Part Two
The elder stood and walked toward the open balcony overlooking the sect below.
"Do you know what holds this sect together?" he asked.
"Fear?" Zheng Wen Te offered.
The elder did not smile.
"Trust."
Zheng Wen Te remained silent.
"Disciples trust that alignment leads to ascension. They trust that severing weakness creates clarity. They trust Heaven's mandate."
"And if that trust is misplaced?" Zheng Wen Te asked quietly.
"Then collapse follows."
The elder turned back toward him.
"You threaten collapse."
"I threaten complacency."
"That distinction will not protect you."
"I am not seeking protection."
The elder's gaze grew colder.
"You think the sect fears you."
"It does."
"And you believe that is strength."
"No."
He met the elder's eyes evenly.
"It is fragility."
Silence deepened.
Far below, disciples trained in synchronized movements, unaware of the philosophical fault line widening above them.
"You are being watched beyond this sect," the elder said finally.
"I know."
"The giants have not intervened again. But their silence is not absence."
Zheng Wen Te felt a faint tremor in his dantian at the mention.
He had sensed it too.
Not guidance.
Attention.
"Heaven tests anomalies," the elder continued. "It eliminates instability."
"And what if instability precedes evolution?"
The elder's expression shifted — not anger.
Concern.
"You presume evolution requires suffering."
"I know it does."
The elder stepped closer.
"If Heaven demands your elimination for structural preservation — will you resist?"
There it was again.
Not obedience to sect.
Obedience to Heaven.
Zheng Wen Te answered without raising his voice.
"I will not resist unjustly."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the only one I can give."
The chamber trembled slightly.
Not from formation.
From something far subtler.
Attention sharpening.