The rain whispered in thin threads, and in the ash-gray world it sounded like an unseen mourner weeping behind the clouds.

Inside the tattered shop, Ouyang took a sip. His brow tightened like knotted bark. The aged liquor had years in it; fire coiled up his throat like a hot snake.

"Honestly, I don’t even like this stuff," Ouyang said, face twisted like a bitter gourd. "If I could, I’d rather have juice." He forced the vintage down, while Cataclysm knocked his back like a crashing wave.

Cataclysm drank in great gulps like a storm. Ouyang only wet his lips like a cautious sparrow. They traded no words, and the silence hung heavy as damp cloth.

Loyin broke first, like a pebble skipping across a still pond. She raised her small fist, tugged Ouyang’s hem, and said, "Brother, can I beat him up?"

"Why?" Ouyang asked, voice soft as rain on eaves.

"He annoys me," she said, sparks in her eyes like flint on stone.

Great. A powerful reason, as blunt as a club in a thicket.

Cataclysm cut her a cold glance, ice over dark water. He threw back another mouthful. "Brat, if I reach the Trinity body, I won’t fear you, even if you were Original Sin."

"But right now, I can beat you." Loyin snorted, chin lifted like a daring flag, her face saying come at me if you dare.

Ages had flowed by like rivers, yet unless Cataclysm rang the World Hymn, he wasn’t Loyin’s match. Not because Loyin already bore a Tiered Being’s weight. In the Primordial Deity realm, he still couldn’t beat her. Only by sounding the World Hymn could he crush her like a tide.

Seeing Loyin so unreasonable, Cataclysm knew more words were dry leaves. He hunched over the cup and drank, sulking like thunder behind clouds.

"Then... let’s trade," Ouyang said, smile thin as a crescent blade. "I can help you reach the Trinity body." Cataclysm choked on his drink, coughing red-faced like a kettle boiling over.

With a sharp breath, Ouyang drained the spicy liquor, face wry as rain-soaked paper. His finger tapped the table, slow and steady like a drum in fog.

"The so-called Trinity," he said, "is top secret even on the Other Shore. Even the Azure Bird, the highest nexus, can’t pull it from the archives. Only seven people know, planned ages ago like seeds buried deep."

Seeing Ouyang’s calm like a still lake, Cataclysm believed more than half.

His finger kept tapping, slow but rhythmic, like a metronome in the rain.

"Not by chance," Ouyang said. "I’m one of the seven. I know more than you do. You were the first design. Yet you’re the only one of the conceived who hasn’t become a Tiered Being."

"The first to reach that height was Original Sin, root of the Dark Turmoil in the Third Epoch. After devouring countless emotions like a swarm of moths, it became a fierce Tiered Being."

"Sadly, the instant it touched that power, the Sovereign struck it almost to ash. Long ages couldn’t mend it. In the end it split into Original and Sin, like a cleaved moon."

"The second was the Eternal Empire’s First Emperor—Yiye. He was born with a Tiered Being’s force, like lightning in the cradle. On the Other Shore, those are the only two man-made Tiered Beings."

"In most eyes, there’s only one, since they don’t know Original Sin was crafted. So the famous example is Yiye, carved on the stele of rumor."

"But the plan held three. The third is you—Cataclysm. Fuse the Dark Trinity Artifacts, and the life born of the Trinity will stand as a Tiered Being. Pity the plan got shelved by crosswinds."

What Ouyang said was true. Cataclysm knew fusion meant power, yet he didn’t know the buried history, nor where to hunt the artifacts across the dust.

Maybe those three ancient artifacts turned to cinders in the Eighth Epoch, like paper in a brazier. Or Tiered Beings carried them off to another starfield, like migratory birds.

So he’d given up over the years, letting hope sink like a stone. He hadn’t expected a glimmer tonight, like a lantern in drizzle.

"The price?" he asked, voice flat as wet slate.

Cataclysm didn’t buy Ouyang’s kindness for free. He’d rebelled once, and old bones remember old thorns.

"The price..." Ouyang thought for a bit, gaze drifting to Xi, who watched him like a quiet moon. He stood, stepped to Cataclysm, and grabbed his arm. "Come on, let’s talk."

Seeing him play secretive, the little sister-in-law bristled like a cat. "Brother-in-law, got something you need to hide from us?" Xian’s narrowed eyes flashed with a dangerous gleam.

"No... nothing important," Ouyang said, voice awkward as a missed note.

"Oh? Then why do I feel you’re guilty?" she said, smile thin as wire.

"An illusion. Just your illusion," he said, and he yanked Cataclysm along and vanished like smoke in wind.

