Chapter 14: Mistrust

As the last echoes of the shattered silence faded into the forest canopy, the group pressed deeper. The woods thickened, shadows grew longer, and the crisp clarity of morning gave way to a gloom laced with the breath of damp soil and decaying leaves.

Birds no longer chirped.

Branches creaked above, windless yet restless. Even the occasional rustle of brush felt deliberate, like something unseen watching, deciding.

Luo Tan was the first to break the silence again, casually, but Xue Mo saw through the humor. "We could've taken the other path. It looked less like it wanted to kill us."

"No such path exists," Xue Mo said dryly.

They stepped over a moss-covered log, the trunk cracked down its center, its hollow interior black and claw-scratched. Flies buzzed inside, thick in the warm air. A faint, sour scent of rot clung to the wood.

Wei Zhi lingered behind, his pace deliberately slower. He kept glancing at Xue Mo when he thought no one noticed, but the subtle way his fingers hovered near his side pouch and the tightness of his jaw were telling.

It hadn't passed.

The moment with the corpse had cracked something in Wei Zhi.

"So," Luo Tan said casually, walking up beside Xue Mo. "What was in the pouch?"

Xue Mo glanced at him. "What pouch?"

"The one from the corpse. You took it quick. Didn't even flinch. The others didn't notice."

"You did."

"I look at what's useful."

Their eyes met briefly, and in that moment, the air changed.

Xue Mo smiled faintly. "So do I."

Luo Tan's grin widened, but he said nothing else. Yet in his pocket, his hand curled slightly, he had taken something earlier too, a small flower growing beside the corpse. Not rare. But useful. He'd identified it in an old almanac. Beast-repelling root. And he hadn't told anyone.

Wei Zhi kicked a rock, the sharp clack echoing slightly.

"Are you angry?" Xue Mo asked without turning.

"I don't know," Wei Zhi muttered. "Should I be?"

"You tell me."

"She was dead. Already. But… it felt wrong."

Luo Tan shrugged. "This place is wrong. Don't go moral in a hunting ground. You'll die."

"I know that," Wei Zhi snapped. "I just… I'm not like you."

"Good," Xue Mo replied calmly. "You're not meant to be."

But that didn't soothe him.

They stopped near a small clearing ringed by thorned vines. The ground here was slightly drier. In the center, under a large twisted tree, they found a single cracked stone, possibly the remnant of an ancient boundary marker.

"Camp here?" Liang Fu asked.

"No," Xue Mo said instantly. "Too open. Too quiet."

"Quiet is good."

"Not here."

He motioned toward a set of boulders nearby, half-sunken in the brush. "Behind there. Shadowed. Only one entrance. We'll funnel anything through a single path."

As they began to move, Xue Mo saw Luo Tan kneeling beside a tree. His hand moved quickly, stuffing something into a side pocket. Most would think it was a map check or gear adjustment.

But it wasn't.

He was collecting scent grass. Another beast-repellent. Xue Mo didn't say a word.

Night fell.

The forest's silence grew oppressive. Every gust of wind felt like breath against the neck. Distant shrieks echoed—some bestial, others less clear.

The group sat in a loose circle. No fire. Just breath and awareness.

Wei Zhi spoke first. "Why did you really take the pouch?"

"It had information," Xue Mo replied.

"About what?"

"Her path. And something else. A piece of beast hide soaked in herbal oil. It has writing on it."

"Did you read it?"

"Yes."

Wei Zhi waited, but Xue Mo said nothing more.

"You're not going to tell us?"

"If it's useful. Later."

"You think you're the only one who matters in this group?" Wei Zhi's voice was low, but sharp now. The tension that had simmered since earlier snapped to the surface.

"No. But I am the only one ready to act on what matters."

Wei Zhi stood. "I joined because I thought."

"You wanted safety."

"Maybe. But I didn't expect to be walking with someone who sees everyone else as disposable."

"I don't," Xue Mo said simply.

"Could've fooled me."

Luo Tan raised a hand. "Maybe let's not argue when night's falling and something's probably watching us?"

Wei Zhi didn't sit immediately. But he didn't walk away either.

Eventually, he sat again.

But the distance remained.

They decided to sleep in shifts.

Xue Mo took the second watch. During his turn, he stood beside the rocks and scanned the trees. His eyes drifted up into the canopy.

Something moved there.

Just a flicker.

Too quiet for a beast.

Human?

He didn't move. Didn't alert the others. Just waited.

But nothing came.

---

By morning, the forest had changed again. Mists curled unnaturally through the brush. Dew formed strange runes on the leaves.

They moved early. Avoiding trails. Xue Mo began noticing patterns—scratched bark, droppings, broken twigs. He adjusted their path.

Midway through a ridge, they heard a scream.

Distant. But human.

"Should we check?" Liang Fu asked.

"No," Xue Mo said. "That wasn't someone calling for help. That was bait."

Wei Zhi blinked. "Bait?"

"Trappers use it. Pain triggers beast movement. Other disciples may follow it and get caught."

They circled wide.

Later that day, they encountered signs of a recent kill. Beast blood. Scattered leaves. A snapped spear. No corpse.

Xue Mo crouched and inspected the blood. Then turned to Luo Tan.

"Did you see it?"

Luo Tan frowned, then nodded slowly. "There's no drag trail. Beast left it. But why?"

"Because something bigger came," Xue Mo murmured.

They moved again.

---

By evening, they found an overgrown shrine deep in the woods. Crumbled stone steps led to a moss-covered platform. A dry streambed ran beside it.

"We camp here," Xue Mo decided.

That night, Wei Zhi didn't speak.

Luo Tan smiled, but said little.

Xue Mo lay awake, eyes open to the black canopy above.

Waiting for the next move.