CHAPTER 135: HAZE AMIDST THE LIGHT

Feng Jiao Xue woke to the scent of smoke and dew, soft earth beneath her and the weight of sleep still clinging to her limbs.

Her eyes opened slowly, lids heavy. The world was quiet, so quiet....

Feng Jiao Xue immediately sat up. ’Too quiet.’ To the point that it didnt feel right. And she immediately smelled it. The metallic scent lingering in the air. Blood. It was too noticeable, too strong, as if the scent was actually covering them.

The fire had burned low sometime during the night. Only faint orange embers pulsed weakly in the shallow stone pit, the warmth barely brushing her skin. A thin layer of mist curled along the forest floor, winding lazily between roots and rocks.

And just beside her, sitting cross-legged with his tail curled close like a blanket, was Mo Tianze.

His white ears twitched once, catching a subtle shift in the air he’d noticed her stirring.

She turned her head fully to look at him.

He wasn’t watching her. Not at first. His gaze was turned outward, toward the narrow, winding path ahead, jaw set in quiet vigilance. One hand rested near the hilt of the small blade strapped to his side. He looked like he hadn’t moved all night.

And beneath the dim haze of dawn, he looked older somehow. Not by age, but by experience, shaped by exhaustion, and something deeper, quieter.

"Mo Tianze?" she asked, her voice still hazed from sleep and uncertainty.

Mo Tianze turned to her, eyes bright and alert despite the shadows under them. He blinked once, then gave a small, sheepish smile. As if that sight of him was just a mirage, an illusion as his sunny, bright smile pierced through that so unfamiliar look on him.

"Your awake" he beamed.

Feng Jiao Xue raised her brow. "Did you sleep at all?" She asked with a frown as she had remembered him sleeping next to her.

"I woke up earlier" Mo Tianze replied easily, his bushy tail flickering slightly to his side before halting.

Feng Jiao Xue sat up with a soft groan, brushing a few leaves from her coat. "You should’ve rested. Its going to be another long day."

"Its fine. Did you sleep well?" he said. "You were frowning in your sleep. Like something was chasing you."

She stilled at that.

"...I don’t remember the dream," she murmured after a pause, then exhaled through her nose. "But that sounds about right."

Mo Tianze tilted his head slightly, his ears flattening just a little as he watched her. "The maze is getting to you."

"It’s too quiet today" she said, hugging her knees to her chest. "I don’t like it."

He didn’t reply immediately. The silence stretched, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Not entirely. Just... weighty.

Feng Jiao Xue looked at him again, really looked this time. His pale hair was tousled, bits of ash clinging to the ends. His eyes were ringed with tiredness he pretended not to have, and his hands, usually fidgeting, were still. Steady.

"You always do this," she said quietly. "Put me first."

Mo Tianze blinked, ears flicking upright. "What do you mean?"

"You act like you’re just tagging along, but you’ve been watching over me since the beginning." Her eyes searched his face. It’s clear that he did not have any sleep at all. It is safe to assume he was awake the entire night. "Even when I don’t ask."

He looked away, the tips of his ears tinged with pink. "Is that... bad?"

"No." she said softly. "Just... don’t forget to take care of yourself too."

He didn’t answer right away, but his fingers tightened slightly on his knee. "I’m fine. As long as you’re okay."

She reached out before she could think better of it and brushed his fringe aside with the back of her hand, letting her fingers linger for a second too long. His eyes widened just a bit.

"Thanks for staying up," she said, voice quiet. "Really."

Mo Tianze didn’t say anything. His face was doing that thing again, where he clearly had too many feelings and didn’t know which one to wear. Instead, he nodded once, then looked back toward the path.

"Should we eat something before we go?" he asked, his voice a little lighter now.

"Mm." She stood slowly, brushing dirt off her clothes. "I could use tea. Or a proper bed and rest."

"I only packed spirit cakes," he offered with a small grin.

"Guess I’ll take the bed and rest next time."

He laughed softly, and the sound settled into her chest like a warm coal.

They didn’t speak for a while after that. The world around them was beginning to stir, distant bird calls echoed faintly through the trees, and the light overhead was turning from gray to gold. Even the shadows seemed less sharp than before.

Feng Jiao Xue packed her things wordlessly, efficient and practiced. Mo Tianze stood beside her, his satchel already slung across his shoulder, tail swaying behind him with quiet energy.

As they turned to face the deeper path into the maze, he leaned close enough for their arms to brush. Just barely.

"I’ll walk beside you" he said, voice lower now, more serious. "No matter what’s waiting in there."

She looked up at him, a strange tightness blooming in her chest.

"Then let’s go," she said. "Before this peace decides to change its mind."

And together, they walked forward, side by side into the silence.

Gone were the relentless howls of spirit beasts, the snap of sudden traps, and the ragged cries of combat.

In their place lay a silence too thick to be natural, so still it pressed against the skin like fog, like something waiting to fall.

Feng Jiao Xue slowed her steps. The soft crunch of moss beneath her boots barely disturbed the quiet, but still she paused, eyes narrowing as her senses reached outward.

They were deep now, close to the center of the maze.

And yet... no sign of the frenzy that was supposed to greet them here.

