Aiden watched the scene in silence.

The merchant stood behind a wooden table, sweating slightly despite the cool breeze drifting in from the street. He looked to be in his forties, dressed in plain but tidy robes, with the face of someone who had spent years bargaining his way through markets.

On the table sat a small velvet cloth.

And on top of it rested the item drawing all this attention.

It was tiny.

No larger than a finger.

A miniature sword, carefully crafted from a dark metal with faint silver engravings running along the flat of the blade. It looked more like an ornament than a weapon, the kind rich collectors might hang from their belts for decoration.

Not exactly impressive.

The merchant raised both hands dramatically.

"I swear on my reputation, this item contains genuine qi!"

That only made a few people laugh.

A bald man near the front crossed his arms.

"Your reputation?" he said dryly. "You sell junk charms and fake talismans every other month."

A few people around him snickered.

The merchant’s smile twitched.

"T-This is different," he insisted quickly. "This item is special."

Someone in the back scoffed.

"Then activate it."

"Yeah, show us what it does."

The merchant’s face stiffened.

"Well..." he coughed awkwardly. "That is... slightly difficult."

The crowd immediately began losing interest.

As expected.

Items related to qi were not things ordinary people could verify.

Only a Qi Sense Stage cultivator could truly perceive qi directly, and even then, not all of them had the experience to judge strange artifacts.

For normal people, they were basically gambling blind.

A woman shook her head and turned away.

"Waste of time."

One by one, people started leaving.

The noisy crowd that had gathered so eagerly began thinning out almost immediately.

"Called it. Another scam."

"Told you."

"Let’s go."

Within moments, what had been a packed gathering turned into just a handful of curious stragglers.

The merchant’s face visibly fell.

His shoulders drooped slightly as his grand sale crumbled before him.

Then Aiden stepped forward.

His robe shifted softly as he approached the table.

The merchant’s eyes lit up immediately.

"Ah! Young sir, you have an eye for quality!"

Aiden ignored the flattery.

"Let me see it."

The merchant eagerly pushed the small item closer.

Aiden picked it up between two fingers.

It was cold.

He turned it slightly, studying the tiny sword under the light.

To anyone else, it looked ordinary.

But Aiden’s eyes narrowed.

For some reason, he could see it, clearly.

A faint current of qi was flowing through the object like a thin stream hidden beneath stone.

Weak.

Subtle.

But undeniably real.

’Interesting.’

Aiden turned the tiny sword over in his hand.

"What does it do?" he asked.

The merchant’s expression immediately became awkward.

His earlier confidence cracked.

"Ah... well..."

He scratched his cheek.

"To be honest, sir... I don’t know."

Aiden looked up at him.

The merchant forced a smile.

"You know how these things are," he said. "Items like this are a gamble. Sometimes they’re treasures. Sometimes they’re decorative junk."

He leaned in slightly, lowering his voice as if sharing some great wisdom.

"That’s part of the excitement."

Aiden stared at him for a second.

So he really had no clue what he was selling.

That made this even better.

"How much?" Aiden asked.

The merchant straightened immediately.

"A hundred gold coins."

Aiden instantly put the item back on the table and turned around.

Not even a pause.

Not even hesitation.

Just immediate rejection.

The merchant panicked.

"Wait, wait, wait!"

But he kept walking.

"Fifty gold!"

No response.

The merchant gritted his teeth.

"Twenty! Twenty gold coins!"

That finally made Aiden stop.

He slowly turned his head.

The merchant smiled weakly, looking like a man trying to save a dying business deal.

"Ten," he repeated. "Final price."

Aiden looked at him for a moment.

Then at the small sword.

Ten gold was almost suspiciously cheap.

But considering no one here could tell what it was, and the merchant himself had no idea what he possessed, it made sense.

To everyone else, this was a fancy gamble.

To Aiden...

This was real, and definitely worth more than ten gold.

Aiden walked back to the table.

Without another word, he placed ten gold coins down.

The merchant grabbed them so quickly it was almost embarrassing.

The merchant clutched the coins tightly, as if afraid Aiden might change his mind and take them back.

His shoulders finally relaxed.

"Pleasure doing business," he muttered, though the excitement in his voice was gone now.

Aiden turned slightly, about to leave.

Then the merchant mumbled under his breath, not loud enough for most people to care.

But Aiden heard it clearly.

"What a loss..." the man grumbled. "I bought that thing for fifty gold coins..."

