The air hung thick with the stench of scorched stone and blood.
In the heart of the devastated courtyard, amid craters and shattered pillars, the once-mighty Elder Huo knelt beside a half-collapsed pillar, his breath ragged, his halberd cracked and scorched. Elder Pu stood opposite him, cloak in tatters, blood trailing from the corner of her mouth. Around them, disciples from Crimson Hall and Shadow Hall lay slumped against the stone, groaning, burned, bruised, barely conscious. Their battle had torn through the sect like a lightning storm through dry forest.
Kai stepped forward from the shadows and descended into the courtyard like a shadow falling from the sky, his robes fluttered around him. Elder Kong, stoic and tall, his sword humming, softly landed beside Kai. He was followed by the Twin Willows of Jade and Moon, Liu Yu and Liu Yue, deadly and synchronized.
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
Elder Pu turned slowly, her lips parting in disbelief. "Master… Master Kai."
Elder Huo stumbled back, eyes wide. "You are back!"
Kai's gaze was steady. Cold. Resolved.
He turned his eyes to both of them. "I am back indeed, while you tear the Sect apart over your pride and paranoia."
Elder Huo bared his teeth. "You don't understand! She tried to poison me! Her men tried to kill—"
Kai raised a hand. "You were both manipulated."
They stopped.
Kai looked toward the wreckage of the courtyard—blood, shattered stone, broken banners.
"All this," he said softly, "because you were so easily turned against one another."
He stepped forward.
"I have returned. And I shall restore order."
Kai extended a single hand. The air shimmered, gathering Qi into a silvery ripple that curved outward like a rising tide. The Fourth Form—a suppressed, internalized version of Eclipse Spiral expanded like a net and collapsed on the battlefield with clinical precision.
The immobilization technique slammed into the ground with subtlety, not brute force—its tendrils of refined Metal Qi snaring both Elder Pu and Huo in place. Their bodies locked mid-motion, their spiritual channels compressed just enough to render them immobile without causing permanent harm.
Under ordinary circumstances, Kai could never have executed this with such efficiency. But his recent breakthrough in Metal Qi cultivation had markedly enhanced his mastery of the Celestial Eclipse Techniques. Combined with the fighters in the battlefield having exhausted their Qi, this opened the opportunity for Kai to launch this technique.
Gasps rippled through the gathered disciples. From the swirling mist, the remaining warriors of the Enforcement Hall emerged silent, precise and deadly. They moved as one, encircling the courtyard and sealing every exit. Eyes sharp, weapons at the ready, they stood poised… but not one stepped forward.
They didn't need to. None of the rebels dared to move.
Elder Pu hissed as the binding Qi tightened around her. "Master Kai, what a relief to see you return," she said, her voice brittle, like ice fracturing. "It was Elder Huo, he orchestrated everything. He's always coveted your position as Sect Lord."
Elder Huo's jaw clenched. "You—curse you…" he spat, straining against the invisible bonds. But they held fast. His strength faltered, and he sank to his knees.
Then, with a sudden, ragged cry, Elder Huo shouted, "I never wanted this!" His voice sliced through the thick silence. "I never wanted a war!"
Everyone turned toward him.
Kai raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"I only followed her plan," Elder Huo snapped, head jerking toward Elder Pu. "She told me… she told me things could return to the way they were before you came. That we could be strong again. This was all for the good of the sect!"
Kai didn't move. But a long, slow breath escaped him. He looked from Elder Huo to Elder Pu, and then back again.
"So that's how it is," he murmured. "You were never the firestarter… only the torch."
Elder Huo looked stunned, as if realizing the truth just then himself.
Kai turned to Elder Pu, who stared at him with an unreadable expression. Her eyes were dry, face pale. She did not refute the accusation.
"No defense?" he asked.
She smiled faintly. "Is there a need to say anything more?"
Kai's gaze sharpened. "That's always been your strength, hasn't it? Subtlety. Poison in a smile."
He stepped closer.
Kai lowered his head, inhaling subtly near the folds of her robes. "Yes… this fragrance," he murmured. "Dai Tianxiang mentioned it, a familiar smell of lotus incense, delicate yet distinct, lingering in the air just before he lost consciousness."
He glanced up at her, voice calm but edged with steel. "Doesn't it smell like the incense you always used to burn?"
Elder Pu's eyes flickered.
A murmur rippled through the crowd like wind through tall grass.
Kai rose to his full height. "Spirit lotus incense. Hand-ground. Exceptionally rare. It only grows near the lakes of Verdant Jade Valley… a place you visited often, supposedly for herbs. At first, I dismissed it. But then I remembered something Liu Yu once mentioned… how you used to collect those lotus blooms to for your favorite incense."
