For a few seconds, no one moved. The thin line hanging above the village stayed still, almost impossible to see against the dark sky. Then it slowly pulled tight and pale threads gathered near the line began to move, one after another, as if something on the other side was pulling them.Several villagers bent their heads and covered their ears. Some dropped to their knees without knowing why. Xu Yang felt the change beneath his paws. The stone suddenly became cold and fur along his back rose.
The invisible threads around him tightened, slowly pulling closer until Xu Yang could feel them against his fur. The clearing seemed to hold its breath as every sound faded into the background. Shen Lian's voice was low. "It's begun." Yan Luo did not look up. His eyes remained on Xu Yang. "Tell me how to stop it." "You don't," she said. "You survive it." Above them, the line in the sky changed. It did not become brighter. Instead, everything around it began to lose its color. The blue sky faded to a dull grey wherever the line passed, and the clouds near it turned pale and thin.A flock of birds flew across the village, but when they came close to the line, they suddenly changed direction and cried out in panic.
One bird was too slow. It passed beneath the colorless line for only a moment before its body disappeared. There was no falling feather, no sound, nothing left behind. It was simply gone, as if the sky had erased the place where it had been. A villager collapsed to his knees. Someone behind him gasped, and another person covered his mouth with both hands. Xu Yang stared at the empty patch of sky where the bird had vanished. His ears slowly lowered. It's just gone.... His eyes widened as he looked around, almost expecting to see some sign that it had fallen somewhere. Nothing. Not even a feather.... What kind of power can do that?....
Xu Yang took a small step backward, but the threads around him moved with him. His paws tightened against the stone. No. No, no, no.... Don't even think about doing that to me.... The colorless fracture along the shrine threshold suddenly pulsed at the same time as the line above.With each pulse, another tiny piece of the stone disappeared. The old carvings lost their edges and then vanished completely, leaving empty spaces behind. Beneath the earth, the bound presence strained against its chains. The chains rattled wildly for a moment before going still again, and the fear coming from below was stronger than before.
Xu Yang swallowed hard. Great.... Even the ancient monster under us knows how bad this is.... Yan Luo stepped forward again and placed himself fully between Xu Yang and the shrine. "Enough," he said, his voice rough. "I won't let it take him." Shen Lian's gaze sharpened. "You cannot fight Heaven." Yan Luo tightened his grip on his sword. "I can stand in its way." Qing Li let out a long breath, his expression finally losing its playful look. "You two are going to get us erased." He still did not step back. Instead, he moved quietly to Yan Luo's side and stood there with him.
Xu Yang stared at them, his eyes moving from Yan Luo to Qing Li. They really are idiots.... He lowered his head slightly. They don't even understand what they're standing in front of.... His tail twitched once as another thread passed behind him. Yan Luo thinks he can block it.... Qing Li is still making jokes like this is a bad day outing.... And Shen Lian.... she's talking like she already read the ending.... Xu Yang looked at each of them again. They really don't know anything.... But they're not bad people.... His claws slowly loosened against the stone. They're just standing in front of something they can't see properly.... Xu Yang froze. People?!.... They're not human. His gaze moved between them again. And neither am I... His tail curled tighter around his body as he dug his claws back into the stone, holding himself there as the strange world around him continued to shift.
Shen Lian's eyes widened as she noticed, "You're resisting." she said. Yan Luo's head snapped toward her. "He can do that?" "Nothing should." she replied. The line in the sky suddenly trembled, and a ripple ran through it from one end to the other. The moment it reached the center of the village, the shrine reacted. Its old wooden frame bent sharply as if something enormous had struck it from below. The ground shook and Cracks raced through the earth around Xu Yang's paws, spreading toward the villagers and stopping only a few steps away.
