The mist did not disperse.
It thickened.
The lantern light dimmed until it became nothing more than pale halos floating in the fog. The echoes that had filled the town froze where they stood, their translucent forms trembling, as though afraid to take another step.
The air grew cold.
Not the cold of night, but the cold of something vast drawing near.
Lin Chen felt it before he understood it.
A pressure settled over his mind, heavy and slow, like the weight of deep water pressing down on his thoughts. The warmth at his chest faded, replaced by a dull ache.
Something was moving beneath the town.
Not the presence he had sensed earlier.
Something else had answered that presence.
Yun Qiao lowered her voice. "We're not alone."
Lin Chen nodded. "We haven't been alone since I fell into that river."
The stone street cracked.
A thin black line split the ground a few paces away from the well. The line widened, and from the darkness beneath, pale mist poured upward like breath escaping a sealed tomb.
Then the ground opened.
A shape rose from below.
It was tall and thin, its body formed of condensed shadow, its surface rippling like ink dropped into water. Its limbs were too long, bending at unnatural angles. Where its face should have been, there was only a smooth, hollow curve—like a mask with nothing behind it.
The echoes recoiled.
The thing ignored them.
It turned toward Lin Chen.
The pressure in Lin Chen's mind sharpened into pain.
It's looking for something, he realized.
Not me. My memories.
The creature stepped forward.
Where its foot touched the ground, the stone paled, as though color itself were being drained away.
Yun Qiao moved in front of Lin Chen without thinking. "Don't move."
Lin Chen almost laughed at the instinctive bravery of it.
The creature's hollow face tilted.
Then it lunged.
Yun Qiao's blade flashed, striking through the shadowed limb.
The blade met no resistance.
Her arm passed through the creature as if cutting mist.
The shadow recoiled only slightly, its form rippling, then surged forward again.
"It doesn't have a body!" Yun Qiao shouted.
Lin Chen grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
The mark on his chest throbbed painfully.
The creature froze.
It did not retreat.
It hesitated.
The hollow face turned toward Lin Chen's chest, as though staring at the mark beneath his clothes.
The pressure in the air shifted.
The creature's form wavered.
For the first time, something like uncertainty rippled through it.
Lin Chen took a slow step forward.
"I don't know what you are," he said quietly, "but whatever you're hunting… it's not here."
The creature's hollow face leaned closer.
The air between them distorted.
Lin Chen's thoughts blurred.
He saw flashes of things that were not his—faces he did not know, homes he had never entered, voices calling names that were not his own. The creature was feeding on the town's memories, on the echoes left behind.
His chest burned.
The mark flared faintly.
The distorted visions shattered.
The creature recoiled violently, its form unraveling for a moment before reassembling.
It took a step back.
Then another.
Yun Qiao stared. "It's afraid of you."
Lin Chen shook his head. "No. It's afraid of what's marking me."
The well stirred.
From the depths below, the same ancient presence he had sensed before shifted once more.
The creature hissed—not with sound, but with a vibration in the air that made Lin Chen's bones ache.
It withdrew into the crack in the ground, the shadow folding inward until the street sealed itself as though it had never been broken.
The mist thinned slightly.
The echoes did not return.
The town fell silent once more.
Lin Chen exhaled slowly, only now realizing he had been holding his breath.
Yun Qiao lowered her blade. "If things like that hunt memories… then places like this town are feeding grounds."
Lin Chen nodded.
"And if that thing was afraid of the mark on my chest…"
He looked down, fingers brushing lightly over the hidden symbol.
"…then whatever touched me in that river isn't just changing my life."
It was making him visible to things that should never notice him at all.
Somewhere far beyond the valley, something ancient shifted its gaze again.
And this time, it did not look away.