Chapter 15 – The Trace of the Unknown
Days passed.
But Bai Lian couldn't forget that gaze.
Nor that presence.
She had tried to meditate, to cultivate, to forget… but something within her had shifted.
Since that moment—the instant their eyes had met—her Qi had stopped flowing like before.
It was faster. Denser. Deeper.
Her master would have said:
— "This is no longer cultivation. This is awakening."
But he was dead.
And she… she dreamed only of that silhouette.
She returned to the place.
The misty river.
The exact spot where he had walked.
And there… she felt it.
Not an aura.
Not a spiritual trace.
But a fracture in the world. A wrinkle in the fabric of reality itself.
She knelt and touched the ground.
An invisible wave pulsed through her hand.
Her eyes widened.
— "Impossible…"
The earth… spoke to her.
An ancient vibration. Silent, but real.
She closed her eyes.
And in her consciousness… a word appeared.
A word she had never heard.
Never studied.
Never found in any of her sect's techniques.
"Karmic Fragment."
She stood with a gasp.
— "It's not an illusion."
Someone—or something—had left a karmic imprint so subtle, it defied logic.
And such a trace could only be left by a being above natural law.
— "This isn't just a cultivator... It's not even an Immortal."
She clenched her fist.
It was no longer curiosity.
It was thirst.
That same evening, in a hidden mountain to the north...
Shen Mu opened his eyes.
[Karmic Observation Detected]
➤ Spontaneous Link: Cultivator "Bai Lian"
➤ Perception Level: Above Average
➤ Partial Activation: Treaty of Unconscious Recognition
He remained silent.
Then closed his eyes once more.
It wasn't time yet.
She wasn't ready.
But the world… had begun to ask questions.
And sometimes, asking a question in the universe…
…is the same as lighting a fuse.