Tian Lei sat cross-legged on the hard floor of his cell, silent, eyes closed, breath steady. The suppression seal on the cell's walls dampened spiritual energy, but not completely. He could still feel the faint rhythm of qi moving through his meridians—slow, sluggish, but there.
He simply waited while meditating.
Then—footsteps.
Slow. Deliberate. Echoing down the corridor like the prelude to a storm.
The heavy door creaked open.
A young man, perhaps the same age as Tian Lei, strolled into view. He was dressed in the inner sect's signature silver-and-crimson robes, with a jade emblem tied to his waist that marked him as someone important. Too important for this place.
His face was handsome, but his eyes… they held the kind of disdain only born from entitlement. Arrogance wrapped around him like a second skin.
He stopped in front of the cell and looked at Tian Lei the way one might look at a dying beast—curious, but not concerned.
