The moonlight sliced through the forest canopy as Chen Lan stabilized his second-tier Arcane Core. He crept back to his cabin, the enhanced hearing from his breakthrough catching muffled sobs from Old Man Lin's property. A woman's grief-stricken voice intertwined with the old man's suppressed whimpers - was that Erya? The sounds vanished like smoke. Chen Lan gripped his obsidian pendant. Whatever darkness plagued the Lins could wait until dawn.
The next morning revealed an empty Lin homestead. Chen Lan's boots crunched through frost-covered cornfields to the magical cultivation plots. No trace of the grandfather-granddaughter duo. By twilight's crimson smear across Montana skies, he found Erya's shadow trembling behind drawn curtains.
"Erya? Mr. Lin?" Chen Lan's knuckles hovered at the oak door.
"Go." The old man's voice rasped like wind through dead pines. "Our paths diverge from this night."
Erya's whimper pierced the log walls. Chen Lan's jaw tightened. Since when did the kind herbalist who taught him mandrake-root potions become this broken recluse?
Six moons cycled. Chen Lan's core glowed at 51% capacity when supply runner Xu Dazhu arrived with provisions. The burly man gulped moonberry wine, eyeing the glowing protection runes on Chen Lan's acreage.
「Heard about the Lins?」 Dazhu wiped his beard. 「Wang Ermazi brought back Lin Changhe's corpse from Banshee Canyon. Claims the wife got vaporized by shadowspawn.」
Chen Lan's wine chalice froze mid-air. That land-grabbing scumbag playing Good Samaritan? Since when did Montana's most notorious loan shark do free favors?
Dazhu leaned closer, whiskey breath hot. 「Now Ermazi's plowing their fields, whispering about 『taking responsibility』.」 The runner spat. 「That lecher eyeing Erya since her first blood moon.」
Ice crystallized in Chen Lan's veins. The thirteen-year-old's terrified face flashed in his mind. His core pulsed crimson - the Forbidden Grove's trial had taught him exactly how to deal with predators.