The silence that settled over the metropolis was not one of peace, but of held breath. Li Wei stood at the edge of the vast city that sprawled before him, a labyrinth of opulent pavilions and squalid alleys built upon a foundation of relentless commerce.
The air thrummed with the rhythm of clinking scales and the low, constant chant of sellers and buyers haggling over everything from spirit stones to mortal souls. It was a formidable settlement, a bastion carved from persuasion and cold, hard coin, where influence was the true currency and information the sharpest blade.
Yet, the most dangerous enemy was never the one you could see swinging a sword in the open. It was the one that poisoned the well before you ever felt thirst.
