"Dead?" I repeated, allowing the word to hang in the air for a moment. "How?"

Lin Mei glanced nervously at Liu Chen before continuing in a lower voice. "They found him in one of the storage courtyards. It was... messy."

Wei Lin guided Liu Chen back to his bed. "Maybe you should try to get some more sleep—"

"I want to know what happened," Liu Chen protested, clutching his practice sword closer. "I'm not a baby."

I studied the boy's face – there was fear there, yes, but also a hardness in his eyes that spoke of someone who had seen worse. Whatever his past held, he probably wasn't as sheltered as Wei Lin assumed.

"Alright," I sighed, "but stay close."

Lin Mei sat down on the edge of Wei Lin's bed, twisting her hands in her lap. "From what I overheard, the guards found him about an hour ago. His body was... arranged. Like some kind of ritual."

A chill ran down my spine as I remembered the cloaked figure from earlier. "Arranged how?"

"In a spiral pattern," she whispered. "With formation marks drawn in his own blood. And his..." she swallowed hard. "His cultivation base was completely drained. Not just suppressed or broken – drained. Like someone had extracted every drop of spiritual energy from his body."

"That's not possible," Wei Lin said immediately. "Even Stellar Realm cultivators can't completely drain someone's cultivation base. The spiritual energy is too deeply integrated with the Inner World and—"

"Unless," I interrupted, thinking of Wei Ye's artificial channels, "someone knew exactly how to extract it. Someone with an intimate understanding of how spiritual energy flows through the body."

The same kind of someone who could modify soul structures and create artificial beings.

"Master," Azure's voice echoed in my mind, "the timing..."

"I know," I replied mentally. Xiao Feng's death coming so soon after spotting what looked like a resurrected Li Yuan couldn't be coincidence. Especially given how Xiao Feng had been responsible for Li Yuan's death.

Was this revenge? But if Li Yuan had really been brought back somehow, why go through such an elaborate ritual? Why not just kill Xiao Feng directly?

"The guards are saying it must have been a demonic cultivator," Lin Mei continued. "Only they would use such... methods."

"The formation marks," Wei Lin frowned. "That suggests this wasn't just revenge. A simple killing would have been enough for that. Maybe you’re right, maybe this was... something else."

"One of the guards did say it looked like a sacrifice," Lin Mei added quietly. "Like his spiritual energy was being offered to something."

I felt my blood run cold. "Please tell me we're not dealing with gods.”

"Gods?" Liu Chen's eyes went wide.

"Probably not actual gods," Wei Lin assured him quickly. "More likely someone trying to tap into divine laws or higher realm powers. Still bad, but not quite 'deity walking around the way station' bad."

He had a point – true divine beings were rare in this age; some would even say they were nothing more than a myth. More likely we were dealing with someone experimenting with power they didn't fully understand. Which was... probably worse, actually.

"What about his guards?” I asked. “The Elemental Realm cultivators. Where were they?"

"That's the strange part," Lin Mei replied. "They were right there, in the courtyard. They claim they felt nothing – no spiritual fluctuations, no qi disturbances, nothing to indicate their young master was in danger. Whatever technique the killer used, it completely bypassed their spiritual senses."

We all went silent as we tried to comprehend what we had just learned.

"But why target Young Master Xiao?" Liu Chen asked, finally breaking the silence. "Was he... was he bad?"

I exchanged looks with Wei Lin and Lin Mei, remembering how casually Xiao Feng had ordered Li Yuan's death. "He wasn't a good person," I said carefully. "He hurt people because he could, because he thought his family's power meant no one could touch him."

"And now he's dead," Liu Chen said with the brutal simplicity of a child. "Because someone stronger hurt him back."

"That's... that's one way to look at it," I admitted. "Power doesn't just protect you – it makes you a target. Every young master thinks they're the hero of their own story, but there's always someone with more hero energy out there."

"Hero energy?" Lin Mei raised an eyebrow.

"You know what I mean," I waved a hand vaguely. I'd used the term 'hero' deliberately, knowing it was something Liu Chen could understand.

Every child in this world grew up hearing stories of legendary cultivators and mighty heroes. Even in the poorest villages, there were always tales of righteous cultivators ascending to immortality or evil demons being struck down by heaven's chosen.

"So... Xiao Feng thought he was a hero," Liu Chen said slowly, working it out, "but he met a bigger hero?"

Wei Lin coughed, trying to hide what sounded suspiciously like a laugh. "That's... not exactly how I'd put it, but I guess so."

"Is... is Rocky going to be okay out there?" Liu Chen asked, his voice small.

"Rocky will be fine," I assured him, though I wasn't entirely sure myself. "He's in his breakthrough form right now – most people would just see a boulder. And he's far enough from the way station that whoever did this probably wouldn't have gone near him."

