The light trembled slightly in his hand.
And the face beneath it became unmistakable.
Golden eyes.
Half-lidded.
Clouded.
"…Senior brother…"
The words didn't form bubbles. They barely formed at all.
Vaern.
There was no wound.
No torn flesh.
No sign of battle.
Just stillness.
Reaching upward.
As if he had tried to climb toward the surface.
As if he had been close.
Riven's thoughts scattered.
Why was he here?
Did he follow?
Why would he—
Understanding came slow.
And in guesses.
He must have followed him.
Seen him enter the lake but not exit it.
And eventually followed him in, only to drown, clearly not having been approved by the trial.
At least that's the only thing Riven could think of for this to have happened.
Something twisted in his chest.
Him too?
His jaw clenched so hard his teeth ached.
In the last months he'd already lost everything.
Ending with Yue Lin's death.
And now him.
Why?
The question didn't have a direction anymore.
It wasn't for anyone in particular.
Why me?
The illuminating stone shook in his grip.
When is it enough?
When is it gonna stop?
His throat burned.
A scream tore out of him.
Instinctively.
Silently.
Water rushed into his open mouth.
Cold.
Violent.
It flooded his lungs in a single, brutal instant.
Shock snapped through him.
Reflex overrode collapse.
He kicked off the lakebed hard.
Up.
Up.
The surface broke above him in an explosion of black and white.
He dragged in air—
Coughed.
Water spilled from his mouth as he clawed toward the bank, hauling himself onto stone with a shaking arm.
He lay there on his side for a moment.
Breathing.
Gasping.
Shaking.
The lake behind him was calm again.
Unbothered.
His fingers dug into the ground.
And something moved in the corner of his vision.
A skitter.
Low.
Sharp.
He turned.
A gale scorpion crept along the rocks near the water's edge, drawn perhaps by disturbance.
Its stinger arched.
Its body low.
Small.
Insignificant.
But enough to piss him off.
His fish clenched as he rose slowly.
Water streamed from his clothes.
From his hair.
From his lashes.
The scorpion didn't move.
But Riven did.
He jumped forward, his fist coming down.
There was no technique.
No measured strike.
Just weight.
Just force.
The impact split the creature open against the ground with a wet crack. Chitin shattered. The body collapsed in on itself, twitching once before going still.
Silence returned immediately.
Riven stared at the remains.
His chest rose and fell once.
Twice.
His gaze drifted toward the treeline beyond the pond. Toward the ridge where sand and stone met wind-carved cliffs.
The Greater Feral Gale Scorpion.
I'll deal with you in a bit.
And somehow, just thinking about it made him feel a little better.
As if all he needed was just an outlet.
Something to channel his rage toward.
But he didn't instantly storm off, rage not completely clouding his senses yet.
Because no matter how mad he was, he couldn't rush it.
That scorpion wasn't weak.
And if he died now.
After Yue Lin had died.
Vaern was gone.
And he hadn't even found his family...
Then what was it all for?
He turned back to the lake.
Without hesitation, he stepped into the water again.
This time, he did not hesitate when he reached Vaern.
He gripped the broad frame under the shoulders.
It was heavy.
Dead weight always was.
He dragged him upward.
Broke the surface.
Pulled him ashore.
Laid him flat on stone.
For a long moment, he simply looked at him.
"…I'm sorry."
His voice was hoarse.
There was no answer.
Of course there wasn't.
His hand hovered over the body.
For a second he thought about using Yue Lin's amulet.
But then he gave up on it.
He didn't know how to use it.
And he refused to experiment on this.
Instead, he touched the ring at his chest.
Soul force brushed it.
Vaern's body vanished into the spatial space.
I'll bring you back.
Then he rose.
And closed his eyes.
All of this pain had been for nothing but a skill.
The Dual Fate Seal.
You better be good.
His mind wandered toward his mind palace.
Words surfaced from memory.
"When resonating with the mark, you will be able to contend with opponents above your realm."
I'll use you.
He concentrated.
To beat that damned scorpion into the ground.
To get revenge for Yue Lin.
His thoughts reached the five petaled blossom embedded in his soul.
