Chapter 8: The Xuanji Mark

Act I: The Nine-Feathered Ascension

The cold dew's first light pierced the clouds as Shen Qinghuan knelt on the bluestone floor of the Palace Administration Hall. Empress Wu's gold-tipped fingernail traced the serpent sigil on her forehead, leaving a cinnabar imprint: "Henceforth, you are promoted to Fifth-Rank Celestial Historiographer, entrusted with Daming Palace's feng shui divination."

Below the steps, Bao'er jerked her head up, coral hairpin clattering. Qinghuan glimpsed Lady Cui's clenched fist—the Vermilion Fish Talisman symbolizing the Celestial Mechanism Pavilion's authority now shimmered faintly beneath her newly tailored gold-embroidered official sash. A sudden gale swept through the hall, rolling up twelve bamboo curtains to reveal bronze bells hanging from the eaves, each engraved with inverted Bagua symbols.

"This humble servant thanks Your Celestial Grace." She kowtowed thrice, a half-bronze key slipping from her sleeve—the Celestial Bureau's vault token retrieved from Zheng Miaorong's corpse, its keyhole perfectly matching Bao'er's jade pendant. As she rose, her sash deliberately brushed Lady Cui's knees—the "Ruinous Army" star in her gold-threaded Twenty-Eight Mansions embroidery glinted with a meteorite bead, repurposed from a modern button cell.

Act II: The Xuanji Brand

Midnight water-clock drips echoed in the duty chamber as Qinghuan unwrapped two maids' foot bindings. Qingluan's ankle bore a北斗七星 tattoo glowing eerie blue—Lady Cui's plant in the Bedchamber Office; Zhuque's fingertips reeked of monkshood powder, betraying her failed poisoning attempt in the Imperial Kitchen.

"Endure." Qinghuan mixed lightning-struck jujube ash with cinnabar ink, tattooing Nine Palaces Flying Star charts onto their insteps. The needle's dance hid secrets—three extra pricks at the Kan (Water) position forming Morse code "S," while the Li (Fire) position's blank space hinted at a QR code prototype. Qingluan bit her lip bloody, droplets falling into a magnetic powder-filled crystal bowl, coalescing into the Primordial Bagua.

"Wear these." Qinghuan removed her moonbeam earrings—silver filaments twisted into DNA double helixes, each dangling a meteorite die carved with Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li. When Zhuque donned hers, the die spun autonomously, landing on Li—the very mansion the armillary sphere now pointed toward.

"Recharge them with lodestones on new and full moons." She inserted modified Bluetooth earpieces into their ears, the lacquer box holding her last two button cells from the modern era. Qingluan's touch to her earring summoned distant static—the drip of water in 2023's Ciyun Temple crypt.

Act III: Linde Hall Gambit

Chrysanthemum Festival music swelled as Qinghuan entered Linde Hall with her marked maids. Qingluan carried an armillary sphere model hiding a pinhole camera trained on Empress Wu's golden goblet; Zhuque's phoenix hairpin served as a signal amplifier, its malachite feathers dusted with nano-magnetic powder.

As Empress Wu raised her cup, static crackled in Qingluan's earpiece: "...Mingtang crypt's third tunnel... waterproof coating flawed..." Qinghuan's serpent sigil writhed to her fingertips, tapping Morse code on the table. Qingluan "accidentally" spilled grape wine while Zhuque sprinkled magnetic powder onto Lady Cui's skirts.

Post-banquet, the powder revealed Luoyang's Mingtang blueprint on the Empress's chamber floor. The pillar coordinates overlapped perfectly with Shanghai's "Greedy Wolf" dragon vein from Kun Yu's Subversive Treatise. Qinghuan's silver hairpin touched the "Dubhe" position—the powder levitated, forming a 3D hologram of her mother's trapped crypt.

"Mistress, Bao'er heads to Taiye Pool." Zhuque's earring shimmered cerulean. Qinghuan stroked Qingluan's healing tattoo—under UV light, the Oracle Bone script for "loyalty" emerged. "Let her go." The titanium earrings implanted in Bao'er's ears pulsed with GPS signals.

Act IV: Celestial Convergence

At the Winter Solstice Altar, Qinghuan unfurled a modified Tui Bei Tu scroll. Empress Wu gripped her wrist: "Your serpent grows vivid."

"By Your Grace's fortune." Qinghuan bowed, her collar revealing a barcode tattoo—scanning it pinpointed her mother's GPS coordinates. Below the altar, Qingluan and Zhuque's glowing instep tattoos mirrored five hundred newly branded servants' Xuanji Marks. Each "Celestial Physician" position embedded a nano-chip projecting a holographic taotie entwined with quantum symbols when UV-lit.

Lady Cui's sacrificial cauldron exploded, seven smoke trails coalescing into the Big Dipper. Bao'er's final signal from Taiye Pool's depths transmitted Ciyun Temple's modern blueprint through Qinghuan's earring. "The Purple Forbidden Enclosure shifts—suppress it with the Nine Palaces!"

Empress Wu's laughter boomed as Qinghuan spied the faded QR code tattoo on Lady Cui's torn sleeve. Incense smoke birthed dual visions—Tang's dragon veins tangling with Lujiazui's neon lights, twin serpents battling for a shared sun and moon.

Act V: Epochs Entwined

In the Xuanji Pavilion's vault, Qingluan inspected new recruits' footprints under UV light. Counterfeit marks glowed plainly, while true Xuanji Brands with nano-chips projected holographic star charts. Zhuque brewed new tattoo ink—realgar and stolen meteorite dust swirling ominously in magnetic mixers.

"Mistress, a missive from the Celestial Bureau." Zhuque offered a bamboo tube. Qinghuan unfolded mulberry paper—a photo from a 2023 Shanghai tattoo parlor showed a girl branding Nine Palaces on her instep, DNA earrings identical to hers. In the mirror behind her, a sunglasses-clad woman's serpent sigil bled fresh.

A crimson shadow flitted past the window. Qinghuan crushed an incense pellet, smoke coalescing into dual holograms: Luoyang's Mingtang foundations and Lujiazui's real-time traffic. The dragon veins merged into a Möbius strip of infinite corridors. She knew—when the final Xuanji Mark branded Empress Wu's ankle, this millennial game would climax in a spacetime rift's "sun-moon hegemony."

Meanwhile, Bao'er's corpse floated in Taiye Pool, her earrings transmitting binary ripples—decoded into simplified Chinese: "The Seventh Sacrifice is ready."