he once-hushed corridors of the Kirin Citadel echoed with footsteps. Yunlei stood in the War Hall beneath the ancestral banners of his bloodline. Gold, crimson, and black tapestries hung like silent judges. On the central dais, a holographic map of the Eastern Sectors flickered to life, displaying flashing red nodes—each one a district under siege or compromised by the Lotus Order.Jun Duyi leaned over the map. “They moved faster than we expected. Three noble families have pledged allegiance to the Order. Six sects went silent overnight. They’re picking us apart with surgical precision.”Captain Hong grunted. “They’ve been preparing for decades. We just started fighting last week.”Yunlei clenched his fist. “Then we strike back where they least expect it.”> “We need allies,” Meilin said, arms crossed. “And a symbol. You rallied the fallen heirs in that chamber—but the outside world didn’t see it.”Yunlei turned to Yueming, who stood by the far window, lost in thought. “Uncle, what ha

The moon hung low and crimson over the marshes of Yanshui Basin as Yunlei’s party moved with purpose through the reeds. The faint echoes of frogs and distant thunder accompanied them, but none spoke. They were hunting ghosts—or rather, hunting shadows that moved behind the Lunar Tribunal, the most secretive faction of the Order.> “I thought the Tribunal never left the capital,” Jun muttered, squinting into the fog.> “They don’t,” Qiao Lian replied. “Unless they’re running from something—or preparing something worse.”Captain Hong adjusted the grip on his glaive. “There’s a saying in the northern legions. When the moon hides its face, it’s not sleeping—it’s plotting.”Meilin, ever focused, led the way. Her talismans pulsed faintly with a dull blue light, each one sensitive to spiritual distortions in the air. “I feel them,” she said. “They passed through here less than twelve hours ago. Eleven members. Cloaked. Moving fast.”> “Then we catch up,” Yunlei said.They trudged on, navigat

The firelight flickered low in the cavern, dancing off the crimson armor of Lady Xue’s retainers. Their presence changed everything—eight elite warriors who had once brought sects to ruin. Now they kneeled in silence, waiting for her word.Yunlei sharpened his blade under the dim glow, eyes flicking to each of his companions in turn. Tension hung heavy in the air, the kind that spoke of suspicion unspoken. Something had shifted since they left the Northern Wastes.> “You feel it too,” Meilin whispered as she approached. “One of us isn’t who they claim to be.”Yunlei nodded. “I’ve felt it since the last camp. We’ve been too easily tracked. Too many close calls.”> “You suspect betrayal?”> “I suspect something worse—belief.”Before Meilin could reply, Captain Hong stepped into the chamber, his brow furrowed.> “Scouts just returned,” he said. “There’s movement near the Shimmering Pass. Thirty strong, robes of the Verdant Eye Sect.”> “Tribunal loyalists,” Yunlei muttered. “They’ll move

Three days after leaving Baishen, Yunlei’s team crossed into the Forsaken Gorges of Yanzhou—a vast, jagged canyon believed to be bottomless. Here, legend said, the Abyssal Tombs slept, carved deep into the earth where sunlight never reached and where ancestral beasts were said to dream in deathless silence.The second artifact—the Soulbrand of the Vermilion Tiger—was buried beneath it.Captain Hong examined the cliff’s edge with narrowed eyes. “Are we sure about this? This gorge wasn’t on any Imperial maps.”> “That’s the point,” Meilin said, adjusting the pendant that glowed faintly in Yunlei’s hand. “Places erased from record often hold the deepest truths.”Yunlei nodded. The crystal from Baishen had reacted to the map the moment they departed. It pulsed with heat now, drawing them toward the pit’s core.Jun cracked his knuckles. “So, we jump?”“Not quite.” Yunlei turned, activating a flying talisman woven from spirit-thread. “We descend—slowly.”Their descent was silent, save for t

Above the Ocean of Broken Moons, the skies cracked open.Lightning slashed across the firmament as Yunlei and his team broke through the surface, riding on the back of the Black Tortoise, now docile under Yunlei’s control. Its immense jade shell shimmered in the light, reflecting the war drums that now echoed across the horizon.They had surfaced to find the world changed.Dozens of Tribunal skyships circled above, black like vultures. Each bore the silver insignia of the Tenfold Heaven—a fractal sigil known to mark only one thing: an execution order.“They knew we’d surface here,” Jun said, scowling as he raised a shield of lightning across the tortoise’s shell.Captain Hong tightened his grip on his spear. “They don’t intend to take us in. They’re here to erase us.”Yunlei stood at the creature’s brow, cloaked in the translucent armor formed from the Jade Heart. “Let them try.”The first barrage came suddenly—dozens of flame-bolts hurled from the largest Tribunal ship, each infused