The assessment ground filled faster than Wei Liang expected, word of the retesting having spread through every rank of the sect in the six days since Gong's inquiry surfaced. Elders lined the raised platform at the ground's edge, senior disciples packed the surrounding rows, and labor workers clustered near the back where they usually weren't permitted to stand at all, drawn by rumor too large to ignore.
Wei Dong stood near the front with the inner disciples, arms crossed, expression carefully arranged into boredom that didn't quite reach his eyes. Wei Liang caught the flicker of tension there before his cousin managed to smooth it away.
Elder Gong presided over the testing stone itself, a slab of pale gray rock worn smooth by centuries of palms pressed against its surface. He didn't loo
