The elder's words hung heavy, a chilling pronouncement that settled over the village like a sudden frost. Silence followed, a suffocating blanket woven with fear. Villagers exchanged uneasy glances, their faces pale in the dim light of the lanterns.
Xiao Tian felt a prickle of unease. Prophecies were always trouble. He'd lived through enough "chosen one" scenarios in his past life to know they always ended in either glorious self-sacrifice or abject misery. He much preferred neither.
A sudden shriek tore through the quiet.
Outside.
A guttural snarl echoed, deep and unsettling, from the forest's edge. Children cried out. Women gasped, clutching their loved ones tighter. Fear, raw and visceral, clawed at their throats.
Villagers scrambled, pushing against each other, desperate to get away from the open door of the elder's hut. Panic bloomed, a dark flower in the heart of their peaceful settlement.
Xiao Tian's hand instinctively went to the hilt of his concealed dagger, a habit formed over millennia of constant vigilance. He hadn't expected immediate repercussions. The elder's words must have resonated further than anyone anticipated.
"Shadows!" someone screamed.
Darkness deepened, not the natural descent of night, but a viscous, unnatural gloom that seeped from the trees. Shapes materialized within it, formless at first, then coalescing into grotesque figures.
They looked like men, twisted and elongated, their limbs too long, their bodies too thin. Their eyes, if they possessed any, were pinpricks of malevolent red. Wisps of black smoke trailed from them, leaving a foul odor in the air.
Terror gripped the village. These were not mere beasts. These were... something else. Something ancient, something predatory.
One creature lunged, its spectral claw reaching for a young woman cowering near a stack of firewood. She shrieked, paralyzed by dread.
Xiao Tian moved.
It wasn't a conscious decision. It was instinct, honed by countless battles, by a lifetime of defending himself and, sometimes, others. He was already there, a blur of motion, before his mind even registered the thought.
His palm flashed. Not a punch, not a strike, but a precisely channeled burst of spiritual energy, invisible to the untrained eye. It was simple, elegant, and devastating.
The shadow creature, mid-lunge, froze. A silent, violent tremor rippled through its form. Its red eyes widened, if a shadow could widen eyes, in what looked like spectral agony.
Then, with a soundless pop, it dissolved. Black smoke curled upwards, dissipating into nothingness, leaving behind only the metallic tang of ozone and a faint, cloying scent.
The scent hit Xiao Tian like a physical blow. His breath hitched. His eyes narrowed, scanning the encroaching darkness. *Void energy.* A cold, familiar dread tightened his chest.
More creatures poured from the forest, drawn by the scent of fear, or perhaps the dissipation of their comrade. They moved with an unsettling fluidity, their forms shifting like smoke.
"Stay back!" Xiao Tian's voice was low, laced with an unfamiliar authority that cut through the villagers' panic. He didn't want to draw attention to himself, but he couldn't stand by. Not when *that* smell was in the air.
He stepped forward, placing himself between the villagers and the growing horde. A dozen more creatures lunged, their spectral claws extended, aiming for the soft flesh of the terrified humans.
Xiao Tian didn't bother with elaborate techniques. He was trying to look as weak as possible, to appear merely competent. But *these* creatures... they weren't normal. Their very presence felt wrong.
He executed a series of quick, precise hand movements, barely visible. Each motion sent out a ripple of spiritual force, a tiny, concentrated wave.
*Poof.* *Poof.* *Poof.*
Shadow creatures popped like bubbles. Their forms collapsed, unraveling into smoke and nothingness. No struggle, no sound, just instantaneous annihilation.
It was too easy, even for him. He hadn't even exerted himself. This wasn't right.
The remaining shadows hesitated. A faint, almost imperceptible tremor ran through their ranks. They were intelligent enough to recognize an overwhelming threat.
But they didn't retreat. Their red eyes, still burning with malevolence, fixed on Xiao Tian. A low, hissing chorus began, a sound that crawled under his skin.
"He's... powerful," the elder whispered, his voice filled with awe, from behind Xiao Tian.
Xiao Tian gritted his teeth. *Just what I needed.* More hero worship. More expectations. He just wanted to deal with these things and disappear.
He focused on the void energy. It wasn't strong, not like the concentrated pools he'd encountered in his past life. But it was definitely there, a lingering residue, a signature he knew intimately.
This wasn't some random demonic incursion. This was targeted. And the void energy... it pointed to a very specific, very dangerous source.
The Shadowed Betrayer.
A tremor, not of fear but of cold, calculated fury, ran through him. He thought he had left that all behind. He had rebuilt his life, meticulously, painfully, on a backwater planet, far from the cosmic battles of his past.
Yet here it was, the scent of his nightmare, clinging to these spectral horrors.
He unleashed a slightly more potent wave of energy, a sweeping motion that vaporized five creatures simultaneously. The ground beneath them glowed faintly for a moment, then faded.
