The escort group consisted of nine people.
Two senior outer disciples. One middle-aged cultivator from an affiliated family. The rest were ordinary outer sect members like Li Chen, chosen more for reliability than strength.
No one explained the destination clearly.
Only that they would follow the river road east, escort a sealed cart, and hand it off at a relay point near the border of Qingyun's influence.
Simple.
On the surface.
They left at mid-morning.
The mountain faded behind them slowly, not all at once. Qingyun Sect did not end at its gates. Its presence thinned gradually, like ink diluted by water. Formations weakened. Patrols grew sparse. The air lost its faint warmth.
Li Chen felt the change with every step.
[System Notice]
[Environmental Authority: Declining]
[Personal Autonomy: Increasing]
That phrasing lingered in his mind.
Personal autonomy.
Out here, no formation corrected mistakes. No elder intervened when things went wrong. Every choice carried weight immediately.
The sealed cart rolled between them, pulled by a sturdy beast with dull eyes and a slow gait. Thick talismans were pasted along its sides, suppressing whatever lay within.
Li Chen did not probe it.
Some things were safer unknown.
The road followed the river, winding through low hills and scattered woods. Villages appeared occasionally, small and cautious. People bowed from a distance when they saw cultivators pass, never approaching unless invited.
At noon, they rested near the water.
The affiliated cultivator, surnamed Qiao, inspected the talismans on the cart. "No damage," he said. "We'll camp ahead."
One of the outer disciples relaxed visibly.
Li Chen did not.
The river's qi felt uneven.
Not damaged.
Interrupted.
[System Alert]
[Minor Qi Discontinuity Detected]
[Range: Wide]
He crouched near the water's edge, pretending to refill his gourd.
The river flowed normally, yet beneath the surface, the current twisted around empty spaces, like water flowing past submerged stones that were no longer there.
Removed.
Deliberately.
Li Chen straightened slowly.
So the interference hadn't been limited to Yunhe Village.
This region had been touched before.
They resumed walking.
By late afternoon, clouds gathered overhead. The light dimmed, shadows stretching longer across the road. The woods grew denser on both sides, branches arching inward.
Too enclosed.
One of the senior outer disciples frowned. "This stretch always feels unpleasant."
"Keep formation," Qiao said.
Li Chen moved closer to the cart without being obvious.
[System Notice]
[Threat Probability: Rising]
[Recommendation: Stay Within Defensive Radius]
They hadn't gone much farther when it happened.
The river surged.
Not flooding.
Pulling.
Water twisted violently, spiraling inward toward a single point. The sound rose suddenly, deep and hollow.
The beast pulling the cart brayed in panic and reared.
"Hold it steady," Qiao shouted.
The ground near the riverbank collapsed.
A sinkhole opened, swallowing water and soil alike. From within it rose a shape too smooth to be natural, its surface dark and slick.
Another corrupted entity.
Different from the centipede.
This one was broader, its form unstable, like something that had grown without rules.
"Defensive formation," Qiao ordered.
Talismans were activated. Qi flared.
Li Chen did not move immediately.
He watched.
The entity reacted to qi.
Not aggression.
Presence.
It surged toward the brightest aura.
One of the outer disciples cried out as the thing brushed past him, his qi scattering instantly.
Li Chen stepped in.
Not forward.
Diagonal.
He placed himself where the qi flow bent unnaturally, not where it was strongest.
[System Prompt]
[Combat Adaptation Active]
[Cross-Realm Engagement: Conditional]
The entity lunged.
Li Chen did not strike it.
He struck the space beside it.
His fist landed against the air where the qi twisted inward, disrupting the forced circulation anchoring the creature's form.
The effect was immediate.
The entity shrieked, its shape blurring, surface rippling violently.
"Now," Li Chen said quietly.
Sun Hao wasn't here.
But instinct carried.
Qiao reacted instantly, slamming a sealing talisman into the exposed distortion.
The entity collapsed inward, sucked back toward the sinkhole like smoke pulled into a crack.
Silence followed.
The river settled.
Breathing returned.
Everyone stared at the empty ground.
One of the senior disciples turned slowly toward Li Chen.
"What did you do?" he asked.
Li Chen wiped his hand on his robe. "I disrupted it."
"How?"
Li Chen met his gaze calmly. "I hit where it wasn't stable."
No one argued.
They were too busy checking injuries.
One disciple had lost consciousness but still breathed. No deaths.
The cart remained intact.
Qiao approached Li Chen.
"You reacted fast," he said.
Li Chen nodded. "I've seen something similar."
Qiao studied him. "Where?"
Li Chen answered truthfully. "In fields no one cared to check."
Qiao didn't press further.
They did not camp by the river.
They moved until nightfall, then set up defenses in a clearing farther inland.
No fires.
Minimal light.
Li Chen took last watch.
The woods were quiet.
Too quiet.
He sat cross-legged, senses spread thin, not reaching, just listening.
[Host :- Li Chen]
[Qi Stability: 38%]
[Cross-Realm Combat: Confirmed Under Stress]
So it worked again.
Not cleanly.
But enough.
This road was revealing something.
Not just threats.
Patterns.
Someone was testing boundaries along sect-controlled land. Probing responses. Measuring reaction time.
And now Li Chen was part of that response.
He did not feel pride.
He felt alignment.
When dawn came, they moved again without discussion.
No one questioned Li Chen's position in the formation.
He walked closer to the cart now.
Naturally.
As if he had always belonged there.
The road ahead bent eastward, disappearing into rising mist.
Li Chen followed it without hesitation.
The road did not ask who he was.
It only asked whether he could continue walking.
And Li Chen did.