My dao to eternity

The sect accepted deliveries of finished wares twice a season, and Li Fan had carried Old Mu's commissions up the mountain's lower terraces himself often enough over the years that the gate stewards no longer bothered checking his basket beyond a glance. This time he carried a set of shrine boxes bound for the outer disciples' quarters, and let the errand take him one terrace higher than his usual route required, following a supply path he'd noted on prior trips but never once had reason to walk.

The sect's grounds rose in five broad terraces above the city, each one carved into the mountainside and walled off from the next by low stone barriers meant more for order than defense. Outer disciples trained on the first two. Inner disciples and the sect's various craft peaks occupied the third and fourth. The fifth terrace, Li Fan had always understood in the vague way a mortal understood most sect matters, belonged to the elders alone, and no delivery route had ever carried him within sight of its gate.

---