The path through the garden was thick with blooming magnolias and the scent of dew-kissed jade orchids. I struggled to keep up with Xue Lian's easy, floating pace, her figure almost gliding through the bushes like she weighed nothing—well, she probably didn't.
"Can you slow down? Unlike you, I have human feet and no ghostly float settings," I grumbled, trying to hold up the oversized sleeves of Shen Mi's robe while dodging tree roots.
"You'll need better stamina than this if you want to survive. You're housing the Devil's Bone, not strolling through a tea garden." Xue Lian didn't look back, only threw her voice over her shoulder with a mischievous lilt.
Just as we approached the outer building—a tower carved with swirling phoenix motifs and the emblem of the Shen Dynasty—we were met with loud shouting.
"Halt!" a gruff voice rang out.
I stopped immediately, startled by the appearance of four armored guards stationed at the scroll hall's entrance. Their spears crossed in front of the doorway.
"The Celestial Scroll Hall is currently under inspection. All visitors are subject to a full search."
I glanced at Xue Lian who simply vanished into thin air like smoke blown away by wind. "You've got to be kidding me," I muttered under my breath.
"Fourth Young Miss Shen?" one of the guards asked, now standing straighter and clearly surprised by my presence. "Apologies, but we must search you. It's the High General's order—no exceptions."
I forced a smile and nodded stiffly. "Go ahead."
Two female guards stepped forward and patted me down respectfully yet thoroughly. My heart pounded the entire time, wondering if they'd somehow feel the Devil's Bone pulsing within me or detect something unnatural. But they didn't.
"Clear," one of them said, stepping back with a bow.
Before I could even ask what the search was for, another guard came forward and saluted. "Young Miss Shen Mi, your presence has been requested by the Emperor. Your father, Lord Shen Fuchen, awaits you in the courtroom."
I froze.
"Did I… do something?" I asked carefully, trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice.
"I don't know the details, Young Miss. I was only sent to escort you immediately," the guard said.
From behind a tree, I caught a glimpse of Xue Lian reappearing. She raised a brow, arms crossed, clearly enjoying my internal panic.
"Great," I whispered under my breath. "From scrolls to courtrooms. What's next? An execution?"
"Who knows?" Xue Lian's grin widened. "But whatever it is, we're about to find out. Just make sure not to faint in front of the Emperor. Shen Mi's supposed to be mysterious, not weak."
I clenched my fists and followed the guard toward the palace. Behind me, Xue Lian strolled leisurely, invisible to the world and annoyingly amused by everything.
The guard marched ahead of me in crisp steps, his polished boots clicking against the stone floor as I trailed behind, my mind racing. Behind me—or beside me now—Xue Lian appeared, her expression too bright for someone tagging along to a possible sentencing.
"Stop doing that," I hissed under my breath, shooting her a glare. "And stop appearing like that! You scared the life out of me."
The guard immediately turned around, brows furrowed. "Who the hell are you talking to? Move quickly, Young Miss."
I blinked, then rolled my eyes and kept walking. Right. Mortals couldn't see her. And as for me? I was the inconvenient middle ground—a half-mortal, half-immortal anomaly carrying the Devil's Bone like a ticking curse.
Xue Lian floated effortlessly beside me, waving with a smug little smile. "You know we could talk freely, and he won't hear. But I want to try something else. Concentrate on me for a moment."
I hesitated. "What are you—?"
She raised her hands and clasped them together in a slow, deliberate motion. "Just focus, Lin Xi. I want to establish a mental link. You and I, connected… mind to mind."
Her fingers shifted into a series of intricate signs, lips moving in an ancient dialect as she chanted under her breath.
Then—crackle!
A sudden spark of blue light flared between her hands like lightning bursting from the air itself. Before either of us could react, the energy surged and blasted her backward.
"Xue Lian!"
She slammed against a tree, the bark splintering slightly from the force, and dropped to the ground. Her body trembled, and for a moment I thought she'd disappear entirely.
Then she coughed—a puff of frozen mist escaping her mouth.
I froze in place, eyes wide as she clutched her stomach, visibly in pain. My heart sank with dread.
"Xue Lian—!"
She weakly lifted one hand and gave me an okay sign with a forced smile, her voice raspy.
