The mountain from months ago looked different this time, no chanting, no ritual light, just cold silence over cracked stone. Wind moved through broken pillars that had stood untouched since before any of them were born.
"Same place," Wei Liang said, dismounting slowly, boots crunching against old gravel. "Where the mountain pass first led us."
"No," Cixi said, walking further past the entrance, deeper into forest none of them had explored before. She moved slowly, favoring her healing side, but her voice stayed steady. "Not this mountain. Where the first battle actually happened. Deeper still."
They followed her through dense trees, branches thick enough to block most of the morning light, until the ground finally opened into a wide, overgrown clearing. Stone ruins sat barely visible be
