Gray Curtain
The patterns on Meng Changyuan's right wrist guard continued to glow with a deep blue light, and the two purple Soul Ring beneath his feet rotated slowly and heavily, like two ferocious beasts tethered to stakes, pacing slowly in the shadows. He did not step forward, but stood in the shadows below the crenellations of the city wall, watching the layer of grayish-white light membrane slowly flow in the night wind.
"Light and darkness merged into chaos." His voice, neither loud nor soft, echoed with a buzzing sound as it bounced back from the city wall. "I spent over two hundred experiments just to get a little bit of it. You two kids grew up on your own without any live testing."
Shen Mo slightly shifted his body to the side of Long Tian, completely shielding Shen Qiu behind him. A very thin silver light flashed past in his right sleeve, like a string being plucked and then stopped. Mu Shuang's short blade had already been retracted into her boot, but between her left fingers were three dark iron pellets, her thumb pressing on the shallow groove on the side of the pellets.
Meng Changyuan took half a step forward. It wasn't a big step, but his aura pushed forward, like an invisible wall slowly moving forward, flattening a patch of withered grass on the field in front of the five people. Long Tian's gray-white light membrane was slightly dented by that aura, but the Origin Return Pearl accelerated its rotation in his dantian, flattening the membrane again.
"I won't stop you." Meng Changyuan didn't move forward after taking that half-step. He stood behind that invisible wall, his voice as deep and steady as ever, "You have Wei Yuanshan's key card, and you've also taken the detainees from the waiting area. I've noted tonight's score. But I can let you go this time, because I want to see clearly—just how far can your two chaotic cores grow?"
His gaze lingered on Long Tian and Yu Jin for a moment before finally settling on the bracer on his wrist, as if examining an object that had already been marked as his own. He removed the Soul Power patterns on the bracer, and the two purple Soul Ring disappeared one after the other beneath his feet, along with the oppressive aura that had been pressing down on him.
"The next time we meet," Meng Changyuan turned and walked back into the shadows of the city wall's crenellations, his back to them as he uttered his final words, "I will take everything you can grow, exactly as it is."
His figure disappeared into the shadows behind the crenellations, and there was no more sound. Beneath the city wall, only the night wind swirled withered grass and leaves across the field, and the light of the lantern flickered a few times before settling back to steady.
Shen Mo retracted the silver string from his left sleeve, his shoulders relaxing slightly, but his gaze remained fixed on the direction Meng Changyuan had disappeared in. Mu Shuang put the three iron pellets into a hidden pouch at her waist, the lingering metallic coolness on her fingers dissipating in the night breeze. Long Tian's grayish-white light membrane slowly retreated back to his body, Yu Jin's Power of Origin receded from the point of contact back to his dantian. The fused aura between the two slowly dissipated like a receding tide.
"Let's go." Shen Mo grabbed Shen Qiu's arm and led the way towards the alley. The others followed closely behind, their pace nearly twice as fast as when they came. The five of them passed through the alley, climbed over the gap in the iron fence, and hurried along the ditch at the edge of the wilderness for more than an hour, until the lights of the Spirit City walls behind them were completely blocked by a low hill before they slowed down.
Long Tieshan waited at the agreed rendezvous point—under an old locust tree that had been struck in half by lightning. Leaning against the trunk, he straightened up when he saw several figures approaching in the distance, his short stick in his hand. When he recognized Long Tian and Yu Jin, and then saw Shen Mo and Shen Qiu, his gaze lingered on Shen Mo's face for a moment before he stepped aside, letting them into the low slope behind the tree.
When Shen Qiu was helped to sit down on the slope, his face was ashen, but he was still relatively conscious. Shen Mo squatted down beside him, loosened the rope around his wrists, and checked the inside of his wrists for any abrasions. After confirming that he was unharmed, he stood up and walked to Long Tieshan. The two stood facing each other for a couple of breaths before Shen Mo spoke first, "Brother Tie Shan."
Long Tieshan nodded, saying nothing more, only reaching out to pat Shen Mo's shoulder. The pat was light yet firm, the warmth from his palm on Shen Mo's shoulder dissipating in an instant, carried by the night breeze. Shen Mo glanced down at his shoulder, then looked away.
Long Tian squatted on the slope, looking down at the two figures below—one was his father, and the other was the man who had been delivering threads for his father for seven years. The two stood side by side, neither saying anything more, but Long Tian felt he was slowly beginning to understand what was going on in that silence.
