rat was running before he decided to. The Bell behind him gave a single, warning hum, low enough to tremble in bone, high enough to make the tunnels shake loose their dust.
He caught himself on one palm. The air tasted of sap and gunpowder.
"Alright," he panted. "Lesson one, never dig up what still has teeth."
The Codex flickered behind his eyes.
[Surface collapse—projected in three breaths.]
[Suggestion: Run.]
"I am running!" he snapped, and then the ceiling answered for him.
A root the size of a wagon tore free, slicing the tunnel in half. He ducked under it, half crawling, half diving. His shoulder hit mud, his breath came out wrong. The Bell's tone followed, steady, patient. It wasn't screaming; it was guiding. The rhythm pulsed through his ribs like a metronome, left, right, breath, go.
Root Listening drew a crude map in his head. Every living line glowed faint green, every dying one flickered gray. The path out was closing like a fist.
He slid to his knees at a junction, smacked his staff against the wall, and felt for the echo.
"Come on, give me something that doesn't end in teeth."
To his right, the sound came back hollow, open space.
Rat pressed his palm against the rootwall and whispered the rhythm he had learned from the Bell. The wood flexed, trembling. A gap opened, just wide enough for a man who never skipped meals to regret it.
He squeezed through. The Bell followed. Its vines tightened across his back, wrapping him in damp weight. The cradle had folded into a cocoon, green cords gripping shoulder and spine.
"Great," he muttered. "Portable misery."
He took another step and the tunnel behind him imploded. Air slammed into his back. He stumbled forward, coughing. The Codex scribbled something polite.
[Survivability: moderate. Impressive negligence rate.]
"Keep it up," he said. "We'll be married."
The next chamber slanted upward. Faint daylight cut through cracks in the roof. Shouts echoed beyond the stone, human this time. Familiar ones.
"Ruo! Wei Yun! Song Min!" he barked.
No answer, just another explosion. The tunnel shook. Dirt rained down like gray snow.
The Codex pulsed again.
[External Qi: Rooted Stone formation - 9 active cultivators.]
[Warning: Structural failure in 0 minutes 30 seconds.]
"Thirty seconds?!" Rat snarled. "You're rounding down too fast!"
He pushed into the incline. His lungs scraped raw. The Bell's weight made every movement a negotiation. Roots coiled from the walls, trying to hold the ceiling. He ducked beneath one and kept moving until his hands found daylight.
The exit split open with a sound like wood screaming.
Rat crawled out of the earth and into firelight.
The hillside above the shrine was chaos. Sections of rootway had burst, spilling sap and stone. Rooted Stone disciples in gray armor hurled talisman grenades down the slope, each detonation blooming green flame. His team held the ridge—barely. Wei Yun's spear whirled through smoke. Ruo's palms struck the ground, raising barriers of packed soil. Song Min flung resin bombs that burned sticky blue.
Then the disciples turned toward Rat.
"Target acquired!" one shouted.
Rat coughed dirt from his mouth. "Bad timing, gentlemen."
A talisman whistled past. He dove behind a shattered boulder. The Bell on his back thrummed low and dangerous, vibrating through the rock. Roots nearby twitched, answering the sound.
The Codex's lettering flickered fast.
[Warning: Treasure resonance detected.]
[Recommendation: Do not…]
He struck the ground with his staff before it could finish. The Bell's hum deepened. The hillside shifted like something remembering it used to move. Roots burst from the dirt, tripping the nearest attackers and dragging them into the soil.
Song Min's laugh cut through the din. "You brought the mountain!"
"I borrowed it," Rat shouted back.
Another blast rocked the ridge. Ruo slid beside him, face streaked with ash. "You have the relic?"
Rat jerked his head toward his shoulder. "Depends on whether it kills me first."
Ruo grinned, then ducked as a talisman cracked overhead. "Rooted Stone wants it too."
"They can file a complaint with Heaven."
A new tremor rolled beneath them, not an explosion. A heartbeat.
