Morning sunlight filtered through the stained-glass windows of the Grand Hall, casting fractured prisms of crimson and gold across the marble floor. The cavernous room had been scrubbed clean by surviving servants at dawn, removing the worst carnage from the night's coup. Yet scorch marks still stained the pillars, and a metallic scent of ozone and burnt blood hung in the cool air.
Bai Hua's broken corpse was gone, swept into the ravine without ceremony. The era of the rotting matriarch had ended, leaving an expectant quiet in its wake.
The bronze doors at the far end of the hall groaned as they swung open.
Gu Fan walked over the threshold, his footsteps echoing against the stone. He was dressed in tailored robes of midnight blue and black silk, the fabric absorbing the light. He looked refreshed. The suffocating pressure of a 6th-Stage Origin Realm cultivator radiated from his skin, a dense energy that made the air ripple like water over hot stone.
