The moonlight fell softly around Gu Wen and Chen Yuan, but Gu Wen's gaze drifted far beyond the present—past the night, past the city, past the world itself.
His voice grew quieter.
"Let me tell you what happened… after I left the Inner Court."
Chen Yuan listened, frozen between confusion and dread.
Gu Wen closed his eyes.
And the past opened.
Gu Wen's Flashback
He had walked alone.
After the Tournament of Duos, after the crushing realization that he could not keep up with Lin Xue nor with Chen Yuan, Gu Wen packed his few belongings and slipped away from the Inner Court without ceremony.
No goodbye.
No letter.
No witness.
Just steps—
heavy, ashamed, and tired.
He wandered deep into the Ascendant Grounds.
Too deep.
Where the grass no longer grew straight.
Where the wind whispered names.
Where no beasts roamed because even beasts understood fear there.
Where the roots of something ancient twisted around boulders like veins of a sleeping giant.
And there…
he found it.
—or rather,
it found him.
A colossal trunk rose before him, black as midnight, its bark shimmering faintly like starlight trapped in resin. The Tree towered beyond sight, its roots pulsing like breath.
Gu Wen had no idea where he was.
He simply felt small.
Weak.
Unworthy.
Exactly as he had felt in the Inner Court… multiplied a thousandfold.
"I…"
He remembered whispering to it.
"I'm not enough. I tried. I gave everything."
His voice cracked.
"And yet… I still wasn't enough."
The wind shifted.
And the Tree listened.
A whisper ran down its bark—no words, just an invitation.
Gu Wen stepped closer.
"I don't want to be left behind," he confessed. "I don't want to be weak. The Gu family always lived in misfortune. Always prey. Always beaten, mocked, broken."
A root moved.
Slowly.
Almost gently.
As if acknowledging his pain.
Gu Wen fell to his knees.
"I want to be more. I want… purpose. I want strength. Confidence. Genius. Anything but this."
Silence.
Then—
a voice. Soft. Feminine. Ancient.
"You poor child."
He looked up.
Roots parted.
Branches lowered.
And she descended.
A woman stepped out of the trunk as if woven from the bark itself.
Her hair white as moonlit frost.
Her robe red as spilled dawn.
Her eyes two crimson stars.
The Lady from The Tree.
Gu Wen froze, unable to think, unable to breathe.
She approached him with steps that didn't disturb the grass.
"Your heart is sincere," she said. "Your suffering… true. And The Tree hears such voices."
Gu Wen trembled.
"You… you can hear me?"
Her smile was soft but strange.
"I hear all things that wish to be more."
She extended her hand, palm facing upward.
"You seek strength. Validation. A purpose beyond the petty judgments of sects and clans."
Gu Wen's throat tightened.
"Yes," he whispered. "Please."
"But strength," she said, "is not given freely."
Gu Wen swallowed.
"What must I do?"
The Lady stepped closer.
Her shadow stretched across him like shelter—
or a cage.
"You will take a mask," she said. "A role."
The Tree groaned softly behind her, its branches quivering as if in anticipation.
"You will become The Fox—
The One Who Hunts Lies.
Root out betrayal.
Expose corruption.
Protect the Tree's will."
Gu Wen hesitated, breath uneven.
"And in return…?"
The Lady's smile deepened, shifting from warmth to something ancient and vast.
"The Tree will give you everything you lack."
She raised her other hand.
"Strength."
A pulse of power ran through the ground.
"Confidence."
Gu Wen felt his spirit settle, firm and steady.
"Genius."
Visions of clarity flickered through his mind—movement, qi flow, analysis, truth.
"And a purpose greater than your clan, greater than your sect, greater than the world you once knew. Protecting the Seed."
Gu Wen felt tears gather in the corners of his eyes.
"...The Seed?" he whispered.
The Lady's expression shifted—
calm yet inscrutable.
"You will protect it.
But you need not know what it is.
Not yet."
Her finger touched his forehead.
Gu Wen gasped.
Pain—
then clarity—
then power—
surged through his veins like lightning forged by truth.
When he opened his eyes again, a fox mask rested in his hand.
"We welcome you," the Lady murmured, "to the Tree."
Then she faded back into the trunk, swallowed by ancient wood.
And Gu Wen stood alone—
but no longer weak,
no longer lost,
no longer ordinary.
The mask warmed against his skin.
He smiled.
And walked forward.
Back to the Present
Gu Wen opened his eyes.
The night felt colder now.
Chen Yuan stared at him, speechless.
Gu Wen slipped the fox mask between his fingers, spinning it lightly with new confidence.
"I didn't abandon you," he said quietly. "I abandoned the weakness I used to be."
Chen Yuan took a step back.
"Gu Wen… you made a deal with The Tree."
Gu Wen's soft smile didn't fade.
"I gained everything I ever wanted."
His eyes sharpened, bright with the intelligence he never had before.
"And now, Chen Yuan… I will show you what I became."
He placed the mask back on his face slowly.
The Fox returned.
But the voice was still Gu Wen's—
steady, calm, and somehow… proud.
"You are my friend," he said.
"And friends deserve honesty."
He tapped the mask.
"This is who I am now."
Chen Yuan swallowed.
The wind shifted.
Strife deepened.
The Tree had taken one of his closest companions.
And returned him stronger.
Sharper.
And frighteningly devoted.
The Fox stepped forward.
"Now," he whispered,
"shall we speak about the Seed of Destruction…?"