The Iron Hollow Sect did not respond immediately, which meant they were calculating. That alone made them dangerous. Kael spent the next two days moving unpredictably through minor spirit vein intersections, never staying long enough for tracking formations to lock onto his residual aura. The Devouring Mark had grown more sensitive after absorbing Law fragments. He could now feel thin distortions in the air when surveillance techniques brushed past him. Each time, he shifted position without panic. Panic was a spike. Spikes were visible.
By the third night, the distortion changed. It was heavier. Broader. Not a search. A net. Kael stopped atop a ridge overlooking a dried riverbed. Below, formation pillars glowed faintly at five points, forming a containment array. He exhaled slowly. They had predicted his path rather than followed it. Intelligent. A figure stepped into the center of the riverbed, robes darker than standard sect attire. Older. Law Engraving Realm, stable.
"You adapt quickly," the elder said, voice carrying without effort. "That confirms the reports."
Kael descended the ridge without haste. "You're wasting resources."
"On the contrary," the elder replied. "We invest where anomalies appear."
The formation activated with a low hum. Pressure increased from all sides, not crushing but isolating. The air thickened, limiting qi flow. Kael felt his circulation slow. Clever. Instead of attacking directly, they were testing the limits of his absorption.
"You devour destabilized energy," the elder continued calmly. "So we will give you balance."
The pillars shifted frequency. The aura within the formation became unnaturally smooth, perfectly harmonized. No fluctuations. No fractures. Kael attempted to draw from it instinctively and found nothing to grip. His Mark responded with irritation, as if scraping against glass.
"You see?" the elder said. "You feed on irregularity. We remove it."
Kael's breathing remained steady, but internally he assessed rapidly. If the environment contained no fractures, he would create them. He closed his eyes and compressed his Spirit Core deliberately, forcing micro-instabilities along its outer shell. Pain lanced through his abdomen. The elder's gaze sharpened.
"Self-damage?"
"Controlled fracture," Kael replied quietly.
He released the compressed instability outward. It rippled through the harmonized aura like a crack in ice. The formation flickered. The Devouring Mark reacted instantly, latching onto the newly created fractures and pulling. The smooth aura began to warp. The elder's composure finally shifted.
"Shut it down," he ordered.
Too late. Kael absorbed in measured bursts, careful not to overload. Even so, his vision blurred at the edges. This was raw formation energy, refined and dense. Power flooded him, but so did strain. His meridians screamed. For a moment, his knees nearly buckled. Weakness surfaced again—his body was not yet ready for sustained Law-tier absorption.
The elder stepped forward personally, metallic threads forming around his hands. "Enough."
Kael met him halfway. The clash was violent but controlled. The elder's strikes were precise, each layered with Law authority. Kael did not attempt to overpower. He redirected, absorbed fragments, released destabilized bursts back. Each exchange damaged him slightly, but it also fed him. The Devouring Mark burned brighter than ever before.
A decisive moment came when the elder formed a compressed spear of metallic qi aimed at Kael's core. Kael did not dodge. He split the spear with his palm and absorbed one half while letting the other graze his shoulder. Blood spilled, grounding him. Pain sharpened focus. The absorbed half detonated inside him, nearly tearing his circulation apart. He roared—not in rage, but in exertion—and forced the energy downward, compressing it into his core. A crack formed along the Spirit Core's surface. Then it stabilized.
The formation pillars shattered one by one as their stored energy drained. Silence returned to the riverbed. The elder staggered back, disbelief plain in his expression.
"You fracture balance itself," the elder said hoarsely.
Kael stood, breathing heavy but controlled. "Balance that cannot adapt deserves to break."
He did not pursue the retreating sect members. Victory was not dominance. It was survival with growth. Once alone, he knelt in the center of the ruined formation and began deep aura farming. This time, instead of simply smoothing his qi, he reinforced the cracked layer of his Spirit Core. The fracture had not been damage. It had been expansion under pressure.
When dawn rose, Kael's aura felt denser, sharper, but slightly colder. The Devouring Mark pulsed in slow rhythm. The hunt would intensify now. He had crossed from anomaly to threat. And somewhere beyond the outer territories, forces far stronger than Iron Hollow were beginning to notice that a destiny thread had not merely disappeared. It had begun consuming others.