The bound presence surged against its chains, and this time the sound beneath the earth became so strong that everyone could feel it in their bones. "Get back!" Yan Luo shouted. He grabbed Qing Li by the arm and pulled him away as a piece of the shrine's stone base split apart. Qing Li stumbled but quickly regained his balance. "I'm fine." Another crack shot across the ground between them. Qing Li looked down at it. "Actually, I'm reconsidering that." Shen Lian raised both hands as the pressure from above pushed down harder. Her pink energy flashed around her arms, but the light was immediately pressed close to her skin. She gritted her teeth. "It's getting stronger."
Yan Luo looked upward. The colorless line had grown wider, and the sky around it was slowly turning pale. "Then hold it back." "I'm trying." A sharp tremor passed through the shrine, and the old bell hanging above the entrance suddenly swung on its own. It did not ring. The sound around it had already been swallowed. The shrine seemed to roar without making a sound, its presence pushing upward while the pressure from Heaven pushed down. The two forces met above the broken threshold, and the air between them twisted until the trees bent away from the shrine. Leaves lifted from the ground and froze in the air for a moment before dropping all at once.
Xu Yang crouched low as the force pressed against him from both sides. His fur lifted along his back, and his paws slid slightly across the stone. This is getting worse.... He tried to move, but the threads tightened around him and pulled him back into place. "Xu Yang!" Yan Luo shouted. Xu Yang looked up and saw Yan Luo fighting against the pressure just to reach him. "Don't come closer!" Xu Yang shouted back. Yan Luo ignored him and took another step. The ground cracked beneath his foot. Qing Li caught his shoulder. "Yan Luo, stop. You won't reach him like this."
Yan Luo shook his hand away. "Then what am I supposed to do?" Qing Li looked toward Xu Yang, then toward the sky. "For once, I have no idea." The shrine shook again and wave of pressure rolled across the village, knocking several villagers to the ground. Shen Lian staggered but stayed standing. Her eyes remained fixed on Xu Yang as the pale threads around him pulled tighter. The colorless fracture across the threshold splintered outward, and the empty cracks spread over the shrine like thin marks across glass.
Xu Yang's breath became shallow as the pressure around him grew heavier. The air on one side pushed down while the force from the shrine rose beneath him, trapping him between them. He could barely move, yet he refused to let his paws leave the stone. I am still here.... He dug his claws deeper. I'm still here.... The line above the village pulsed again. The threads around Xu Yang snapped tight. The world lurched. For a second, the clearing split into overlapping realities. In one, Xu Yang was still standing at the center of the village, surrounded by pale threads and frightened faces. In the other, there was no black cat at all.
The stone beneath him was empty, the grass grew untouched, and the villagers stood as if nothing had ever happened. Even the shrine looked whole. Xu Yang stared at the second world in horror. He could see Yan Luo standing there, but Yan Luo was looking through the place where Xu Yang should have been. Qing Li was speaking to him. Shen Lian was watching the shrine. None of them knew anything was missing. Xu Yang's heart dropped. That's what it looks like.... If I disappear, they won't even remember that I was here.... He tried to move toward them, but the two worlds pulled apart. The empty world began fading while the one containing him shook violently.
Xu Yang clenched his claws and held on to the stone as hard as he could. No.... I'm not going anywhere. The two realities slammed back together. The clearing returned, but the pressure did not. Qing Li staggered slightly under the pressure, forcing a strained laugh that didn't fully form. "We are about to be crushed between principles." he said, one hand bracing against his knee as he tried to steady himself.
Yan Luo tightened his grip on his sword, flames flickering weakly along the blade as he stared upward. "Then we pick one." he said. Shen Lian remained still, her eyes fixed entirely on Xu Yang, her expression unreadable but intent. "If he vanishes," she said quietly, "this place will rewrite itself." Yan Luo's gaze sharpened. "And if he doesn't?" Shen Lian didn't look away. "Then Heaven will escalate." Qing Li laughed in confusion. "So either way," he said lightly, though his fingers trembled, "we're all just pieces moving toward something already decided." Shen Lian's eyes flicked toward him briefly. "Not decided," she corrected calmly. "Observed." Qing Li tilted his head slightly and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. "That's worse."
