She burst through the circular moon-gate leading to the rear courtyard.
"Wangchen! I brought the—!"
Ji'an stopped dead in her tracks.
There was no Gu Zhiwei. There was no romantic, sunlit bonding session.
The rear courtyard looked like a warzone.
Dozens of massive, intricately carved practice dummies made of solid, reinforced spirit-stone had been completely annihilated. They were shattered into jagged, frozen shards, scattered across the snow.
In the center of the destruction stood Xie Wangchen.
He wore only a thin, white inner tunic, his chest heaving slightly. His dark hair was unbound, whipping wildly in the localized blizzard he was generating.
Winter's Sigh was drawn, the blade humming with a lethal, terrifying blue light. He looked feral.
He looked like a monster that had been locked in a cage and was systematically tearing it apart out of pure, unadulterated frustration.
The moment Ji'an's voice rang out, the blizzard died.
