Three days was not much time to prepare for negotiations that would determine the fate of an entire sect. Lin Feng found himself swept into a whirlwind of activity as the Jade Lotus Sect mobilized. The Grand Elder had called a full census of survivors, a tally that grew more concerning with each report. Of the twelve elders who had been present when the time lock was enacted, only seven had been found—the others presumed lost to severe temporal distortions in the deepest parts of the mountain. Among the inner disciples, fewer than a hundred had survived with their faculties intact. Many others had been found in states of temporal suspension, their bodies perfectly preserved but their consciousnesses inaccessible. "A sect reduced to a fraction of its former strength," Elder Lian observed grimly during a planning session in the council chamber. "While our enemies have spent centuries growing powerful." Lin Feng, seated beside Liu Mei at the edge of the council table, studied the mountain map projected above the central dais. Areas marked in bright jade indicated stable zones where time flowed normally. Darker regions represented places still experiencing temporal distortions—including several large sections of the disciples' quarters, which explained the low survival rate. "Numbers alone do not determine outcomes," the Grand Elder replied calmly. "Quality of cultivation, strategic positioning, and knowledge of one's true strengths are equally important factors." "And what are our true strengths, Grandfather?" Lin Feng asked. The term still felt strange on his tongue, but he was gradually growing accustomed to it. The Grand Elder's eyes met his across the table. "Three primary advantages. First, our temporal techniques remain largely unknown to the outside world. They remember concepts, ideas of what we could do, but the specifics have been lost to history." Liu Mei nodded. "That's true. In the Soaring Dragon Sect archives, the Jade Lotus techniques are described only in vague, often contradictory terms. More legend than practical knowledge." "Second," the Grand Elder continued, "the mountain itself. Centuries of jade energy saturation have made it uniquely responsive to our cultivation methods. The defensive arrays can be manipulated in ways outsiders cannot anticipate." Elder Zhou, who had been reconciled to Lin Feng's presence after confirming his bloodline, leaned forward. "And the third advantage?" "Lin Feng," the Grand Elder stated simply. All eyes turned to Lin Feng, who shifted uncomfortably under the sudden scrutiny. "Me?" he asked. "I'm barely into Foundation Establishment. How am I an advantage against sects with Core Formation and Nascent Soul cultivators?" "Because you represent what the Crimson Phoenix Sect fears most," his grandfather explained. "The jade lotus legacy surviving and thriving despite their centuries of hunting. A bloodline they believed nearly eradicated, suddenly resurging." "You're a symbol," Elder Lian added. "Living proof that their campaign of extermination failed." Lin Feng considered this. "A symbol has power only if people recognize what it represents. Outside this mountain, I'm still just a failed disciple from the Soaring Dragon Sect." "Perhaps that anonymity is itself an advantage," Liu Mei suggested. "The Crimson Phoenix Sect knows of Lin Feng's bloodline now, but the other sects do not. They see only a junior disciple, not a threat." The Grand Elder nodded approvingly. "Precisely. Which brings us to our negotiation strategy." He gestured, and the map above the dais transformed into a diagram of the Boundary Pavilion where the meeting would take place. "We will present a united front, but reveal our true strengths selectively." "And what of the girl?" Elder Zhou asked, nodding toward Liu Mei. "She still carries traces of the Crimson Phoenix qi signature. Her presence could be... problematic." "Liu Mei stays," Lin Feng said firmly, surprising himself with the force of his statement. "She risked everything to help us. Her insight into the current political landscape of the cultivation world is invaluable." "Lin Feng is correct," the Grand Elder declared before Elder Zhou could argue further. "Moreover, Young Liu Mei's unique qi resonance with jade energy despite her lack of bloodline connection represents an important truth we may choose to reveal at the right moment." He turned to Liu Mei. "That said, you should be prepared for difficult questions from your sect elders. Your disappearance from Cloudhaven, your apparent defection from your betrothal—these will require explanation." Liu Mei nodded, her expression resolute. "I understand. I've been considering what to tell Master Han." A small, defiant smile touched her lips. "Though I believe my betrothal is effectively dissolved, given that my intended tried to kill me." "The negotiations begin at noon tomorrow," the Grand Elder said, closing the planning session. "I suggest you all rest and prepare. This may be the most consequential diplomatic engagement in our sect's history." As the council dispersed, Lin Feng felt a hand on his arm. Elder Lian held him back, waiting until the others had left before speaking. "There's something you should see," she said quietly. "Something I found while exploring the sections of the mountain that have stabilized." "What is it?" Lin Feng asked. "Not what. Who." Her violet eyes were solemn. "Come with me." --- Elder Lian led Lin Feng through sections of the mountain he hadn't yet explored—residential quarters, by the look of the furnishings they passed. Unlike the grand halls and training areas, these spaces felt personal, lived-in, despite having been abandoned for what felt to their occupants like only days or weeks. "These were the family quarters," Elder