THE SYSTEM IS NOT MINE

Lin did not return that night.

She had left with a single sentence that permission was required.

The glass remained empty. The heat inside Yan did not.

When the door finally latched shut, his legs failed him.

He collapsed beside the cot, fingers digging into the wood as if anchoring himself to the room. Whatever the green liquid had begun the previous night did not recede. It tightened. Folded inward. The single line in his soul felt stretched as if it was being torn and repaired.

He did not scream.

Pain was not new. Directionless pain was.

The night passed without sleep.

A waterfall stood a few miles away from the sect.

The birds chirped on the clear blue sky. Tan Suzi just finished her bath and came out of the water.

Right at the moment, a young teenager, wrapping his face with bandages and wearing a black dress arrived.

”Who are you? ” Tan Suzi took a sword from her waist and pointed at him.

The man did not say anything, he lunged forward with his sword ”How dare you to harm my brother?”

The blades collided.

Morning arrived flat and grey.

Ren came by afternoon, he had wounds on his body.

He stopped just inside the doorway when he saw Yan upright but unmoving, his back pressed against the wall, skin pale and dry. Ren did not ask what happened. He already knew something had.

Ren arrived at Yan with a damp wet cloth again, pressing the cloth on Yan’s forehead.

“The High-Crag girl,” Ren said quietly after a moment. “Her name is Tan Suzi.”

Yan’s gaze shifted slightly ”What happened to you? Why are you wounded? ”

”Some hurdles in the investigation” Ren replied.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author’s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

”Don’t tell me you got beaten up to get the information” Yan glared at Ren, Ren took a deep breath ”No, I didn’t, it was not a secret though, Tan Suzi is quite famous”

“When she arrived at the sect, she volunteered herself,” Ren continued. ”Went straight to Elder Chao’s side.”

Yan waited.

“Before that you should know about the factions,” Ren added, lowering his voice. “Because the Sect Leader is… absent. Or doesn’t exist in any way that matters.”

Two poles. Yan adjusted the internal map.

“Elder Chao,” Ren said. “And Elder Tao.”

Yan processed the name without reaction. If power split, then extraction did not happen in isolation. It never did.

By evening, the pressure in his chest dulled from agony into weight.He dismissed Ren with a nod and a single instruction.

” Yan, I will take care of her” Ren declared.

” What are you trying to do ?” Yan asked in confusion.

”Don’t worry, leave it to me ” Ren declared, Yan did not press further.

After Ren left for the day, Yan summoned the white text.

It surfaced without resistance.

Mission: Monitor Steward Zhao — Behavioral Deviation Detected

Failure Outcome: Unknown

Yan stared at it for a moment then dismissed the text.

Then He laid back while his eyes fixed on the ceiling beam where the wood darkened unevenly. Zhao. Chao. Tao. Livestock. Extraction. Green resonance.

Lin returned two nights later.

This time, she carried two glasses.

The liquid inside both was the same dense green, opaque and restless, bubbles rising without sound. Her hands were steady, but her breathing was not.

Yan took the first glass and drank immediately.

The heat flared instantly, sharper, more focused. He did not sit down. He took the second before Lin could speak.

Drank again.

The world narrowed.

His knees bent, just slightly. Enough that Lin’s breath caught.

He straightened.

“More,” Yan said.

Lin stared at the empty glasses and then at him.

After about a moment, She left without answering.The next glass came the following night.

Then another.

Then two together again.

Yan did not mark the days. He marked the way the pressure changed, how the pain stopped hurting him. How the line in his chest no longer resisted expansion, but accepted it with grinding reluctance.

Weeks passed.

By the fourth glass, the pressure no longer felt invasive. It felt aligned.

By the sixth, sleep returned, but dreams did not.

By the eighth, livestock depletion raised.

Then months passed.

By the eighth glass, Lin no longer tried to hide her fear.Yan set the vessel down carefully, the glass clicking softly against the table.

“More,” he said.

The white text surfaced on its own.

Compatibility: 5%

Functions Unlocked:

Memory Recall (Active)

A second line flickered beneath it.

Unauthorized Structural Convergence Detected.

It vanished before stabilizing.

Lin did not move, Yan did not look at the text.

And somewhere in the sect.

Tan Suzi lay on the bed, she looked at the ceiling up. ”That guy was weaker, why did he continue to attack despite the disadvantage and who is this brother? Who did I harm?” Thoughts ran through her mind from the incident of weeks before.

The next day, Tan Suzi was moving towards, the water fall, but the bandaged guy intercepted again.

”Look, I don’t know who your brother is” She explained.

But the bandaged man attacked without explanation.

Swords collided.