“Senior Sisters are here!” Brielle shouted excitedly from where she had fallen.Iris strained her eyes through the crowd of men and saw the tall, long-haired woman leading four others swiftly toward them. Her expression brightened the moment she recognised the figure at the front.“Senior Sister Rowan.”The men surrounding them would not have understood the weight carried by that name. Rowan was the eldest and fiercest senior sister within the Zenith Sisterhood, standing below only the sect leader herself.The short man’s expression twisted when the ten fighters sent to stop her crashed across the ground. He raised his bloodstained hammer and shouted at the rest of his men.“Bring that woman down!”The Blackhammer Gang immediately shifted its attention from the injured disciples and charged toward Rowan from different directions. She did not slow or change the deadly expression on her face as her sword swept through the air.

Evelyn almost collapsed where she stood, her eyes fixed on the unfolded map while her pupils trembled uncontrollably.The paper was riddled with punctures and narrow tears. Several jagged cuts ran through the routes drawn across it, while one severe slash had almost separated the entire side. Clearly outlined pathways, geographical markings and important details had disappeared with the missing pieces.Even the centre had not been spared.Where the full name had once been written, only THE TOMB OF ALARIC remained. The name VOSS had been torn away, along with the cruciform symbol marking the exact location of the burial site.Rowan noticed the change in Evelyn immediately and moved closer. The moment she saw the state of the map, the seriousness on her face deepened.“I…” Evelyn stammered, unable to force out anything else.Her eyes dropped toward her waist, and only then did she notice the numerous cuts running through her robe. The sash where she had secured the map had been sliced

There should have been nothing for Elijah Langston to smile about, yet a cold curve still touched his lips when Iris arrived at the correct conclusion.Perhaps he had underestimated the sharpness expected of a healer. Treating wounds required more than steady hands and knowledge of medicine; it demanded the patience to notice details others overlooked, and only someone who had paid close attention to both the map and the markings beneath his feet would have recognised any connection between them.What appeared to everyone else as meaningless lines scratched across the soil was exactly what Iris suspected.It was a rough reconstruction of the map leading to Alaric Voss’s tomb.The original had remained in Elijah’s possession for only a few minutes before Brielle took it from him, but he had never needed enough time to memorise every minor mark on the paper. His initial focus had been on the details surrounding the most important point, committ

Elijah Langston did not answer immediately.With Rowan’s sword still pressed against his throat, he turned his head towards the palanquin. There was no smile on his face and no frown either, only the same unreadable calm with which he had faced every threat. “I think I’ll keep that to myself,” he said. “Just as you would probably keep your own answer from me.”He did not state what he meant directly, but the implication was clear enough to him.Whatever had reduced a Grandmaster to coughing blood and left her hands so unnaturally withered was not an ordinary illness, nor was it something she would willingly discuss.Elijah still could not perceive her spiritual energy clearly; the difference between her cultivation and the faint current sustaining his body was simply too vast. Yet her display moments earlier had already told him enough.Her strength remained.The problem was the body carrying it.“What are you

Elijah turned towards the forest stretching beyond the plain. The trees stood tall and thick, their leaves carrying freshness. “Those plants should not be alive.”Iris followed his gaze, while Rowan glanced briefly towards the distant forest before returning her attention to him.“Prolonged seawater exposure would have killed most of them,” Elijah continued. “The salt alone should have damaged the soil beyond what ordinary land vegetation could endure, yet the forest looks healthier than many places that have never gone beneath the sea.”He rested both hands upon the staff.“Something else must have preserved them. Perhaps something buried beneath the same ground in which they are rooted.”The woman inside the palanquin remained silent for a long moment, still holding the map.“You speak with considerable confidence,” she said at last. “You also appear to possess a deeper understanding of coastal landforms than your pre