Rumors traveled faster than fog.
Xu Yang learned that by the third day.
It started small.
At the well.
"…I heard the boy should've died."
"…My aunt said something dark was clinging to him."
"…And then the cat jumped."
Xu Yang lay on the roof beam above Lin Chen's door, eyes closed, breathing slow.
Every word reached him clearly.
"They say it hissed like it saw something."
"No, no animals do that sometimes."
"But still…"
Xu Yang's tail flicked once.
Not fear.
Calculation.
Lin Chen poured water into a clay pot and shook his head. "People get strange when they're scared," he said lightly.
"They'll forget soon."
Xu Yang did not believe that.
Fear forgotten too quickly was never natural.
Outside the village, the market road was busier than usual.
Travelers passed through more often. Cultivators too though they pretended not to be.
Xu Yang noticed their glances.
Not at him.
At the village.
As if checking a box.
By afternoon, Lin Chen left again, this time to deliver grain to a nearby settlement. Xu Yang watched him go, unease pressing heavier than before.
He hopped down and slipped into the tall grass beyond the houses.
He needed to listen.
The wind carried voices from the road.
Two travelers stood beneath a tree, robes dusty from long travel.
"…you felt it too, right?" one murmured.
The other nodded. "A disturbance. Weak, but… odd."
Xu Yang crouched lower.
"It's not a demon outbreak," the first continued. "If it were, Heaven would've cleared it already."
The second hesitated.
"Unless Heaven doesn't consider it worth clearing."
Silence followed.
Then the first scoffed.
"This land isn't important enough to hide anything dangerous."
Xu Yang's claws sank into the dirt.
Good, he thought. Keep believing that.
The travelers moved on.
Xu Yang stayed hidden until their footsteps faded.
That night, rain returned.
Soft at first.
Then heavy.
Xu Yang lay curled near the window, watching water streak down the paper panes.
The warmth in his chest pulsed again slow, deliberate.
He ignored it.
Far away very far someone stood at the edge of a cliff.
The man wore black.
Not ceremonial black.
Not noble black.
Plain.
Unadorned.
Rain slid off his shoulders without soaking the fabric.
His eyes were sharp, cold, and steady as he gazed toward the distant lands below.
"Still no confirmation?"
he asked.
Behind him stood another figure taller, broader, with crimson markings tracing faintly along his neck and jaw.
His eyes gleamed gold even in the dark.
"Nothing clear," the second figure replied, voice low and amused.
"Only whispers. A failed correction. A fragment escaped."
The man in black Wang Xiao did not turn.
"Fragments do not escape without cause."
The demon laughed softly. "You always say that."
"You always ignore it,"
Wang Xiao replied.
The demon stepped closer, rain hissing as it struck faint heat around him. "You're worried about something else."
Wang Xiao's gaze hardened.
"…A pattern," he said.
The demon raised an eyebrow. "You felt it again?"
"Yes."
"Like before?"
"…Yes."
The demon's smile faded.
"That's impossible."
Wang Xiao did not answer.
Below them, clouds shifted.
Far beneath Heaven's notice, a small village existed quietly
and in it, something that should not persist.
Back in the village, Xu Yang dreamed.
Not of Heaven.
Not of death.
He dreamed of falling.
Again.
And again.
And again.
He woke suddenly, heart racing.
The rain had stopped.
The night was too quiet.
Xu Yang slipped outside, padding softly across wet ground.
The air was heavy.
Charged.
At the edge of the village, near the old shrine no one used anymore, something waited.
Not attacking.
Watching.
Xu Yang did not approach.
He sat and stared from a distance, eyes narrowed.
The shrine's door
creaked open slightly.
A shape lingered inside humanoid, but wrong around the edges.
Xu Yang recognized the feeling instantly.
A demon.
Not feral.
Not mindless.
This one was curious.
Interested.
The shape shifted, then withdrew.
Xu Yang did not move until dawn.
By morning, the shrine was empty.
But a single footprint remained in the mud
clawed ,Deep, Deliberate.
Xu Yang stared at it for a long time.
They're circling now, he realized.
Heaven had checked.
Demons had noticed.
And somewhere far away, someone cold-eyed was staring in his direction
without knowing why.
Xu Yang returned to Lin Chen's house just before sunrise and curled up as if nothing had happened.
When Lin Chen returned later, he frowned at the muddy paw prints near the door.
"…Did you go out last night?" he asked.
Xu Yang yawned.
Wide.
Lazy.
Innocent.
Lin Chen shook his head.
"Be careful. Strange things are happening."
Xu Yang closed his eyes.
Yes, he thought.
They are.