The carriage turned towards the west.
One of the twins pressed closer to the window, he looked at the moving trees and asked , “Why are we going west?”
Steward Zhao did not lift his eyes from the scroll in his hand. “The disturbance was north.”
“The one in the sky?” The High‑Crag girl’s voice was softer than usual, as if saying it aloud might summon it back.
They all remembered it.
The horizon tearing open. Fire braided with lightning. The earth trembled once beneath the wheels.
She waited, then leaned forward. “What was it?”
Zhao set down his scroll. For a moment he seemed to consider the question or consider whether to answer at all. “Not something you need to know,” he said at last, calm as still water. “Focus on reaching the sect.”
The twin by the window exchanged a glance with his brother and neither spoke.
Yan kept his eyes on the passing grass.
The trees disappeared and then a town appeared ahead, low houses, wide pens, layered wooden fencing.
A crooked sign stood at the entrance, Westfeed Crossing.
The air around was thick with animals.
The cattle in long rows, the goats tied in clusters and the bird cages stacked high.
"I will pay only this much"
Men in ash‑colored tunics bargained in voices that never rose above a murmur.
They counted the silver and the sheep.
Zhao stepped down first. The twins scrambled after him, but the girl lingered by the carriage door, watching the goats. They stood motionless, their flanks barely rising.
“We will rest here,” Zhao announced. “And purchase livestock.”
The bolder twin asked "Why?"
Zhao’s gaze swept the pens. “The sect’s cattle supply has lessened.”
The other twin tugged his brother’s sleeve. “Don’t ask so much.”
“I wasn’t asking much.”
“You were.”
Zhao was already walking toward the nearest merchant, and the argument died before it could begin.
The purchases were larger than Yan expected.
More animals than a modest sect should require.
He counted as instructed, but his attention kept drifting to the way Zhao examined each lot. He would pause before certain animals, his head tilted, then nod once. The escorts moved before he spoke.
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One merchant hesitated while passing over a rope. He was a thin man with a nervous way of blinking. “These goats were strange this morning,” he said, lowering his voice. “I think they got sick, If you can wait a day more, I could get healthy ones”
Zhao regarded him without expression. “We don't have time, they are fine"
The merchant blinked again, faster. “I… no. They’re not.”
“I said, they are fine” Zhao tossed a bag of silvers.
The man opened his mouth, closed it, and took the bag without another word.
"My men will escort you until they complete the delivery" the man replied.
Yan watched the goats as they were led out. They moved when pulled, but there was no resistance in them.
The High‑Crag girl was watching too. She caught Yan’s eye and looked away quickly, her arms folded tight across her chest.
Then when they arrived at the caravan while the escorts brought the cattle along.
Zhao turned towards Yan.
"Servant, walk along the cattle, and monitor the escorts " Zhao ordered.
Yan nodded.
The caravan resumed, The carriage rolled ahead as the livestock followed from behind.
Yan walked beside them, the dust of the road settling on his boots.
On the way, grass brushed his ankles, wind carried a scent of blood, or something older.
After about a few hours, He slowed as the grass shifted.
A figure stepped from the field.
Elder Chao.
There had been no sound of approach, no rustle of stalks. One moment an empty road; the next, he stood in their path like a stone that had always been there.
Zhao inclined his head. “Elder.”
“I heard you were bringing livestock.” Chao’s voice was unhurried, almost conversational. “I came to see.”
Chao approached the animals, and he seemed to be holding something in his right hand.
The animals reacted first.Their breathing changed, a collective hitch, subtle but unmistakable. A goat at the rear stamped once, then stood frozen.
Chao’s gaze passed over the herd, and the escorts whose clothes were contaminated with dried grass that feeds cattle.
Then it stopped on Yan.
“He looks older but not an escort, what is he? ”
“Yes, He is not an escort, A servant, A recruit from South Reed ” Zhao replied. “One spiritual line. Green.”
Chao’s lips pressed together, not quite a frown. “Green.”
He stepped closer. Yan did not retreat.
Chao circled him once, studying him with the same unhurried attention he’d given the livestock. “ Do you know you are already past the age where you can build your foundation properly”
“Yes.”
Chao stared at Yan carefully.
But something else was in front of Yan.
White text flickered across his vision.
Observation Detected
It vanished instantly.
Yan kept his face still.
Something inside him shifted.
Yan kept his face still, though his heart had begun a slower, heavier rhythm.
“Give him to me, The sect cannot afford unnecessary servants,” Chao said, lowering his hand.
“That's not something I can decide,” Zhao replied.
Chao’s eyes narrowed. “ Are you defying me?.”
A pause. Zhao’s expression did not change. “No.”
For a long moment, Chao looked at Yan again as if reading something written on the inside of his skin.
“A servant,” Chao said quietly. “Is that what you are?”
Yan met his gaze. The pressure beneath his ribs had faded, but something else lingered. A faint, humming alertness, like a wire pulled taut.
“That’s what I’ve been told.”
Chao’s mouth curved, not quite a smile. “Stay alive, then. Don’t disappoint me.”
He stepped backward into the grass.
The stalks closed without sound.
He was gone.
The wind returned.
A goat at the rear folded where it stood. it simply sank onto its side, legs stiff, then limp.
It did not cry or struggled giving the err feeling .
The escorts rushed forward. Yan saw them turn it over, check its mouth, its eyes.
The eyes remained open.
Zhao glanced at the body. “Throw it away”
No one questioned him and two men obeyed. They dragged the carcass off the road. The rest of the animals did not react.
The caravan resumed.
Yan looked back once. The goat lay in the grass like something that had never been alive. Not frightened. Just… vacant.
He said nothing.
The sect waited ahead.
And for the first time since leaving the village.
Yan did not feel hunted. He felt noticed.