Lu Yan didn't stop until he reached the lake. His mind was still on the conversation back at the Cloud-Veil Pavilion, his heart racing for reasons he couldn't quite explain. He needed a moment of quiet, so he knelt at the water's edge.
He reached out to splash some water on his face, but the second his fingers broke the surface, the lake changed.
It wasn't a ripple. It was a stain. A dark, oily substance—black as calligraphy ink—bled from his fingertips and raced across the water. Before he could even pull his hand back, the temperature plummeted.
With a sharp, metallic crack, the water didn't just freeze; it crystallized into jagged, black ice. The shards shot up from the surface like spears, spreading across the bank and encasing the nearby trees in a dark, shimmering frost.
Lu Yan scrambled back, staring at the wreckage. His eyes had shifted, the blue replaced by a faint, steady violet glow that felt more like a physical ache than a light.
"Lu Yan."
The voice was calm, but it had the edge of a sharpened blade. Xue Wanli was standing on the path, his silver eyes fixed on the black shards. He didn't look shocked or frightened; he looked like a man watching a storm he had been expecting for years.
"Shizun," Lu Yan breathed, his voice shaking. "The water... it just happened. I didn't use any technique."
Wanli stepped onto the frozen grass. He didn't look at the sky or the palace; his focus was entirely on the black ice. He walked right up to Lu Yan and grabbed his wrist, checking his pulse with a clinical, steady grip.
"Get up," Wanli said. His voice was low and focused, stripped of any warmth but also any judgment. "And look at me until the color in your eyes fades. Do not look at the lake."
He stood between Lu Yan and the path back to the palace, his white robes acting as a shield against any prying eyes.
"The guards will be here in a moment to investigate the sound," Wanli said, his jaw tightening. "I will tell them a cultivation array of mine backfired. You are to return to the Cloud-Veil Pavilion and stay there. If anyone asks why you look pale, tell them you were caught in the blast of my mistake."
He let go of Lu Yan's wrist and gave him a short, firm nod toward the Pavilion. "Go. Now. We will deal with the rest once the doors are shut."