The crimson ink pulsed faintly on the scroll, as if the name written upon it was still alive—still watching.
Lin Xiyan hesitated, fingers grazing the edge.
"Ready?" Shen Liufeng asked quietly.
"No," Lin replied. "But I need to know."
He unfurled the scroll.
Three characters.
"沈 玄 离" (Shen Xuan Li)
The torchlight trembled. So did the breath in Shen's lungs.
"…What?" Shen whispered.
His own surname.
Lin's eyes darted to him. "You know this name."
Shen's lips parted. "He's my father."
The silence hit like an avalanche.
Lin stepped back, stunned. "Your… what?"
Shen nodded slowly, like dragging truth from a tomb. "I was born to him. A child from his concubine. But I was never acknowledged. He sent me away to the Jade Bell Sect when I was six, with nothing but a sword and a warning: never speak his name."
"And he's the one behind all this?"
Shen's voice was bitter. "He always spoke of cleansing the Jianghu. I thought it was just doctrine. I didn't know he was building this… this monster of a pact."
Lin was quiet for a long moment. Then, softly: "So he sent you away to protect you from his darkness—or to keep you useful from afar?"
Shen looked away. "Does it matter?"
Lin reached out, grabbing his wrist. "It matters to me."
Shen met his gaze.
"No more secrets," Lin said.
"No more," Shen echoed.
They sealed the scroll and turned to leave.
The path back was eerily quiet.
Too quiet.
Halfway up the tunnel, Lin paused. "Do you hear that?"
A faint crackle, like burning paper.
They burst into the archive hall—
And found it aflame.
Scrolls devoured. Walls scorched. And pinned to the pedestal where the scroll once lay, a single dagger through a folded letter.
Shen snatched it open.
"You found the name, but not the man.
You know the master, but not the truth.
Come to the Valley of Withered Orchids, at moonrise. Come alone."
—方子月 (Fang ZiYue)
Lin clenched his fists. "He's wiping the trail."
Shen's eyes darkened. "He's baiting us. Splitting us."
Lin stepped forward, voice calm. "Then we don't split."
Shen looked at him.
"No more being hunted," Lin said. "No more shadows. We end this—together."
Shen nodded.
And for the first time, not even the fire behind them could burn the steel in their eyes.