Some gazes cut sharper than swords.
Su Chen felt it long before he saw her.
That strange sensation, like the air itself had turned to glass — brittle, cold, aware of your every breath. It crept down his spine the moment he stepped into the Pillar Garden Library's upper level.
The Second Hall elders claimed it was "coincidence" that this library branch sat directly beneath the Mistcloud Balcony of the Inner Sect. But like most things in Azure Sky Sect, coincidence was just another word for "we planned this and didn't think you'd notice."
Su Chen noticed.
Especially now.
Especially her.
She sat perched near the balcony's edge, draped in silvery-blue robes woven with frost-threaded runes, her long hair cascading like moonlight over her shoulder. In her hand, a closed fan. Not used for cooling—but to shield her presence. And in her eyes—frost lotus pupils.
A rare ocular constitution. One that allowed brief glimpses into temporal rhythm.
The girl watching him wasn't just strong.
She could see time. Su Chen kept his head down and flipped a random scroll open. To the casual eye, he was just another outer disciple trying to look studious but inside, his system was already burning through silent alerts.
[System Notification: Temporal Pressure Detected]
[Observer Class Entity Proximity: Moderate]
[Ocular Constitution Identified: Frost Lotus Vision – Partial Chrono-Trace Compatibility]
[User Exposure Risk: 13% – Warning: Anchor Threads Can Be Glimpsed]
Thirteen percent. That was a coin flip with a blade on either side.
He exhaled slowly and let his gaze rise just enough to meet hers.
Their eyes locked.
The cold in her gaze wasn't malice.
It was curiosity wrapped in centuries of inherited pride.
Xue Qingyi. In his past life, she had risen to Elder status in just twelve years. Half-saint by age thirty. Known as the Lotus Oracle, one of the only cultivators who'd ever partially perceived a reset thread—and survived it.
They hadn't met until much later. During a disastrous inter-sect summit where fate threads collapsed and a fragment of the Reset Cult's forgotten temple emerged. She had seen him bleed, seen him fall, and even then… she didn't betray him.
In one reset timeline, she had died shielding his retreat.
In another, she had kissed him before sending him back alone.
Now, she didn't know him at all.
Su Chen lowered his eyes and closed the scroll.
"Bold," a soft voice drifted down like snow. "Most outer sect disciples avoid this floor. Do you understand why?"
He looked up again, slowly this time.
"I figured it's either because of the frost qi saturation," he said, "or because you're up here glaring holes through their souls."
A faint flicker. Not a smile. But not a frown, either.
"You have a name?"
He gave a slight bow. "Su Chen."
A pause.
"Ah," she said, as if she already knew.
Of course she did.
The duel with Bai Hui had spread faster than wildfire in a paper scroll shop.
"I watched your fight," Xue Qingyi said calmly. "You hesitated at first. Then suddenly you moved like you knew every step. Not talent… but timing."
Her gaze sharpened.
"Tell me. What are you hiding—foresight, mimicry, or something else entirely?"
Su Chen's jaw tightened.
She wasn't accusing him.
She was testing him.
"Would you believe me if I said instinct?"
"Not at all."
Another pause.
Then she tilted her head slightly. "But I'd respect the lie."
That… surprised him.
Just a little.
She stood.
The fan flicked open once, then closed again.
"You'll be tested again soon," she said. "Not by disciples. By something higher."
Su Chen stiffened.
Was that a threat?
No.
Not from her.
A warning.
"I don't usually speak to outer disciples," Xue Qingyi added as she turned. "But something about you feels... unnatural. Like you shouldn't be here." Then she vanished into mist.
[System Alert: Observer Thread Contact Logged]
[Frost Lotus Variable Registered – Emotional Echo: Uncertainty/Interest]
[Optional Thread Triggered: "Lotus in the Time River" – Status: Dormant]
Note: This individual may become a spiritual stabilizer or disruptor. Path unclear.
Su Chen let out a long breath and sat back against the cold wall of the upper library.
Unnatural, she said.
That was putting it mildly.
He wasn't just unanchored from fate.
He was rewiring the river mid-flood and now someone with partial sight had looked directly into his current and walked away alive.
She didn't scream.
Didn't accuse.
Didn't tell the elders.
Yet, that made her dangerous.But also....Maybe useful.
Hours later, back in the deepest part of the sect's Divination Pavilion, Xue Qingyi stood before a lotus-shaped mirror carved from Moon Ice Jade.
A single ripple moved across its surface.
"Three seconds," she murmured.
"What do you see?" asked an old woman behind her, face hidden by a pale veil.
"Nothing."
"And yet something."
"Yes," Xue Qingyi whispered. "He is threaded, but not tied."
Far above the mortal realm, where clouds thinned and the stars whispered, something stirred.
The Watcher Protocol had been fully initialized. An orb of crystal light—shaped like a pupil—opened in the Celestial Observatory.
Inside it: Su Chen's face.
Blurry, Inconsistent but there.
[Anchor Candidate: Su Chen]
[Threat Rating: Tier Unstable – Predicted Growth Curve: Catastrophic]
[Deploy Celestial Marker – Class 1 Surveillance Initiated]
[If Resets Exceed Threshold 2, Engage Seal Protocol]
Su Chen dreamed that night.
Of threads unraveling.
Of time cracking like old jade. And of a frost lotus blooming in the palm of a hand that reached for him across lifetimes.
When he woke, he didn't move.
Just breathed.
The system was quiet.
The world outside remained still.
But something had changed.
He could feel it.
Not a danger.
A direction, as if fate had just exhaled—and it was blowing his way.