"Don't panic," she croaked. "I'm fine. But something's wrong… really wrong."
My breath caught. "Wrong how?"
"If it's what I think it is…" Xue Lian's eyes narrowed, the color in them fading into a pale, stormy glow. "Then we don't have a year to finish our mission anymore."
Before I could even fully process her words, the guard spun around again, this time clearly angry.
"I said move! Who the hell are you talking to?!"
His hand clamped around my upper arm roughly, yanking me forward. "Are you playing games, Miss Shen Mi?"
Xue Lian shot him a glare he couldn't see and disappeared into a swirl of icy mist before I even had the time to reason.
"You have the weapons, who am I to play games?" I swallowed hard after my reply earned a grudge and push from the guard till we arrived at the court room.
It was less dull like what I grew up with in my timeline, a bit decorative, shimmering with gold engraved on the four corners of the hall. I stopped with everyone falling onto their knees.
"This is the time where you kneel." Xue Lian whispered, her face arched into a roughened smile. I hadn't had time to understand what she meant until I felt a kick to my knees, my hair being hauled down to the ground.
"Just thought I might help you obey the King's presence since you've become so insolent!"
A thick, cold voice roared from behind me. Her nails dug into my scalp clenching onto my hazel brown hair and with a small drag, she let it go.
"Who the hell is that?" My face burned in anger lifting my palms up to my hair to check if I was already bold just in case. Xue Lian expression changed to a dark feisty one as she spoke.
"That is Mu Ruyi, someone you should avoid in the nearest future. She is the head guard of fourth and most beloved Concubine of Shen Fuchen. In the nearest future, she will be the one to behead the king and have his head hung on a nail as a sacrifice to appease her dead parents which he killed."
"..." Words escaped my mouth instantly and I didn't move an inch until the trail of a carriage adorned in red transparent silk veils glided into view, flanked by two rows of elite guards clad in black and crimson armor. A wave of murmurs stirred through the kneeling crowd like a ripple across still water.
The carriage stopped before the dais where the Emperor sat—his throne perched high above, haloed by the golden dragon sigil of the Shen Dynasty. The silks fluttered aside as a slender figure stepped down, her movements slow, deliberate, as if the entire court should feel honored simply by her breathing their air.
It was Consort Linhua.
The favored concubine.
And behind her, shadowed but unmistakable, stood Lord Shen Fuchen himself—my supposed father in this twisted timeline.
I knelt, forehead pressing to the ice-cold marble floor, heart hammering against my ribs.
"Listen carefully, Lin Xi," Xue Lian's voice crackled in my mind like electricity on wet stone "Full target briefing: commencing."
The imposing figure standing before the throne caught my eye—a man wrapped in black armor, his aura suffocating.
"Shen Fuchen. Target 009."
"Supreme Commander of the Imperial Guards. A man whose soul was long ago swallowed by darkness. Once, when a courtesan refused his bed, he had her stripped and thrown into the guards' barracks. For her defiance, he personally severed the head of her four-year-old daughter."
'What the fuck?' That was the only word that came to my mind from the information I had gotten. It was not a surprise that high clan men went over sleeping with women on the street either forcibly or with consent but this...? This was gruesome!
"Don't be surprised. To put your Shen Mi's mother in prison just because she sided the woman he tried to defile, he had her beaten to pulp."
"In the Shen Palace, cruelty is a language more fluent than poetry."
I kept my forehead pressed to the cold floor, but my eyes dared to lift ever so slightly. The hem of a blood-red robe swept across the marble in a slow, deliberate glide. Silken slippers embroidered with golden peonies peeked beneath the flowing fabric.
Then—the devil herself—Consort Linhua finally revealed her face.
She was beautiful, yes—but it was a beauty so sharp it cut. Her skin was flawless porcelain, gleaming under the faint sunlight that pierced the palace ceiling. Her lips were painted a dangerous vermillion, curved into a smile that didn't touch her eyes. And those eyes—icy, pale like diluted sapphires—held no soul. Only ambition.
Her hair was piled high, adorned with black phoenix hairpins, the ends of the pins dripping small chains that clicked with each step she took, as if counting down to someone's doom.
"And you my friend, have met the woman behind the bloody massacre of Shen Mi's mother. Lin Hua!"