Shen Lian's expression didn't change at all. "It is accurate." Qing Li's voice dropped a fraction, the humor fading as something sharper settled underneath. "You speak like you've seen this before." Shen Lian paused for a moment, her gaze drifting back toward the fractured sky and the shrine's trembling boundary. "I have seen patterns repeat," she said at last. Qing Li studied her. "And you still think you can interrupt it?" Shen Lian turned her head slightly toward him, her eyes calm but heavy. "I don't interrupt it," she said. "I redirect where it lands." Qing Li gave a faint, humorless smile as he steadied himself again, though his knees trembled under the pressure. "That's just a prettier way of saying you survive it," he muttered.
Shen Lian's gaze lingered on him for a moment longer, steady and unblinking. "Survival is enough." she said simply. Qing Li exhaled as he looked away toward the collapsing threshold. "For you!" he said quietly, almost to himself, "it sounds like it always has been." The line in the sky suddenly thickened. For a moment, everything became completely still, and then a sharp tearing sound ripped across the village. It was high and painful, like metal being pulled apart right above their heads.
The sound hit the clearing so hard that several villagers cried out and dropped to their knees. Some covered both ears while others pressed their palms against the ground, trying to keep themselves steady. The old shrine shook violently, and pieces of its roof slipped loose and crashed onto the ground. Yan Luo raised his arm to shield his face as a wave of pressure rushed through the clearing. "Stay down!" he shouted. Qing Li stumbled sideways and caught himself against a broken wooden post. "I'm starting to miss the quiet!" he shouted back.
Another shriek tore through the sky, louder than the first. The trees bent away from the shrine, their leaves flying through the air in circles. Shen Lian's hair whipped across her face, but she didn't move. Her eyes remained fixed upward. The colorless line was no longer thin. It had opened slightly, like a narrow wound across the sky, and something dark seemed to move behind it before disappearing again. Xu Yang tried to lift his head, but his body suddenly felt far too heavy. His paws pressed into the stone as if something enormous was pushing down on his back. His fur flickered strangely. For one second it was black, then it became faint and almost transparent, and then it returned to black.
Xu Yang stared at his own paws. What the hell?.... He lifted one paw again. It flickered before becoming solid. Am I seriously disappearing frame by frame now?.... His ears flattened as he looked upward. Something had appeared inside the pale sky. At first it looked like scratches across the clouds, but then the marks slowly joined together and formed characters. Xu Yang narrowed his eyes. What is written there?.... I can't see clearly. He blinked several times and leaned forward. The characters shifted whenever he tried to focus on them. Great.... Where are my glasses? I can't see anything... His throat felt tight. Of course I don't have glasses. I'm a cat....
The strange writing became clearer for only a moment. Xu Yang stared at it, trying to follow each mark as it appeared. One character faded before he could understand it. Another formed beside it. He squinted harder. Come on.... Just stay still for two seconds.... The sky shook again, and the writing suddenly became clear enough for him to read slowly. "You can't change ending." Xu Yang's eyes widened. He stared at the words for another second. You have got to be kidding me.... Even Heaven writes like a system notification.... His tail twitched against the stone as another thought came to him. Wait.... If it says I can't change the ending, then does that mean it already knows how my story ends?.... No. I don't like that question.... Not even a little....
The threads tightened further around his body and another pale line began forming beside the first one in the sky,drawing itself across the darkness. Xu Yang watched it appear. One mistake and reset life.... So that's the rule?.... One wrong move and I start all over again?.... He swallowed and pressed his claws deeper into the stone. I've already died once.... I'm really not interested in doing the tutorial again.... The second line continued across the sky, and the first line pulsed at the same time. The two lines began moving toward each other, making the entire village look trapped between two pale cuts in the sky.
