## **Chapter 362 — The Day He Walked Away**
Yang Lin left before noon.
He carried a woven basket and no weapon.
The mountains to the east were known for unstable terrain and rare herbs that only grew where qi turbulence never settled. Dangerous, inconvenient, ignored.
Perfect.
Su Qinglan stood at the doorway as he adjusted the strap.
> **Su Qinglan:** "You'll be back by night?"
> **Yang Lin:** "If the path allows."
She nodded. No unease lingered.
He walked until the city sounds thinned, then vanished into stone and wind.
Behind him, the world remained ordinary.
For a while.
---
## **Chapter 363 — The Young Master Who Never Heard 'No'**
The arrogant young master arrived riding a beast that crushed cobblestone beneath its claws.
Silk robes. Jade ornaments. Guards whose auras did not bother hiding themselves.
The street bent around them instinctively.
He saw Su Qinglan immediately.
Beauty like hers did not announce itself.
It **refused to blend in**.
> **Young Master:** "Who is she?"
A guard followed his gaze.
> **Guard:** "No record. Mortal city. But… her qi is quiet."
The young master smiled.
Quiet things were often valuable.
---
## **Chapter 364 — Power That Mistook Silence for Weakness**
Mu Ruyan felt it first.
The pressure. The intent.
She stepped forward.
> **Mu Ruyan:** "Leave."
The guards did not answer.
One wave of suppressed force slammed into her chest. She hit the ground hard enough to crack stone.
Li Yueyin reacted instantly.
Too late.
Another strike. Clean. Efficient. Cruel in its indifference.
She fell beside Mu Ruyan, breath knocked from her lungs.
Su Qinglan did not scream.
She stood still.
That unsettled them more than resistance.
---
## **Chapter 365 — Taken**
The young master approached, close enough to see his reflection in her eyes.
> **Young Master:** "You'll come with me."
> **Su Qinglan:** "No."
The word was soft.
The guards moved anyway.
Chains of condensed qi wrapped around her wrists—not painful, just absolute.
As they lifted her, Su Qinglan turned her head once.
Not toward the guards.
Toward the empty road Yang Lin had walked.
She said nothing.
---
## **Chapter 366 — What Was Left Behind**
The street was silent.
No cheers.
No outrage.
Mu Ruyan forced herself upright, blood on her sleeve.
> **Mu Ruyan:** "We should follow."
Li Yueyin shook her head, struggling to breathe.
> **Li Yueyin:** "We can't."
They both knew it.
The guards were too strong. The gap too wide.
The city slowly resumed moving, embarrassed by its own survival.
Only the broken stones remained honest.
---
## **Chapter 367 — Herbs That Grew Where Death Practiced Patience**
Yang Lin knelt beside a cliff.
The herb he sought grew between cracks where falling meant certainty.
He reached carefully.
Stone shifted.
He adjusted.
The herb came free.
Satisfied, he placed it in the basket.
The mountain wind carried distant disturbances—faint, distorted, delayed.
Yang Lin paused.
Not alarmed.
Just… aware.
---
## **Chapter 368 — A Cage Made of Courtesy**
Su Qinglan was given a clean room.
Soft bedding. Warm light. No chains in sight.
The young master spoke gently now.
> **Young Master:** "You'll thank me later."
She sat by the window.
> **Su Qinglan:** "You don't understand."
> **Young Master:** "Everyone says that."
She looked at the sky.
It was the wrong color.
---
## **Chapter 369 — The City That Couldn't Explain Itself**
Mu Ruyan stood at the gate as night fell.
She watched the road.
Li Yueyin joined her, wrapped in bandages.
> **Li Yueyin:** "He'll come back."
Mu Ruyan nodded.
Not because she believed it.
Because believing otherwise felt worse.
Somewhere deep beneath the city, old formations shifted uneasily—reacting to nothing they could name.
---
## **Chapter 370 — The Return Path**
Yang Lin descended the mountain at dusk.
The basket was heavier.
The air felt… misaligned.
He reached the city gates.
Broken stones.
Marks that hadn't been there before.
He stopped.
Set the basket down.
Looked once at the sky.
> **Yang Lin:** "I was gone too long."
The world did not respond.
It did not need to.
---
## **Chapter 371 — When Still Water Notices the Stone**
Yang Lin stepped into the city.
People avoided his gaze without knowing why.
Mu Ruyan saw him first.
She tried to speak.
No words came out.
Yang Lin looked past her, toward the empty doorway.
Toward absence.
He nodded once.
Not in anger.
In acknowledgment.
Somewhere far away, a young master laughed—unaware that the thing he had taken was not **protected**.
It was **anchored**.
And anchors, when removed, pull the world with them.