Xu forced the seventh gate open before Wei Liang finished asking whether they had time to prepare properly.
"We don't have time," Xu said, voice tight. "Whoever sent those assassins knows the first wave failed. They'll send something worse before the sun's fully up, and you're stronger with all seven gates open than you'll ever be caught halfway through one at the wrong moment. Start now."
Wei Liang sat on the floor of his room, Brigh already posted outside the door without being asked, Shen Yue's herb packet dissolved on his tongue before the first breath of the pattern even began.
The seventh gate did not convulse through him the way the others had. It arrived instead like something being unmade and rebuilt at the same time, every nerve in his body lighting white-hot before going stra