Lian explained as they walked. "For bloodline members and their immediate relations." They paused before a door carved with the same lotus symbol that marked Lin Feng's chest. Elder Lian's expression softened with what might have been nostalgia. "Your father grew up here," she said. "These were his chambers until he left on his first independent mission. He was sixteen." Lin Feng stared at the door, trying to reconcile this revelation with the quiet farmer he remembered. His father had never shown any signs of being a cultivator, let alone the son of a sect Grand Elder. How thoroughly he must have sealed his abilities, his very identity, to protect his family. "Is this what you wanted to show me?" he asked. Elder Lian shook her head. "No. But I thought you might want to visit his rooms later. For now, we go further in." They continued deeper into the family quarters, eventually reaching a section that felt different—the jade light here was dimmer, the air slightly thicker. Temporal distortion effects, though mild compared to what Lin Feng had experienced during his inadvertent journey to the past. "We're entering one of the areas that experienced significant time dilation," Elder Lian explained. "Here, the three centuries that passed outside might have felt like mere months, or even days." She stopped before another door, this one unmarked but surrounded by a subtle array of protective talismans. "This chamber was temporally sealed even before the mountain disappeared. A precaution, in case the worst happened." "What's inside?" Lin Feng asked, a strange tension building in his chest. Elder Lian placed her palm against the door, channeling jade energy into it. The protective talismans flared briefly, then faded. "Someone who has waited a very long time to meet you," she replied, pushing the door open. The chamber beyond was simple but comfortable—a meditation room equipped with cushions and low tables, illuminated by the omnipresent jade light that seemed slightly brighter here than in the corridor. In the center of the room, seated in meditation, was a woman. She appeared to be in her thirties, with features that seemed eerily familiar to Lin Feng. Her long black hair was bound in a simple style, and she wore the green robes of a Jade Lotus inner disciple. At their entrance, she opened her eyes—eyes the exact same shade as Lin Feng's own. For a long moment, no one spoke. The woman studied Lin Feng with an intensity that made him want to step back, to look away—or perhaps to move closer, to confirm what he was seeing. "Is this..." he began, but couldn't finish the question. "Lin Feng," Elder Lian said formally, "may I present Inner Disciple Ming Lihua. Your mother." The world seemed to tilt beneath Lin Feng's feet. His mother? But his mother had died when he was born—or so his father had always told him. The woman—Ming Lihua—rose gracefully to her feet. "You have his eyes," she said softly. "And his stubborn chin." Lin Feng found himself unable to speak, a storm of emotions choking any words he might have formed. This was impossible. A trick, perhaps, or a misunderstanding. "I know this must be shocking," Ming Lihua continued, taking a tentative step forward. "For you, I've been dead your entire life. But for me..." She gestured to the temporal distortion visible as a subtle wavering in the air. "Time has been kinder. Or crueler, depending on one's perspective." "How?" Lin Feng managed finally. "My father said you died in childbirth." "A necessary deception," Elder Lian interjected gently. "To protect both of you." Ming Lihua nodded. "When the time lock began to fail, when the first temporal backlashes struck the mountain, I was pregnant with you. The elders realized the danger—an unborn child exposed to such unstable temporal energy might not survive." Her voice softened with remembered pain. "Your father and I made an impossible choice." "He left," Lin Feng whispered, beginning to understand. "Took you away from the mountain before it disappeared." "Yes. But there were complications. The mountain's disappearance created temporal shockwaves that extended for miles. I went into labor prematurely, and there were... difficulties." Elder Lian picked up the narrative. "Wuying had sealed his cultivation to hide from the Crimson Phoenix hunters, but he had to use his techniques one last time to stabilize your mother long enough for her to deliver you safely. The effort nearly killed him and left his qi pathways permanently damaged." "I was too weak to travel after your birth," Ming Lihua continued. "The Crimson Phoenix Sect was hunting any with jade energy, and I couldn't fully conceal mine while injured. If they found me, they would find you." "So Father took me," Lin Feng said, the pieces falling into place. "Claimed my mother had died, and raised me as a simple farmer's son." Ming Lihua's eyes filled with tears. "While I returned to the mountain, to be placed in temporal stasis until my injuries healed. What was supposed to be a separation of months became..." "Twenty years," Lin Feng finished. His entire life, lived without knowing his mother even existed. The anger he expected to feel at this deception didn't come. Instead, there was only a profound sense of loss, and perhaps a glimmer of something else—possibility. A second chance that neither of them had expected to receive. "For what it's worth," Ming Lihua said softly, "leaving you was the hardest thing I've ever done. Even knowing it was necessary for your survival." She hesitated, then extended her hand, not quite touching him. "I've missed every moment of your life. Every first step, every word, every joy and sorrow. If you can never forgive that absence, I would understand." Lin Feng stared at her outstretched hand, then