The abandoned temple smelled of dust and damp stone.
Moonlight spilled through the broken roof in pale ribbons, illuminating cracked tiles and statues worn smooth by time and neglect. Jin Yue gathered a small pile of abandoned straw near the wall and lowered himself onto it, careful to keep his movements quiet even though no one else was there.
Old habits died slowly.
He leaned back against the cold stone and closed his eyes, willing his pulse to steady.
It did not.
His body refused to forget.
The image surfaced again...unbidden. The elevated walkway. The lantern light. That gaze, steady and restrained, as if it had paused on him deliberately.
Jin Yue frowned and pressed his fingers into his sleeve.
Enough.
He had crossed paths with countless cultivators over the years. Authority figures, patrol leaders, enforcers. None of them mattered. None of them lingered.
And yet...
He exhaled slowly and forced his thoughts elsewhere. Tomorrow, he would leave the slum before dawn. There were rumors of work near the outer districts. Dangerous work, but safer than staying too long in one place.
Movement was survival.
By the time sleep finally claimed him, it was shallow and restless.
Morning came with the sound of water.
Jin Yue woke before the sun fully rose, the river's low murmur seeping through the broken walls. He sat up immediately, senses alert, then relaxed when he found the temple undisturbed.
Good.
He packed quickly and slipped out while the slum was still stirring, keeping to the edges where shadows lingered longest. People emerged slowly...vendors setting up makeshift stalls, laborers hauling crates, gamblers nursing last night's losses.
Jin Yue kept his head down.
The city had been uneasy lately. Too many whispers. Too many cultivators passing through places they had no reason to watch.
He had not gone far when voices rose ahead.
Sharp. Hostile.
A small crowd had formed near a narrow crossing where the walkway narrowed dangerously over the water. Three men blocked the path...cultivators by the faint pressure of their presence, though not particularly strong.
Strong enough.
"Pay the toll," one of them said, sneering. "Or turn around."
Jin Yue slowed, assessing.
He could retreat. Find another route. But that would add time, and time had a way of compounding problems. He stepped forward instead, posture unthreatening.
"I don't have anything worth taking," he said evenly.
The men laughed.
One of them reached out and grabbed Jin Yue's sleeve.
"Everyone has something."
Jin Yue's muscles tensed, ready to twist free...
"Enough."
The word cut through the air with calm authority.
The hand on Jin Yue's sleeve dropped immediately.
A hush rippled through the small crowd as people instinctively stepped back. Jin Yue did not turn right away. He didn't need to.
He felt it.
That same pressure from the night before...controlled, unmistakable.
"Is there a problem here?" the man continued.
Jin Yue turned slowly.
The patrol leader stood a short distance away, uniform immaculate despite the grime of the slum. Lantern light was gone now, replaced by pale morning sun, and Jin Yue saw him more clearly.
Sharp eyes. Composed expression. A presence that did not need to be loud to command attention.
The cultivators who had blocked the path bowed hastily.
"N-no, sir. Just a misunderstanding."
The patrol leader's gaze flicked briefly to Jin Yue.
Just briefly.
But Jin Yue felt it all the same.
"Move along," the man said. "All of you."
The cultivators didn't hesitate. They cleared the path at once, disappearing into the crowd as if they had never been there.
The people watching dispersed just as quickly. No one wanted to linger under a patrol leader's scrutiny.
Jin Yue remained where he was.
For a heartbeat too long.
"You're free to go," the man said.
Jin Yue nodded and stepped forward, intending to pass without another word. That should have been the end of it.
Except...
"Wait."
The single word stopped him.
Jin Yue turned back, pulse quickening despite himself.
The patrol leader studied him...not openly, not invasively, but with the same focused restraint as the night before.
"You should avoid this crossing," the man said. "They've been causing trouble."
"I will," Jin Yue replied.
Silence stretched between them.
Neither moved.
Jin Yue became acutely aware of the space separating them. Of how close they stood without touching. Of how the man's gaze lingered just a fraction longer than necessary.
Something unspoken hung in the air.
Then the patrol leader stepped aside, clearing the path completely.
"Go."
Jin Yue did.
He walked away with measured steps, every instinct screaming at him not to look back.
He didn't.
But he felt it again...the weight of attention following him until distance finally broke it.
Only when he turned a corner and the patrol leader was out of sight did Jin Yue stop.
His heart was pounding.
He touched the place on his sleeve where he had been grabbed earlier. The fabric was still creased.
That trouble hadn't touched him.
Because someone else had intervened.
Jin Yue lowered his hand slowly.
This was not coincidence.
He didn't know why a patrol leader would notice him. He didn't know why that man had stepped in when it would have been easier not to.
What he knew...what unsettled him deeply...was this:
The man had remembered him.
And Jin Yue suspected that this was only the beginning.
He didn't know yet that this single interruption would be the first step toward being dragged into the city's largest and most dangerous trial.