Jin Yue returned to Tent 417 later than usual.
The training grounds had already grown quiet for the evening, though lantern light still flickered along the pathways between the tents. A faint wind moved across the open field, carrying with it the distant scent of night flowers drifting in from the capital beyond the walls.
Inside Tent 417, the atmosphere was exactly as it always was.
Huo Zhen was speaking loudly about something that had clearly happened hours earlier but that he was still explaining as though the entire world had somehow missed it.
Mu Qing sat cross-legged near the low table, carefully reviewing notes from a medical manual while occasionally grinding herbs in a small bowl.
Yun Ke had several formation diagrams spread across the table, his fingers tracing faint lines of energy patterns across the parchment.
Ba Ryou sat near the entrance, quietly polishing the edge of his weapon with a cloth.
