Midday light pooled across the Old Temple like warm water. Dust motes drifted slow, lazy as fish. Rat sat cross-legged beside the Bell with his staff across his knees and sweat drying down his spine.
Qi moved clean. Not pretty. Useful.
The Codex cleared its metaphorical throat in his head.
[Administrator Training Cycle Completed. Compiling results.]
"Fine," he said. "Show me how impressive I am before disappointment sets in."
A translucent panel of neat characters unfolded across his vision. The Bell hummed once, like it wanted a peek too.
[Progress Summary]
[Vitality response increased after controlled strain.
Qi circulation stabilized across dual channels.
Fate Interface v2.0 latency reduced.
Temple link remains steady at range within 300 paces.]
Rat squinted. "Translation. I did not fall over."
[Affirmation. You did not fall over.]
"Egotistical parasite."
[Correction: An upgraded egotistical parasite.]
He snorted despite himself. Silence settled again. Outside the gate, cicadas buzzed in the heat. The stone floor pressed cool through his trousers. Everything felt held together by the Bell's slow pulse.
"Run the full ledger," he said. "Before I decide to sleep for a week."
The Codex obliged.
[Modules, Skills, Traits - Active]
• Fate Interface v2.0: Reveals and traces fate threads within 300 paces. Limited interference allowed. Now syncs to environmental Qi nodes and cultivator intent signatures.
• Creation Archive (Fragmentary): Playbacks of Basin origins and divine memories tied to the Nine Bells Network. Access increases with network activation.
• Basin Resonance Map: Tracks awakened Bell nodes. Monitors shifts in network activity.
• Root Listening (Minor): Perceive living Qi pathways within 15 paces.
• Ring-Strike Flow (Nascent): Set rhythm for terrain to yield slightly.
• Echo Pulse: Emit controlled resonance that mirrors Bell tone, disrupting enemy Qi flow within ten paces. Costs significant Qi.
• Caretaker Link: Dual-layered Qi signature. Enables basic commands to Old Temple's local network.
• Trait - Iron Recovery Rhythm: Short recovery burst after resonance strain. Limited uses per day.
• Trait - Verdant Coating: Passive green-Qi film reduces corrosion and mild toxins.
He read it twice to make sure his brain agreed. "Iron Recovery Rhythm. That was the thing where I stopped seeing stars."
[Correct. Statistically useful.]
He let the panel fade and leaned back on his hands. The Bell watched him with that patient bronze face that was not a face. He watched back.
"Alright," he said. "Let's try new toys without dying. Fate Interface. Small."
Threads rose like steam over hot stone. Not thousands, not choir-pit full. Just a dozen lines within the courtyard and the trees beyond. Silver and green and faint red stitched the world together.
He breathed out and focused on the ground, not the sky. On roots. On stone. On the Bell.
The first emotion hit like an accidental footstep into a shallow pool. Cool. Thick. Sad.
"Is that the Basin," he asked, "or me being dramatic?"
[Environmental affect picked up through Fate Interface. Classification: localized mood imprint.]
Rat blinked and tried again. He narrowed to a single fig vine on the eastern wall. The thread over it glowed dull green. The feeling that came was simple. Warm soil. Rest.
It was like tasting weather.
He turned his attention to the trees beyond the gate. Threads braided there. Some bright with bird hunger and busy nonsense. One darker. Patient. Farther out, somewhere toward the mountain spine, a faint cold pressed against his skin. Not malevolent. A boundary. A warning that had existed long before him.
He pulled back, heart beating a little fast. "Alright. Feeling the Basin is like putting your hand on a sleeping beast. Good to know."
[Recommendation: limit deep dives to under twenty breaths. Risk of identity slippage rises with sustained contact.]
"Identity slippage. Add that to my collection of fun things to avoid."
He let the threads dim, then called the Creation Archive. This time the vision did not rip the roof off. A small window opened in his sight, like a memory preserved in a drop of resin. Emera's earlier voice, softer now, brushed the edges.
A stag of green flame crossed a night river. Its hooves left ripples that became terraces of rice a season later. In the distance, a bell tone rolled through mist and woke frogs by name.
The image faded. A single line of glyphs appeared.
[Archive Note: The Verdant Path crosses water by remembering it as land.]
Rat stared. "Poetry or instructions?"
[Both.]
He laughed once. It sounded tired.
He closed the modules and let the courtyard return to plain stone, plain light, plain breath in and out. The quiet pressed against him until other noises started up behind his ears. Old city sounds. Carts on broken cobble. Street vendors arguing about melons while rain turned chalk dust to paste.
He had been the boy who counted coins with his body heat so no one heard them clink. Now he was the man who could feel a valley's mood.
He rubbed at his jaw. "I am not used to being important."
[You are important to local infrastructure.]
"Thank you for making that worse."
A pause. The Codex adjusted its tone by a shade.
[You are important to me.]
He looked at the Bell so he did not have to look into the air where the words hung. "Careful," he said. "You almost sounded like a person."
[Noted.]
The humor drained as quickly as it came. Fear sat up in his ribs and stretched. He let himself notice it.