Elder Pu said nothing.
"At first, it was just a wild hunch," Kai admitted, his tone steady. "The link to you seemed too circumstantial, I thought. What were the odds?"
He paused, letting the question hang in the air like a blade.
"But doubt has its own gravity," he continued. "So I dug deeper. I sent Zhao Xun to search your quarters discreetly."
Kai reached into his sleeve and withdrew a small bundle of weathered parchment.
"He found these," he said, holding the letters aloft. "Letters exchanged between you and Dai Tianxiang. Written in your hand. They speak of trust and closeness. Perhaps more."
A few gasps erupted from the disciples watching nearby.
Kai's voice lowered. "From there, tt wasn't difficult to deduce what happened on that fateful day. As a master of poisons, you could have easily infused the incense with a subtle hallucinogen. One that weakens the mind. Makes a man vulnerable. Even a sect leader."
Kai continued. "Shen Rui!"
From behind him, Shen Rui stepped forward.
"Elder Pu, I'd like to introduce someone to you," Kai said. "Shen Rui. Envoy of Ironwood Chapter. Does he look familiar to you?"
She tilted her head but said nothing.
Kai's voice turned cold. "Shen Rui told me a story the other day, that you once knew his father, Shen Fei."
Shen Rui gave a stiff bow. "My father told me he was summoned for a so-called righteous purge, but he never spoke of the details. He left the sect after that incident… and he was never the same."
He pulled a weathered scroll from his robes.
"This ledger fragment was recovered from a collapsed Shadow Hall vault. It bears the names of five assassins who never returned from that mission."
Kai looked back to Elder Pu. "You erased the truth. Eliminated anyone who could speak. Except Shen Fei, perhaps because of his loyalty to you. But the truth didn't die with them, the evidence survived."
Elder Pu's eyes didn't waver.
Kai stepped closer, his voice like a blade unsheathing. "You orchestrated all of this because I was getting too close. You feared the truth behind that 'purge' would finally come to light."
Elder Pu exhaled. And for the first time, something in her composure cracked.
She laughed.
Softly at first, then rising, wild and sharp. When she lifted her face, tears gleamed in her eyes.
"You think you've found the truth?" she whispered. "You haven't even scratched the surface."
She drew a trembling breath, her voice breaking.
"I loved him."
The courtyard froze.
"Dai Tianxiang," she continued. "I loved him before he even knew my name. I was his confidante. His partner in battle. We rose together."
Her eyes darkened. "And then came Jiang Xue."
She spat the name like poison. "She waltzed in like a dream, and he… he forgot me. Like I was nothing."
Elder Pu's fists clenched. "He married her. Built his precious Azure Cloud Sect with her. They smiled in front of me, like I didn't exist. Like I hadn't fought beside him. Bled beside him."
Tears streamed down her face.
"So I decided to return the favor. He abandoned me… so I destroyed everything he loved."
Gasps echoed across the courtyard.
"I lured him to the lakeside hut. Burned the incense and drugged him. And when he fell unconscious, I led the covert Shadow Hall agents into his sanctum under the guise of neutrality. We killed every last one. Men. Women. Children. We left no witnesses."
She laughed again, bitter and breathless.
"Dai Tianxiang, you heartless man, you abandoned me. But I destroyed everything you loved."
Kai narrowed his eyes.
"There's still one question."
Kai's brow knit in suspicion. "You claimed that your agents used obscure techniques during the massacre," he said slowly. "So why were there traces of Celestial Eclipse techniques found on the corpses?"
"I don't understand," Elder Pu said slowly. "None of us… no one had access to the Celestial Eclipse techniques. They were lost with the founder himself."
A chill settled over Kai.
Someone wanted our Sect to take the fall, he thought grimly. The evidence was planted—there's no other explanation. This warrants a deeper investigation. But for now, it's time to wrap this up.
"I discovered Dai Tianxiang's remains at the ruins," Kai said quietly. "He ended his own life two days after the massacre."
Elder Pu flinched.
"He left behind his final words. His knowledge. His regrets. And his name. Hoping someone would find them. Hoping someone would remember. Hoping someone would avenge what was lost."
For a moment, something in Elder Pu's expression broke, grief, guilt, something fragile. But then it was gone, replaced by a cold, resigned smile.
In a flash of motion faster than expected, Elder Pu shattered the immobilization seal—her Qi surging with a last, desperate roar.
Before anyone could react, she moved like a blur, her dagger flashing from her sleeve—