Rain had been falling since dusk, light but relentless.
Droplets slid down bamboo roofs, tracing quiet lines through the night.
Inside her small hut, Bai Lian worked in silence, grinding herbs on a wooden table. The flicker of the lantern cast uneven light across her face calm, but distant, like someone caught between two worlds.
Ren Yi entered without knocking, his boots muddy, his bow slung across his back.
"You always stare at the rain," he said, half teasing. "Are you waiting for someone?"
She didn't look at him. Her fingers kept moving, steady and precise.
"Maybe," she murmured. "Or maybe I'm waiting for a past that never really left."
Ren Yi frowned. "You mean the Black Sky Sect?"
The pestle stopped. A few drops of potion spilled over the rim.
"You've been listening to too many rumors," she said quietly.
"They're not rumors," Ren Yi insisted. "I saw it. The masked man who came here. He was looking for you."
The rain outside grew louder, as if trying to hide their words. Bai Lian finally raised her gaze, eyes that had seen too much, eyes that carried the stillness of regret.
"Yes," she said at last. "I was one of them once. I learned poisons, healing, and killing, all under the same breath. In that sect, life and death were just two sides of the same coin."
Ren Yi's voice dropped. "Then… why did you leave?"
She smiled faintly, a fragile thing. "Because I healed someone I was supposed to kill."
The air in the room thickened. The lantern flickered, shrinking to a pale glow.
Bai Lian walked toward a wooden chest in the corner and pulled out a piece of black cloth, old, frayed, with the faint symbol of a coiling dragon.
"This was their emblem," she said softly. "The Black Sky Sect doesn't just chase power. They chase something called the Shadow Core. An ancient art said to give strength to those born without one."
Ren Yi's eyes widened. "That sounds like… Jian Wu."
Bai Lian nodded slowly. "Exactly. Because Jian Wu isn't just some wanderer. He might be the result of an old experiment, one that the Sect tried and failed to perfect."
The rain thinned into mist. The village was quiet, too quiet.
Bai Lian sat again, the glow from the lantern trembling against her pale skin.
"I escaped when I realized what they were doing," she continued. "They stopped chasing cultivation. They started chasing godhood. They believed that by merging two essences, light and shadow, they could reach beyond the spiritual core itself."
Ren Yi's throat felt dry. "And Jian Wu…?"
"He's proof that it worked," she whispered. "But not because of them. Because he forged his own path."
The door shuddered suddenly , wind howling through the cracks.
Bai Lian stood, silver needles sliding between her fingers.
But it wasn't an enemy.
It was Mei Xue, drenched, breathless. "Jian Wu, he went into the forest! The mist… it's alive, Bai Lian!"
Bai Lian didn't hesitate. "Ren Yi, grab your bow."
They ran into the night, mud splashing underfoot.
The air was sharp and heavy, carrying a low, distant hum. In the far distance, flashes of black and white light tore through the mist like veins of lightning.
Ren Yi slowed, chest heaving. "He's alone in there…"
Bai Lian's grip on his arm was firm. "No. He's never truly alone. His shadows walk beside him."
When they reached the forest edge, the fog was thick enough to swallow light.
And in the middle of it stood Jian Wu silent, facing a large stone pulsing faintly beneath his hand.
Bai Lian froze. "That… that's the Stone of Origin."
Mei Xue turned to her. "What is it?"
"The same artifact the Black Sky Sect once tried to control," Bai Lian whispered. "They failed. But someone… someone survived the experiment."
Her eyes softened. "That someone is standing right in front of us."
A deep hum filled the air. The stone glowed brighter, lines of energy crawling across its surface like veins of light.
The mist curled tighter around Jian Wu's body, wrapping him in slow-moving spirals of black and white.
Ren Yi whispered, "Is he merging with it?"
Bai Lian shook her head. "No. The stone isn't claiming him. It's remembering him."
The rain stopped.
Jian Wu turned slowly, the silver reflection of the stone flickering in his eyes.
"Bai Lian," he said, his voice quiet but heavy. "You know too much."
His tone wasn't angry, it was weary.
Bai Lian lowered her gaze. "And you know your past won't stay buried."
For a moment, no one spoke. Then Jian Wu exhaled softly.
"Then it's time I stop running from it."
Behind him, the fog began to stir again, folding in on itself, forming a path of swirling light that stretched deeper into the woods.
Ren Yi and Mei Xue watched, unable to move, as Jian Wu took his first step into the storm of light and shadow.
Bai Lian closed her eyes, her voice barely more than a whisper.
"May you find what they once stole from you."
And when she opened them again, Jian Wu was gone.
Only the stone remained, pulsing faintly, as if the world itself had started remembering too.