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Chapter 34 — Storm Beneath the Surface
The tension in Floating Cloud City was palpable.
Every whisper in the markets, every glance in the tea houses, every deal struck in shadowed corners carried the same message:
The Xiao Clan was moving.
For two weeks, their young masters swaggered through the streets with smug confidence, their hired thugs trailing behind like mangy dogs.
And the Yun Clan?
Silent. Too silent.
Something was coming.
I could feel it in my bones.
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The Spark
It happened on an otherwise quiet night.
A Yun Clan merchant caravan, small and lightly guarded, ambushed on the north road.
By morning, three men were dead.
By noon, the city was alive with rumors, blaming bandits, but everyone knew the truth:
The Xiao Clan had made their first overt move.
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The Choice
I could have ignored it.
I should have ignored it.
But the System's quiet notification hit me like a blade to the ribs.
> [Critical Timeline Branch Detected.]
[Warning: Yun Che's Sister — Xia Qingyue — Indirect Risk Rising.]
A flash of memory: a terrified maid in a narrow alley, a quiet voice telling her to run.
I clenched my fists.
I'd told myself I would keep a low profile, stay a ghost until the plot fully unfolded.
But ghosts didn't protect anyone.
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The Hunt
That night, I moved.
Adaptive Flow carried me silently through the city, every step perfectly balanced, every breath controlled.
I found them outside the old warehouse district — three Xiao thugs, drunk on victory and cheap liquor, laughing about the ambush.
I didn't give them time to react.
The first crumpled with a precise strike to the base of his skull — enough to knock him out cold.
The second went down with a sweep that shattered his knee.
The third?
I let him run.
Fear would do more damage than death ever could.
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Covering My Tracks
By dawn, the city was buzzing again.
No one knew who had crippled two of Xiao Clan's men, but everyone had an opinion.
Some whispered about rival gangs.
Others murmured about a ghost, a shadow in the night punishing those who stepped too far.
And me?
I sat in my rented room, brewing tea, calm and unreadable.
> [Action Recorded: Low Profile Maintained.]
[Xiao Clan Hostility: Rising.]
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The Storm Gathers
By evening, I knew my move had bought time but not safety.
The Xiao Clan would escalate.
They always escalated.
And when they did, the fragile balance in Floating Cloud City would shatter.
I looked out the window, watching the sun dip below the horizon, the Adaptive Flow humming quietly in my veins.
"Let it come," I murmured. "I'll be ready."
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