Shen Lian suddenly inhaled sharply. "No…" she said under her breath, her eyes fixed on the fractured sky. Yan Luo immediately followed her gaze, his sword lifting slightly as his flames flickered uneasily. "What happened?" he asked, his voice low but sharp. Shen Lian didn't blink. "There was something in the sky," she said slowly, her fingers curling faintly at her side. "I felt something… but it wasn't visible." Qing Li frowned, wiping sweat from his brow as he steadied his stance. "What are you saying in puzzles?" he asked, irritation slipping through despite the pressure crushing down on them. "Can you give a simple answer for once?"
Shen Lian didn't look at him. "Simple answer is there was interference," she said calmly. "From something above perception." Qing Li exhaled sharply through his nose, shaking his head. "That's not an answer. That's just fear with extra words." Shen Lian's voice stayed even, unshaken. "It is precision." Qing Li's eyes narrowed slightly. "You call everything precision when you don't want to explain it." Yan Luo cut in immediately before it escalated further,"Focus." Silence snapped between them. Shen Lian's gaze flicked upward again. "It wasn't aimed," she added quietly. "It passed through." Qing Li's expression shifted, the sarcasm fading slightly. "Passed through where?" Shen Lian finally answered, voice lower. "Here."
Xu Yang's eyes remained fixed on the sky. The second line in the fractured sky slowly tilted downward, its pale edge pointing toward the shrine, then the village, then everything that had witnessed the rupture. Qing Li narrowed his eyes and tried to follow it, but the line seemed to shift whenever he looked directly at it. "What are these lines?" he asked. "Why are they coming toward us?" Shen Lian didn't look away from the sky. "That is what I felt earlier," she said quietly. "They are some kind of threads." Qing Li blinked, and the word seemed to trouble him more than he expected. "Threads?" he repeated. "What kind of 'threads' now?" Shen Lian's expression remained controlled, but her fingers slowly curled at her side. "I don't know that clearly," she admitted. "I only know this is not safe." A pale thread suddenly moved between the trees and passed straight through the roof of a nearby house. The roof did not break. Instead, the part touched by the thread faded for a moment before returning. Qing Li's expression changed. "I don't think those things care what they touch." Yan Luo stepped closer to Xu Yang and placed himself half a step in front of him without hesitation. "Stay behind me," he said quietly. Xu Yang looked at his back for a moment. Seriously?.... Does he really think standing in front of me will stop whatever that is?.... Before he could say anything, the shrine's fracture burst outward. A web of colorless lines raced across the old stone, spreading in every direction like frost crawling over a frozen window. Wherever the lines passed, the carvings on the shrine faded and returned, faded and returned, as if the stone itself could not decide whether it was still there.
The bound presence beneath the shrine suddenly surged upward. The ground shook and the old chains below the earth groaned so loudly that the sound seemed to come from inside their bones.Then the sky split and two colorless lines crossed above the village. For one second, the sky above them simply stopped being a sky. The clouds were gone. There was only a huge colorless space where the two lines met, flat and empty like a tear had been made in a painting and there was nothing behind it.
The villagers froze in place. A bird stopped in the middle of its flight, hanging strangely in the air before dropping when the sky returned. The trees stopped moving. Even the flames on Yan Luo's sword became still. Xu Yang felt it before anyone spoke. This is the space between corrections.... The moment when the world decides which version of itself to keep.... His body went cold. The invisible threads around him tightened suddenly, pressing against his fur, then loosened, only to pull tight again a second later. They seemed unsure where he belonged.
Xu Yang looked down at his paws. For a moment, one paw looked solid, then almost transparent, and then solid again. The threads were trying to decide which version of him was supposed to remain. Am I being checked again?.... No.... This feels worse.... One thread passed through his chest, and Xu Yang's breath caught. He could feel something moving through him without touching his body, searching through memories, power, even the strange connection that had brought him into this world. Hey.... Don't touch that.... He tried to pull away, but another thread appeared behind him and stopped him. Xu Yang's tail stiffened. I really don't like this....
