Suzuki was moving before the last container had stopped rolling. "Watch what you're doing!"Jiang Rui rounded on her. "Stay out of this."Something cold slid into Ken's expression as he stepped between them, unhurried, deliberate. "Pick them up."Jiang Rui blinked, as if the sentence hadn't quite parsed. "What?""The containers you just knocked onto my floor. Pick. Them. Up."The pavilion went utterly silent. Then Jiang Rui laughed, short and sharp. "You think being a Tier 5 Alchemist makes you untouchable?""No." Ken's voice stayed level, almost bored. "I think you broke my property, and I think you're about to pretend that's my problem instead of yours."Jiang Rui's Beast Qi rose in answer, thick and pressing, and disciples near the walls scrambled back to give it room. Senior Lu came slowly to his feet. Seven's hands curled into fists at his sides.Ken shook his head at him, small and firm. Not yet. They couldn't afford to turn their first customers into witnesses at a battlefield.

Outside, Seven fell into step beside him, studying his face like he was trying to solve a puzzle. "You didn't argue with him.""Arguing wouldn't change what's in the records."Lu nodded slowly, approval flickering across his usually unreadable face. "Good instinct. Rules cut both ways, if you know how to hold the blade."Ken glanced at him. "You know something about Jiang Rui."Lu's easy smile vanished like a candle pinched out. "I know enough to tell you he isn't who you should be worried about.""Then who should I be worried about?"Lu's gaze drifted toward the inner disciple district, distant and shadowed against the morning light. "The people who never have to show their face to make something happen."Ken's eyes narrowed, questions stacking up faster than he could ask them. Before he could push further, a voice cut across the courtyard behind them."Senior Lu."Everyone turned at once. A tall inner disciple stood near the entrance, dark blue robes marked with a silver insignia —

Ken stepped out into the courtyard, and Suzuki was on him instantly."What happened in there?"Ken glanced toward Lu, who was making a very deliberate effort to look anywhere else — at the eaves, at a passing sparrow, at anything that wasn't Ken's face. "Ask Senior Lu."Suzuki rounded on him. Lu exhaled and held up both hands, palms out, the universal gesture of a man refusing to be dragged into something. "Don't look at me.""That reaction," Seven said, eyes narrowing, arms folding across his chest, "absolutely means something happened."Ken looked back at the closed wooden door behind them. It was an unremarkable door, dark lacquer gone dull with age, no different from a hundred others in the sect's administrative wing. And yet he found he couldn't quite make himself stop looking at it. His gaze dropped, almost against his will, to the storage pouch at his hip, where he could still feel a faint, unsettling pulse coming from the token wrapped inside it — like something breathing very

The sect's Martial Hall was already packed when Ken and the others arrived. A massive stone building stood at the center of the outer district. Several elders and inner disciples occupied the elevated platform at the front, while thousands of outer disciples gathered below. A golden formation covered the floor. At the center stood a tall black pillar with seven rings carved into it.Ken recognized the formation. It was designed to measure cultivation, physical strength, combat potential, and spiritual stability.A sect elder stepped forward. His voice spread across the hall. "The upcoming assessment will determine who qualifies for the Northern Mountain Expedition."The disciples immediately began whispering."The expedition will be divided into three stages." The elder raised one finger. "First, cultivation verification." A second finger. "Second, combat evaluation." A third. "Third, spiritual resistance."The murmurs grew louder. Ken's expression became thoughtful. Spiritual resista

The remaining elders poured into the Martial Hall, three inner disciples close behind, each marked by the robes of a different division. One carried a long silver spear. Another, a golden shield. The third wore a black veil across her face, silent as smoke."Seal the formation!" the assessment elder barked.The three moved as one. The spear-wielder drove his weapon into the floor. "Silver Binding Formation!" Silver lines raced outward across the stone.The shield-bearer slammed his shield down. "Golden Mountain Barrier!"The veiled woman raised both hands, black chains uncoiling from her sleeves to wrap the pillar.For one breath, the symbol stilled. The elders exhaled.Then the pillar shuddered, and every formation broke at once — chains snapping, barrier cracking, silver lines collapsing into dust. The veiled woman was hurled backward into a wall. The spear-wielder doubled over, coughing blood into his hand."It's resisting the formations!" he gasped. The elder's face went grey. "Th