(Few Hours Earlier)
The dojo breathed with the steady rhythm of daily life, sunlight filtering through paper screens onto polish
wooden floors. In the expansive main hall of the large bungalow compoun
Chaion—Nan Chenyi's father and steadfast leader of the sect—sat cross-legged on a woven mat. Around him,
a handful of senior members leaned in, their voices a low murmur as they debated the weighty choice of
future leader. The air carried the faint scent of incense and oiled wood Shards flew like shrapnel, embedding in walls and mats. A horde of red-cloaked intruders surged through the breach, swords drawn and glinting with malicious intent. Chaion and the first-line sect members met them head-on, bodies moving in pure instinct honed by years of training. Steel sang through the air.
The intruder's blades cut through the air in wild arcs,the intuders rushed in,blades swinging, and the room filled with sudden movement. Chaion moved with INRISE-guided precision as the others moved in tandem ,their motions, deliberate yet relentless. One intruder was turned aside, another relieved of his weapon and guided backward with firm, unyielding force.
Chaion slipped past a faltering guard, his palm strike landing, cleanly against the man's back knocking the breath from him and folding his stance. The group kept pressing, not giving the intruders time to recover, until the fight spilled out of the main hall and into the open floors of the dojo.
As the clash spread into the open floor, more members of the sect joined in. Leaders took positions beside the students, and among them stood Xue -Chenyi's mother and Chaion's wife — calm and unshaken. She moved with quiet confidence, her stance steady; she was no less skilled than Chaion.
The red-cloaked men regrouped opposite them. Then a shift ran through their line.
A figure emerged from among them, wrapped entirely in black. A dark haze seemed to cling to him, thin smoke curling around his cloak as he walked forward. Chaion recognized him instantly. He felt it before the man even stopped.
Chaion turned and called Jiang and Zhang over, quickly pressing a folded letter into Zhang's hand.
"You need to leave," he said. "Find Chenyi. After this chaos ends, give him this."
They didn't move.
"No," Jiang said at once. "We're not leaving you here."
Zhang shook his head. "If this is where it ends, we stay."
Chaion's voice hardened just slightly. "This isn't a request."He called Kenjiiand told him to take them to the hidden chamber safely.
After a tense moment, they finally gave in, disappearing with him toward the hidden chamber.Chaion stepped forward again, Xue moving with him.
"I did expect you to come," Chaion said, facing the man in black. "But not like this. I thought you would have changed."
The black-cloaked leader laughed, low and sharp.
"You expect me to change?" he said. "To plead before you?" His gaze flicked between Chaion and Xue. "Never. Look at me now. I'm far more powerful than both of you."
Xue spoke before Chaion could respond.
"Why do you care so much about power?"
The man's expression darkened.
"Power?" he said bitterly. "You shouldn't speak of it. You chose power and popularity over loyalty… over love… in the past."
Chaion's jaw tightened.
"You still can't let go of that misunderstanding," he said. "Look at yourself. Look at what you were — and what you've become now."
The air around the man seemed to tremble as his anger broke through.
"Yes, both betrayed me!" he shouted. "I was nothing to you. Nothing!"
His eyes burned as he looked past them, at the sect gathered behind.
"Now I'll exact revenge on all of you — on everyone who ever thought I was weak.""And then what happened?" Chenyi gaze sharpened.
"We don't know the rest, the next thing we remember is that we were out of the chamber and saw uh."said jiang .
"This is the letter Master told us to give you," Zhang said, pulling out a folded letter from his sleeve.
"But right now, we should focus on retrieving the bodies back," Jiang added.