Whispers in the Wind, Teeth Beneath Smiles

Night had fallen by the time Lin Feng returned to the outer branch quarters.

The rain had ceased, but the mud remained thick along the stone paths, clinging to his robe and feet. Lanterns flickered dimly on crooked poles, casting soft orange glows across wet roofs and broken steps. A pack of dogs fought near a garbage pile, their snarls echoing in the distance. Crickets sang, unaware of the storm that had passed—and the greater storm that now brewed within the bones of the boy they once called trash.

He walked in silence, each step measured.

Not from pain—he had endured worse.

But because he was listening.

The shadows whispered to him now. Not in words, but in echoes. Vibrations. The weight of things unsaid. Each corner, each tree, each step of the breeze carried traces of emotion, fear, contempt. Things the eye could not see, but a Sovereign born of shadow could taste like poison in the air.

He paused beside a tree near the crumbling edge of the estate.

His fingers traced a carving in the bark. A rough X shape—barely visible in the dark.

"Still here…" he murmured.

Lin Xun had carved that mark years ago, likely to count days, or perhaps as a childish signpost—a desperate attempt to claim space in a clan that refused to see him.

Now, Lin Feng claimed it.

He closed his eyes, steadying his breath, feeling the stirrings in his soul. The pulse of Shadow Qi now coiled faintly beneath his skin, quiet but present.

The Awakening Stone had reacted. It had recognized his root.

And the elders had lied.

Or worse—panicked.

"The fear is already blooming. Good."

Inside his quarters—a single cracked room with a straw mat and a wooden basin—he lit a lamp and sat cross-legged. His body still bore the bruises of Lin Xun's final beating, but the pain had dulled to a low throb.

Pain was a friend. Pain meant growth.

He reached into his robe and pulled out the black stone—the one buried beneath the floorboards. It pulsed faintly, responding to his presence.

He placed it before him and began to breathe again, slower this time.

A whisper of shadow drifted upward. His meridians shivered as the Qi spread, and for a moment, he felt a tremor in his soul—not from pain, but from memory.

"You taught me never to kneel…"

The words rang again—his brother's voice. Ji Chen.

Once his right hand. His oath-brother. His blade in war.

And now—his murderer.

"The throne isn't inherited. It's taken," Ji Chen had said, smiling as the fire consumed the court.

And behind him… her.

Li Qing.

The woman whose voice could still make the shadows freeze.

"You were born in the dark, Lin Feng. Return to it."

He opened his eyes.

The flame of the lamp flickered violently. The shadows around the room rippled as if the walls themselves were recoiling from his memories.

"You buried me once," he whispered, "but now I remember everything."

He would not strike blindly. Not yet.

But he would rise.

A knock.

Three soft taps. Polite. Hesitant.

Lin Feng didn't move.

The door creaked open anyway.

A small figure entered—barely fifteen, her clothes plain, her hands clutching a folded cloth.

"Young Master Xun?" she said, voice cautious. "I brought warm bandages… I heard what happened today at the ceremony."

He recognized her. Lin Cai—one of the servant girls from the outer branch. Lin Xun had once defended her from a drunk elder's son. The clan punished him for it. She never forgot.

"They said you made the Spirit Stone burn black," she added softly.

Lin Feng watched her quietly.

She didn't flinch under his gaze. There was fear in her eyes, yes—but something else, too.

Hope.

He nodded once.

"Leave them. I'll tend to myself."

She set the cloth beside him and turned to go.

But before she stepped out, she hesitated.

"They… they won't stop, you know. Now that you've drawn attention again. They'll come for you."

He tilted his head.

"Who?"

She looked away.

"The inner branch. Lin Rui. Elder Qian's nephew. He wanted to be the last to awaken at the ceremony. The finale.""But you stole that moment."

"They think you humiliated him."

After she left, Lin Feng sat in silence.

Lin Rui. The young lion of the clan. Arrogant. Favored. Brutal.

And now embarrassed.

It wouldn't be long before the snake coiled to strike.

"Let him come," Lin Feng whispered."Let them all come. I'll thank them when I use their bones to pave my ascent."

Somewhere else… beneath the clan's main temple.

An old man stood before a mirror of still water. His white robes fluttered despite the stillness. His face was lined with centuries, but his eyes burned with clarity.

The Patriarch. Lin Zhen.

He had felt it during the ceremony. That pulse of power. That unnatural reaction from the Spirit Stone. That brief shiver in the Qi of the heavens.

His fingers hovered above the water.

And images formed: Lin Feng. Sitting alone in a broken room. Shadow Qi curling around him like smoke.

The Patriarch's face remained expressionless.

"Impossible. Shadow roots haven't awakened in over eight centuries…"

He waved his hand. The image vanished.

"Monitor him. But do not act. Yet."

Behind him, a figure in black robes bowed low.

"As you command, Patriarch."

Back in the outer branch…

The night stretched long. Clouds drifted across the moon, and silence blanketed the estate like fog.

But in Lin Feng's room, the darkness never slept.

He breathed. He cultivated. He listened.

And he remembered.

Not just the betrayals. Not just the deaths.

But the art. The power. The secrets.

One by one, the memories of his past life began to resurface. Ancient techniques. Forbidden formations. Battle strategies. Hidden realms.

Knowledge carved into bone, buried beneath centuries of silence.

And now… awakening once more.

"They took everything," he murmured, voice barely audible. "So now I will take… everything back."

Outside, far down the path from the outer quarters, a figure approached.

Young. Well-dressed. Confident.

Lin Rui.

Flanked by two cousins and three guards, he walked with the relaxed arrogance of someone who had never tasted failure.

"You sure he's still alive?" one cousin asked, half-laughing.

"Barely," Lin Rui replied. "But not for long."

He cracked his knuckles, eyes gleaming with cruelty.

"No one makes me look like a fool in front of the clan elders and walks away.""Trash or not—tonight, Lin Xun learns his place."