__In the Cestine palace__
Zhao Li Xin's fingers danced across the keyboard, the cold light of the monitor painting his face in pale blue. On the screen, streams of code cascaded like an unfamiliar language he had long since mastered. With a final keystroke, the security grid of the Bellevue Hotel unfolded before him, every corridor, every elevator, every flicker of motion now his to command.
The fact that he, a man born in an age of ink scrolls and sword steel, could now breach modern defenses would have been laughable if it weren't true. Yet here he sat, utterly at ease, hacking into a digital fortress as if he had been born for it.
Lory only taught him the basics, but it was Zhao Li Xin's own relentless curiosity that carried him forward. He devoured books, scoured the web, and tested his newfound skills with the same patience and precision that once made him an unmatched cultivator.
