Mount Nanzhao didn't welcome visitors.
Its slopes were lined with pale trees, their bark thin as rice paper, their leaves like needles. Mist clung to the roots, twisting upward like ghostly fingers. Even the wind felt watched—quiet, careful, poisoned with suspicion.
"This is where Jade Lotus makes its home?" Zhao muttered as they approached the outer terrace. "Feels more like a graveyard than a sect."
Yue, ever observant, nodded slowly. "They grow poisons like flowers. Every petal here is a blade."
Jiao added under her breath, "A pretty blade still cuts the same."
Li Fan said nothing. He simply walked.
His eyes scanned the spiraling paths, noting how each turn of the mountain forced guests to pass beneath narrow ridges—perfect ambush points. The sect hadn't built a temple. It had built a trap.
And now, he walked into it.
They were led—wordlessly—by silent disciples in black and jade robes. Not a single word was exchanged on the way, only nods and subtle gestures. The disciples' faces were covered by silk masks embroidered with thorns.
Finally, they reached a platform overlooking the entire valley.
There, surrounded by blooming black orchids, sat Elder Su.
She looked nothing like Li Fan had imagined.
No twisted old crone. No venomous beauty.
She was serene.
White-robed, plain-faced, with long silver hair bound in a coil. Her eyes were the color of dusk. Not unkind—just distant, like she'd seen too much rot to be surprised by anything new.
"You came," she said, without looking up. Her voice was like falling snow.
Li Fan nodded. "You asked."
Elder Su raised her eyes. "The Whispering Valley was scheduled for purging. You acted early."
"It was already suffering."
"A slow rot," she said. "The kind that teaches the roots not to grow crooked again. You cut it clean."
Li Fan didn't apologize.
"I don't need your blessing."
Elder Su smiled faintly. "You misunderstand. I'm not scolding you. I'm... measuring you."
She stood, light as mist. "You built something from nothing. The Assassin Hall—no history, no backers, no sect allegiance. Yet already your blade reaches further than many sects dare."
Li Fan met her gaze. "What do you want?"
The elder stepped aside and gestured to the garden.
Each flower glistened with dew—yet Yue flinched when one drop landed on her hand.
"Poison," she murmured. "Even the air's laced."
Elder Su said, "Cultivation is war by patience. You kill quickly. I kill slowly. But we both kill."
She turned to Li Fan. "I offer you an oath. The Oath of the Black Leaf. In exchange for recognition by the Jade Lotus Sect, you swear never to target our holdings. In return, we give you protection, rare medicines, and... names."
Zhao's hand went to his sword. "We're not dogs."
Elder Su ignored him. "You will never rise as a sect. You lack elders, land, lineage. But under us, you can become... useful. A thorn no one dares pluck."
Li Fan was silent.
The offer wasn't bad. Not on the surface. But chains rarely were, at first glance.
Jiao spoke first. "What if we refuse?"
"Then we part peacefully." She smiled. "And watch. From a distance."
Yue asked quietly, "And if we accept?"
"Then you walk our garden freely. With thorns of your own."
Li Fan finally stepped forward, slowly, until he stood eye to eye with Elder Su.
"There's a story," he said. "About a hunter who wore wolf's fur to pass through a pack."
Su raised an eyebrow. "Did it work?"
"For a while," Li Fan said. "Until the wolves smelled blood on his teeth."
Elder Su laughed softly. "You're not a wolf. Not yet. But you are bleeding."
She handed him a thin scroll sealed in jade lacquer. "This is a list. Ten names. Men and women protected by law, by status, by silence. But they've wronged even us."
Li Fan didn't take it.
"I choose who to kill."
Su replied, "So do I."
There was a beat of silence.
Then Li Fan stepped back.
"I'll read it. But I'm not swearing anything."
Elder Su inclined her head. "Good. Let the garden grow wild, then."
They left at dusk.
The scroll burned a weight into Li Fan's satchel with every step down the mountain.
Jiao walked beside him. "You trust her?"
"No."
Yue murmured, "But she didn't lie."
Zhao grunted. "What now?"
Li Fan stared into the trees.
"She gave us names. Let's see if they deserve our blades."
He didn't say it aloud, but part of him knew:
Every name on that list would come with a price.
Some in gold. Some in blood.
And some in answers he wasn't sure he wanted.