Chapter 11
The Ancient Ruins
Chen Yunfei · 5.3K words · ~22 min read
# Chapter 11: The Ancient Ruins
The river tasted of iron long after the blood was gone.
Chen Yunfei lay on a shelf of wet stone beneath a curtain of roots, his cheek pressed to moss that smelled of rot and cold sap. He listened to the world decide whether he was worth catching. Upstream, the gorge still carried echoes—distant shouts, the harmonic bay of spirit hounds thinning as search parties spread like oil on water. Downstream, something else waited. He couldn't name it yet. His ribs named it every time he breathed: a bright line of pain along the left side where a Cloudmist sword had found flesh the void couldn't erase, overlaid by the deeper ache of Elder Zhao's palm, spiritual force bruised into muscle as though the man had signed his name inside Chen Yunfei's chest.