It was supposed to be a normal school day.
Sunlight streamed through the windows of South City High, warming the dusty floors of the old gymnasium. Outside, students were practicing relay runs and dodgeball. But inside, Leon Fang stood still as a statue, arms folded, eyes narrowed.
The atmosphere had shifted.
He felt it before he saw it.
The presence—cold, precise, trained.
"Mr. Fang," came a low voice from behind him.
Leon didn't turn immediately. He allowed the man to approach within ten paces before speaking.
"You're not faculty," Leon said flatly.
"No," the man replied. "I'm a concerned party."
Leon turned.
The man was tall, clean-cut, dressed in a nondescript grey suit with a thin earpiece coiled behind his right ear. Not a government agent—no insignia, no nervous energy. His stance was too steady, too centered.
Cultivator. Low level. Hidden by a suppression charm.
"I'm here to make a proposal," the man said smoothly. "You've recently come into certain… assets. Interests that intersect with ours."
Leon said nothing.
The man smiled. "No need for hostility. Let's be civil. We simply want to talk. Align goals."
"You mean submit," Leon corrected.
The man's smile didn't waver. "Submit is such a crude word. We prefer collaborate. Or coexist."
Leon stepped forward slowly, each pace deliberate. His tone remained cold.
"I don't remember inviting you into my life. Or my city."
"You've made waves, Leon Fang," the man said calmly. "The kind that ripple through old networks. Certain parties are watching. Some are nervous."
"Nervous men make mistakes," Leon replied. "You just made one by showing your face."
There was a shift in the man's expression—only a flicker—but Leon caught it.
"You think you're ready to face what's coming?" the man asked, voice dipped in something darker now. "There are sects that survived your death. Families that profited from it. They won't make the same mistake twice."
Leon's eyes sharpened. "Neither will I."
Without warning, he moved.
A step. A twist. A palm strike aimed directly at the man's chest.
But the man reacted fast—pulling a talisman from his coat and pressing it to his chest. A ripple of energy burst outward, forming a shimmering hexagonal shield.
Leon's strike met the barrier with a loud crack, and the shield held—but only barely.
The man staggered back three steps, coughing once.
"That was a warning," Leon said.
The man straightened, brushing imaginary dust off his sleeve.
"Duly noted," he said. "But remember this—refusing our offer doesn't stop the others. It only makes you a target sooner."
He turned to leave, pausing at the door.
"Oh, and Mr. Fang… You might want to check your school's security system. Let's just say we left a calling card."
And then he vanished into the corridor like a ghost.
—
Leon immediately rushed to the administration office.
"Where's Mr. Zhou?" he asked.
The secretary blinked. "He left twenty minutes ago. Said something about an urgent appointment."
Leon didn't like that.
He stepped into the headmaster's office unannounced and walked directly to the wall-mounted security terminal. He tapped in a hidden override sequence.
The screen blinked.
**ACCESS GRANTED: MASTER OVERRIDE – FANG LINE**
Dozens of windows opened—camera feeds, firewall diagnostics, thermal scans.
At first, everything looked normal.
Then he spotted it.
A glitch.
Camera 12-B, covering the north parking lot, had been running a loop.
Three-second repeat. Seamless, but artificial.
"Found you," he muttered.
With a quick keystroke, he pulled access logs. An external device had been plugged into the mainframe at 8:12 a.m.—same time the grey-suited man arrived.
A Trojan had been embedded.
Worse, it was transmitting.
He yanked the Ethernet cable from the wall and crushed the power strip under his foot.
"Too late," he whispered.
Someone had already seen him fight. Someone outside this city.
—
That night, Leon returned to his rooftop.
The city below gleamed like a circuit board—alive, glowing, false.
He took the jade pendant from his pocket and held it against his palm.
"Valley of Fallen Stars," he whispered. "I'm coming."
The wind howled in response.
He sat down, closed his eyes, and began to circulate his Qi. He needed to ascend faster. They were watching now. He had no more time to hide.
In the distance, on another rooftop, a small red dot glowed—then vanished.
Someone was watching him too.
And this time, it wasn't human.