at her face—so like his own in certain angles, in the set of the jaw, the shape of the eyes. This stranger who was his mother. This mother who was a stranger. Slowly, he reached out and took her hand. "There's nothing to forgive," he said, surprising himself with the truth of it. "You sacrificed everything to give me a chance at life. How can I resent that?" Ming Lihua's composure broke at his words. With a soft cry, she pulled him into an embrace—the first he could remember receiving from his mother. After a moment's hesitation, Lin Feng returned it, awkwardly at first, then with growing certainty. Elder Lian quietly withdrew, leaving mother and son to a reunion twenty years delayed. --- Liu Mei found herself alone for the first time since entering the Jade Lotus mountain. The quarters she had been assigned were modest but comfortable—clearly designed for visiting disciples from allied sects, back when such alliances had existed. She sat at a small writing desk, composing a message to Master Han that she knew she would never send. The act of writing helped clarify her thoughts, preparing her for the confrontation that tomorrow would inevitably bring. A soft knock at her door interrupted her contemplation. "Enter," she called, setting aside the brush. Lin Feng stepped into the room, his expression a complex mixture of emotions she couldn't immediately decipher. "You look like you've seen a ghost," she observed, rising to greet him. "Something like that," he replied with a strained smile. "My mother is alive." Liu Mei's eyes widened. "What?" Lin Feng crossed to the window, gazing out at the jade-lit landscape of the inner mountain. "She never died in childbirth as my father claimed. She returned to the mountain, was placed in temporal stasis to heal from complications during my delivery." "That's... incredible," Liu Mei said, moving to stand beside him. "How do you feel?" "I don't know," he admitted. "Happy? Confused? Angry that I was lied to my entire life?" He shook his head. "Mostly I just feel... overwhelmed. Everything is happening so quickly. Two months ago I was just a failed disciple hoping for one last chance. Now I'm the grandson of a sect Grand Elder, reunited with a mother I never knew existed, preparing for negotiations that will determine the fate of an entire cultivation sect." Liu Mei placed a hand on his arm. "And doing remarkably well, all things considered." He turned to her, his expression softening. "Only because I haven't been facing it alone." His hand covered hers. "Thank you, Liu Mei. For believing in me when no one else did. For risking everything to help me." "I should be thanking you," she replied. "You've freed me from a fate I dreaded—marriage to a man who sees me as nothing more than a political asset." "About that," Lin Feng said, his tone growing serious. "Tomorrow, when we face the delegation... when you face Master Han and the Soaring Dragon elders... what will you tell them?" Liu Mei considered the question carefully. "The truth, or most of it. That Ren Zhao attempted to kill us both. That I chose to help you escape rather than stand by and watch him murder an innocent person." She met his gaze directly. "That I could not in good conscience bind myself to a man, or a sect, capable of such actions." "They may not accept that explanation. The alliance with the Crimson Phoenix Sect is valuable to them." "Then they will have to find another disciple to sacrifice for their political ambitions," she said firmly. "I won't return to that life, Lin Feng. Not now that I've seen... alternatives." Something shifted in the space between them—a tension that had been building since their first embrace at Cloudhaven, intensified by shared danger and mutual sacrifice. "Liu Mei," Lin Feng began, his voice dropping to little more than a whisper. "When this is over, when the negotiations are concluded, whatever the outcome... what then? For us, I mean." The question hung in the air between them, laden with possibilities neither had dared articulate until now. "I don't know," she admitted honestly. "I only know that my path is now tied to yours, wherever it may lead." Her free hand rose to touch his face, a gesture both tentative and certain. "The jade resonance the Grand Elder mentioned... I felt it from the first moment we met at Cloudhaven. As if some part of me recognized some part of you, across bloodlines and sect divisions." Lin Feng turned his face slightly, his lips brushing against her palm in a touch so light it might have been imagined. "I felt it too. But I thought it was just..." He paused, struggling for words. "Attraction?" she suggested, a small smile touching her lips. "That too, perhaps." The distance between them narrowed, neither quite certain who had moved first. Their faces were close enough now that she could feel his breath, see the flecks of amber in his dark eyes. "Tomorrow changes everything," he murmured. "Whatever happens at the negotiations, nothing will be the same afterward." "Then perhaps," Liu Mei replied softly, "we should embrace this moment, before the future arrives to claim us." Their lips met in a kiss that felt both inevitable and surprising—gentle at first, then deepening as the barriers between them fell away. Jade energy sparked where they touched, a visible manifestation of the resonance that bound them beyond mere physical attraction. When they finally parted, Lin Feng rested his forehead against hers, their breath mingling in the small space between them. No words were necessary in that moment of perfect understanding—whatever tomorrow might bring, they would face it together. Outside, night had fallen over the Jade Lotus mountain. In the distance, the lights of the assembled delegation camps were visible—representatives