Chapter 5999

Warm sunlight spilled across the step outside the lodge. Bamboo leaves swayed, casting thin slashes of shadow over the flagstones.

Lyza squinted into the glare. A heartbeat ago, Jared and Luther had been standing beside her. Now their outlines shimmered, dissolved between light and shadow, and vanished.

Her fingers curled into her palm. Holding her breath, she formed a prayer she didn’t dare speak aloud: Come back alive. Both of you.

She turned to Panther and Monkey. The warmth drained from her face, leaving only steel.

“Pack everything,” she said, her voice low but razor-sharp. “We move to Number Two safehouse exactly as the elder ordered. Fast. Leave no trace.”

Roof tiles flashed beneath Luther’s boots as he followed Jared across Jade Immortal City. They were nothing more than wind-blurred shadows skimming over tangled alleys and slanted eaves.

Jared never moved in a straight line. He cut left into an abandoned lane, dropped behind a collapsed courtyard wall, then slipped through a drain opening that reeked of moss and rust.