Mu Qinglan had not taken more than a few steps after the man disappeared when she stopped again.
This time, it was not curiosity.
It was instinct.
The forest around her felt wrong.
Not dangerous in the usual sense of beasts or ambushes—but structured. Like something had quietly locked onto her presence and was now adjusting around it.
She didn't move immediately.
Instead, she stood still and let her spiritual sense expand outward.
The moment she did
She confirmed it.
Three separate signatures.
No, more than that.
They were suppressing their presence deliberately, layered under concealment techniques designed to avoid detection even by Spirit Core Realm cultivators.
But Mu Qinglan was not ordinary.
Her perception didn't just detect energy.
It read *disruption in flow*.
And right now, the forest flow was broken in three directions.
She exhaled softly.
"…So quickly."
---
The first strike came without warning.
A thin silver line cut through the air toward her throat.
Mu Qinglan tilted her head slightly.
The attack passed harmlessly, slicing a strand of her hair instead.
Only then did the attacker reveal himself fully.
A masked man stood on a branch above her, holding a thin curved blade that shimmered faintly with poison energy.
Another appeared behind her.
Then another to her left.
Three.
All of them at least Spirit Core Realm (Early).
But not normal disciples.
Mu Qinglan's gaze swept across them calmly.
"You are not from the Inner Clan."
The man in front spoke first. His voice was cold.
"Mu Qinglan. You should not have touched what you found in the ruins."
She didn't respond immediately.
Instead, she studied their energy patterns.
All three had identical fluctuations.
Same breathing rhythm.
Same spiritual circulation pattern.
"…Controlled cultivation system," she murmured.
That made them pause slightly.
She noticed.
Good.
The second man stepped forward slightly.
"You activated the Seed of Return."
For the first time, Mu Qinglan's expression shifted barely.
A fraction colder.
"You are repeating something I already heard."
The third attacker tilted his head.
"So it's true. You did receive it."
Silence followed.
Then the first attacker raised his blade.
"No more talking. Retrieve the mark. Kill if necessary."
The forest tightened.
Then all three moved at once.
Mu Qinglan did not retreat.
Instead, frost spread from beneath her feet.
But it was not ordinary frost.
It formed in layered patterns, like structured stillness rather than raw cold.
The first attacker reached her in an instant.
Blade swung down.
Mu Qinglan raised two fingers.
Clink.
The blade stopped mid-air.
Not blocked.
Frozen.
The attacker's eyes widened slightly.
"…What"
A crack spread across the weapon.
Then it shattered into fragments of ice before dissolving entirely.
Mu Qinglan stepped forward once.
Just one step.
The frost field expanded.
The second attacker tried to retreat but his movement slowed mid-air, as if space itself had thickened around him.
His body froze in place without touching the ground.
The third attacker reacted instantly.
"Don't let her control the area!"
He released a surge of energy, trying to break the frost field.
BOOM
The impact created a shockwave.
But Mu Qinglan didn't move.
Her eyes remained calm.
"…Too shallow."
She lifted her hand slightly.
The frost field tightened.
Not expanding.
Compressing.
The temperature didn't drop further it became *denser*.
The space itself felt heavier.
The first attacker forced his body forward, breaking part of the frost binding.
"Spirit Core Realm (Mid) suppression technique…! She's hiding her real level!"
Mu Qinglan tilted her head slightly.
"I never hid it."
Then she moved.
Her figure blurred.
Not speed.
Disappearance.
She reappeared behind the second attacker.
One touch.
That was all.
His body froze completely.
Not externally.
Internally.
His energy circulation stopped mid-flow.
He fell silently.
No explosion.
No resistance.
Just collapse.
The third attacker's expression finally changed.
"This is not Spirit Core Realm…"
Mu Qinglan looked at him.
"…Correct."
A pause.
Then she continued.
"But you already knew that before you came."
That sentence made him freeze for a fraction of a second.
That fraction was fatal.
Mu Qinglan raised her hand.
The frost field inverted.
Everything within a short radius turned still.
Even sound.
Even motion.
Even spiritual flow.
The last attacker struggled, his eyes widening in disbelief as his body locked in place.
"This… is not a domain…" he forced out.
Mu Qinglan walked toward him slowly.
"It is incomplete."
She stopped in front of him.
"But it is enough."
Her fingers touched his forehead.
The frost entered instantly.
And his consciousness froze.
Not destroyed.
Preserved in stillness.
He collapsed afterward, alive but completely unconscious.
Mu Qinglan stood alone again.
The forest had returned to silence.
But she did not relax.
Because she understood something now.
These people were not random.
They were not here for treasure.
They were here for her.
Or more precisely
For what she carried.
The Seed of Return.
And the "fate fracture" the man had mentioned.
She looked down at her hand slowly.
Faint frost still lingered.
"…Jiang Chen."
She said his name again, quieter this time.
Not curiosity.
Not suspicion.
But connection.
Something was forming between events she could not yet fully see.
And she disliked unknown connections.
Behind her, deeper in the forest, a shadow observed silently from a distance.
This one did not move.
Did not attack.
Just watched.
Then turned away.
As if reporting.
---
Mu Qinglan closed her eyes briefly.
When she opened them again, her decision had already formed.
She would no longer move blindly through this realm.
She would trace the source.
Whoever was targeting her…
was already inside the realm long before she arrived.
And now
she would find them first.