The corpses were burned by nightfall.
Wei Lian and Jiang Ping kept watch as Lu Shuwei etched defensive sigils into the ground, his hands trembling slightly with exhaustion. Lin Yao meditated with his back to the fire, expression unreadable.
Fang Xi sat apart from the others on a cracked stone, watching the smoke drift into the stars.
The battle had told him several things.
One: Their enemies were organized, well-funded, and intelligent.
Two: The Falling Rock Sect was not acting alone.
Three: The eyes of the world were beginning to shift toward him.
Just like in his previous life — attention bred danger.
He traced a finger across the mark on his wrist.
It had pulsed faintly during the battle.
Not hunger this time.
Not power.
Something else.
Recognition.
The Scout's Corpse
They had found the masked observer's body a few hours after the ambush — killed by a hidden blade to the throat, as if to silence him permanently.
Fang Xi examined the corpse alone while the others slept. The man carried no sect tokens. But inside a sealed pouch was a folded slip of paper.
A symbol:
A stylized eye inside a storm.
He froze.
The Hidden Pavilion.
A secretive group of information brokers and war tacticians in the outer regions — rumored to train assassins, spies, and intelligence cultivators. They did not fight openly, but nations had fallen under their quiet manipulations.
Fang Xi remembered them from his past life.
And more importantly, he remembered what they had once offered him:
A choice between obscurity or alliance.
A Decision to Echo
He returned to the fire and burned the symbol with care.
He said nothing of it to the others.
Later, as the camp slept, Fang Xi sat in silent meditation.
Inside his mind, the rune awakened. Just faintly.
Not with pain. Not with hunger.
But… a whisper.
"The Echo watches. The choices return. The mark remembers."
He didn't know if it was the rune speaking or his own fragmented past soul.
But in that moment, he understood.
The mark did not simply crave power — it responded to moments of decision.
Not the weak, not the obvious. But the ones that bent fate.
He opened his eyes.
"Then I'll give you decisions that break the world."
Dawn Brings Shadows
At sunrise, the group continued toward the ruins.
Blackwind Valley grew narrower. The trees changed — tall bone-pines with twisted black bark and pale leaves that whispered even without wind. Fang Xi sensed ancient formations buried deep in the cliffs.
And somewhere further ahead, he felt it:
Soul energy. Faint, old, and untouched for centuries.
The Falling Rain Ruins were close.
Wei Lian walked beside him without speaking. But after a long silence, she said:
"You knew we were being watched."
Fang Xi smiled faintly. "We're always being watched. The only difference is who survives long enough to notice."