The morning mist clung low to the fields, curling around Shen's legs as he stood over the spot where he had planted the seed. His hands were crusted with dirt, his stomach still too empty, but his eyes held a strange light—the glimmer of a question he couldn't quite name.
The seed had sunk easily into the soil yesterday, as if the earth had been waiting for it. Now, the ground beneath it pulsed faintly. Shen didn't have the spiritual senses of a high-stage cultivator, but he could feel something. A warmth that hadn't been there before. A whisper of change.
The fox cub—still small, still with a single tail—sat beside him, licking a paw with deliberate disinterest. But even she occasionally glanced toward the soil.
"You feel it too, don't you?" Shen murmured. The fox paused, then sneezed.
Shen chuckled. "Guess that's a yes."
He spent the early morning tending the land as best he could. He didn't have tools yet—just a salvaged hoe blade he'd lashed to a branch. His hands blistered quickly. His breath came in short bursts. Every movement tugged on old bruises or reopened faint wounds.
But he worked.
He cleared rocks. Pulled weeds. Dug shallow furrows.
For every hour of labor, the ache in his limbs deepened, but so did the stillness in his chest. Not the silence of exhaustion, but the quiet that came when action aligned with purpose.
Around midday, he collapsed against a tree. The fox leapt onto his lap and curled up without asking. Shen didn't complain. Her fur was soft, and her presence kept him from drifting too far into pain.
That was when he felt it.
[Milestone Reached: "First Effort Toward Growth"]
Reward Granted: +Minor Stamina Recovery, Soil Enrichment (5% Zone Radius)
The dreamlike whisper returned, gentle and quiet. It brushed against the edge of his thoughts rather than screamed into them.
He blinked, dizzied for a moment. The ache in his back didn't vanish, but it lessened. The soil around the planted seed darkened slightly, becoming more moist, more alive.
Shen let out a low whistle.
"Alright," he said to the fox. "Maybe this cursed place can change."
The fox blinked lazily.
That night, they ate soup again. This time with wild root vegetables Shen had dug up behind a mossy rock. They weren't tasty, but they were filling. The fox chewed with a snort, clearly unimpressed, but she didn't leave.
Shen watched the seedbed as the fire crackled.
Still just a bump in the dirt. But something was coming. He could feel it in his bones.
End of Chapter