The river water was freezing, a sharp contrast to the humid, suffocating heat of the Bone-Eating Forest.
Lin Kai knelt by the stream, cupping the crystal-clear water in his hands and splashing it over his face. The cold shock stung the shallow gash on his cheek—the souvenir left by the panther's claw—but it helped ground him.
He scrubbed his arms vigorously. The sweat of the battle, the dirt of the fall, and the lingering, phantom sensation of the Grey Qi rotting the beast's leg all needed to be washed away.
"Hah..." Lin Kai exhaled, water dripping from his chin, disturbing his reflection in the rippling water.
His eyes looked different. The pupils seemed deeper, darker, like pools of ink that refused to reflect the light. The little timidity of the youth innocence was gone, replaced by a cold, calculating hardness.
Nearby, Xiao Bai was shaking herself dry, her white fur puffing up like a dandelion. She looked at him with concern, letting out a soft yip.
"I'm fine, Xiao Bai," Lin Kai murmured, splashing water on his neck. "Just... thinking. That feeling back there. The apathy. It was strange."
He had spared the beast not out of kindness, but because killing it felt like a chore. He thought he had shown mercy. He thought he had proven he wasn't a monster.
"If you leave it like this, it will die painfully and slowly."
The voice didn't come from the wind. It didn't come from his head. It came from right behind him.
It was a woman's voice—soft, melodic, but carrying an archaic cadence that sounded like it belonged to a different era.
Splash.
Lin Kai reacted instantly.
He didn't turn around slowly. He exploded into motion.
He kicked off the muddy bank, spinning in mid-air to face the source of the voice. He landed in a low crouch, his feet digging into the gravel. His hands immediately raised into the Phantom Strike stance, his fingers curling into claws.
"Who's there?!"
He frantically channeled the Aether Qi from the air. The space around his right fist began to distort violently, the invisible pressure building up rapidly as he prepared a lethal strike.
He scanned the perimeter.
The trees swayed gently. The river babbled. A bird chirped in the distance.
There was no one.
"Show yourself!" Lin Kai barked, his heart hammering against his ribs.
He had checked the area. His senses were sharp. How could someone get within speaking distance without triggering his instincts? Was it a high-rank assassin from the Lin Clan? Had Deacon Zhao found him?
He scanned again, his gaze sweeping over the dense foliage.
Nothing.
A cold bead of sweat trickled down his spine. Fear, primal and icy, began to creep into his gut. Fighting a panther was one thing; fighting an invisible enemy was death.
He focused harder. He didn't just look with his eyes; he looked with his Dark Affinity. He instinctively pushed his perception into the shadows, into the yin-heavy spots under the trees.
'There.'
Under the shade of a massive, ancient willow tree, about ten meters away, the air seemed to shimmer like a heat haze.
Slowly, a figure coalesced.
It was a woman. She was wearing long, flowing robes of a style Lin Kai had only seen in the old history books of the Clan library—embroidery of clouds and cranes that spoke of a nobility faraway. Her skin was a pale, bluish-white, glowing with a faint luminescence that defied the sunlight. Her hair was done up in a complex, aristocratic bun held by a single wooden pin.
But what made Lin Kai's breath hitch wasn't her beauty.
It was the fact that he could see the tree trunk through her.
She was translucent.
Lin Kai didn't lower his guard. The energy around his fist crackled, the air whining under the strain of the held technique. "What... what are you?"
The woman stood perfectly still, her hands clasped gracefully in front of her. Her expression was gentle, devoid of the malice he expected.
"What do you want from me?" Lin Kai demanded, his voice tight.
The woman smiled. It was a sad, fleeting thing, like a ripple on a pond.
"Do not be alarmed, child." she replied. Her voice echoed slightly, as if spoken from the bottom of a well. "I am but a remnant. A consciousness left behind. You may call me a spirit... or a ghost, if you prefer the vulgar term."
"A ghost?" Lin Kai frowned, his eyebrows knitting together.
He had read about spirits. They were usually vengeful remnants of cultivators who died with regrets. They were dangerous. They possessed the living.
"I have no strength to harm you," the ghost assured him, reading his body language. "I only spoke because I could not bear to watch."
"Watch what?" Lin Kai asked, his fist still raised, ready to strike at the slightest movement. "I just fought a beast. I won."
"You won, yes," the ghost nodded. "And then?"
"And then I spared it," Lin Kai said, a hint of defensiveness creeping into his tone. "I could have killed it for its core. I didn't. I let it go. What is the problem with that?"
The ghost sighed, looking toward the direction of the forest where the panther lay.
"If you think carefully about what you have done, you will understand."
She turned her gaze back to Lin Kai, her eyes ancient and knowing.
"That beast... its leg is shattered. The energy you used—it is corrosive. It has rotted the bone and the muscle. The creature cannot walk. It cannot hunt. It cannot drink."
Lin Kai froze, though his fist remained clenched.
"It is a predator," the ghost continued softly. "In this forest, a predator that cannot move is food. It is lying there now, in agony. Soon, the biting flies will come. They will lay eggs in its open wounds. Then the scavenger ants will find it. It will be eaten alive, piece by piece, over days."
She paused, letting the imagery sink in.
"First the bugs. Then the vultures. And finally, the rot."
She looked directly into Lin Kai's eyes.
"It will suffer a thousand times more than if you had simply ended it. And it will suffer... because of you."