No twisted roots lashing from the trees. No illusions trying to swallow the path. No other contestants bursting from the shadows with blades drawn.

Nothing.

The branches above curled into a cathedral of gnarled limbs, only the thinnest streaks of sunlight bleeding through the cracks. The air was cold enough to prickle along her arms, but not from wind. From stillness.

"...It’s too quiet," she murmured, fingers brushing the hilt of her wand as her gaze swept the underbrush. "No beasts. No people. No traps, for almost an hour now."

Mo Tianze walked beside her, his footsteps light, nearly soundless. His tail hung low behind him, the white tip twitching gently with each step. His ears shifted slightly at her words, though he didn’t look surprised.

"Yeah" he said.

She glanced at him, reading his profile.

It was relaxed, almost too relaxed.

"Doesn’t that seem strange to you?" she asked, voice low but firm.

He shrugged, but it was a small, loose motion. "Maybe we’re just ahead of the pack. Most people probably got stuck back there, or they’ve already cleared this path up... or turned around."

She wasn’t convinced.

From the moment the trial began, this maze had tried to kill them at every step. There were supposed to be layers, waves of tests, creatures, traps all meant to thin the herd. But now it felt like something had already cleared the way for them. And not gently.

"There were over two thousand entrants," she said, her tone thoughtful, wary. "We should have heard someone. Spellfire, running footsteps, something."

She paused.

"Unless..." her voice drifted, but the end of the thought lingered in the air like a ghost.

Mo Tianze gave a soft hum in response. "Ambushes, maybe. Like you guessed earlier. Some groups might’ve wiped out the stronger ones before they had the chance to reach the center."

There was something oddly careful in the way he said it. Not cold, Mo Tianze was never cold, but deliberate. Jusg someghing that doesnt belong to jis ussual bright and soft demeanor. Like he’d measured those words before speaking them.

Feng Jiao Xue pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, trying to shake the weight in her chest.

It was a good theory. Logical, even. She had seen signs of organized groups, small alliances forming as soon as the trial began. But it didn’t explain the utter emptiness of the trail ahead. No blood. No broken talismans. No signs of hasty retreat.

Only quiet.

"...That would mean a lot of people are already out," she murmured.

Mo Tianze said nothing for a few beats, then stepped toward a crooked stone along the path. He crouched, one hand brushing the surface. There, barely visible, was a slash mark etched into the rock, its edges stained dark. Something burnt had curled up around the base, scorched moss and a faint scent of spirit ash.

"Fresh" he said, glancing up at her. "Not more than a few hours."

Feng Jiao Xue knelt beside him, examining the mark. "No body?"

His eyes flicked to the trees, then down the shadowed path. "Maybe they didn’t leave one. Or maybe they weren’t human by the time it was over."

She tilted her head slightly, but didn’t press. He was right. They’d seen what some of the maze’s beasts could do, twisting people, warping their bodies into things better left unnamed.

Still, something prickled at her spine. A thread of tension she couldn’t quite place.

Mo Tianze rose to his feet with a smooth movement. "It’s almost peaceful now," he said.

"It’s too peaceful," she replied immediately. "This place should be crawling with traps by now."

"You want more traps?" he asked, his voice lighter, teasing on the surface, but just below that, something unreadable rippled through it.

"I want certainty" she muttered, scanning the path again. "This feels... wrong. Like we’re walking into the aftermath of something we weren’t invited to see."

He gave a small laugh, but it didn’t carry far.

"You’re overthinking again."

She gave him a look. "Isn’t that what’s kept us alive so far?"

He grinned at that, flashing the faintest hint of fang. "No, its because Xiao Xue is just the best."

She rolled her eyes and turned back to the trail, but the smirk ghosted on her lips for a moment. Still, the unease lingered. The silence wasn’t restful, it was expectant.

And Mo Tianze... didn’t seem bothered. Not by the absence of threats, not by the strangeness in the air.

In fact, the longer they walked, the more it felt like he knew where to step. His feet avoided unstable roots without thought. His hand brushed the air ahead of him once or twice, subtle and swift, like checking for something unseen.

She chalked it up to instinct.

But there was a moment, just one, when she caught him glancing at a tree’s base where an old wound in the bark bled faint traces of qi. And there was a mark, barely there, something like a scratch or a blade drag.

It wasn’t the first she’d seen.

Still, she said nothing.

Instead, she walked beside him, fingers lightly trailing over her wand’s hilt. Her mind buzzed with questions she didn’t know how to form, and answers she didn’t quite trust herself to want.

Eventually, he broke the silence.

"Think we’ll get to the center before nightfall?"

She tilted her head, studying the maze ahead. The path curled like a serpent, winding toward something they couldn’t see.

"If this quiet holds, maybe."

"But you don’t trust it."

She hesitated, then stopped walking.

"No," she said, turning her eyes to him, "but I trust you."

Mo Tianze blinked, caught off-guard. His mouth opened slightly, but no words came out. Just a soft exhale, like his lungs had forgotten how to move.

But she had already turned and started walking again, coat brushing the ferns at her sides like black wings.

He stood there for a beat longer.

Then followed.

And though they moved together in silence, it was no longer just the maze that held its breath.