The Outer Veil answered my awakening with silence.
Not peace.
Not calm.
Silence—the kind that presses against the ears until you realize the world itself has stopped breathing.
The wind froze mid-motion. The silver grass remained bent where it had last swayed. Even the distant ruins seemed locked in place, caught between moments. The Warden, massive and ancient, stayed bowed, unmoving, as if time itself dared not touch it.
I stood at the center of it all, my hand still warm where the mark pulsed beneath my skin.
I was the only thing moving.
That realization sent a chill through my spine.
Something unseen shifted.
The silence cracked.
A pressure descended—not from above, but from everywhere at once. It wasn't weight. It was judgment. The kind that stripped you down layer by layer, searching for flaws you didn't know you had.
My breath came shallow.
[WARNING]
[Outer Veil Authority Response Initiated]
[Status: Irreversible]
Xian Yu's voice reached me as if from far away. "Li Wei… don't fight it. Let it pass through you."
Easy to say.
The pressure dug into my thoughts, brushing against memories that weren't fully mine—echoes from the Hall, fragments of the erased one, emotions that felt borrowed yet painfully familiar.
Fear.
Regret.
Loneliness.
And beneath it all—recognition.
The mark flared.
Light spiraled outward from my hand, weaving itself into the air like invisible threads pulling the world back into motion. The grass trembled. The ruins groaned. Time shuddered, then resumed with a violent snap.
The Outer Veil exhaled.
I staggered, catching myself before I fell. My heart hammered so hard it hurt.
The silence was gone.
But the feeling remained.
I was no longer unseen.
Xian Yu was at my side instantly, her grip firm on my shoulder. "You felt it, didn't you?"
I nodded. Words felt heavy. "The Veil… judged me."
Shuang approached more slowly, her eyes sharp, calculating. Several of her talismans had burned to ash, their remnants drifting away on a wind that hadn't existed moments ago. "Not judged," she corrected. "Acknowledged."
That was worse.
The Boundary Warden rose at last, its stone body grinding as it straightened. It took one deliberate step back, clearing the path ahead—an act of deference that made my stomach twist.
A path had formed where there was none before.
Stone rose from the ground, assembling itself into a long, descending road that cut through the silver plains and vanished into distant mist. Symbols faintly glimmered along its surface, old and restrained, like seals meant to be obeyed rather than admired.
I felt it calling to me.
Not with words.
With inevitability.
[New Location Unlocked]
[Path of Acknowledgment]
[Warning: Retreat No Longer Possible]
"So that's it," I muttered. "The world gives me a road and dares me to walk it."
Xian Yu didn't deny it. "The Outer Veil doesn't force choices. It removes alternatives."
We started forward.
Each step felt heavier than the last—not physically, but mentally. The farther we moved from the Boundary Steps, the more I sensed something peeling away from me. The lingering influence of the Hall weakened, thread by thread, like an old scar finally exposed to air.
It hurt.
Not sharply.
But deeply.
I pressed a hand to my chest, steadying my breathing. "If the Hall's influence fades completely… what happens to the thing connected to me?"
Shuang's expression darkened. "It will either weaken."
"…or?"
"Or it will follow you fully into the Veil."
That answer sat like a blade between my ribs.
The path descended into a valley where the silver grass grew taller, brushing against my knees. Ruins loomed closer here—broken arches, collapsed towers, stone faces worn smooth by time. Some radiated faint energy. Others felt empty, hollowed out by something long gone.
We weren't alone.
I felt it before I saw it—a subtle shift in the air, a disturbance that didn't belong to wind or terrain. Xian Yu felt it too. Her hand moved to her blade.
"Stop," she whispered.
Figures emerged from between the ruins.
Not monsters.
People.
At least… they had been.
They wore tattered robes marked with sigils I didn't recognize. Their eyes were dull, unfocused, as if something essential had been scraped out of them and never replaced.
Veil Walkers.
That name surfaced in my mind unbidden.
Shuang inhaled sharply. "Explorers who failed the Path."
Failed.
The Veil Walkers turned toward us in unison.
Their mouths opened.
And whispered my name.
"Li Wei…"
My blood ran cold.
[ALERT]
[Mental Contamination Detected]
[Source: Veil Echoes]
They moved.
Fast.
Xian Yu surged forward, blade flashing, her strike clean and decisive. One Walker collapsed instantly, dissolving into silver dust the moment it fell.
But the others didn't stop.
They reached for me.
Their hands passed through the air like smoke, but the moment one brushed my sleeve, pain exploded through my arm. Memories flooded in—panic, despair, endless wandering beneath an uncaring sky.
I shouted, yanking my arm back.
The mark burned.
Instinct took over.
I raised my hand.
The world responded.
Light rippled outward in a controlled wave, not explosive, not violent—commanding. The Veil Walkers froze mid-motion, their forms blurring as if uncertain whether they were allowed to exist here.
[Ability Manifested]
[Temporary Authority: Echo Suppression]
[Stability: LOW]
"Move!" Xian Yu barked.
We ran.
The path ahead twisted sharply, diving into a canyon where the air grew colder and denser. The whispers faded behind us, replaced by something worse—
A distant resonance.
Like a bell struck deep underground.
My vision flickered.
[WARNING]
[Entity Attention Increasing]
[Convergence Rate Accelerating]
"What does that mean?" I gasped.
Shuang didn't slow. "It means the Outer Veil isn't the only thing watching you anymore."
We burst out of the canyon into a vast open basin.
At its center stood a city.
Or what remained of one.
Towering spires of black stone rose crookedly from the ground, connected by bridges that led nowhere. Dim lights glowed behind shattered windows. The city felt… paused. As if its last moment had been preserved and left to rot.
"The First Veil City," Xian Yu said quietly.
I stared at it.
Every instinct I had screamed danger.
[Main Objective Updated]
[Enter the First Veil City]
[Secondary Condition: Avoid Full Synchronization]
"Whatever answers I'm looking for," I said, voice low, "they're in there."
"Yes," Xian Yu replied. "And whatever is hunting you will come there too."
I took a step forward.
The mark pulsed once.
Somewhere deep within the ruined city—
Something pulsed back.
The Outer Veil did not roar.
It watched.
And for the first time since I stepped beyond the Hall, I understood the truth with terrifying clarity:
The world wasn't testing me anymore.
It was preparing me.
For something that was already on its way.