The Verdant Stag emerged from the smoke like a forest learning to stand. Antlers scraped the sky. Light bled from its hooves into the ground, turning ash into moss.
Every cultivator stopped.
Even the wind waited.
The Stag looked over the ridge. Its gaze carried centuries. Then it stepped once. The roots obeyed.
Green light erupted through the hillside. The Rooted Stone formation screamed as the earth swallowed them whole, their Qi threads snapping like twigs. When the light dimmed, only silence and smoke remained.
Rat leaned on his staff. "Senior really hates paperwork."
The Stag turned its head toward him. Its shape shimmered, the edges burning away like bark in fire. The Bell on his back answered with a harmonic whisper. The air between them wove into strands of light, antler to bronze, spirit to metal.
"Wait," Rat said softly. "You're leaving?"
The Stag's voice arrived without sound. "The bell has a new keeper."
Light collapsed inward. The body of the Stag folded into the Bell, vanishing until only faint antler silhouettes shimmered across the green metal.
Rat exhaled, long and uneven. "Caretaker, huh. You must really be desperate."
The Codex recorded it anyway.
[Bond integration: Verdant Stag - Partial Fusion Complete.]
[Integrity: 91 percent.]
[Pattern stabilized for transport.]
Ruo, Wei Yun, and Song Min gathered near. All three looked like they'd been through a grinder. Wei Yun tapped his spear butt on the ground. "You alive?"
"Debatable," Rat said. "If I stop talking, assume no."
Ruo scanned the collapsed ridge. "Rooted Stone won't stay shamed for long. You should move the relic before they regroup."
Rat looked toward the horizon. Through the thinning smoke, he could see the outline of his old temple, the ruins under the canopy, waiting like a forgotten debt.
"I know where it goes," he said. "The Bell wants home."
Song Min wiped resin from her fingers. "Then we'll hold the road."
Rat blinked. "You're serious?"
"Open Sky doesn't retreat from its own," she said, grinning. "We'll make sure no one follows."
He tried not to smile back. "Fine. Don't die doing it. That's my specialty."
He turned down the slope. The Bell hummed quietly against his back, each note aligning with his breath. The forest listened, curious.
Ruo called after him. "Rat!"
He stopped, glancing over his shoulder.
Ruo bowed, short and rough. "The Basin owes you."
Rat snorted. "The Basin doesn't pay its debts. I checked."
Then he started walking.
The forest dimmed as the fires died. Each step sank him deeper into quiet. The Bell's tone changed with the air, lower, warmer. The Codex scrolled faint light in his mind.
[Timer: 2 nights, 7 hours remaining.]
[Recommended route: Temple of Canopy — aligned node detected.]
[Warning: Prolonged exposure to relic resonance may induce personality shift.]
"Already have one," he muttered. "She's sarcastic and hates mornings."
He reached a ridge where sap mist rolled like fog. The trees bent toward the Bell as he passed, leaves whispering. Somewhere above, faint green sparks followed him, spores drawn to its rhythm. Every few breaths, he tapped the staff against the earth, keeping time.
A thought stirred behind the Codex's clean lines.
[User displaying symptoms of prolonged synchronicity.]
[Query: Define 'home.']
Rat paused mid-step. "That's new."
No answer. Just the rustle of trees and the quiet toll of the Bell echoing far away, as if the Basin itself had taken a breath with him.
He smiled, faint and crooked. "Guess we're both learning."
He adjusted the strap on his shoulder, tightened his grip on the staff, and kept walking toward the dark line of the temple in the distance.
Behind him, the forest sealed the wounds left by battle. Ahead, faint light glimmered through the moss-choked gate.
The Bell hummed once…approval, or warning?
[Codex of Strands of Fate - Status Update]
Vitality: 5
Qi Sense: 5
Comprehension: 3
Fate Entanglement: 21
Realm: Foundation Establishment
New Bond: Green Bell - Verdant Spirit (Partial)
Effect: Bell resonance stabilized. Spiritual projection available at low cost.
Timer: 2 nights, 7 hours remaining to complete Alignment.