Chapter 95: Time to Choose

Kian woke to sunlight cutting through the hut’s open window, warm and golden against his bare skin.

He stretched slowly, feeling the pleasant ache in his muscles and the soft press of naked limbs all around him.

Xiao Cui was still curled into his chest, one leg thrown over his hip, her breath soft and even. Jia lay sprawled across the foot of the bed, Mia had her face pressed into the crook of his neck, and Jiao Yin was wedged against his side with one hand still resting on his stomach.

He didn’t move right away. The sunlight fell across the rumpled sheets in long, lazy strips, and for a moment he just breathed.

Then he opened his system.

The panel flickered to life, and notifications stacked one after another, all of them from the night’s work. A cold blue glow filled his vision.

[You have absorbed the Virgin Yin of ’Xiao Cui.’]

[Body Box added: Xiao Cui.]

Kian slid out from under Xiao Cui’s leg and sat up. The movement made Jiao Yin stir, but she only turned her face into the pillow and went still again.

He stood, stepped over Jia’s sprawled arm, and padded out through the hut’s open doorway. The island air hit him cool and clean, carrying salt and wildflowers.

He stretched once, hard, until his joints popped like a line of firecrackers.

The sun was higher than he’d thought. He walked a little way from the hut, bare feet pressing into the black sand, and called up the Body Box. The system flickered.

[Opening Xiao Cui’s Body Box...]

The die rolled inside his skull, a hot, spinning weight that made his teeth ache. Then it stopped.

[New Ability Acquired: Loved By the Land.]

[Rank: Grey.]

That caught him by surprise.

All his previous abilities had been Black. Grey was a tier higher, and he had needed to make Jia reach a higher favorability to get there with Twin Hearts.

The description unfolded slowly.

What could the ability do?

[You can feel the weight of the land. Places speak to your bones. Just by looking at a place, you can figure out how dangerous the place is. Green—safe. Yellow—danger you can survive. Red—deathly danger.]

An advanced danger sense ability!

Kian blinked.

He let the words settle and focused on the ground beneath his feet.

The sand, the grass, the low trees. At first nothing came.

Then color bled into the edges of his vision—soft and pale, like wet dye spreading through water.

Green. The whole island glowed green.

He turned his head toward the distant shoreline and the water beyond. The green did not hold in the waters.

It was brutal red.

Then he thought of the city, of places he’d passed, of the dark spots where he’d felt that prickle at the back of his neck.

What if he used this ability there?

Kian exhaled and rolled his shoulders.

It wasn’t a combat gift. It wasn’t flashy. But knowing whether a place could kill him before he stepped into it?

That was worth more than a flashy technique for the current him.

The green glow faded after a few seconds, leaving the island in ordinary morning light. Kian stared at the black sand under his feet and let out a slow breath. Green. Still green. The place he had claimed was exactly as safe as he needed it to be.

He turned back toward the hut. The girls were still asleep, tangled in the sheets, no reason to wake them. He grabbed his indigo robe from the floor, pulled it over his head, and walked down toward the shoreline.

At the edge of the black sand, he reached for that familiar tug deep in his chest. The world bent, the sound of the sea folded in on itself. Snap.

Mulberry Gate City opened around him, busy and loud, rich with the smell of frying oil and spirit-herb smoke.

But he was deep in his house, still able to feel the rush faintly due to his sharpened senses.

He found Feimei in the living room before the old low table, her back to the door and a stack of yellowed letters spread open in front of her. Her shoulders were shaking.

Kian stopped at the threshold. "Feimei?"

She turned slightly and wiped the heel of her palm across her eyes.

"What is it?" he asked. "Why are you crying?"

She tried to smile. "The letters. They were in the hut. I read them, and the story of the woman who left this island behind is too tragic."

Kian glanced at the table. The paper was brittle and dark with age, the characters small and carefully pressed.

"Tell me."

Feimei folded one letter closed and smoothed its corner.

"She was a woman sent to purge demons from hell. For years, she hunted them beyond this sea. But hell, the source of demons, grew too strong for her to resist. The demons multiplied faster than she could kill, and she could no longer keep up with their rise."

She paused, and Kian saw her throat move. "The demons chased her. She had no choice but to escape into a dark sea with her island. She never returned."

"Dark sea?" Kian’s mind snapped to the red glow he had seen from the shore. "This island is still in that same sea, isn’t it?"

Feimei nodded, wiping her eyes again. "Yes. The water around our island is the dark sea where even demons did not dare chase her. You must never leave the island and enter those waters. It’s dangerous."

Kian exhaled. The red stain in his vision made sense now.

"I already knew it was dangerous. The whole water around us glowed red to me. We won’t go near it."

She nodded.

Kian reached out and patted Feimei’s hair. It was soft under his palm, still carrying the faint warmth of the fire from the night before.

"Don’t read old tragedies alone then," he said. "Next time wake me."

Feimei gave a weak laugh and pushed his hand away, but she didn’t let go of his wrist for a long second.

"I’m fine. Go do whatever you need to do."

Kian squeezed her shoulder once and left the house.

The moment he stepped outside, Mulberry Gate hit him in full force.

Street vendors were already shouting, and disciples and mortals pressed through the narrow roads in thick rivers.

Kian walked until he found a quiet corner near a low wall, then let the new ability bleed into his sight again.

’Tell me how dangerous you are, Mulberry Gate.’

Green.

The wall, the stalls, the old temple roof across the lane—all soft and safe, like washed-out jade.

He turned slowly, scanning the long market road, the side alleys, the stone bridges that crossed the shallow canals.

Most of the city glowed green.

The greys and golds of the buildings stayed themselves, but the edges shimmered with that pale, alive color.

Then he turned toward the richer area behind the forge district, and the color shifted.

Yellow.

Not bright, but steady.

’That’s where the guards live. I remember that feisty captain woman came from there.’

Yellow.

Kian smiled.

The kind of warning that said danger was survivable, but only if he stayed sharp.

’Soon, it should become green.’

Kian kept turning until his gaze fell past the northern gate. Towards the sect where Su Chen lived.

The color died in that direction.

Green and yellow cut off like they had been swallowed. Beyond the gate, the road, the ruined shrine, the old pine forest—

Red.

Crimson, deep red.

The entire direction was red. Not a patch or a smear, but a wall of deep, pulsing crimson that made his stomach tighten.

Even the air over it looked wrong.

Kian let the color fade and memorized the feeling.

Most of the city was safe enough to move through without worry, but that direction had shit ton of danger.

The yellow spots were worth avoiding unless he had no choice.

And the north was a direction he would never walk unless he wanted to die.

Things were more hectic than he imagined.

He turned back toward the house, hands in his sleeves, and walked easy.

The walk home unspooled in front of him, but his mind kept circling back.

There was one thing he had been putting off since the breakthrough, one decision the system had offered and he had buried under everything else.

The heavenly technique.

It was time that he finally chose his own and gave the rest to his women.

What ability should he choose?

Valiant King Technique, The Divine Farmer, Golden Warrior, Silent Swimmer, and Ninefold Star Body.

Valiant King Technique — the more land you conquer, the stronger your cultivation becomes.

The Divine Farmer — the better the plants and farms you build, the more your cultivation benefits.

Golden Warrior — the more warriors you kill who are stronger than you, the stronger your cultivation becomes.

Silent Swimmer — the more rivers, lakes, seas, and hidden waters you conquer as your domain, the stronger your cultivation grows.

Ninefold Star Body — the more star essence and celestial paths you absorb, the stronger your body and cultivation become.

Kian decided that he had to choose one now.