He was gonna try this skill out here and now.
See if it really was as miraculous as the notes had said.
And if it was.
He'd go beat up that scorpion with it.
Something seemed to ring out as his thoughts made contact with the seal.
A tone.
Not heard.
Felt.
Like two strings plucked in the same instant.
The crimson center of the blossom flared.
Suddenly a second pulse layered over his heartbeat.
Out of sync—
Then slowly aligning.
Riven's breath hitched.
Heat followed.
It spread through his body.
His muscles drew inward, fibers compressed. His frame grew more refined. Leaner. Every movement felt cleaner, as if excess had been carved away.
His clothes almost felt a bit loose too on what seemed like a changed body.
His strength increased.
And he was convinced that his physical body had reached a higher level.
But the change didn't stop there.
His spine straightened.
His breathing deepened.
Strands of hair slid across his vision.
Longer.
He felt it before he saw it — weight against his neck, brushing his shoulders. The dark color drained from it strand by strand, paling to silver—
Then white.
Not dull.
Not aged.
Pure.
Like Yue Lin's hair.
His skin felt cooler, smoother. The surface of the black water caught the light of the illuminating stone just enough to give him a distorted glimpse of himself — pale strands framing a face that was still his.
But not entirely unchanged.
The hard angles of his jaw had softened by a fraction. His features seemed more balanced now, more deliberate. The sharpness in his expression was more refined. His eyes looked slightly longer at the corners, calmer, almost elegant in a way they hadn't been before.
He had never looked bad.
But now—
Even Yue Lin might have stopped to look at him.
It wasn't exactly delicate.
But… beautiful in a way that would have made others look twice.
Then—
Pressure bloomed at his right shoulder.
A place where he had felt nothing for the past few months.
It started as a phantom sensation.
Pins and needles.
Then weight.
His breath caught.
Air warped beside him.
Grey qi gathered without conscious command, spiraling tightly at the empty socket. It condensed, thickened, shaped—
And extended.
An arm unfolded from light.
It was an arm he had grown familiar with over the past few months.
Slender in proportion.
Distinctly feminine.
Yue Lin's.
He stared at it.
The long and elegant fingers flexed once as his eyes glazed over slightly.
The arm was not translucent. It looked almost solid, pale skin faintly luminous beneath the surface. Yet he could feel the difference immediately.
It wasn't flesh.
It was energy.
His left hand lifted without thinking.
He touched it.
Warm.
Firm.
Real.
His fingers pressed lightly along the forearm — along her forearm — now attached seamlessly to his shoulder.
His face went still.
Confused.
Stunned.
Then—
Something shifted beneath the surface of the arm.
Qi moved under the skin.
Not his.
Different.
Finer.
Sharper.
But connected.
He knew, instinctively, that if he willed it—
It would answer.
He did.
Grey qi coated the new hand instantly, hugging it like a second layer of skin. Thin and precise. The same sheen that had once wrapped around her dagger.
Without thinking he stepped toward a chunk of rock near the pond's edge and raised the arm slightly.
Then slashed.
He expected resistance.
Pain.
At least friction.
But there was none.
The grey-coated hand passed through the stone as if slicing through wet paper.
A clean line formed.
The upper half slid off.
Perfectly cut.
His mouth parted slightly.
Soft lips opening.
And the arm lowered slowly.
He flexed his fingers once.
Then both hands.
No—
Both arms.
Strength coursed through him. His body felt balanced again, no longer compensating for absence. Every shift in weight was precise. Every muscle responded without delay.
No matter how strange it was to look at her arm—his arm—it felt right to have two hands again.
His now boosted physique stood firmly at Mid Inner Condensation. His qi matched it. And with two arms—one capable of manifesting that impossibly sharp grey essence—his combat ability had risen to an entirely different level.
If he faced someone in the Late Inner Condensation realm now…
He was confident he could defeat them.
A strand of white hair slipped across his vision.
Before he consciously registered it, the new arm lifted.
Slender fingers brushed the strands back behind his ear.
Smooth.
Natural.
His entire body went rigid.
That wasn't—