of every major sect in the cultivation world, waiting to determine whether the returned sect would be welcomed back as equals or condemned as dangerous relics of a bygone era. And somewhere among those camps, Ren Zhao undoubtedly planned his next move in a game that had begun centuries before Lin Feng was born. A game of bloodlines and legacies, of power and persecution, of time itself manipulated as both weapon and shield. Tomorrow, the next phase of that ancient conflict would begin. But tonight belonged to Lin Feng and Liu Mei alone—a stolen moment of connection in the eye of a gathering storm. --- Dawn found the Jade Lotus mountain shrouded in mist, the first rays of sunlight refracting through the vapor to create a halo of jade-tinted light around its peaks. It was, Lin Feng thought as he stood on one of the outer balconies, both beautiful and ominous—like the mountain itself was gathering its power for the confrontation to come. He had left Liu Mei sleeping, reluctant to disturb the peaceful expression that had settled on her face in repose. Last night had changed things between them in ways he was still coming to understand—not just the physical intimacy, but the deeper connection it had revealed, the resonance of jade energy that seemed to flow between them like a conversation without words. "Beautiful, isn't it?" a voice said from behind him. Lin Feng turned to find his mother approaching, dressed now in the more formal robes of a Jade Lotus inner circle disciple. In the clear morning light, the resemblance between them was even more striking—the same set to the jaw, the same slight upturn at the corners of the eyes when they smiled. "It is," he agreed. "Different from how I imagined it, growing up. The few times my father mentioned the sect mountain, he described it as imposing. Fortress-like." "Your father always saw the practical aspects first," Ming Lihua said, coming to stand beside him at the railing. "The defenses, the strategic positioning. He was training to be a sect enforcer before..." She trailed off, old grief shadowing her features. "Before he met you?" Lin Feng guessed. A small smile touched her lips. "Before he decided there were things worth protecting beyond sect doctrine and ancient techniques." She turned to face him fully. "Wuying never told you about me, about any of this?" Lin Feng shook his head. "He said very little about his past, and nothing at all about his cultivation. I used to think it was because he was disappointed in me—a son who showed no particular talent or promise." "Oh, Lin Feng," his mother sighed. "It was precisely because he saw your potential that he hid everything from you. The jade lotus bloodline often manifests late, but powerfully. If the Crimson Phoenix hunters had detected it in you as a child..." "I understand why he did it," Lin Feng assured her. "I just wish..." He paused, unsure how to articulate the complex mixture of grief and gratitude he felt toward the father he had known only as a simple farmer. "I wish I could have known him as he truly was, at least once." Ming Lihua placed a hand on his arm. "You knew the most important part of him—the man who valued life and love above power and position. Who gave up his bloodline legacy to ensure his son would have a future." Before Lin Feng could respond, the sound of a jade chime rang through the mountain—the signal that the council was assembling for final preparations before the noon negotiations. "We should go," his mother said. "Your grandfather will want us both present for the strategy session." As they walked toward the council chamber, Lin Feng found himself studying his mother's profile, memorizing features he had unknowingly inherited, searching for glimpses of the woman who had made the same impossible sacrifice as his father—giving up her child to ensure his survival. "Elder Lian says you've reached Foundation Establishment already," Ming Lihua said, breaking the contemplative silence. "That's remarkable progress, even accounting for the jade lotus awakening." "It didn't feel like progress for most of my life," Lin Feng admitted. "At the Soaring Dragon Sect, I was considered the worst disciple in memory." "Because they tried to force water-wood cultivation methods on a pure metal affinity," his mother said with a hint of indignation. "It's like trying to grow a pine tree underwater and then being surprised when it fails to thrive." The analogy was so apt, and delivered with such maternal defensiveness, that Lin Feng couldn't help but laugh. "That's exactly how it felt." Ming Lihua's expression softened at his laughter. "You have his smile, too," she said softly. "Wuying's smile. It always reached his eyes first." They had reached the council chamber doors. Lin Feng paused, suddenly reluctant to enter, to end this quiet moment of connection with the mother he was just beginning to know. "After the negotiations," he said impulsively, "I'd like to hear more. About you, about Father. About the life you had planned before everything changed." Ming Lihua's eyes brightened with emotion. "I'd like that very much," she replied. Then, with a formality that couldn't quite mask her feeling, she added: "Now, let's go help your grandfather ensure we have an 'after' to look forward to." They entered the council chamber together, mother and son, separated by twenty years of history yet connected by blood and legacy and the jade energy that pulsed in rhythm with their hearts. Whatever the negotiations might bring, Lin Feng realized, he had already gained more than he had ever thought possible. A heritage. A mother. A purpose. And with Liu Mei, perhaps something even more precious—a future of his own choosing. Now he just had to ensure they all survived to claim it.