Within the quiet lantern-lit chamber, golden glow shimmered against the deep jade floors of the Qingling Sect's inner sanctuary.
Sect Master Lin Tianyan stood with hands behind his back, eyes resting on his son.
"Xuanye, you've been through enough," he said gently. "Go. Rest, see your friends. I need to speak with Su Feilí and your mother."
Xuanye blinked, surprised.
"You're not locking me in seclusion?"
"For now," the Sect Master smiled faintly.
Xuanye's grin stretched like a child given his favorite toy. In a flash of playful light, he vanished.
"Shui Liiiin! Let's disappear before they change their mind!"
🌿 Winds by the River
He crashed through Shui Lin's gate with dramatic flair.
Shui Lin emerged, mid-yawn, brush still in hand.
"Shouldn't you be resting? And here you are, riding the wind like you haven't just come back from death."
"Wind is freedom," Xuanye beamed. "Rest is for elders."
One by one, they gathered:
Huo Shan, still napping beneath the apricot tree.
Feng Ruo, practicing flame butterflies in the air.
And finally, Yue Chányīn, beneath the moonleaf tree.
"We're going to the river," Xuanye said with a crooked smile.
She sheathed her blade and followed without protest.
At the river's edge, surrounded by gentle grass and drifting flower petals, the five disciples finally found silence.
Xuanye tossed stones. Shui Lin sliced spiritual fruit. Huo Shan fished and grumbled. Feng Ruo conjured fireflies. Yue Chányīn watched them all with the cool serenity of snowfall.
There was no prophecy here.
No fate.
Just the breeze.
Just the now.
🕯️ Truths Behind Closed Doors
In the private chamber, the golden incense curled slowly. Only Sect Master Lin Tianyan, Madam Yueling, and Su Feilí remained.
Su Feilí sat calmly, her expression unreadable.
"Sect Master. Madam," she said. "I will recount everything."
Lin Tianyan nodded. "Begin."
"Back when the tournament began… Xuanye told me he encountered something."
"A black shadow. A figure that followed him. He didn't understand what it said, only that it spoke in strange riddles, then vanished."
She opened her palm.
"It gave him this."
A corrupted jade shard, faintly pulsing with dark energy, rested on her hand.
"He passed it to me the night we sheltered in the cave."
Lin examined the shard with narrowed eyes, and Madam Yueling stepped closer, visibly uneasy.
"And the battlefield?" Lin asked.
Feilí nodded, her tone shifting.
"When the Empress had him pinned... she said things — that his light wasn't ordinary, that he broke through her illusion, and that she would kill him and keep him as her treasure."
"We all prepared to intervene."
"But before we could move, everything changed."
She looked at Lin directly.
"She was suddenly… wounded. Gravely."
"And Xuanye was healed — his wound sealed, his energy stabilized. But none of us saw what happened. We only saw the aftermath."
"The Empress, shaken. Xuanye, alive."
"We didn't question it. We used the chance and fled."
Madam Yueling's eyes glistened.
"How could something like that happen? She was… so powerful."
Feilí lowered her voice.
"I don't know. But I believe the shadow is linked to it somehow."
Lin Tianyan's face turned grave.
He turned, walking slowly toward the celestial tapestry hanging from the rear wall.
"I've never heard of such an entity. Not in any manual. Not even the Forbidden Pavilion."
He turned back.
"But I will find out."
He clenched his fist.
"No being — shadow or god — will harm my son again."
Madam Yueling looked toward the window, her voice quiet but firm.
"Even if he carries something ancient… he's still our son."
Su Feilí looked down, murmuring:
"That's what I fear most."
Outside, the river whispered beneath starlight.
Inside, three hearts trembled beneath the weight of an unknown truth.
To be continued...