Dawn at the Resonance Altar was a silent, frozen thing.
Lin Tian stood at the base of the stone platform, his breath pluming in the air. The altar was a wide circle of ancient, polished black stone, carved with spiraling patterns that seemed to drink the weak morning light.
Around it, tiered seating cut into the mountain rock was already packed with disciples, their gray and white robes a sea of muted color under the steel-gray sky. The air hummed with a low, tense murmur, the sound of hundreds holding their breath.
He felt their eyes on him, a physical weight. Curiosity, hostility, a few pockets of grim fascination. He ignored them, focusing on the platform.
Elder Shen Ruoyi and Elder Boran stood at opposite sides, their faces carved from the same ice as the peaks behind them.
Between them, Mu Chen waited, his hands clasped loosely behind his back. He looked bored, like a man waiting for a tedious meal to end.
