THE EMPEROR’S UNWELCOME TRUTHThe wind shifted as they neared the outer walls of the capital, carrying with it the scent of burning incense and the distant hum of thousands of people beginning their morning routines. Su Yu’s gaze followed the skyline crimson banners rippling over glittering pagodas, guards already posted along the parapets, watchful, alert, and tense in a way he had not seen during peaceful times. Something was stirring inside the palace walls. Something deep, political, and violent in its stillness.Meilin Linxue walked slightly behind him, her steps measured, her expression unreadable beneath her hood. She had traveled countless miles in silence, but today she carried a weight that even she could not bury beneath her calm. The forest ambush earlier had not been random. The riders wore the colors of a faction loyal to the Imperial Prime Council, and that alone was disturbing.But it was not the attack that troubled her.It was the fear in the last man’s eyes before S

A BLADE IN THE COURTThe palace changed after the Emperor’s revelation.Servants whispered more quietly. Guards tightened their patrol formations. Ministers walked with stiff spines, glancing over their shoulders as if expecting a blade to materialize from thin air. Even the birds that perched on the palace roofs seemed to flap their wings with caution, as though they too sensed the storm tightening around the Empire.Su Yu and Meilin Linxue walked side by side through the inner courtyard, but with a new distance between them one crafted from strategy, not choice. The Emperor’s warning still echoed between them like a third presence:“If the court senses attachment, they will turn her into your weakness.”Su Yu had obeyed.Outwardly.But the space between them wasn’t cold.It was charged.Linxue kept her gaze forward, but she felt the weight of his attention in every breath. She sensed the way he noticed the slightest shift in her posture, the brush of a sleeve, the sound of her exhal

THE WHISPER IN THE DRAGON THRONEThe throne room was too quiet.Too still.As Su Yu and Linxue crossed its vast marble expanse, the silence pressed in like a closing fist. The Dragon Throne, towering and magnificent at the far end, glowed under lantern light but something about the atmosphere felt wrong. A tension woven into the air like invisible wire.Only three people stood inside:The Emperor.The Grand Seer.And a single imperial guard holding a sealed scroll.The moment Su Yu and Linxue stepped onto the jade inlay path, the Emperor rose.“General Su Yu,” he said. “Linxue. You arrive at a crucial moment.”His tone was calm, but the shadows under his eyes revealed otherwise. A ruler who had not slept. A man bracing himself against news that might break an empire.Su Yu bowed deeply. “Your Majesty. We come with urgency.”Linxue mirrored the bow. “The assassins who attacked Minister Zhao were not ordinary shadows. They left behind something impossible.”The Emperor stiffened. “Show

THE GENERAL WHO REFUSES TO BOWThe sun had barely risen when the fortress recovered from the night’s attack. Smoke still clung to the stone walls like stubborn shadows, and soldiers moved with stiff limbs, every face carrying the same bruised disbelief. They had survived. Barely. And only because Su Yu had moved like a force of nature instead of a human being.News of the masked riders spread through the ranks, twisting into rumors before breakfast. Some claimed they were ghosts from the past. Others said they were assassins trained in forbidden arts, shadows given flesh. But the soldiers all agreed on one truth: the attack had not been random.Someone wanted Su Yu dead.By midmorning the fortress yard buzzed with frantic activity sharpening weapons, reinforcing gates, preparing for the possibility of a second strike. The memory of the lotus insignia burned in everyone’s minds.Shen Li pushed through the noise, searching for the general he followed without question. He found her behin

THE NIGHT THE GENERAL BROKENight settled over Phoenix Fortress like a shroud, heavy and suffocating. The sky was a deep bruised black, clouds smothering the moon, and only the trembling torches on the walls offered thin lines of light. Soldiers moved quietly, their steps hushed, their voices low. Everyone knew the attack from the masked assassins had changed something in their Iron Lotus General though none dared speak the thought aloud.Su Yu walked alone across the silent courtyard, every breath sharp against the cold air. She moved with a general’s poise, but inside her chest the storm refused to quiet. Her father’s name echoing from the masked assassin’s mouth the symbol burned into the man’s skin… the lotus petal she’d crushed in her fistAll of it clawed at her like hands from the past dragging her backward.The fortress sensed her tension. The night sensed it. Even the wind seemed afraid to brush her cloak.Behind her, footsteps approached steady but cautious. Shen Li always k