A pause.
The owl blinked—once, very slowly.
"Understanding leads to danger. Curiosity leads to bindings."
The words pressed against his skull like invisible weight.
But Han Yu didn't retreat. "Are you the one causing the illusions in the forest?"
The owl turned its head slightly, now watching him not with predator's eyes—but with depth. As if seeing past the body he wore and into what lay beneath.
"They dream because they walk blind. You… do not."
His soul quivered faintly. Something in those words vibrated against the roots of his cultivation.
He swallowed. "What does that mean?"
"You have swallowed the breath of a deeper world. You see as the dead once saw. That which walks with no name does not need permission to be seen."
Han Yu's mind reeled, trying to parse meaning from the cryptic phrasing. His instincts screamed that there was meaning—that every word mattered, but none would be understood immediately.
He asked one last question. "Then why are you watching us?"
