**Chapter 10: The Gathering Storm**
The Bentley returned to the Su residence under a sky now heavy with clouds. Rain threatened again, the kind of humid Shanghai summer night that made the air feel thick and electric.
Inside the mansion, the atmosphere had shifted. The retainers moved with quiet urgency—locking secondary gates, checking security arrays (low-level qi wards hidden in the walls and garden stones), and preparing guest rooms in case allies arrived unexpectedly. Old Master Su had already made discreet calls to a few old contacts in the hidden world—people who owed him favors from decades past.
Lin Chen and Su Wanqing went straight to the meditation room. The door closed behind them with a soft click.
No words at first.
Su Wanqing leaned against the wall, exhaling slowly. The adrenaline from the Jade Moon Pavilion confrontation still hummed in her veins, mixing with the new yin qi circulating through her meridians.
Lin Chen stood opposite her, rolling up his sleeves to reveal the faint black lines on his forearms—remnants of the seal, now more pronounced after the evening's tension.
"They're coming harder next time," he said quietly. "Zhao Kai was just the messenger. The real players will be Foundation Establishment cultivators. Maybe even one at the peak of that realm. They won't bother with numbers—they'll bring quality."
Su Wanqing pushed off the wall. "Then we need to be better. Faster. Stronger."
She extended her right hand, palm up. The silver mark glowed softly. A thin thread of yin qi rose—unsteady at first, wavering like smoke in wind, but it held.
Lin Chen stepped closer. "Focus. Don't force it. Let it flow like water finding the lowest path."
She closed her eyes. Breathed in. The thread straightened, lengthened, then split into three delicate strands that danced around her fingers.
A small, triumphant smile curved her lips.
Lin Chen nodded. "Good. Now condense."
She willed the strands together. They merged into a small, coin-sized disc of pure yin qi—translucent black, edged with silver. It hovered above her palm, cool and stable.
Lin Chen reached out, letting one of his own shadow tendrils touch it.
The two forces met—his pure shadow yin merging seamlessly with her awakened yin affinity. A soft pulse passed between them, like two heartbeats synchronizing.
Su Wanqing opened her eyes. "I felt that. Like… an echo."
"That's the link," he explained. "Our qi recognizes each other now. If we fight together, we can amplify each other's strength. Share senses. Even lend qi in a pinch."
She let the disc dissipate. "Show me how to use it in combat. Not just holding it—striking."
Lin Chen stepped back, creating space in the center of the room.
"Basic shadow strike," he said. "Watch."
He extended his index and middle fingers. A needle-thin shadow formed at the tips—sharp, invisible unless you knew where to look. He flicked his wrist.
The needle shot forward, piercing the wooden training dummy in the corner with a soft *thunk*. It embedded deep, then dissolved, leaving only a hairline crack.
"Your turn," he said. "Same motion. Don't think about power. Think about precision."
Su Wanqing mimicked the gesture. Her yin qi gathered—slower, but controlled. A short, silver-black spike formed. She flicked.
It flew—straighter than expected—and struck the dummy dead center. The impact left a clean puncture, no larger than a pencil point.
She stared, breathing hard.
Lin Chen's eyes held quiet pride. "Again. Faster."
They trained for nearly two hours.
By the end, Su Wanqing could summon and fire three consecutive yin needles with only a two-second delay between each. Sweat dampened her hairline, but her eyes burned with focus.
Lin Chen called a halt when he noticed her qi fluctuating—early sign of overexertion.
"Enough for tonight," he said gently. "Rest. Tomorrow we go deeper—defensive techniques, qi sensing at range, how to draw from the Core link without destabilizing it."
Su Wanqing wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "I can feel it changing me. Not just power… clarity. I see things differently now. Shadows aren't just dark—they're alive. Waiting."
Lin Chen stepped closer. "That's the bloodline awakening. It changes perception first, then reality."
She looked up at him. "And you? How long did it take you to master this?"
"Years of hiding. Years of practice in secret. I never had a teacher after my parents died. Everything I know is self-taught… and instinct."
Su Wanqing reached out, touching the faint scar on his forearm from the earlier fight. "You don't have to do it alone anymore."
He covered her hand with his. "Neither do you."
The moment stretched—charged, intimate.
Then a soft knock interrupted.
One of the retainers: "Young Master Lin, Young Madam. Old Master requests you in the study. There's… a visitor. He arrived unannounced. Says he's an old friend of the Shadow Yin Clan."
Lin Chen's body tensed instantly.
Su Wanqing felt the shift through their link—his qi spiking with wariness.
"Who?" Lin Chen asked through the door.
The retainer hesitated. "He calls himself… Duan Wei. Says he was your father's sworn brother. He carries a Shadow Yin token."
Lin Chen's eyes narrowed.
Duan Wei.
The name hit like a memory unlocked.
One of the few who escaped the massacre. A man who had disappeared afterward—rumored dead, or in hiding, or turned traitor.
Lin Chen looked at Su Wanqing.
"This could be help," he said. "Or a trap."
She straightened. "Then we face it together."
They left the meditation room side by side.
Down the corridor, toward the study.
Outside the door, a tall figure waited in the shadows—middle-aged, lean, dressed in simple dark robes. A faint scar ran across his left cheek. In his hand: a small black jade token etched with the Shadow Yin clan crest—identical to the one Lin Chen's mother had pressed into his hand as a child.
The man turned.
His eyes—deep, shadowed—locked onto Lin Chen.
"Little Chen," he said, voice rough with emotion. "You've grown."
Lin Chen stopped three paces away. Shadows instinctively gathered at his feet.
"Uncle Duan," he said quietly. "You're supposed to be dead."
Duan Wei gave a bitter smile. "I was. For twenty years. Until tonight… when the Core stirred. I felt it all the way in the Changbai Mountains. It called me back."
He looked at Su Wanqing, then back to Lin Chen.
"The Zhao family has already sent word to the Azure Flame Pavilion. Their First Elder—Liang Huo—is on his way. Peak Foundation Establishment. He'll arrive tomorrow night."
Lin Chen's expression hardened. "And you're here to…?"
Duan Wei knelt on one knee, placing the token on the floor between them.
"I failed your father once. I won't fail his son. Let me stand with you. Teach the Su girl what I know. Help you break the seal fully—before Liang Huo tears it open by force."
Silence.
Lin Chen looked at the token. Then at Duan Wei's bowed head.
Then at Su Wanqing.
She gave the slightest nod.
Lin Chen stepped forward and picked up the token.
"Rise, Uncle Duan."
Duan Wei stood.
Lin Chen handed the token back. "Tell us everything you know about the Azure Flame Pavilion. And how to survive what's coming."
Duan Wei's scarred face broke into a fierce grin.
"Finally," he said. "The shadows gather again."
Outside, the first drops of rain began to fall.
Heavy. Inevitable.
Just like the storm about to break over Shanghai.
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