The mountain did not sleep that night. Even after the disciples retreated to their quarters and the lanterns dimmed, Azure Wind remained tense and wounded, listening to its own strained breath.
Lan Qingyun stood alone in the main hall. Beyond the open doors, the fractured spirit valley lay exposed. The once steady mist was now thin and uneven. Spiritual energy rose in pulses instead of smooth streams, like breath forced through injured lungs.
Within three days the disciples would feel it. Within seven, cultivation speed would decline. Within a month, morale would begin to rot.
He did not need the system to tell him that.
His consciousness spread outward and brushed against the mountain's core formation. The primary array lines were intact but strained. The western auxiliary channel that once fed additional spiritual energy had been severed deliberately when Crimson Cloud struck the valley. Not destroyed. Severed cleanly as a warning.
As long as he and Elder Wei remained, their combined Mid Golden Core and unstable Peak Golden Core presence would deter immediate invasion. But deterrence could not repair fractures. It could not create spirit stones. It could not keep a dying master alive.
He turned and walked to the treasury.
The doors creaked as he pushed them open. Once guarded day and night, it now stood behind only a thin barrier formation. Inside, the shelves were sparse.
Eighty thousand mid grade spirit stones. Several low grade pills. Two damaged defensive talismans. An outdated sword manual. Two formation lamps with cracked cores.
This was not the treasury of a former top five sect.
At the far wall he pressed his palm against a plain stone panel. Golden Core qi flowed in a precise rhythm. The sect master seal within his dantian responded with a low hum. Dust fell as hidden seams shifted and the wall slid aside.
Inside the recess, four objects rested on a stone platform.
His gaze fell first on a dull brown crystal resting in a jade cradle, cracked along one edge with faint veins of light pulsing within.
The Earth Core Fragment.
If reintegrated properly, it could stabilize the severed auxiliary channel and push spirit vein output above sixty percent. Not restore it fully. But halt the decline.
Beside it lay a humanoid puppet carved from black spiritwood, etched with bloodline bound sigils. Once infused with his qi, it would mirror his aura and movements within the inner range for seven days before collapsing.
Next rested a thin concealment talisman, high grade, capable of suppressing Golden Core fluctuations to near invisibility. Single use.
The final object was a sealed scroll bound in pale jade thread. Reserved for extinction level decisions.
He stood in silence for a long moment.
Then he picked up the Earth Core Fragment. The puppet. The talisman.
The scroll remained untouched.
The wall sealed behind him as he stepped out.
Elder Wei was awake when he entered the inner courtyard.
"You opened it the ancestors secret treasury."
"Yes, after all master it's high time we take some risks."
"The earth core fragment."
Wind rustled the pine tree beyond the wall.
"You intend to restore the auxiliary node."
"Yes master." Qingyan continued "it's the most important thing now or our sect will starve to death
"Crimson Cloud believes that ridge abandoned."
"For now, what about when they will sense disturbance."
"If I am careful, they will sense nothing."
"It's very dangerous your presence deters them."
"I must master and it's just for the moment."
"And if they test the formation while you are gone?"
"I will leave a deterrent." Qingyan continued "The substitution puppet."
A cough shook the old master. Blood touched his lips.
"You risk everything I thought you were the steady one Qingyan." Chuckled master We He continued "So you finally stopped waiting."
"Yes. "Replied Qingyan
Elder Wei studied him for a long moment "Good, Do not be reckless."
"You have seven days. If you are discovered, do not return here leading enemies behind you."
"I know master i will not."
Lan Qingyun bowed deeply and withdrew.
Before first light he summoned the disciples to the main hall. Fifty figures knelt in ordered rows, faces still strained from the attack.
He let the silence settle. "The outer valley is closed."
Murmurs spread softly. "We will consolidate cultivation grounds to the inner terraces."
The disciples muttered "what about the resources are we retreating."
"We are rebuilding." interrupted Qingyan
"For the next seven days, the sect enters closed cultivation. No one leaves the inner boundary without permission."
Eyes widened, but he continued calmly. "Repair damaged halls. Re carve broken formation lines. Reinforce the outer walls. Reorganize the herb gardens."
"If Crimson Cloud observes from afar, they will see stability. Not weakness."
The disciples bowed as one. Work began immediately.
Before dawn fully broke, he activated the substitution puppet in his chambers. He pressed his palm to its chest and aligned its internal array with his Golden Core signature. The puppet's aura rose to Mid Golden Core, steady and indistinguishable.
Seven days, From the treasury he took fifty thousand mid-grade spirit stones, leaving thirty thousand behind.
The puppet stepped onto the terrace and stood overlooking the mountain, radiating calm authority.
Lan Qingyun moved through lesser used corridors, passing beneath overlapping formation lines. At the rear boundary of the inner range, he paused.
For a century he had remained within this mountain, now he stepped beyond it as sect master.
Dawn crept across the horizon without omen or thunder.
He adjusted his sleeves once and crossed the boundary with aura suppressed and presence hidden.
Ahead lay the fractured ridge and the abandoned auxiliary node, seven days would be enough.
He did not look back.