The wind that night was cool, sweeping softly across the cliffside near the Jade Echo Retreat.
The stars shimmered like distant flames across the black canvas of the sky, silent and ancient. Lin Mu sat at the very edge of the cliff, his robes fluttering quietly in the breeze, his legs crossed and his gaze distant. His swords, Afternoon Pine and Ocean Raker, lay across his lap—silent, as if it too was lost in thought.
Below him, the flickering glow of the sect's lanterns cast a faint hue, but up here on the cliff, it felt as if he stood at the border between the heavens and the world.
The Sacred Grounds.
It was his goal in coming here and finally it was within his grasp. But the time to enter it was still a short distance away. It continued to linger in his mind.
