Chapter 41: The Storm You Didn't Prepare For

Chapter 41: The Storm You Didn't Prepare For

The main hall of the Ling Ancestral Manor was a cavernous vault of stone and silence. Polished obsidian tiles reflected the flickering amber glow of flame-lit sconces. Tall ancestral portraits loomed from every wall—solemn eyes of those long dead watching the living with austere judgment. The air was chilled, not by cold, but by formality—by generations of power concentrated into this singular room.

Eight figures sat around a long, obsidian table carved from a single slab of volcanic glass. Each seat bore the likeness of a beast—tiger, serpent, hawk, dragon—emblems of their lineage. Their robes shimmered with the subtle gleam of enchanted silk, and their expressions were veiled in the kind of silence that said everything.

At the head of the table sat Ling Zhejiang, Patriarch of the Ling Family.