The hidden enclave sat carved into the mountainside two days' hard ride from the capital, its entrance concealed behind a formation array old enough that even Ren Wei, recovering slowly within its protective walls, sometimes forgot the elaborate stonework hiding it from ordinary sight had once belonged to his own grandfather's generation of the southern lineage.
His wounds from the valley ambush had healed considerably in the weeks since, thanks largely to a careful regimen of restorative pills brewed from ingredients his few remaining allies had smuggled through increasingly watchful checkpoints, and the qi circulation exercises he forced himself through twice daily despite the lingering ache in his side where Jian's forces had nearly ended him entirely. He sat now in the enclave's central chamber, cross legged before a small brazier, working through his evening cultivation cycle when the summoning talisman at his belt finally, faintly warmed.
