The morning after the battle, the sect grounds buzzed with a confusion that no one could resolve.
Male disciples gathered in clusters across the inner courtyard, their pink robes freshly laundered, their faces carrying the bright, eager expressions of young men who believed fortune had finally smiled upon them. They had been separated from the female disciples at dawn — a division ordered by Elder Fanxue herself, delivered with a composed face and steady voice that betrayed nothing.
"Why are we being separated?" Chen Wei asked, a broad-shouldered disciple with a square jaw and eager eyes. He stood with three other male cultivators near the spirit pond — a crystalline pool of condensed qi that had previously been reserved for Core Formation elders. Now, by the ancestor's decree, it was theirs. "Is this the ancestor's order?"
