Author's Preface
"An oracle?" Mark repeated before voicing his confusion. "Like a psychic, you mean?"
"What is a psychic?" The voice in his ear showed genuine curiosity for the first time since they met. "Is that what an oracle is in your world?"
"Not really," Mark said. "It's just something people claim to be when they're bored out of life."
"What do you mean?"
"Some people claim to have certain extraordinary abilities like predicting the future, reading minds, talking with the dead, and things like that, but it's all nonsense."
"How do you know it's nonsense?" The young man pushed.
"Because there is absolutely no evidence for such clearly amazing abilities. If they were true, it would be very easy to prove."
"Hmm," The voice mumbled in his ear, contemplating something. "Let's put that aside for now. Unfortunately, I cannot send you back to your old world, nor was I there. I just happen to have received some visions about your arrival, and some brief flashes of your life."
Mark let out a quiet breath. "I see..." He rubbed his forehead.
At this point, receiving visions from another world hardly sounded stranger than everything else he'd witnessed since arriving here. It wasn't the answer he'd hoped for, but it was an answer nonetheless. Even so, disappointment lingered.
Leaf let the silence linger for only a moment before steering the conversation elsewhere. "Speaking of, what was your cultivation stage in your old world?"
"Cultivation stage?" Mark welcomed the distraction, shoving those thoughts aside. "What is that?"
The green-cloaked figure came to a halt. "Perhaps you call it something else. How strong were you?"
"Strong?" Mark scratched his cheek. "I mean... I wasn't exactly a gym kinda guy. I spent most of my time running around New York for work, so I got plenty of exercise." He paused for a second. "Last time I went, I could bench around two hundred sixty pounds."
The green-cloaked figure walked silently amidst the droves of people coming and going. His questions took a rest for a solid two minutes before he asked in a low voice. "Your world did not have any Qi, did it?"
"Qi?" Mark repeated in bewilderment. "That thing some Chinese people claim to exist in all things?"
"What a mess..." Leaf sighed. "How can we solve this problem if you can't even fight?"
"What problem?" Mark questioned back. "More importantly, who said I can't fight. I don't mean to brag, but I know my way around a fight."
"Tsk," Leaf clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Stop, and close your eyes."
"What?"
"Just do it."
"Alright." Mark sighed, still thoroughly confused, and did as he was told. Standing motionless with eyes closed in the middle of a crowded street made him look like a lunatic, but given everything that had happened today, adding a little more madness to the pile hardly seemed worth worrying about.
"Now, focus on your body. Feel it from head to toe and tell me if anything seems... different." The voice guided through the bead.
However, Mark's sarcastic side was the first to jump in once again. "Brother, I'm in someone else's body. I'd have a harder time finding something that isn't different."
A helpless sigh echoed through the bead, "Heavens... how could he possibly be the right choice?"
Before Mark could launch into another confused 'What?', Leaf cut him off. "I know that, but just focus and see if there is anything else that is different."
Mark bit back the questions rising to his lips and did as instructed.
At first, he noticed nothing beyond the obvious. His body was taller, stronger, heavier. Even the texture of his skin and the way his muscles rested beneath it felt unfamiliar. As he continued searching, however, something else emerged.
The same wondrous energy that had stirred when Leaf first grasped his hand awakened once more. Dynamic, alive, and ready to execute his will.
It was as though an unseen current flowed through his body, ignoring every law of physics he had ever known. It coursed through flesh and bone alike, unhindered by either, and stranger still, it answered to his thoughts.
Curious, Mark willed the energy toward his hands, finding the whole process quite intuitive.
Out of the corner of his eye, Leaf noticed pedestrians giving Mark an increasingly wide berth. Some frowned, and others hurried past with their heads lowered. Before long, what started as anxious whispers quickly devolved into startled cries.
Leaf immediately looked toward Mark.
Pale green strands of Qi were spilling from Mark's body without restraint.
The otherworldly Detective was blatantly letting out his Qi, and a cultivator's Qi was obedient to him, and him only. To anyone else, it was inherently aggressive. If it were so much as touched by someone at the Body Tempering realm, it'd burrow deep into their meridians, and their life would be forfeit.
The frightened pedestrians weren't the problem; the attention they were attracting was. Their escape had bought them only a brief reprieve, and Mark was throwing it away one curious experiment at a time.
