Just after Vice Matriarch Kim swept from the dais, her white-gold robes trailing like a comet's tail, the Great Hall of Celestial Light Mountain exploded into chaos.
Disciples who had moments ago sat still and reverent now bolted like hounds loosed from chains. Robes flared, boots thundered across the polished floor, and the sound of thousands filled the mountain corridors as they scattered in all directions.
"The Ninefold Moon Lotus grows near the eastern caves—go, quickly!" one shouted, dragging two companions behind him.
"Idiot! The Frost-Petal Lotus is in the northern streams—it blooms at dawn, we must pluck it before anyone else!" another barked.
"The Shade-Lotus hides beneath willows! Move, before it vanishes!"