"I swear, he’s hiding something," the little sister-in-law muttered, heat rising like steam. Xi didn’t mind much. She soothed Xian, like a palm on ripples. "Everyone has secrets. You wouldn’t want all of yours exposed either, right?"

Xian huffed, the sound sharp as a reed whistle. She still felt prickly. She turned to find Loyin and Bai to complain, only to see the seats empty like shed shells.

"Where’d they go?"

"Them? They vanished right after Ouyang and that Cataclysm guy," Xi whispered, voice light as mist.

Xian turned stiffly toward where Loyin and Bai had sat, her teeth clicking like cold stones. "I’m furious. Those two went to eavesdrop and didn’t bring me."

Knowing Loyin, she’d definitely slipped off to listen at the door like a fox. Bai must’ve been dragged along by the sleeve.

"I wanted to eavesdrop too," she grumbled, cheeks puffing like a pouting koi.

---

"Then please look after Ling, that idiot," Ouyang said, weariness curling like smoke.

"You know... fine. That’s all you’re asking?" Cataclysm said, the question falling like a pebble.

"Yeah. Before, I might’ve made you haul millstones. Now I don’t need to. If the ones I care for stay safe, I’m happier than any throne," Ouyang said.

They were still in Rainfall City. Ouyang leaned against a wall, a shadow among damp bricks. He and Cataclysm sat in a corner screened by a black-and-white lattice, like a spider’s veil hiding a nest.

"You know... Amelie left. Kooson left. And Tangela left too," he said, lifting his face to the drizzle with a bitter smile, like a cracked cup catching rain.

This time Cataclysm kept silent, his face set like iron. One looked up at the cloudy sky, one down at the sodden ground, and words sank between them like silt.

After an unknowable while, slender fingers pried open the black-and-white mesh like reeds parting. Bai and Loyin stepped into view with the quiet of cats.

With Bai as a spy-star at her side, finding Ouyang was easy for Loyin, as easy as following a thread of light.

She threw herself at him the moment she saw him, like always, like a swallow back to the eaves. "Brother, feeling down? Then let’s beat that guy up. A good thrashing lifts the mood."

Cataclysm got shot while lying down, and he ignored her like a rock ignores spray.

"Alright, alright. Seeing you already made me feel better," Ouyang said, rubbing Loyin’s hair until the silk fluffed like a bird’s nest.

Then he looked to Cataclysm. "When I head back in a bit, come with me to fetch something. Before that, I’ll check whether the remnants of those three ancient civilizations still stain this world."

His voice came out cold, like frost on steel, and the rain around them seemed to crystalize into white rime.

Cataclysm nodded to show he understood. As he left, he said, "Our infighting is our own storm, but outside invasion is another thing."

"I didn’t join when you destroyed those three worlds back then. Now, add me to the hunt for the ones that slipped the net. The Sword Demon and I will give them a proper welcome."

Phew. Ouyang kept watching the sky like a patient stone. He didn’t ask why Cataclysm had come, and he didn’t doubt his words.

When he brought Bai and Loyin back to the shop, the little sister-in-law was so angry she wouldn’t say a word, like a kettle with the lid clamped. Xi kept coaxing her, gentle as spring rain.

Curled in Ouyang’s arms, Loyin rubbed her eyes and fell asleep, sweet as a peach under dew. Bai stayed at his side; as a companion angel, she was shadow and shape, never apart.

"Boss, what’s the currency here? Gold?" Ouyang asked, sitting on a worn chair. The old man with one foot in the yellow earth dragged over a brazier like a small red sun.

Only then did Ouyang realize he hadn’t paid, and he winced like a man caught in the act. He should’ve made that guy Cataclysm pay, since he landed in this world earlier.

Gold and coins pass in most worlds like water. But not all. In the old Source World, the only currency was Demon King coins; gold and silver were dead stones.

To Ouyang’s surprise, the man named Harmus Beyat wouldn’t take his money, and his eyes shone like lanterns seeking a path.

"If I’m not mistaken, sir, you know something about the so-called Void Church," Harmus said. "Could you tell us about it? Our family has studied it for centuries with no real progress."

Harmus’s thoughts were simple. From earlier reactions, the outsider seemed to know the story behind the Beyat founder’s Codex of the Void, like someone who’d seen the river’s source.

A Beyat genius left a letter centuries ago. Their ancestor meant to use that codex to reach a stronger god and invite it down, like a star drawn by a prayer.

If they could learn the Void Church’s secrets from Ouyang, perhaps their house could survive this age of chaos, like a boat finding a current.

"We can talk about the Void Church," Ouyang said. "But in exchange, won’t you tell me your story?"

"I’m very interested. Under this shabby shop is a huge basement, right? Don’t tell me it’s a meeting hall for an illegal crowd, dark as a cellar of secrets."