Night inked the sky, cloaking the bustling Heaven Dou City in stillness.
Yet in the south of the city, Xu Tinglan's private residence blazed with light.
The elegant, secluded estate lay far from the crowded streets. She used it to handle official business that was inconvenient to conduct at the Legal Department, and occasionally to meditate in seclusion. Now, it had become the safest temporary base for Su Chen and his companions.
In the study, candlelight flickered gently, casting wavering silhouettes across the walls.
Su Chen sat in a fine pearwood chair. He paid no mind to the priceless antiques and calligraphy around him, focusing instead on the fragmentary diagram of the Buddha Fury Tang Lotus, which he had taken from the black iron chest and spread across the desk.
The paper was neither metal nor jade. It felt warm and smooth to the touch, and the intricate, ingenious mechanisms drawn upon it possessed a kind of destructive beauty, as if they concealed some profound law of the universe.
On his arm was a shallow cut left by one of Ghost Hand's hidden weapons. The wound was not deep, and his constitution had already stopped the bleeding, but he had not treated it. He let the cut stand out starkly against his fair skin.
He had left it there on purpose.
"Creak—"
The study door was flung open, and a graceful figure hurried in.
It was Xiao Wu.
She carried a basin of warm water and a bottle of fine wound medicine. When her gaze fell on the cut on Su Chen's arm, her beautiful eyes, already reddened with worry, instantly clouded over with tears.
"Su Chen!"
Her cry came out choked with tears. She rushed forward without hesitation and seized his arm.
"It's all my fault! If you hadn't