The web of fractures across the shrine suddenly pulsed and colorless lines flashed over the stone one after another, pushing back against the mark in the sky. The shrine shook so hard that several old roof tiles fell and shattered on the ground.Beneath the earth, the bound presence surged again and huge force pushed upward, lifting the soil around the shrine and throwing stones into the air. The chains below groaned as they pulled tight, and for a moment two massive shadows moved beneath the cracked ground. The ancient presence was trying to rise. It was not attacking the village. It was fighting the force that was trying to rewrite it. "Hold it!" Shen Lian shouted suddenly. Her pink energy burst from her hands and struck the shrine's boundary, stopping the spreading cracks for a moment.
Yan Luo raised his sword, and the weak flames along the blade suddenly grew brighter as he pushed his power into the ground. "Qing Li!" he called. "I see it!" Qing Li answered, rushing to his side. He placed one hand against the ground as silver light spread beneath his palm. The three forces met at the shrine, and the pressure became so strong that the nearby trees bent almost to the ground. Xu Yang crouched low, his claws digging into the stone. What are they even trying to hold back?.... The shrine? Heaven? Or both?.... Shen Lian stepped forward. "Heaven is recalculating," she said. Yan Luo didn't take his eyes off the intersection above. "That sounds worse than a decision." "It is!" Qing Li murmured. "A decision can be survived."
A Space pulled inward toward the point where the two lines met, as if everything around them was being pulled toward the same place. The air twisted, the trees bent toward the center, and their branches shook hard in the wind. Leaves tore free and flew upward, disappearing as soon as they touched the pale light. Dust rose from the ground and vanished before it could fall back down, while small stones near the shrine slowly began moving across the ground, first one by one and then faster as the pull became stronger. Xu Yang's paws slipped against the stone border, and for a moment the ground beneath him disappeared. His body dropped slightly before the stone came back, making him suck in a breath as he quickly dug his claws into it. What was that?.... The ground just disappeared.... His heart started beating faster. Am I going to fall through the world next?.... Because honestly, that would be a terrible way to die. He looked down for another second before quickly looking back at the sky. No. Stay calm.... Just stay where you are.... Easier said than done.
Yan Luo moved closer and stood between Xu Yang and the strongest pull of the threads. "If you disappear," he said, "I'm going with you." Xu Yang's ears flattened. Going with me?.... Where?.... Even I don't know where I'm supposed to go, and you're volunteering?.... He looked away. I'm not dragging anyone with me.... Qing Li rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Please don't challenge Heaven out of loyalty. It's already bad enough." Shen Lian kept watching the threads around Xu Yang, her eyes becoming more serious. "He is anchoring it." Yan Luo looked at her. "What?" "The correction is incomplete."
Qing Li looked from Xu Yang to the sky. "He's stopping it?" "For now." Before anyone could say anything else, Xu Yang's vision suddenly blurred. The threads around him shook and stretched, and one of them suddenly snapped. There was no sound, but the sky reacted at once. The point where the two lines met flickered, and the pale space around it bent like water. A wave of light spread across the sky, and thin cracks appeared for a moment before disappearing again. At the same time, the ground beneath the shrine shook hard. Ancient chains pulled tight under the earth, and old seals flashed through the stone one after another.
The shrine doors rattled, sending small pieces of dust down from the roof, while a low vibration came from deep below. This time, it no longer felt afraid. Something beneath the shrine was pushing back. Shen Lian looked toward the sky. "If Heaven cannot correct the anomaly, it will erase it." Yan Luo tightened his grip on his sword. "What will it erase?" Shen Lian's eyes stayed on the sky. "Everything inside the boundary." Nobody spoke after that. Xu Yang stared at the lines above them, and the threads suddenly came down again, thicker and faster than before.
