Re-birth: The Beginning after the End - Chapter 135

Chapter 135: HIDE & SEEK PART 1
The week passed in a blur of shadow-stepping and existence-shifting, each day bleeding into the next until they could move through the world like thoughts through consciousness.

One evening, as the siblings sat around the low wooden table sharing their usual end-of-day tea, Li Wei’s scholarly mind caught on a detail that had been nagging at him.

“We’ve only met six keepers,” he observed, his fingers tapping thoughtfully against his cup.

“Yeah, isn’t there supposed to be seven?” Li Hao straightened, curiosity breaking through his usual post-training lethargy.

The sound of a door sliding open drew their attention. Grandmaster Yu emerged from his room, his expression unreadable in the evening light. “Come,” he said simply. “Let’s take a trip.”

The siblings exchanged glances but wasted no time rising to their feet.

They followed him through the twisting paths of the sixth realm, past the training grounds they’d come to know so well, until they reached the outer boundaries where reality seemed to thin like rice paper. Before them stretched a vast forest, its trees reaching toward a colorless sky. The familiar monochrome landscape of the sixth realm extended into the distance, but something about this particular forest felt different—more hollow, more ancient, as if even the shadows held secrets.

Grandmaster Yu’s lips curved into a smile that carried equal parts amusement and warning. “How about a game of hide and seek?”

The siblings exchanged glances, understanding settling in their bones.

A dense mist hung over the forest, shifting like a living thing. Towering trees stretched endlessly before them, their trunks disappearing into the colorless sky above. The air was heavy with something unseen—something that watched.

Li Hua stood between her brothers, her senses stretched thin, her heartbeat steady yet expectant. The forest exhaled around them, thick with secrets, the very ground beneath them humming with an ancient presence. All their training over the past weeks—concealment, deception, movement—seemed to lead to this moment.

Before them, Grandmaster Yu stood tall and composed, his piercing gaze unwavering as he regarded them. Gone was the gentle grandfather who praised her cooking, replaced by something far more formidable. This was the Grandmaster they rarely saw.

“This is not a test,” Grandmaster Yu said, his voice quiet yet absolute.

The words did not simply hang in the air—they rippled through the mist, sinking into the very fabric of the Sixth Realm like an undeniable truth.

Then, his gaze settled on them—piercing, steady, unreadable.

“I am the seeker.”

The silence that followed was heavy. It was not a pause, not a hesitation, but a shift in reality itself.

And then—

He was gone.

Not a step. Not a flicker of movement.

Just—gone.

The mist did not stir. The ground did not shift. His presence did not fade—it simply ceased to be.

The world around them seemed to hold its breath.

And in that single, breathless moment—

They scattered.

Li Wei darted left, his movements precise as calligraphy strokes. His fingers traced complex patterns as he layered techniques—the Silent Scroll Method first, erasing his cultivation traces until he appeared as unremarkable as morning dew. Then the Permission Barrier, creating an intricate lock around his core that would deny access to any who sought him. Each footfall was calculated, deliberately misleading—as he pressed his hand against tree trunks, he left traces of presence infused with the Soul Reflection Barrier, creating mirrors that would disorient any who tried to probe them.

Li Hao burst into motion like scattered leaves in a storm. He charged straight ahead, then activated the Phantom Step Concealment, his form flickering between multiple locations at once. Each echo carried a different False Core, some appearing as weak cultivators, others as powerful masters—a chaos of deception that made it impossible to determine which, if any, was real. His laughter echoed from these phantoms, each sound carrying the same genuine joy as he layered Illusory Presence over his fragmented existence.

But Li Hua?

The moment Grandmaster Yu vanished, she let her body soften. Where her brothers moved, she chose stillness. She began with the Breath of the World, synchronizing her energy with the forest’s natural flow. Then, like settling snow, she applied the Still Lake Method, suppressing every ripple of her power until her core became as undisturbed as ancient pools. The Empty Presence Technique followed naturally, her very existence fading until even those skilled in detection would pass her by.

She watched her brothers’ retreating forms through half-lidded eyes. Li Wei’s path was beautiful in its complexity—each step protected by layers of Permission Barriers and Soul Reflection traps. Li Hao’s presence sparkled like sunlight on water, his Phantom Steps and False Cores creating a dazzling display of misdirection.

Their techniques were perfect.

And that, she realized, would be their undoing.

Because perfection, even chaos perfected, was still a pattern.

She sank deeper into the forest’s embrace, letting the Dimensional Shift carry her core between layers of reality. The mist curled through ancient trees, and she didn’t just hide among it—she became it. Her breath matched the forest’s exhalation, her heartbeat slowed to match the pulse of sap through ancient wood, each rhythm protected by techniques that had become as natural as breathing.

Through the lengthening shadows of the first day, each sibling carved their own path through the ancient forest, their techniques evolving with each passing hour.

Li Wei moved like a scholar reading between lines of text. Every few steps, he paused to adjust his strategy, weaving multiple techniques into an intricate defense. His Permission Barrier formed the foundation, a complex lock that required specific spiritual resonances to even detect his presence. Over this, he layered the Silent Scroll Method, carefully erasing traces of his cultivation until he appeared as unremarkable as undergrowth.

When he sensed probing attempts, his Soul Reflection Barrier activated, sending disorienting echoes back at the searcher.

“Grandfather will recognize this,” he muttered to himself, fingers tracing additional patterns in the air as he added a Dimensional Shift, placing portions of his core between layers of reality. His confidence was built on calculations and careful planning—each technique reinforcing the others in a mathematical precision that would confound normal pursuers.

At one point, he carefully constructed a scenario where his footprints appeared to walk up one tree and down another, fifty paces away, each step protected by layers of False Cores that would read as nothing more than natural forest energy.