The ritual chamber was silent except for the steady hiss of incense burning in the bronze basin.Sandalwood smoke curled upward in pale ribbons, gathering beneath the carved ceiling beams like restless spirits searching for form. I sat cross-legged in the center of the ritual chamber, the silk of my ceremonial robes heavy against my skin. Outside, the heavens were screaming; a violent, cleansing downpour that battered the palace roofs without mercy, the storm turned the entire imperial city into a drowned graveyard of shadows and silver.I closed my remaining eye, letting the darkness behind the lid expand.In that darkness, I mapped the board.Lately, the palace had become too loud with movements.The emperor was tightening surveillance across the inner palace, even outside our ritual chambers. Patrol rotations changed without warning, new unfamiliar faces replaced ordinary guards, even the maidservants were changed. The emperor masked it well, under the pretense of using guards

The weight of the crown had never felt so heavy. I leaned back in the dragon throne, my fingers tracing the cold, carved jade of the armrest. The Council Hall was filled with the rhythmic, suffocating drone of the High Ministers, but my mind was leagues away, buried in the scrolls currently locked in my private study.I had spent the last three nights dismantling Han Ruo’s life and history, beyond what the palace records carried. On paper, Han Ruo was one of the empire’s mighty pillars. A man who had surrendered his blood-stained general’s plate and dignified sword for the silk of a priest to maintain the world’s balance. But the deeper I dug, the more that balance looked like a carefully constructed lie.There were holes in his history. Massive, gaping voids. A five year period during and after the border wars in his military records simply... disappeared. No campaigns, no casualties, no commendations. It was as if Han Ruo had never swung a blade during that war, but he was there

The silence that followed the slamming of the bronze doors didn’t last.It was swallowed instantly by the spirit chant.Dozens of Taishis including the young apprentices remained prostrated on the freezing stone, their foreheads pressed against the stone floor, their voices merging into one vast, ancient sound that pressed against my ribs from the inside.This was the final stage. I knew the protocol; they were pouring their collective spiritual reserves into the array, anchoring the tether between the palace and the heavens.Above us, the sky answered.A violent crack of thunder ripped through the grey morning. The hall trembled faintly beneath my boots as spiritual pressure gathered within the sealed sanctuary beyond the bronze doors. The pressure was familiar; I had witnessed this ritual as a child prince countless times from elevated viewing pavilions beside my father.This was normal. After the Head Taishi enters and initiates the first prayer, the heavens weigh his cultivatio

The door slammed against the wall hard enough to shake the entire house as I kicked it through.Yan Hu shot upright from the low table near the herb furnace, nearly knocking over a tray of drying roots. Long Wei turned sharply from the window, his expression instantly tightening the moment he saw the blood soaking through my arms.The storm outside followed me in, a spray of freezing rain cutting through the humid, suffocating heat of our safe house. My breath came in heavy, jagged tears, my muscles still vibrating with the terrifying, absolute resonance of the Sovereign's power I had just unsealed. But I didn't have time to master my own trembling energy.I had a dying man in my arms.“…Chen?” Yan Hu’s voiced sounded like an echo. With a harsh stride, I crossed the room and laid Han Ruo onto the low wooden bed. The white ceremonial robes of the Head Taishi were ruined, scorched black at the hems, soaked through with dark, thickening blood that smeared across the clean sheets.Yan Hu

“Now who do we have here?”The voice was smooth, cultured, and dripping with the dark, leisurely amusement of a predator who had just found a new toy in its cage.My breath trapped itself in my lungs. I stood paralyzed in the bloody water.Across the pavilion, Han Ruo continued to smile. He picked up a white weiqi stone and placed it on the board with a soft clack sound. Just like every part of the memory, Han Ruo was a ghost trapped in a loop, completely unaware that the entity across from him had just broken the rules of reality.Whatever you see there is not real. They’re at the rot memories of a dying old man. Brother Hu’s warning echoed faintly in my mind. Even though I wanted to be strong and deny the facts, I knew Han Jun could see me. The faceless scholar rose from the table. The movement was impossibly smooth, lacking the natural hesitations of a human body. As he stepped away from the pavilion, his pristine robes dragged through the blood-soaked water, yet they did not di