Scrolls and Shadows

No sooner had Elder Jin departed than Mei Lin allowed the faintest curve to touch her lips. Her expression remained composed, but within her sleeves, her fingers tightened in satisfaction. The bait had been taken.

She waited until his presence had faded beyond the courtyard walls. Then, with practiced grace, she scanned the study. Her gaze fell upon a jade seal resting atop a stack of bamboo slips.

With a flick of her wrist, the seal vanished into her sleeve, tucked within an inner fold lined with concealment talismans. Without a sound, she slipped through a hidden side corridor, melding into shadow.

The Communication Chamber was empty, dim save for the soft blue glow of the dormant runes inscribed on the formation platform.

She activated the formation with a trace of her spirit sense, pouring a trickle of spiritual power into the etched array. Runes flared silently to life, and a phantom portal shimmered open, revealing a hazy void beyond.

From her sleeve, she withdrew a tightly bound scroll, ink still fresh upon its surface. At the bottom, Elder Jin's seal burned in stark crimson.

"The time has come," she whispered, sliding the scroll into the portal. The moment it vanished into the void, the light faded, and the chamber once more sank into silence.

 ***

Far to the west, nestled within a hidden valley wreathed in silver mist, moonlight poured over still waters and windless trees. Within a jade pavilion carved into the cliffside, a man reclined in silence. His hair flowed like ink steeped in indigo, his skin pale and serene like porcelain glazed in frost.

When the scroll arrived, he caught it before it touched the ground. His eyes narrowed as he unrolled it. Upon seeing the seal, a trace of disdain curled at the corner of his lips.

"Elder Jin? Has that old fool finally gone mad... or is this the game he wishes to play?"

He continued reading, the expression on his face sharpening with each line. At last, a flicker of killing intent danced across his gaze.

He turned, dipped his brush in black ink, and swiftly penned a reply.

With a flick of his fingers, he sent it into a smaller, personal transmission array.

When news first reached Elder Jin of Violet Mountain City's destruction, he did not rage, nor did he wail. His face remained placid, his breath steady—but the light behind his eyes darkened.

The loss of an entire sect branch was not merely a wound—it was a calculated strike. But what unsettled him most was not the ash-covered corpses, nor the shattered formations, but the absence of any trace of his son.

He arrived amidst smoldering ruin. Training grounds reduced to scorched stone, guard towers splintered like rotted wood, and the defensive formations—meant to resist Nascent Soul experts—had been shattered as though by a casual wave of the hand.

"This... is no ordinary slaughter," he murmured coldly, stooping beside a charred corpse. "Every witness erased... no survivors to speak..."

His hand hovered over the bloodstained ground, gathering remnants of lingering spiritual energy.

But they dispersed instantly—whoever had done this had even erased the echoes of battle.

Then, a cry overhead.

A messenger bird descended, its wings tipped with frost. It dropped a tightly sealed scroll into his waiting hand. For his surprise the contents were brief:

"Come to Sound Soul Valley. Alone."

At the bottom, a familiar sigil. A crimson mark, one he had not seen in many years—the same seal that had once accompanied the extermination orders for the Jiang clan.

Elder Jin's heart sank.

So that man had returned.

 ***

Returning to the Shadowclaw Sect's inner sanctum, Elder Jin walked with haste. At the main hall, Mei Lin stood surrounded by tactical scrolls and shifting jade maps. As he approached, her sharp gaze flicked up.

He said nothing at first, merely unrolling the scroll and holding it before her.

She read it in silence, then looked to him. "You believe this is a trap?"

"Without a doubt," Elder Jin said gravely." The seal belongs to a man you know well. One who moves only when the board has been reset. He orchestrated the Jiang extermination... and now, it seems, he aims to silence me. My son's disappearance is no coincidence."

"And yet you intend to go?"

"I must," he said. "If he has my son, I cannot turn away. But I will not walk into the tiger's maw unarmed."

Mei Lin was silent for a moment, fingers tapping the table lightly. Then she nodded. "I will accompany you. Not in plain sight—he must think you came alone. But I will follow in the shadows. If the man shows hostility, I will not hesitate."

Elder Jin lowered his head slightly. "This old one is grateful, sect leader."

For the briefest of moments, a ripple stirred in Elder Jin's heart—a rare flicker of something akin to... worth.

He had not expected Mei Lin to agree so readily, let alone offer to accompany him without condition or price. Her decisiveness, her loyalty—however calculated—was not something he could so easily dismiss.

Perhaps… he had been too hasty back then.

But what was done, was done.

Sigh.

The past was like water spilled from a shattered cup—no method, no cultivation technique, no divine pill could gather it whole again. Regret was a poison cultivators learned to bury deep, but some traces always lingered, no matter how far one walked along the path of power.

If given the chance... would he choose differently?

 ***

Night cloaked the land in a veil of quiet silver as Elder Jin descended into Sound Soul Valley.

The valley was a strange and desolate place, carved deep into the Blackfog Mountain Range.

Ancient legends spoke of a primordial beast perishing here in the distant past, and even now, the air carried a faint resonance—neither wind nor echo, but a low, ceaseless hum that gnawed at the edges of the divine sense.

Few dared linger long.

Jagged black rocks ringed the valley floor, some shaped like clawed hands frozen mid-scratch, others like open mouths screaming in silence. At the very center, a stone dais rose from the earth, its surface etched with faded runes half-swallowed by time.

No spirit herbs grew here.

Even the moonlight seemed muted, as if wary of trespassing too deeply.

Upon the dais stood a solitary figure.

The man's blue hair fell loose down his back, catching faint glimmers of moonlight. He wore a robe of violet silk, its surface gleaming like the hide of a cold-blooded wyrm. His hands were folded calmly before him, but a subtle pressure radiated from his form—like a sheathed blade resting lightly on the soul.

His eyes, half-lidded, flicked open as Elder Jin approached. A trace of amusement shimmered within their depths, dark and unreadable.

"Well, well," the man looked at him with amusement. "You came. And alone, as requested. I'd half-expected you to drag half the Shadowclaw Sect in your shadow."

Elder Jin's gaze remained steady. "You misjudge me. I did not come out of trust… but necessity. For my son's life, I will face whatever danger awaits."

The man's smile deepened, eyes glinting like a predator's. "How noble. And yet, so tragically naive."

He descended a single step from the dais, his voice turning cold. "It was you who fed Li Fang false intelligence. You ensured his failure. And now you stand here, pretending to be the aggrieved party? Tell me, Elder Jin—did you truly think I wouldn't learn the truth?"

Elder Jin's eyes narrowed, a flicker of killing intent buried beneath his calm. "So you admit it. The ambush. The massacre. The disappearance of the son… it was all your doing."

"Admit?" The man let out a quiet laugh, mocking and soft as falling ash. "No, Elder Jin. I simply moved in response to the game you began and now… we come to the final move."

As the words settled like a final judgment, a flicker of motion broke the stillness.

From the darkness overhead, a single glint of cold light flickered like a falling star—

Mei Lin had arrived.