The boy nodded, but he didn't look completely convinced. I couldn't blame him. When your first real friend was a stone guardian, the idea of someone who could drain spiritual essence would be particularly terrifying.

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The kid stood up suddenly, his practice sword shaking slightly in his grip. His next words came out in a rush: "Can we train some more? I need to get stronger. I need to be the biggest hero, so I can protect Rocky, then nobody will dare hurt him!"

I understood the impulse – physical activity could help process fear, give your mind something else to focus on. But right now I needed to think, to try and piece together what was really happening.

"Liu Chen..." I started, then paused, seeing the fierce light in his eyes.

"Please?" he insisted. "You said heroes are the strongest, right? So that means they can protect people, I want to be like that. I want to be so strong that no one can hurt my friends ever again!"

Wei Lin and Lin Mei exchanged concerned looks. We all learned the reality the last time we were here – that power often attracted more trouble than it solved, that being a "hero" in this world was usually a quick path to an early grave.

But how do you explain that to a child whose whole world had narrowed down to protecting his stone friend?

"Not yet," I said gently. "I need to meditate first. Clear my head." Seeing his face fall, I added, "Being a hero isn't just about being strong, Liu Chen. It's about being smart, about knowing when to train and when to wait. Right now, we need to think carefully about what's happening."

The boy's face fell, but he nodded, sitting back down on his bed.

"Why don't you show Lin Mei what Ke Yin taught you earlier?” Wei Lin suggested. “I'm sure she'd love to see your progress."

Lin Mei caught on immediately. "Oh yes! And maybe I can help with your form too. I'm not as good with a sword as Ke Yin, but I know the basics."

As they distracted Liu Chen with sword practice, I settled into a meditation pose on my bed, closing my eyes. Within moments, I was in my inner world.

"Alright, let's talk about what we saw earlier. You said Li Yuan's qi signature was modified – could this be possession?"

"No," Azure replied thoughtfully. "If it was a living host possession, we'd see more of a merger pattern – two spiritual signatures intertwining and fighting for dominance."

"What about possession of an empty vessel? If his original soul was already dead?"

"Then we'd see inconsistencies between the body's inherent spiritual pathways and the new soul's energy flow... unless they used extremely advanced techniques like in your case." Azure's tone shifted slightly at the mention of my situation. "But this is different."

"Different how?"

"It's difficult to explain in normal terms," Azure replied. "Imagine... imagine a painting. The original artists' brushstrokes are still there, but someone has gone over them, adding new layers that change the overall image while keeping the basic structure intact."

"So it was definitely him? His original... soul structure or whatever was still there?"

"Yes and no," Azure's tone was thoughtful. "The base pattern was his, but it had been heavily altered. Almost like someone had taken his spiritual matrix and... repurposed it. Used it as a foundation to build something new."

"But why?" I frowned. "Why go through all that trouble? Why not just... I don't know, create a new spiritual matrix from scratch?"

"Perhaps they can't," Azure suggested. "Or perhaps existing matrices are easier to work with than creating new ones. Think about cultivation – it's always easier to follow an established path than to forge a completely new one."

I thought about that, about the implications. "So, someone is... what? Collecting dead cultivators' spiritual matrices and recycling them somehow?"

"It would explain both Li Yuan's apparent resurrection and the ritual draining of Xiao Feng's cultivation base," Azure agreed. "They may need the spiritual energy to power whatever process they're using."

"Which means we really don't want them noticing us," I murmured with a frown. "Especially not the blue sun's energy. If Wei Ye recognized it as similar to Life Realm energy..."

"Yes, someone capable of manipulating souls would be very interested in such power. Perhaps we should avoid using it entirely for now, at least until we're back at the sect."

I nodded. The blue sun's healing abilities were useful, but not worth risking attention from whatever was hunting cultivators.

"We should also—" Azure's voice cut off abruptly as a wave of pressure slammed into my consciousness, forcibly ejecting me from my inner world.

My eyes snapped open as I gasped for breath, the physical world rushing back with crushing intensity.

Wei Lin and Lin Mei were already on their feet, though their legs visibly trembled. Even Liu Chen had abandoned his sword practice, pressing himself against the far wall as if trying to merge with the wooden panels. His practice sword lay forgotten on the floor where it had slipped from his shaky fingers.

The pressure was immense – like being at the bottom of an ocean, the weight of spiritual power threatening to crush us. This wasn't just Elemental Realm energy. This was something more.

"What..." Liu Chen's voice was barely a whisper. "What is that?"

"Someone powerful," Wei Lin managed to reply through gritted teeth, his usual confident demeanor stripped away. His knees buckled, forcing him to grab the edge of a nearby table for support. "Very powerful."

The pressure increased, sweeping through the way station like a tidal wave. I could feel it searching, probing, looking for... something. Or someone.

"Don't move," I forced the words out, though speaking felt like swallowing glass. "Don't even think about using spiritual energy."