"I am not scared of a fight," he said aloud, to the Bell, to the Codex, to the woman asleep in paint. "I am scared of being noticed. Heaven, sects, spirits. You put enough eyes on a rat and eventually someone remembers to stomp."
Silence. The Bell throbbed once, slow and reassuring. The mural did not open her eyes. That helped.
He thought of Wei Yun's careful hands setting a spearhead. How the boy's face had steadied when Rat took the weight of a bad day for him. He thought of Song Min's laugh when resin bombs worked and when they did not. He thought of Lan Yue, who had looked at him like he was not small, even when he was.
"I need something human again," he said softly. "Before I forget why I am doing this."
[Emotional request understood.]
The Codex offered a single line, practical as a borrowed knife.
[Wei Yun, Song Min, and Lan Yue probability of presence at Open Sky: 85%.]
He blew out a breath and nodded. "Then that is the plan."
He stood and walked the perimeter. The Old Temple felt like a creature settling to sleep. He could sense tiny flows of Qi, the way water chooses a crack and not another. Moss would grow where he told it. Stones might shift an inch if he asked politely.
"Lock it," he said. "Caretaker protocol. Nobody gets inside but me and… her."
The vines arched in answer. The Codex chimed.
[Temple Lockdown Initiated….
Subroutines Armed: Ward Husk, Echo Shield, Root Snare.
Notification protocol: if breach occurs, Bell will alert along tether within ten miles.]
"Good." He hesitated. "Also, if Emera talks in her sleep, record it. I am tired of guessing."
[Recording Enabled.]
He returned to the Bell and examined the new runes Song Min would have whistled at. They were not written so much as grown into the bronze like grain lines. He pressed his palm to a cluster low on the rim.
The metal warmed and softened under skin. The Bell shrank with a slow, satisfying hush, skin folding into skin, until a smaller version sat in his hand, the size of a cooking pot's lid. He slotted it into the cradle harness he had braided from temple vines. Runes glowed briefly, then dulled against his back.
Emera's voice brushed him like wind through grass.
"Good. Carry the heart lightly."
"I am trying," he said. "Light is not my style."
A sound like a smile moved through the paint. Then sleep again. He bowed to the mural. Not because he owed. Because it felt correct.
He packed what little he had. A wrapped bundle of dried root. Two resin bombs Song Min had tucked away as if she could see this moment. A threadbare scarf that had been a blanket once.
He slept through the worst heat, back against warm stone, staff crossed over his knees. Dreamless for once.
Before sunrise the sky paled to milk. Fog curled through the broken gate and laid fingers on his boots. The Bell's small weight pulled between his shoulders, steady as a hand.
He took one last look at the courtyard. It was still ruin. It was also a promise.
"Guard the place," he said.
The Codex's reply came with a trace of pride he pretended not to hear.
[Guarding.]
He stepped through the gate and into the thinning mist. The path down twisted like a cautious thought. Birds started up tentative songs as the light bled into the canopy. Water ticked somewhere unseen. The world smelled clean and wet.
He moved quiet. Caretaker on the road. Rat under the trees.
By the time the sun's edge found the ridge, he had climbed to a shoulder of stone above the forest. Wind tugged at his hair. The Basin spread north like a broken bowl patched with light.
A black speck circled against the brightening sky.
It dropped, arrow-true, and struck the rock at his feet with a sharp, flat slap. Feathers rippled. The talisman unfolded itself into a hawk no bigger than his palm, ink and paper turning briefly to meat and eye, then back to paper again.
Open Sky colors. Cold, precise lines.
It stared at him without blinking. The glyph under its breastbone glowed once.
The Codex whispered like a teacher reading a line he did not agree with.
[Administrator Reputation Within Sect: Volatile.]
Rat smiled without humor. "Good. Let's see who's still mad I lived."
The hawk's beak opened. A voice, familiar and controlled, slid out across the stone.
"Caretaker of the Old Temple. Report to the Summit Hall within three days. You carry unregistered relics and unvetted titles. The Elders will evaluate your claims."
The hawk folded itself into flat paper again and lay still.
He rolled his shoulder until the Bell settled on his back like it belonged there. He picked up the talisman and tucked it into his sash.
The ridge wind freshened. Far to the southwest, hidden in mountains, a distant pulse answered the morning with a note too deep to be echo.
He did not look away from the path north.
"Alright," he said. "Let's go disappoint people."
[Codex of Strands of Fate - Status Update]
Vitality: 6
Qi Sense: 7
Comprehension: 5
Fate Entanglement: 31
Realm: Foundation Establishment, High
New Module: Basin Resonance Map
Effect: Tracks awakened Bell nodes. Pings new pulses. Shows directionality at short range.
Upgrades: Fate Interface v2.0 latency reduced. Creation Archive indexed to keyword access. Caretaker Link hardened during lockdown.
New Traits: Iron Recovery Rhythm, Verdant Coating
Temple Status: Locked. Ward Husk and Echo Shield active. Root Snare armed.
Alert Protocol: Immediate thread tug if breach within ten miles.