As if to prove his fears right, a patrol rounded the corner ahead. Six guards. Alert, vigilant, and armed to the teeth.
Alone, they posed little threat. The problem lay in where they were, a big, famous commercial district.
In all cities in the Immortal realm, such a place would be covered with Tranquil Sky Arrays. The instant they detected a release of spells, they activated. Defensive formations would descend in the blink of an eye, suppressing the technique, restraining its caster in an impenetrable Orb, and sending an alarm straight to the Guard Office.
As Mark was losing himself in the feeling of newfound strength, the voice in his ears cried out with urgency, "Stop," It said. "Cut it off."
Mark did as he was told and opened his eyes. "What?"
Before Leaf could answer, the strange looks from the surrounding pedestrians told him he'd done something wrong. "What happened?"
"You idi..." Leaf quickly stopped himself, knowing that it was his suggestion to begin with.
"I mean, just continue moving for now. Act as if nothing is wrong." He replied with barely restrained annoyance, mostly at himself, as he continued studying the team of guards whose sight by now had locked onto Mark.
Mark continued walking, and it was only after taking a few steps that he noticed the approaching patrol, realizing that the situation was getting out of control. Before he could react, the six guards surrounded him, weapons drawn as though confronting a ferocious beast, not a confused man.
"What should I do?" He swiftly demanded from the person with whom he had spent more than half an hour in this world.
He waited for Leaf's reply, and yet nothing came.
Mark looked toward where he'd last seen him. He was gone.
'Where is he?' His stomach sank.
Fortunately, this wasn't the first time Mark had found himself staring danger in the face. Countless lessons, scars, and hard-earned failures had carved one truth into him.
When everything falls apart, stay calm.
His pulse thundered in his ears. Adrenaline flooded his limbs. Yet his thoughts settled into a stable flow instead of racing, studying the six guards before him.
"They're scared."
His eyes moved from one face to the next, quietly taking in every detail. Rigid shoulders. Unblinking stares. Sweat trickled down the bridge of one guard's nose despite the cool night breeze. What struck him most, however, wasn't the sheer amount of fear despite their numerical advantage.
It was recognition.
Mark's eyes widened ever so slightly. With an almost inaudible sigh, he slowly lowered his arms to his sides.
"We don't have to do this, guys." The words had barely left his mouth before every pair of eyes shifted toward the man standing in the middle.
Broader than the others, the captain wore thick eyebrows over fierce brown eyes. One hand gripped the hilt of a long saber whose worn scabbard spoke of years of companionship.
Mark met his gaze, not in defiance, but in demand of cooperation. There were only two explanations for the tension hanging over the group. Either this body was far stronger than the six guards before him, or there was history between them. A history every one of them knew except the man they were facing.
The tension was either physical or emotional. That's what Mark needed to pinpoint.
The captain's expression twisted with anger. "Mark, you son of a bitch..." His grip tightened around the saber. "Why did you have to do that? Forcing me to do this...Isn't living good?"
'There it is.' Mark thought, his mind racing through the possibilities of what could be done.
"Listen..." He said gently. "This isn't what it looks like."
As he spoke, he watched the captain's face with unwavering focus. He just needed to stall for time, lure out some more information, anything. The more he hears, the more he has, the wider he sees. 'It's salvageable,' He thought, hope flickering inside of his chest.
Much to Mark's dismay, the captain before him cried out the most unforgiving words in that exact moment with clenched jaws. "Isn't this even you?" The saber's handle was gripped even tighter, with both hands this time.
"Oh no..." Mark muttered.
A few moments earlier, the instant the patrol had begun drawing their weapons, Leaf knew the situation had slipped beyond his control.
He didn't dislike the air of mystery Mark had built around him. If anything, it made explaining too much less necessary.
The truth, however, was far less impressive. His gifts lay in seeing beyond what is possible, not in wrestling against six patrol guards stealthily and emerging victorious.
Though he had reached Qi Condensation himself, his cultivation offered him little strength in a fight. Against an ordinary person with no cultivation, he might fare well enough. Against trained guards, he would be little more than another helpless man to arrest.
That was why he so often relied on artifacts, arrays, and talismans. In the middle of the city, however, using any of them was tantamount to suicide. The moment the Tranquil Sky Arrays detected him, he'd be subdued. That much, he knew with absolute certainty.
