His thoughts instantly leap to the Ninth, and the ritual that had spun so wildly out of control the night before. He takes another long sip of his tea.

"I have been testing the limits of what I might do here," he allows. Lan Zhan would be proud: it's not even a lie. "It's possible being dead may have affected my work. But it is more that the energy of the place is different from what I know."