Every rustle of leaves, every snapped twig in the distance, every flicker of shadow along the trail back from the grotto felt like the breath of that silent watcher on Lu Chenyuan's neck. He moved through the Serpent's Coil Hills with a taut, predator's awareness, the Heartwood Nodule a hidden weight at his side, the dark-robed figure etched into his mind like a scar. He didn't glance back, didn't let his steps falter. He maintained the bearing of a lone forager returning empty-handed, even as his heart thudded with every imagined footfall behind him.
He took the long way home, deliberately crossing cold streams and scaling rough stone outcrops where his tracks would fade quickly. Each extra mile burned in his limbs, but he couldn't afford to leave an easy trail. The Qi Nourishing Pill remained untouched in his pouch; he didn't dare risk the faint numbness it might cause. He needed his senses razor-sharp.
Who had that watcher been? Shadow Hand Xue, cloaked in some advanced concealment technique? A Li Clan scout, better trained than their usual muscle-bound thugs? Or someone entirely unrelated—a lone cultivator with dominion over that hidden grove? The uncertainty was maddening. If they'd witnessed the nodule's extraction, the Lin Clan now had an unknown adversary. If not, perhaps it meant nothing. But Lu Chenyuan couldn't afford hope. Only caution.
By the time the faint silhouette of their weathered courtyard emerged through the haze of moonlight, exhaustion had rooted itself in every inch of his body. The relief he felt was sharp and sudden, almost painful. He stopped at the edge of the clearing and gave the agreed signal—a short, chirping birdsong. The gate creaked open a moment later, revealing Shen Yue's pale face, tense with worry.
"Chenyuan!" she breathed, pulling him inside without hesitation. Uncle Liu hovered behind her, his expression grave and anxious.
"You're safe," she murmured, gripping his arm more tightly than she realized. "We feared… something had gone wrong."
"I'm here," he said, voice hoarse with fatigue. "The journey... wasn't without risk, but it went as well as it could have."
He didn't speak of the watcher—not yet. First, they needed to see what he'd brought back.
He led them to the main hall, where their single oil lamp cast flickering shadows across the worn wooden floor. He opened the pouch slowly, drawing out the unused Green Dew Grass, the pit of the consumed spirit fruit… and finally, the Heartwood Nodule.
Even in dim light, the deep, dark-green nodule shimmered faintly. A soft wave of Wood Qi pulsed from it—cool, clean, alive.
Uncle Liu gasped aloud. "Young Master... what is that?"
Shen Yue stepped closer, her Wood Spirit Qi affinity stirring visibly in her eyes. She knelt, lips parted in awe. "Chenyuan… the essence. It's so pure!"
"A Heartwood Nodule," he said. "Grade One. Low in refinement purity, but its vitality is dense—perfect for the Moonpetal Leaf. I found it deep in the hills, in a hidden grotto beneath a spring-fed ravine."
Their tension briefly melted into joy. For once, they had more than hope—they had something tangible, hard-won through risk and resolve.
But the joy couldn't last.
Chenyuan's face darkened. "I wasn't alone," he said quietly. Then he told them everything—the figure on the ledge, the silence, the hidden presence. The suppressed aura that said either nothing… or everything.
The warmth in the room vanished like steam in the cold.
"Someone saw you?" Uncle Liu's voice cracked. "At the moment you uncovered it?"
"I don't know what they saw," Chenyuan said, each word slow and deliberate. "They were already there when I stood up to leave. No sign of cultivation… or a master of concealment. It could have been Xue. Or a Li Clan agent. Or someone... else."
"Someone worse," Shen Yue whispered. Her hands clenched at her sides. "We've drawn attention. Again."
"Attention we can't trace," Chenyuan said grimly. "And that makes it the most dangerous kind."
Their fragile sanctuary had been breached—not in body, but in the invisible lines of risk and exposure. It was no longer just Li Jian and his hired hounds. Now they had a ghost watching from the trees.
Still, the Moonpetal Leaf couldn't wait. The sprout was showing signs of decline, subtle though they were. Shen Yue had been sustaining it with her Qi for days. That couldn't continue.
That night, with the moon swallowed by clouds, Chenyuan and Shen Yue slipped into the hidden corner of their courtyard. The sprout sat quietly in its little mound of enriched earth, twin crescent leaves faintly glowing. Tonight, they would feed it something more than their willpower.
"We'll go slowly," Chenyuan murmured. "It's still too young to absorb the Nodule's essence directly."
He drew his utility knife and, with the precision of a calligrapher, shaved a sliver no larger than a grain of rice from the Nodule's surface. The exposed section glowed briefly, exuding a burst of fresh vitality.
Shen Yue took the sliver with trembling fingers. Her breath steadied as she knelt beside the sprout and closed her eyes. Her Wood Spirit Qi, now purer from cultivation, flowed softly from her palms. She held the Nodule's fragment near the base of the sprout—not touching it, merely channeling, becoming the conduit.
Chenyuan held his breath.
The air around the sprout shimmered. Its leaves brightened visibly, their hue shifting from silvery green to a deeper, more vibrant shade. The stem no longer drooped but stood firm, resilient.
[System Notification: Moonpetal Leaf sprout successfully nourished with Heartwood Nodule essence via Wife Shen Yue's attuned Wood Spirit Qi. Growth rate +100% for 24 hours. Vitality significantly enhanced. Affinity between Shen Yue and Moonpetal Leaf deepened. Host gains critical insight into symbiotic Qi transference for celestial herbs. Clan Prosperity Meter: 33/100.]
Relief surged through him like breath after a deep dive. The insights detailed the mechanics of conduit-based spiritual nourishment, an advanced technique used to transfer volatile elemental Qi safely into delicate plants through attuned cultivators.
"It... likes it," Shen Yue whispered, eyes still closed. "It's drinking it in. It feels… alive in a way it didn't before."
Chenyuan exhaled slowly. One step forward. A fragile, vital reprieve.
But the shadow of the watcher still lingered in his mind, coiled like a snake. They had fed the sprout, but at what cost? Had they exposed its existence to a new, unknown threat?
"We'll ration the Nodule carefully," he said. "Only when necessary. And we'll be unpredictable. Change the times we tend to it. Never form a pattern."
They were already living on borrowed time. Now, the price of survival had risen again. One watcher had seen them in the wild. Who else might be watching now?
The Lin Clan courtyard was a crumbling refuge with three cultivators and a single fragile sprout. But now, hidden beneath the earth, a bloom had begun to awaken. And somewhere beyond the walls, a watcher waited. Whether they were ally, enemy, or something worse… only time would tell.