The journey back from Hollow Vale was quiet.
Too quiet.
Li Wei had expected praise, even suspicion—but when they arrived at the Azure Wind Sect, the elders were silent. The report was taken, the mission marked complete, and Jin Yu was escorted to the healing hall.
That night, Elder Yunxi summoned him.
She stood atop the Windpeak Stair, her staff pointed toward the sky.
"You've unlocked two seals," she said. "The third is… different. Dangerous."
Li Wei frowned. "It's a memory too?"
"No," she said. "It's a key."
Then she turned her blind gaze toward him and said something he never expected:
"I walked your path once."
He froze.
"I was there, when Li Feng shattered the heavens. I saw what he became. He was… a storm wrapped in skin. And the third seal is what started it."
Li Wei's voice was quiet. "And what's behind it?"
"A piece of a will. A remnant of something ancient and broken—what we call the Tempest Core."
"Why did he break the sky?"
She turned away. "Because he thought the heavens were lying."
⸻
The next morning, Elder Yun—Li Wei's old enemy—formally summoned him to the Inner Sect Pavilion.
Not to punish.
To offer him a position.
"Your gifts are wasted on the outer courts," the elder said. "I've spoken to the Grand Elder. We'll sponsor your advancement. A personal tutor. Better cultivation resources. All we ask is… you surrender that pendant. It's too unstable."
Li Wei said nothing.
He looked down at the pendant.
The third seal was glowing.
That night, as the wind howled around his chamber, he placed the pendant on the floor, drew a boundary circle of silence, and sat cross-legged.
He would not surrender it.
He would open it.