Adult Tao Yi lies on cracked white stone, face fully visible to camera, blood on his lips, dark blue robes soaked around a sword through his chest. Lin Heng stands above him with 3/4 face visible, one hand on the sword hilt, gold-trimmed wh

Top panel: Lin Heng's handsome face is calm and smug, moonlight catching the jade hairpiece as he looks down. Bottom panel: Tao Yi's right wrist with black cord bracelet trembles against the stone, fingers leaving red streaks.

Panel 1: Tao Yi's eye half-closes as blood bubbles at his mouth. Panel 2: the dueling platform bends into concentric rings like a contract seal collapsing. Panel 3: a stark white flash with only Tao Yi's black cord bracelet silhouette and a

Child Tao Yi wakes in a cramped rented room in the outer-disciple district, tight close-up of his small face fully visible from below as he stares at a cracked ceiling beam. Morning light leaks through paper windows; a cheap wooden practice

Top panel: Tao Yi sits upright on the thin mattress, staring at tiny hands with inkless fingers. Bottom panel: his right wrist and black cord bracelet are framed sharply against patched bedding; the cord is loose on his child wrist.

Tao Yi sits on the floor beside the bed, face fully visible in three-quarter view, mouth open in a laugh that looks wrong on a child's round cheeks. Dust floats in the beam of morning light. The wooden practice sword remains untouched in th

Top panel: the paper wall shakes from a neighbor's fist offscreen; Tao Yi's laughter cuts through the cramped room. Bottom panel: Tao Yi kneels in stillness, small shoulders relaxed, eyes flat and calm, looking toward the practice sword wit

Top panel: a plain sect notice pasted beside the door reads Junior Clerk Applicants Needed, Records Hall, Neat Hand Preferred, with a small Cloud-Threading Sect seal. Bottom panel: close on Tao Yi's dark jade-green eyes; the white streak at

Panel 1: Tao Yi splashes water onto his face from a plain basin. Panel 2: he tightens the black cord bracelet around his wrist with small teeth and fingers. Panel 3: his bare foot steps past the cheap wooden practice sword without touching

Top panel: plain grey junior-clerk applicant robes lie across the bed, too large and roughly folded. Bottom panel: Tao Yi pulls them on; the cuffs hang past his fingertips, hem dragging over the wooden floorboards.

Tao Yi stands in the open doorway facing the dawn street of the outer-disciple district, tiny in oversized grey robes, sleeves dangling, black cord bracelet visible, wooden sword left behind in the dim room. Misty sect roofs and distant pea