Guo Jiang remained at the bow while the recovered spirit ship turned away from the unstable intercontinental boundary. The storm still crowded the western sky, but his attention had moved somewhere much farther away. Nairu’s testimony had reopened several questions he once believed were settled. Eshera had been empty when he investigated it. The Thessul population had vanished without leaving the expected signs of annihilation. At the time, he and his companions had assumed they were seeking a new territory closer to Yin Continent. That assumption had been wrong. The strange fleet he saw after leaving Almaria had not been wandering without purpose. If Nairu’s story was accurate, the ships had carried Thessul descendants toward Vellenor. Guo Jiang’s fingers tightened once around the railing. His anger did not erupt through aura or shouted vow

Qinglong City was known as the Water City because two broad rivers curved along its eastern and western sides before joining the trade routes around the region. Stone bridges connected busy districts, and merchants relied on the rivers as much as the roads. Its martial world was small enough that one clan’s rise could dominate conversation for months. Among the local powers, Tang Clan held the strongest reputation. Its name carried weight in Qinglong, yet Tang Xu understood that such prestige had limits. Compared with the great sects of Yin Continent, Tang Clan remained a third-rate power whose influence rarely traveled beyond neighboring cities. Tang Xu was forty-five years old and had served as patriarch long enough to think in generations rather than seasons. He was known as a capable sword practitioner, but he never mistook local praise for continental fame. After clan meetings ended, he often trained late into the night, repeating

Tang Xu kept the sealed token on the tea table for several breaths before opening it again. A clan patriarch could not make a generational decision based on excitement alone, especially when the price had supported Tang Clan’s rise for three years. He sent a thin thread of qi into the token and read deeper into the first section. The technique linked footwork, waist rotation, blade angle, and changes of tempo into one complete sword path rather than isolated movements. Tang Xu stopped before reading too far, but he had seen enough to confirm that the inheritance was genuine and worthy of its Platinum rank. Shen Jin waited without urging him. Pressure would weaken the fairness Guo Jiang wanted the exchange to represent, so he allowed the patriarch to examine the offer in silence. Tang Xu closed the token and asked Shen Jin to state the terms plainly. Shen Jin answered that Guo Jiang offered the complete Ten Movement

The man claiming to be Nirajh remained above Silver Moon Sect’s main courtyard while Deng Yun stood below with the elders arranged behind him. Disciples filled the surrounding walkways and training grounds, and residents from nearby streets had begun gathering outside the gates after hearing that a Sage had appeared over the sect. “Answer me,” the impostor said. “Do you possess the Fading Night Earrings?” His eyes sharpened when he spoke the artifact’s name. One hand stayed raised for effect, but the fingers of the other curled against his sleeve as though he were already imagining the treasure in his possession. Deng Yun noticed the gesture. So did two older disciples standing behind the elders. One whispered, “A Sage who came only for an artifact should still be able to hide his greed better than that.” The other answered quietly,

The courtyard of Silver Moon Sect had fallen into a strange silence. Only moments earlier, hundreds of disciples had knelt beneath the borrowed authority of a false Sage, yet now that same man hung helplessly in the air before Guo Jiang, his limbs stiff beneath an invisible Banxiang grip. The younger disciples reacted first, though not in the same way. One shouted that the impostor should have his cultivation destroyed, while another remained on his knees because the presence of two terrifying experts above the courtyard still made his legs weak. An elder immediately rebuked the shouting disciple and reminded him that punishment belonged to the expert who had captured the fraud. Near the gate, an opportunistic observer muttered that he had suspected the deception from the beginning. Several Silver Moon disciples looked at him in disbelief, but no one argued because Guo Jiang had not glanced toward the crowd. He raised on