After Lin Huang departed—taking Rong Luo and Young Master Yun with him—the Phoenix and Dragon Dojo seemed to exhale into an unfamiliar stillness.
The usual currents of presence were gone. No footsteps echoed through the stone paths. No low hum of sword qi lingered in the air. Even the wind felt quieter, as if it, too, had learned to tread carefully.
The Fang Sisters had long since withdrawn from the public eye, sealing themselves inside their quarters. Their doors remained shut day and night, faint ripples of cultivation aura leaking out only when their breathing aligned with the world. They spoke to no one, disturbed nothing, and treated the silence as a fragile thing not to be broken.
Even the Bodhi Tree had changed.