Under ordinary circumstances, his first instinct would simply have been to flee. Unfortunately, the stakes this time were far too high.
An indescribable evil loomed over the city, something that made even the Heavenly Dao itself panic.
Although his powers had only recently been exhausted and calling upon them again would demand a price, Leaf did not hesitate. The detective could not be apprehended; otherwise, the consequences would be far too dire.
The street had grown suddenly strangely quiet around him, muted, as if a veil had descended at some point.
A dozen paces away, the patrol team had surrounded Mark in the middle of the thoroughfare, cutting off every avenue of escape. The commotion had naturally drawn a crowd. Bored shopkeepers stepped out from their storefronts, passersby slowed to watch, and curious whispers drifted through the gathering onlookers, all ready to watch an interesting show.
Among them, a young boy stood on tiptoe, craning his neck with wide-eyed excitement. Beside him, his mother gripped his shoulder so tightly her knuckles had turned white, already preparing to pull him away should steel be drawn, yet she was also curious enough to remain.
A gust of wind came, arriving from nowhere in particular, carrying neither the scent of rain nor the chill of autumn. It simply existed, stirring loose robes and lifting Leaf's dark hair behind him.
His emerald eyes ignited, a forest's hue projected in front of his face. A gentle radiance bloomed within them, ancient and profound, as though starlight itself had descended into this mortal shell.
Yet despite the unnatural wind and the unmistakable glow, not a single person looked his way. The child remained transfixed by the frozen Mark and the tense atmosphere. The onlookers continued whispering among themselves. The Mother was just as worried.
The world before Leaf changed as a hidden world unfolded before him.
Countless golden strands of energy stretched endlessly into the distance.
They linked every living soul to countless others, entwining an immeasurable network visible only to his eyes. Some blazed thick and brilliant, reaching so far they vanished beyond the horizon, connections tempered through years of love, hatred, gratitude, or resentment. Others were no thicker than strands of silk.
Above everyone's head revolved an ancient wheel of weathered bronze, its eight spokes turned with a quiet and unhurried purpose. It had no sound. Each revolution carried a person's vital soul essence upward before returning it to the crown of their head in an endless cycle.
Some wheels shone with abundant vitality, turning effortlessly like mighty rivers in flood. Others rotated sluggishly, their light faint and withered. Few barely turned at all. Their spokes were warped, rusty, rotten even. Their motion is uneven. Each rotation seemed as though it might be their last.
Leaf's gaze settled upon the patrol captain, who was his target. Like everyone, his karmic connections were as numerous as the hair on an Ox. Yet, one thread in particular had caught his attention, for it behaved in a manner he had never seen before in his entire life.
At first glance, it appeared no different from the countless others surrounding it, and then it shot forth!
Leaf's pupils narrowed, shock overwhelming his mind. Karmic threads did not move without either the intervention of the bearer of the Heaven's Mandate or a particularly gifted Saint realm who has some comprehension of the rules of Casualty.
There was only one other Heaven Bearer beneath the heavens other than himself. He would never concern himself with something so insignificant, and most importantly, he was so far away.
The thread writhed like the tentacle of some grotesque creature. When it was closer to Mark, it stretched toward him, inch by cautious inch. Yet, the instant it drew near, it recoiled violently. As though it had brushed against something that should not exist.
A breath later, however, it reached out again. Then recoiled.
For the first time since opening Heaven's Gaze, bewilderment crossed Leaf's face about his own abilities. "What in the world," He muttered, but he quickly caught himself. There would be time to ponder whatever that was later on, not when everything he had worked so hard for was at stake.
Stretching out a hand, he froze the writhing karmic thread. A translucent green phantom hand emerged from his own and reached toward it.
The instant they touched, Leaf's body went rigid. His head slowly tilted back. The emerald vanished from his eyes as his pupils rolled upward, leaving only milky white.
A faint tremor passed through him, and his entire body began to shake, not from fear, but from the strain of containing something far greater than himself. A thin trail of blood escaped the corner of his lips.
The world faded.
His mind flooded with memories not his own, rushing past in a torrent of colors, voices, and unrecognizable places. Each fragment lasted only an instant, yet he understood every one of them as though he had lived them himself.