They spread across the clearing and touched the trees, stones, villagers, and everything else around them. One thread brushed against a man's shoulder and he froze in place, while another passed through the branches above them and made the leaves along its path turn pale for a moment. Qing Li looked around the clearing. "It's drawing a boundary." A second line stretched down from the sky and passed over the shrine and the village, and more lines slowly joined it until a huge shape began to form above the whole area. Shen Lian's expression changed. "It's cutting this region away."
Yan Luo looked up. "From what?" Shen Lian was silent for a moment before answering quietly, "From the world that remembers him." Qing Li frowned. "What does that mean?" Shen Lian did not answer. Before he could ask again, the threads around Xu Yang suddenly tightened. One wrapped around his chest and pulled hard. His paws pressed against the stone as his breath caught in his throat. What is this?.... Why can't I breathe?.... The thread pulled tighter, and his claws scraped against the ground as he tried to hold himself in place. A thin line slipped through his fur and sank into his body without leaving a mark. Why are they coming for me?.... "Xu Yang!"
Yan Luo moved toward him, but a thread flashed between them and forced him to stop. "Don't move!" Shen Lian warned. Yan Luo's eyes hardened. "He's being strangled." "I know." "Then help him." Shen Lian's fingers tightened at her side. "I'm trying to understand what it is doing." Qing Li's expression turned serious as he looked at Xu Yang. "Understand it later. He needs air now." The pressure suddenly became heavier, and everyone felt it at once. The shrine roof groaned, stones cracked beneath their feet, and the trees bent almost to the ground. Deep below the shrine, something pushed against its chains again, making the old seals shake. Xu Yang looked up through the pain in his chest, and then he noticed something that made him freeze.
The threads were not only coming for him. They were passing through everything around them. The villagers. The trees. The shrine. Everything. I'm not the only thing Heaven is trying to erase.... The clearing suddenly became very quiet, and even Qing Li stopped speaking. Above them, the intersecting lines became thicker, and the sky slowly began to look as if it had been divided into different pieces. One side of the clouds continued moving while the other side stayed completely still. Qing Li carefully sent his spiritual sense toward one of the lines, but the moment it touched the edge, his face changed. He quickly pulled it back and pressed a hand against his chest. "My connection..." he whispered. "It's getting weaker."
Xu Yang barely heard him because the pressure around his chest grew stronger again. It no longer felt like simple pressure. Something was moving through his body, checking him, as if it was deciding what should stay and what should disappear. Then his vision suddenly turned white. The shrine disappeared. The forest disappeared. Everyone around him disappeared. He was standing on a road. Headlights rushed toward him, and someone was shouting, but he could not hear the words clearly. He turned his head and saw the car already too close. He tried to move, but it was too late. Bright light filled his eyes, and then came the impact. Everything went black.
Xu Yang's eyes opened suddenly. He was back at the shrine. Yan Luo was still standing nearby, Qing Li was still there, and the threads were still wrapped around him. What is this? Why now?.... His claws dug deeper into the stone as he tried to steady himself. What are these memories?.... Am I dying?.... Are they taking something from me? Or giving it back?.... Shen Lian kept watching the sky. "They're closing the boundary." Yan Luo looked at her. "What happens when it closes?" "The outside will stop remembering what is inside." Qing Li's expression changed. "You mean they'll forget this place?" Shen Lian shook her head. "Not only the place." Her eyes moved toward Xu Yang. "They may forget who was here."
A villager slowly walked toward the shrine gate, but he stopped before reaching it and looked back with a confused expression. He stared at the shrine for a moment, then frowned. "Why did I come here?" He looked around as if trying to remember, but nothing came back to him. After a moment, he turned around and walked back toward the village. Xu Yang watched him leave, his chest still tight. He's already forgetting.... The red light beneath the shrine suddenly pulsed once, then again, and each pulse matched the threads tightening around Xu Yang. His breathing became shallow as he felt something connecting them. Then the ground beneath the shrine trembled again, and Xu Yang felt it clearly through his paws.