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The two fleeing cultivators burst over the stone formation's low wall.
A young man. A younger woman. Both gasping. Both wearing plain clothes with no sect marking. The man had a shallow cut across his forearm — recent, still bleeding. The woman had torn her robe at the knee from a fall.
They saw Wen Dao and stopped dead.
The man raised one hand. Not an attack. A gesture.
"Not enemies," he managed between breaths.
Behind them, over the wall: three. Iron Claw Alliance arm-bands. Level Three, Level Three, Level Four. The Level Four was carrying something — a small sealed container, iron, closed with a formation lock. He was holding it like it was valuable.
The lead Iron Claw cultivator looked at the camp. At five people and a Tiger.
A pause.
The Tiger looked at the Iron Claw group without moving.
The Level Four's expression changed.
"This is an Iron Claw Alliance matter," he said. "Stand aside."
"What matter?" Wen Dao said.
"These two stole clan property."
"Did they?" He looked at the two fugitives. "Did you steal from the Iron Claw Alliance?"
The young man's jaw tightened. "We stole back what they stole from us first."
"The container," Wen Dao said. "What's in it?"
"Our family's cultivation record. Three generations. They took it six months ago when they seized our village's resources." The man's hands were shaking — not from fear, from anger. "Our grandfather's cultivation notes. Our mother's breakthrough documentation. Our whole path."
Wen Dao looked at the Iron Claw Level Four.
"Is that accurate?" he said.
"Clan property by right of resource acquisition," the Level Four said.
"Right of resource acquisition," Wen Dao repeated. "That's a phrase. What does it mean in practice?"
The Level Four's eyes narrowed. "Stand aside."
"I'm asking a question. If the answer is legitimate, I'll consider it."
"The clan occupies the territory. All resources in the territory belong to the clan."
"Including cultivation records that existed before the clan's occupation?"
A silence.
"All resources," the Level Four said. He'd stopped calculating and moved to commitment.
He attacked.
Fast for a Level Four — he had clearly done this before, probably many times. He came for the two fugitives directly, bypassing Wen Dao with a deliberate shoulder-check that carried enough qi to stagger most people.
Wen Dao was not most people.
He moved with the impact instead of against it, redirected the force sideways, and placed himself in the Level Four's path before the man finished the movement.
The Pale Flame sense read the man's qi architecture in the contact. Clockwise flow. Aggressive. Forward-committed.
He hit the Level Four's outstretched arm at the nerve junction — the same technique that had worked on Han Feng in the assessment, on Zhao Mingyu in the trial. The arm numbed.
The container dropped.
The young man caught it.
The Level Four stepped back, surprised. His two Level Threes moved. Zhou Jin was already between them and the fugitives. Li Qing had positioned herself at the camp's east approach — not aggressive, just present.
The Level Four looked at Zhou Jin. At Li Qing. At the Tiger, who had stood up.
Five trained cultivators. A Void Tiger. Three Iron Claw members.
The Level Four made a decision.
"This isn't done," he said.
He walked away. His two Level Threes followed.
The young man watched them go. Then looked at Wen Dao.
"Why?" he said.
"Because you answered my question honestly," Wen Dao said. "And because the container belongs to you." He paused. "Where are you going?"
"North. Away from Iron Claw territory." The man looked at his sister — she was catching her breath, holding the sealed container against her chest. "We don't have a destination."
"Can you travel at speed?"
The man looked at him. "Why?"
"Because we're going north and we maintain a hard pace. If you can keep it, travel with us for safety of numbers." He looked at the container. "A family cultivation record is worth protecting."
The two siblings looked at each other.
"One condition," the woman said. She had a steady voice for someone who'd been running for her life.
"What condition?" Wen Dao said.
"You tell us your name."
"Wen Dao."
She looked at him for a moment. Then: "Ling Fan. This is my brother Ling Tao."
They joined the camp.
At dawn, seven people and a Tiger moved north.
The Pale Flame sense confirmed: the Level Four had turned south, not north. He had gone back to report.
Iron Claw Alliance would know their direction within a day.
Wen Dao kept the pace hard and didn't mention this.
They were already moving. Speed was the answer.