The three disciples spread out as they crossed the common room, moving with the practiced coordination of men who had trained together for years, boxing in the exits without making it look like anything more than casual positioning to anyone not paying close attention. Xie Yan recognized none of their faces individually, but he recognized the type immediately — inner disciples, or close to it, the kind of men Lu would trust with a mission he didn't want questioned.The one in front stopped a few paces from their table, his eyes fixed on Xie Yan with the flat, professional interest of a hunter who had finally found his mark."Xie Yan," he said, not a question. "Senior Brother Lu sends his regards. He'd like you to come back up the mountain and explain how a dead man learned to walk.""Tell Lu I'm busy," Xie Yan said, keeping his voice level despite the tightness building in his chest. "He can send his condolences in writing."The disciple's mouth twitched, not quite a smile. "That's no

They left the inn before the sun had fully cleared the eastern rooftops, slipping out through a side door Mei Lin clearly already knew existed, avoiding the main street where word of last night's brawl had likely already begun spreading between shopkeepers setting up their morning stalls. Xie Yan carried nothing but the clothes on his back and the small pouch of coin Mei Lin had quietly pressed into his hand before they left, insisting it was a loan rather than a gift, though her tone made clear she didn't expect it repaid anytime soon."Where are we going?" he asked, once Qingshui's outer gates had faded behind them into the morning mist."Away from here, to start," Mei Lin said. "Beyond that depends on what you're actually trying to become." She glanced sideways at him as they walked, studying his face with the same assessing look she'd worn since the market square. "You said you wanted to grow stronger. Strong enough to face Lu eventually. But strength without direction just gets p

Elder Bo began his training at the pool.Not with weapons. Not with fighting moves. Not with any of the things Xie Yan expected from a man who could feel the System just by looking at him. Just the pool — the strange, glowing water at the center of the Sanctuary — and one simple instruction."Sit at the edge," Elder Bo said. "Tell me what you feel when you look into it. Not what you think you should feel. What you actually feel."Xie Yan knelt at the water's edge on the first morning. Faint blue light moved across the still surface. He felt nothing but impatience. He said so, and Elder Bo only nodded, like he expected that answer, and told him to come back the next morning and try again.He came back. And the next morning. And the morning after that.By the fifth day, sitting with his legs crossed as the forest woke up around him, something in his chest finally broke open. Nobody asked it to. It just happened.It was grief. Real grief, sharp and unguarded — nothing like the cold grief

The first disciple came at Xie Yan fast, blade aimed low. Three months ago, that same strike would have caught him off guard. Now his body moved before his mind fully caught up, sidestepping the blade and driving a palm strike into the man's chest with enough force to send him stumbling back into a burning tree.Iron Skin Foundation held firm against the return strike that followed. So did the second technique he'd bought at the Sanctuary, one that let him move faster than his cultivation level should have allowed for short bursts. He felt the difference immediately — not just stronger, but controlled, deliberate, nothing like the desperate, reckless fighting that had carried him through Qingshui.Beside him, Mei Lin fought with the same fluid precision she'd shown at the inn, her sword cutting through the chaos with practiced ease. Two disciples fell to her blade within the first minute, wounded but not dead, careful even now to hold back the killing blow unless she had no other choi

Xie Yan sat across from Elder Bo in the old man's private study that evening, a small wooden room lined with scrolls and dried herbs, the fire in the hearth doing little to chase away the cold that had settled into his chest since the attack. Mei Lin rested nearby, sleeping under the careful watch of two Sanctuary healers, her wound cleaned and bound properly now, her breathing steady enough that Elder Bo had finally allowed himself to relax."Tell me everything you felt," Xie Yan said. "About Lu's System."Elder Bo was quiet for a long moment, choosing his words with obvious care. "Every System feels different, the way every person feels different. Yours carries a coldness to it, clinical and precise, like a merchant keeping careful books. It watches. It calculates. But it waits for you to choose your own targets, mostly, and it seemed almost curious about your hesitation earlier, rather than hostile toward it.""And Lu's?""Lu's System doesn't wait for anything," Elder Bo said griml