A few moments later, his boots landed softly against the stone street as he had started floating at some point.
His complexion was pale, his breathing uneven, but the emerald in his eyes had returned brighter than before. A faint smile tugged at his bloodstained lips.
"Listen carefully." His voice echoed through the communication bead.
The last word he'd spoken had been "Listen", and now Leaf was repeating it back to him. For Mark, the timing was almost jarring.
"His name is Geng Yu," Leaf said rapidly. "Geng. Yu. You served under the same captain before either of you earned your own team. Frank Conley."
Mark didn't wait for the explanation to finish.
"Fucking Geng Yu!" he barked. "Listen. You owe me."
The effect was immediate. The captain hesitated, his momentum momentarily halting.
Leaf's eyes went wide, Mark was merely improvising, and yet...That was exactly the valuable information he had uncovered.
"There was an incident. One of his subordinates accepted a bribe from a merchant at the docks. You caught him. Instead of reporting him, you brought the matter to Geng Yu and allowed him to handle it privately."
"It's the one on the left," he continued. "The man with the chains as a weapon."
A grin threatened to spread across Mark's face, but he quickly swallowed it.
The man stood out immediately. Young. Goatee. The only guard wearing a helmet, with heavy chains wrapped around his forearms instead of a conventional weapon.
"Brother Yu." Mark lowered his voice, subtly closing the distance between them.
The captain frowned but didn't stop him from stepping closer.
"Listen..." Mark began, finding himself repeating the same word again. "I think I've earned the same courtesy I showed you when your..." His thoughts stumbled. Unable to find the right word to use for this world, this situation. "...boy... no... your guy." He winced. "...When your damn subordinate got caught with his hand in the jar down by the docks."
Although Geng Yu had never heard the expression before, he immediately followed Mark's glance toward the chained guard.
His face darkened. "That is not even close to the same." He bellowed. "The whole City is after you. Do you know what it means?"
He looked past Mark at the crowd gathering around them. "...Damn you."
And then he raised his voice. "Stand down!"
"But Captain..." Unhappy murmurs followed.
"Enough." His glare swept across his own men and one woman before speaking loudly, unlike before. "Too many civilians; we can't risk their safety. We'll restrain him physically."
Mark wasn't entirely sure whether he'd understood the subtle message. Just in case, he raised his fists to play his part.
His eyes flickered toward where Leaf had last been standing once again, hoping for some helpful input.
Still nothing...
Geng Yu was already charging. The captain's fist shot toward him with frightening speed.
To Mark, it felt slow. Instinct, coupled with new discoveries, took over. The strange current rushed into his arm before he consciously called upon it.
His left hand brushed Geng Yu's punch harmlessly aside, and his right fist answered.
The impact boomed like thunder.
Geng Yu's eyes widened in equal parts anger, confusion, and disbelief before his entire body left the ground and flew backward.
Silence swallowed the street.
Mark stared at his own clenched fist. "...Am I dreaming?" Unable to believe that such an inhumane amount of damage came out of him.
None of the remaining guards moved. They just stood there dazed, jaws almost touching the floor.
Weren't they supposed to be helping him escape? Did he really have to hit the captain that hard?
"That," Leaf said through the bead after a stunned pause, "Came dangerously close to triggering the Tranquil Sky Arrays, and also particularly dense..." A sigh followed. "Heavens... I truly underestimated how little you know about this world."
Mark had no idea what he'd done wrong this time.
"Run," Leaf said. "First street on the left."
It couldn't have been a worse place to flee. The district had been built for pedestrians rather than carriages, leaving a broad stone avenue packed shoulder to shoulder with people. Rows of storefronts stretched along either side, broken only by the occasional side street.
The moment Leaf's words left his ear, Mark broke into a sprint.
To the surrounding crowd, however, it looked as though the wanted criminal had suddenly charged straight at them.
Panic rippled through the street. Screams erupted from every direction as pedestrians scattered in frantic confusion, shoving past one another in desperate attempts to escape his path.
Leaf walked with very calm steps amidst all of the chaos, a smile tugging at his lips. When he was but a few paces away from the still disoriented team of guards, his right hand, hidden underneath the loose sleeve, stretched open. A tiny black spider broke free, and it didn't waste a second to jump at one of the nearby guards, painlessly digging itself behind his right leg.