This time, the shadows recoiled. A collective hiss, louder now, filled the air. They were communicating. Plotting.
"They're not mindless," Xiao Tian muttered, more to himself than anyone.
One of the larger shadows, its form more defined, almost skeletal, stepped forward. It pointed a long, bony finger at Xiao Tian. A low growl rumbled in its chest, a sound that seemed to tear at the fabric of reality.
Xiao Tian felt a jolt of alarm. This creature was different. Stronger. It didn't just dissipate. It *resisted*.
He met its gaze, his own eyes hardening. He had to end this. Now. Before the void energy trace grew stronger, before *they* knew he was here.
He raised his hand, gathering spiritual energy. This time, he wouldn't hold back as much. He needed a clean sweep. He needed to eliminate all traces.
A shimmering arc of light, almost invisible but radiating immense power, erupted from his palm. It sliced through the air, heading straight for the larger shadow.
The creature roared, a sound of pure defiance and pain. It tried to block the attack, raising its shadowy arm.
The arc of light passed through it.
The shadow creature dissolved, but not immediately. It writhed, its form contorting, its red eyes burning brighter, filled with a raw, ancient hatred. It lasted for a full two seconds before finally collapsing into a cloud of black smoke.
Xiao Tian watched the smoke dissipate. His heart hammered, a frantic drumbeat against his ribs. The void energy was stronger now, a faint echo of the creature's dying essence.
It was close. Too close.
The remaining shadows, perhaps thirty of them, seemed to waver. Their malicious red eyes darted between Xiao Tian and the dissipating remnants of their leader.
Fear, for the first time, seemed to ripple through *them*.
"Go," Xiao Tian commanded, his voice cold and flat. "Tell your masters I am here."
A few of the shadows recoiled, their forms flickering. But others, seemingly more stubborn or perhaps driven by a deeper compulsion, remained. They snarled, a cacophony of hateful whispers.
Xiao Tian sighed. He truly hated grandstanding. But these creatures needed a clear message. He couldn't afford any misunderstandings.
He conjured a simple barrier, a shimmering dome of spiritual energy that encased the entire village. It was transparent, almost ethereal, but pulsed with an undeniable power.
The shadows slammed against it, their spectral claws scraping, but the barrier held firm, unyielding. They couldn't get in. They couldn't get out.
"Now," he said, stepping closer to the barrier, his voice a dangerous murmur. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way."
He didn't wait for a response. He unleashed a series of precise, surgical strikes, each one targeting a specific pressure point in the shadows' ethereal forms.
*Pop. Pop. Pop.*
The remaining creatures began to dissolve rapidly. Their numbers dwindled, their hisses turning into desperate, fading cries.
Xiao Tian moved with brutal efficiency. He didn't enjoy this. Not really. But the scent of void energy was a persistent reminder of his past, a past he had sworn to escape.
He needed to eliminate every trace, every messenger. He needed to ensure no information could reach *them*.
His movements were fluid, almost graceful, yet each strike carried the weight of a dying star. The villagers watched in stunned silence, their fear slowly replaced by an awed disbelief.
This was not just a powerful cultivator. This was a force of nature.
Within moments, only a handful of shadows remained, cowering near the edge of the barrier, their forms flickering wildly. They were on the verge of collapsing from the sheer pressure of Xiao Tian’s spiritual aura alone.
He approached the last, largest one, its form still somewhat intact. Its red eyes burned with a primal hatred, but also a growing despair.
"Who sent you?" Xiao Tian demanded, his voice devoid of emotion, a cold, hard edge to it.
The creature hissed, a sound like grinding stone. It didn't speak. It just glared.
"Tell me," Xiao Tian pressed, a faint, dangerous glow appearing in his hand. "Or suffer."
The shadow bucked, as if trying to break free from an invisible hold. Its form began to unravel, black tendrils peeling away from its core. It was resisting dissolution, fighting to hold itself together.
This resilience was concerning. Even his most potent, yet disguised, attacks were taking longer than they should. This implied a deeper connection to the void, a more powerful master.
Xiao Tian clenched his jaw. He hated this. He hated being forced to reveal even a fraction of his strength. He hated the way his past was catching up to him.
He was tired of fighting. Tired of being strong. He just wanted to be Xiao Tian, the quiet, humble herbalist. But the universe, it seemed, had other plans.
He raised his glowing hand, ready to deliver the final, annihilating blow.
The shadow creature, already half-dissolved, convulsed. Its spectral form flickered wildly, then, with a burst of unnatural will, it reformed just enough.
A spectral claw, skeletal and sharp, snapped into existence. It pointed directly at Xiao Tian's chest.
A single, ancient word, rasped through the dying creature's essence, echoing in Xiao Tian's mind like a death knell: "Traitor."