Chapter 62 - If I Am
The camp quieted differently at night.
It was never completely silent... it never could be... but the noise thinned into softer layers. The murmur of distant watch rotations carried through the dark. Cooling embers snapped faintly within dying fire pits. Beneath everything, the formation arrays settled into their evening rhythm, humming low and steady as the sealed grounds adjusted to nocturnal stability.
Above it all, the moon hung thin and pale.
Jin Yue stood just beyond the outer lantern line, where the light grew weak and the shadows lengthened into indistinct shapes. The night air brushed cool against the back of his neck. His breathing remained even, controlled down to the smallest shift in rhythm.
He was not training.
At least, not visibly.
There was no pulse flare, no drawn weapon, no stance that would signal preparation. He simply stood in stillness, as though absorbing the night itself.
