Path of the Forgotten.

The sky was still dark when Elder Mo arrived.

Dawn hadn't broken, but the sect's spiritual wards had already registered a violent fluctuation from the outer quarters. He moved quickly, robes stirring only faintly, arriving just as the last embers of the soul lantern flickered back to life.

The guards posted at Lin Feng's door? Unconscious.

No signs of blood. No signs of battle.

Yet the air reeked of something primal — not spiritual energy, not elemental force, but pressure, raw and ancient.

Inside, Lin Feng lay on the floor, still breathing. Alive.

But next to him, a dagger made of silk-threaded obsidian had melted into slag.

And scrawled into the stone beneath his head — burned by no visible hand — were three crooked, half-formed characters no elder could fully translate.

Mo said nothing.

He turned his sleeve, released a calming incense into the air, and called no one.

Instead, he lifted Lin Feng's unconscious form with careful, deliberate movements and vanished without a trace.

The sect would hear nothing of this.

Not yet.

---

Outer Sect – Late Morning

When Lin Feng woke again, the sky outside was pale gold. Warmer. But the room he found himself in was not his own.

Stone walls. Clean, lined with simple silks and one unlit lamp. A narrow stream of spiritual mist trickled from a gourd in the corner, keeping the air rich with Qi.

He sat up slowly. Pain flared briefly — then vanished. His body felt…

Wrong. Lighter. Like a layer of himself had been scraped off and something else, something colder, lay underneath.

His broken sword rested against the wall beside him.

His robe had been replaced with a clean, pale-blue one — bearing the pattern of the Seventh Elder's personal insignia.

> "Why…?"

Before he could finish the thought, the door creaked open.

A girl entered. Young, outer sect uniform, eyes avoiding his.

She placed a new bowl of medicinal porridge near his bed and left without a word.

Lin Feng watched her go.

No one asked him questions. No one gave him answers.

---

Inner Slope – Council of Shadows

Deep within the mountain, seven figures sat in a half-circle around a simple scrying pond. The image hovering above it flickered with residual heat — showing the final moments of the duel… and then static.

> "We still don't know what technique he used," murmured one elder.

> "Because it wasn't a technique," another snapped. "That was instinct. Something inside him woke up. For a moment."

The Seventh Elder remained silent.

Then spoke:

> "We let him rest. One more day. Then summon him."

> "And if he resists?"

> "He won't."

The others murmured in dissatisfaction.

But none dared challenge it.

---

Outer Slopes – That Night

The wind howled low across the peaks.

Lin Feng stood just outside the chamber's rear courtyard, shirtless, body wrapped in bandages. His breath steamed faintly in the warm air — though the air itself wasn't cold.

He moved his arms slowly, testing the limits.

His spiritual core still functioned… but the flow had changed. Before, Qi moved like a stream — now, it obeyed like a command. Tight. Efficient. Too efficient.

Like it feared wasting a single drop.

He clenched his fists.

A whisper slid past his ear.

He turned — nothing.

But on the wall behind him, someone had carved something into the wood, barely visible:

"You're being watched."

---

Hidden Valley Below the Main Sect – Unknown Location

The assassin sat in silence.

His robes were torn. His blade was gone. His voice — stolen by whatever force had met him that night.

His mind shattered, yet still aware enough to tremble when the woman stepped into the torchlight.

Her robes bore no sect insignia.

Only the faint shimmer of moonlight embroidery.

She knelt beside him, touching his temple with a single finger.

> "You saw too much," she whispered gently. "But not enough to matter."

His eyes filled with terror.

> "Forget."

And with that, his eyes rolled back, and the last sliver of thought left him forever.

---

End of Chapter 14

Key Unfoldings:

Lin Feng is taken and protected by the Seventh Elder — quietly and without fanfare.

His body continues to change. The Qi inside him now behaves unnaturally well.

The assassin survived… only to be found and wiped clean by a mysterious woman in moon-embroidered robes (hinting at the Hidden Moon Pavilion).

The elders grow restless. A council is called.

Lin Feng senses he is not just a subject of interest — but a hunted unknown.

Something inside him is watching back.