Chapter 71 - Chapter 71

The sun bled into the horizon, a slow, agonizing death that painted the sky in shades of bruised purple and final, desperate orange. Dusk. It was a time of transition, of thresholds, and for Hua Qian, it was the end of a brief, fragile peace. The air in the hidden village, once a sanctuary, had grown thick and heavy, charged with a preternatural stillness. It was the quiet of a world holding its breath, waiting for the axe to fall.