The Branch Leader took a slow step closer to Ethan, his long, heavy robes dragging across the stone floor with a quiet hiss. His sharp, calculating gaze remained locked onto the youth's eyes, trying to peer past the absolute wall of calm that surrounded him.
"Young man," said the Branch Leader, his voice dropping into a low, measured tone that felt more like a cautious probe than a direct interrogation. "May I finally inquire as to your true name?"
He had held the supreme authority over this dangerous frontier branch for far too long to be reckless. The cultivation world was plagued with ancient monsters who chose to mask their presence as ordinary disciples, and hidden experts who could obliterate an entire mountain peak if an arrogant elder looked at them wrong. One did not survive in the borderlands by blindly offending people who refused to tremble in the face of power.