As dawn approached, the group returned to the stone house. Shen Qiu, exhausted, lay down in the inner room. Shen Mo sat on a low stool outside the door, watching over him, and rested with his eyes closed against the wall for half an hour. Mu Shuang rekindled the stove and cooked a pot of hot porridge. Yu Jin divided the porridge into several earthenware bowls and took them out, one bowl for each person.
Long Tian sat on the outside of the threshold, leaning against the door frame, drinking porridge. The light from the stove shone from behind him, stretching his shadow to the open ground in front of him. The steam from the porridge rose and dissipated in the morning breeze. He lowered his head and drank a few mouthfuls, then looked up at the outline of the mountain walls around the stone house, which were gradually illuminated by the morning light. He finished the porridge at the bottom of the bowl and placed it on his lap.
Shen Qiu coughed softly from inside the house behind them. Shen Mo whispered something to him at the door, and the coughing stopped. Long Tieshan came out of the house and sat down on the threshold next to Long Tian with another bowl of porridge. The father and son sat side by side, separated by a bowl, looking at the fallen leaves and dry grass in the open space in front of them, which were tinged with pale gold by the morning light.
"What did Meng Changyuan say when he let you go?" Long Tieshan took a sip of porridge but didn't look at his son.
He said he wanted to see how far my and Yu Jin's Chaos Core could grow. He'd take them away next time we met.
Long Tieshan's right hand, holding the bowl, paused slightly, but he didn't hesitate for long before bringing the bowl back to his lips. He drank a few mouthfuls, placed the bowl on his lap, and gazed at the mountain wall ahead. "I've been researching the Return to One Experiment for almost ten years. From initially using death row inmates of the Iron Guard as test subjects, to later raising living specimens in a dark room, and now turning to replicating the Origin of Chaos, he has always wanted to create a Composite Martial Soul that can grow on its own without external grafting. Your appearance has given him a ready-made sample for comparison."
"His experiments are still ongoing. The equipment is in place, and the first batch of live subjects will be admitted at the end of the month." Long Tian turned to look at his father's profile. "Dad, why didn't you expose him when you left the team?"
Long Tieshan was silent for a while. He placed the bowl beside his legs, rested his hands on his knees, and the lines on his palms were clearly visible in the morning light. "Because I wasn't alone back then. Your mother was already pregnant with you. If I had leaked the case file that day, Meng Changyuan would have had me disposed of silently the next day, and the case file would have been taken back and locked away again. Later, I left the team, thinking that I could raise you peacefully in Starfall Town, and that would be the end of it."
He turned to look at Long Tian, his gaze unusually earnest, like a blacksmith examining a piece of repeatedly forged iron before a furnace. "But you were born with both Light and Dark Twin Dragons. I don't want you to follow my old path—hiding your whole life, afraid to look up, only to have others remind you of the true weight of your own son's Martial Soul. So I'm handing you the thread, letting you decide for yourself whether to move forward."
Long Tian looked down at his hand resting on his knee. Five Soul Ring were quietly arranged in his dantian, and the Origin Return Pearl slowly rotated in the center, its grayish-white halo appearing and disappearing between the lines of his palm. He slowly raised that hand and placed it in his father's outstretched palm, their hands overlapping—the rough, thick old hand enveloping the small hand with distinct knuckles, the warmth of their palms mingling and transferring, continuously radiating a gentle heat in the morning breeze.
Long Tieshan didn't stop, letting his son's hand rest in his palm for a while. Birds in the distant treetops began to sing, their voices clear and short, echoing through the valley and reverberating between the stone walls.
When Yu Jin came out of the house, he saw this scene from the doorway. He didn't go over, but stood there leaning against the door frame, gazing at the open space illuminated by the morning light. He watched for a while, then picked up the bowl of porridge in his hand, which had already gone cold, and took a sip. He squinted at the golden edge that the rising sun had outlined on the ridgeline in front of him.
A new day began. The light streaming in through the gap in the mountain wall moved inch by inch across the open space, lengthening and shortening the shadows of the two people on the threshold. Inside, the even breathing of Shen Qiu Mu Shuang stirring the fire could be heard, mingled with the ceaseless gurgling of the mountain stream outside. These sounds overlapped, like a quiet promise, resounding continuously and without fluctuation, existing without needing to be heard by anyone.