Twilight Academy's outer court training fields were usually loud with the clash of spirit weapons, incantations, and bravado. Today, however, a strange silence clung to the grass like morning dew.
A boy stood in the center of the field. Barefoot. Hair unkempt. Eyes empty.
More precisely—he had no shadow.
"Name?" Han Li asked, arms crossed as he studied the youth from under the shade of a tree.
The boy said nothing.
Jian Mo, still catching his breath from sparring with Ling Yue, nudged Han Li. "He just appeared here. No gate pass, no name scroll. He… unnerves people."
"I've tried scanning him," Ling Yue added, frowning. "Nothing. My spiritual sense slips off him, like he's not even here."
Han Li's eyes stayed on the boy. The wind moved. The boy didn't blink.
"Interesting," Han Li murmured.
Suddenly, the boy's lips parted. "Xiao Hu."
Han Li raised a brow. "You're saying that's your name?"
The boy nodded.
A quiet vibration pulsed beneath the soil.
Han Li knelt, pressed his palm to the ground—and frowned. A trail of residual soul energy stretched from the east. No, not soul energy. Something colder.
"Shadow walking…" he whispered. "That art hasn't been used since the War of Obsidian Teeth."
Xiao Hu looked up. "I'm… running."
"From what?"
A pause. Then softly, "It eats names."
Before Han Li could respond, a bell tolled from the main tower—three long chimes.
Jian Mo's face twisted. "That's the emergency call, isn't it?"
Han Li stood slowly, brushing dust from his robes. "Someone's come to greet us."
Far to the north, above the Inkstone Pavilion, a black spiral appeared in the sky. A tear in reality—brief, pulsing, then gone.
Back in the shadows of a ruined temple miles away, a man with a crown of bleached bones watched through a crystal basin.
"So, you sensed the boy, did you… Janitor?" he muttered.
Behind him, dozens of chained beasts writhed in silence.
Sky-Eater was waking, yes.
But the true monster… had already opened his eyes.
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