CHAPTER 37 — The Silence Between Prayers (Part Three)
They did not leave the valley immediately.
Protocol required containment.
Lian activated a jade slip, her spiritual energy flowing into it in careful pulses. The surface glowed faintly, transmitting a silent report back to the Outer Sect.
Zheng Wen Te watched her without speaking.
Every movement was precise.
Measured.
Professional.
This was not panic.
This was procedure.
Which meant one thing:
The sect had faced things like this before.
The girl stood quietly beneath the drifting petals, no longer radiating pressure. She looked almost ordinary now.
Too ordinary.
"Will they send elders?" Zheng Wen Te asked.
Lian didn't look at him. "At minimum."
"At maximum?"
She hesitated.
"An Observer."
The word settled heavily in the air.
Zheng Wen Te felt it immediately.
"That doesn't sound like protection."
"It isn't," Lian replied.
Before he could ask more, the jade slip trembled in her hand.
A response.
Her eyes scanned the glowing characters.
The longer she read, the more her expression changed.
Not fear.
Not anger.
Distance.
When the light faded, she lowered her hand slowly.
"Well?" Zheng Wen Te asked.
She met his gaze this time.
"The sect will seal this valley."
"For investigation."
"And me?"
A pause.
"They've reassigned you."
The answer came too smoothly.
"To where?"
"The Inner Grounds."
That made no sense.
He was barely stabilized in cultivation.
Inner Grounds were for core disciples.
"For training?" he asked carefully.
"For observation."
There it was.
Clean.
Honest.
Surgical.
The girl let out a faint breath that almost sounded like a laugh.
"You see?" she murmured.
Zheng Wen Te ignored her for now.
"Who requested this reassignment?" he asked.
Lian's grip tightened slightly around the jade slip.
"It came from above the elders."
"Above?"
Her eyes flicked upward instinctively.
Not toward a building.
Toward the sky.
Zheng Wen Te understood.
Not the sect alone.
Something higher had moved.
Quietly.
Efficiently.
He thought of the messenger.
Of the forced command to speak the name.
Of the silence that followed.
Now this.
Relocation.
Containment.
Proximity to power.
A better cage.
Lian stepped back, formal once more.
"You are to depart at dusk. An escort will arrive."
Escort.
Not invitation.
The wind shifted.
Petals scattered across stone.
Zheng Wen Te stood there, feeling the invisible structure tightening around him.
He had not rebelled.
He had not defied.
He had only hesitated.
And already—
the system was adjusting.
The girl's voice came softly from behind him.
"They're bringing you closer."
He didn't turn.
"For what?"
She answered without hesitation.
"To see which way you'll break."
Silence followed.
But this time—
Zheng Wen Te did not feel small inside it.
He felt alert.
And for the first time since Heaven chose him—
he began to think like someone who might choose back.