Aiden paused, then he turned back.

The merchant stiffened slightly when he saw him looking again.

"Can I ask you something?" Aiden said calmly.

The merchant hesitated, then forced a small smile.

"Of course, sir. Anything."

"Where did you get that item?"

The merchant blinked, clearly not expecting the question.

"This?" he said, glancing at the now empty cloth. "Ah... it was just something I picked up while traveling."

The silence stretched long enough to make the merchant uncomfortable.

"Well..." the man scratched the back of his neck. "There was this old man. Out on the road, a few weeks back."

"What kind of old man?"

The merchant frowned slightly, trying to remember.

"Strange fellow," he said. "Didn’t look like much. Worn clothes, just sitting by the roadside like some beggar."

He let out a short breath.

"But the way he acted... didn’t match."

Aiden’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"Go on."

The merchant leaned forward a bit, lowering his voice.

"He was trying to sell this exact item," he said. "Kept saying it was special, that it had qi in it."

He gave a dry laugh.

"I didn’t believe him at first either."

Aiden remained still.

"Then why buy it?"

The merchant’s expression shifted.

A hint of unease flickered across his face.

"Because I saw something," he said quietly.

Aiden waited.

The merchant swallowed.

"There was a tree by the road," he said. "Thick trunk. Old. The kind you’d need an axe and half a day to bring down."

His voice dropped even further.

"That old man... he walked up to it and just swung his sword."

Aiden’s gaze sharpened.

The merchant made a slicing motion.

"Clean cut," he said. "Like it wasn’t even wood. Like he was cutting through air."

He shook his head slightly, still not fully believing it himself.

"No effort. No strain. The tree just... split."

Silence settled between them. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Aiden’s thoughts moved quickly.

Body tempering practitioners could break trees.

That wasn’t unusual.

But cutting one like that... Effortless, and clean.

That wasn’t something brute strength could achieve.

That required control, and probably Qi.

Aiden’s eyes darkened slightly under his hood.

Qi Sense Stage.

The merchant let out a breath.

"I thought... if he could do that, maybe what he was selling was real," he said. "So I bought it. Figured I could resell it for a profit."

He gave a bitter smile.

"Didn’t expect it to turn into this."

Aiden said nothing for a moment.

Then he nodded once.

"I see."

Aiden began walking. His mind was no longer on the crowd, or the city, or even the sect.

An unknown old man.

Casual strength beyond body tempering.

Selling qi-related items on the roadside.

---

Night settled over Valen City like a thin veil.

The noise didn’t disappear, but it softened. Voices became quieter. Footsteps less hurried. Lanterns cast long shadows across the streets, turning familiar paths into something darker, less certain.

Aiden moved when the city slowed.

Not too early, and not too late.

Just enough that no one would pay attention.

His robe blended with the night as he walked along the outer roads, heading toward a place most people avoided after sunset.

The cemetery.

It sat near the edge of the city, separated by a low stone wall and a rusted iron gate that creaked slightly when pushed. No guards. No lights beyond a few dim lanterns placed far apart.

The air felt colder here.

Not just from the night.

There was a stillness in the cemetery that didn’t exist anywhere else in the city, like the place itself was holding its breath. Rows of worn gravestones stretched into the dark, some leaning, some broken, names long faded by time and neglect.

Aiden stepped inside slowly, the iron gate creaking shut behind him with a dull sound that echoed farther than it should.

He didn’t rush.

His eyes moved across the graves, measuring, counting, thinking.

"Should be enough," he murmured.

Most of the people buried here were ordinary.

No warriors.

Just civilians.

That meant weaker results.

But that wasn’t the point tonight.

Aiden walked deeper into the cemetery until he reached the center, where the graves were more densely packed. The ground here was uneven, soft in places, disturbed over the years.

Aiden stood in the middle of the cemetery, his gaze sweeping slowly across the uneven rows of graves as the night settled deeper around him. The air was cold, carrying a faint smell of damp soil and decay, and the silence here felt heavier than anywhere else in the city.

He took a slow breath, steadying himself, then raised one hand.

"Grave Calling."

The moment the words left his mouth, the ground began to respond.

The soil shifted, at first in small patches, then spreading outward in every direction. Graves trembled, loose dirt collapsing inward as something beneath began to move. Cracks formed across the surface, and then fingers pushed through.

One hand clawed its way out.

Then another.

And another.

All across the cemetery, the dead began to rise.