The scroll bore no emblem.
No sect seal. No Elder's name. No assignment tier.
Just a red wax stamp, unmarked, but unmistakably authoritative.
A whisper in the wind.
A test veiled as opportunity.
Xian Lei narrowed his eyes.
"You are to investigate spirit anomalies in the Weeping Wisteria Forest. No assistance. No documentation. Complete silence."
That was all it said.
System Advisory:
Hidden Mission Type: Probationary Black Mission
Purpose: Assess threat potential / Remove or promoteRisk: Moderate–HighHost is being watched.
Objective: Survive, investigate, and return with proof.Optional: Interfere with fate.
Karma Link Possible: YESKarmic Thread Detected at Location
The Weeping Wisteria Forest was once sacred.
Now, it was cursed.
Xian Lei had heard of it in passing during his first life—an outer-ring spiritual grove, twisted after a failed spirit-sealing ritual decades ago. Its natural aura had decayed, and few ever returned from its shadowed glades.
Perfect place to bury a problem.
Or test a future problem in disguise.
He left the sect at dawn.
Alone.
By twilight, he stood at the edge of the forest.
Purple vines hung from skeletal trees like bloodless veins. Mist clung low, and the air held a sharpness—not of cold, but rot.
Yet underneath it, something called to him.
Faint. Fragile.
A life in danger.
System Alert:Karma Thread Detected
Interference Optional
Estimated Reward: [Karmic Merit] + [Tether Spike] + [Trait Potential]
Estimated Risk: Combat Encounter, Grade C–B
He pushed deeper.
The mist thickened.
The trees whispered.
Then—
A scream.
High. Young. Terrified.
He sprinted.
In a sunken glade strangled by vines, a girl no older than ten knelt on cracked soil, encircled by six shadow-wreathed beasts. Their limbs were smoke, their mouths wide and jagged.
Wraith Hounds.Failed spirit remnants fused with corrupted beast cores.
One lunged.
So did Xian Lei.
"Frostfire Lash!"
A searing chain of azure flame and frost wrapped around the hound's neck mid-air, yanking it backward into a burst of light.
The other five turned.
Their growls turned to howls.
The battle was short—but not easy.
Each strike Xian Lei dealt seemed to only delay them.
Not destroy.
Their bodies reformed again and again, shadows coiling like worms through air.
"They're not anchored here," he muttered. "They're feeding off—"
He looked at the girl.
Eyes wide. Terrified. But glowing faintly with blue sigils.
"A spirit medium?!"
That explained it.
They weren't hunting her.
They were using her.
Draining her latent spirit sense to stabilize their presence.
He knelt beside her even as a hound lunged.
His palm rose.
"Soulfreeze Array!"
A burst of sigils spread from his palm, forming a dome of shimmering frostfire.
The hounds hit the barrier—screaming—and burst into smoke.
Then silence.
The girl whimpered.
Xian Lei laid a hand on her shoulder. "You're safe now."
She didn't answer.
Her body shivered.
Not from cold.
From the weight of spirits.
He sensed them within her—half-anchored, trying to latch onto her soul.
One more hour and she'd have become a spirit furnace.
"I can help," he whispered.
"But it will hurt."
She nodded.
System Ability Activated:Emotional Link Pulse – Resonant Touch
Stabilizing foreign spiritual influence…Merging host's spirit flame with target's soul-thread…
Risk: Low. Reward: High.
Bound Entity Emotional Spike: Curiosity + Concern
Somewhere, even Yue Qianlan was reacting.
Perhaps not consciously—but the tether was rising again.
Xian Lei poured a thread of his frostfire soul into the girl's heart-core.
Her body arched.
She gasped—eyes glowing like lanterns.
Spirits screamed as they were ripped from her.
One by one, they tried to claw at him.
He let them.
Let them reach into his system—where they burned.
Minutes passed.
Then silence returned.
The girl fell into unconscious sleep, breathing evenly.
A white sigil formed on her wrist—proof she'd survived the awakening of a spirit medium.
Xian Lei let out a long breath.
And stood.
System Notification:
Karma Event Triggered: Child Saved From Spirit Corruption
Karmic Merit Earned: +1,000
Trait Unlocked: Soulflame Shelter (Passive)
Weak and damaged souls find refuge in host's aura. Increases affinity with lost souls, mediums, and ghost cultivators.
Emotional Feedback (Bound Entity): +723 Qi
Yue Qianlan: Intrigued + Slight Emotional Spike (Warmth)
He carried the girl from the glade to a nearby shrine ruin, making a temporary bed of herbs and cloaks. The moon had risen high by then.
When she awoke hours later, her eyes widened.
"Am I dead?"
"No," he said. "You're alive because you didn't give up."
She looked down. "You came for me."
"Not at first," he admitted. "But I stayed for you."
Her eyes glistened. "I don't remember my name."
"Then pick a new one."
"…Can I be Wisteria?"
He smiled.
"Then Wisteria it is."
He left her in the care of a wandering monk camp near the foot of the mountain, giving them enough spirit coins and a protective talisman etched in frostfire. She bowed three times, eyes never leaving him.
Back at the sect gates two days later, an elder waited.
Gray-bearded. Red-robed.
He looked Xian Lei up and down.
"You returned."
"Was that unexpected?"
"…Most don't."
He handed over a jade slip.
Xian Lei inserted his Qi, imprinting his experience.
"Strange," the elder murmured after reviewing. "You interfered."
"I did."
"Even when you weren't ordered to."
"She was dying."
"That doesn't matter to some."
"It matters to me."
Later that night, in the training courtyard—
Yue Qianlan stood silently as he passed.
Their eyes met.
And though she said nothing—
He felt it.
Something in her shifted.
And stayed shifted.
System Update:Mission Complete – Divergent Path Chosen
Emotion Tether Sync: 74.6% → 76.2%
Emotional Category Triggered: Admiration (Suppressed)
Trait Progression: Karmic Equilibrium (25%)