Chapter 16: The Phoenix Concealed in Mount Qi
Act One: The Golden Cage Locks Sorrow**
As the copper clepsydra in the Shanggong Bureau dripped to the third quarter of the Yin hour, Shen Qinghuan knelt on the bluestone tiles, wiping bloodstains from the Si Tian Tai. Lady Cui's body had already been removed, but the pool of dark blood laced with mercury poison had seeped into the brick crevices, congealing into a twisted snake shape under the moonlight. The snake tattoo on her wrist was as faint as withered vines, the backlash from forcibly traversing time and space the previous night still searing through her meridians.
When her fingertips brushed a half-piece of jade tablet lodged in a crevice, a clear chime of jade ornaments suddenly sounded behind her. Shen Qinghuan swiftly tucked the jade into her sleeve, turning to bow with flawless poise—three steps away, Princess Changping's gold-woven slippers came to a halt, the eastern pearl on their tips aligned precisely with the "Heavenly Prison" star position of the Taishi Bureau.
"Supervisor Pei is quite diligent," Changping remarked, her fingertip grazing Shen Qinghuan's lowered nape. Her painted nail pressed lightly on the Dumen acupoint. "I heard that on the night Lady Cui died suddenly, you abandoned your post?"
Cold sweat soaked through Shen Qinghuan's inner garments. That acupoint was the nexus of energy flow from her time-traveling leap, and Changping's touch carried a probing surge of qi. "Your Highness, this servant was at the Shangyao Bureau fetching mugwort that night, with the duty physician as my witness," she replied.
The clepsydra emitted an odd clang. In the fleeting moment she raised her head, Shen Qinghuan glimpsed the corner of Changping's eye—where a floral adornment was affixed, a faint glint of mechanical parts shimmered through.
**Act Two: The Dark Tide of Xuánjī**
The reconnaissance team's lanterns roamed tirelessly through the ninefold palace all night. Shen Qinghuan huddled in a corner of the duty room, regulating her breath. She dipped a bronze key into a concoction of magnetic powder and medicinal broth, watching as oracle bone script reassembled on its surface—the cracks of the "Guizang" hexagram pointed to the ice cellar in the northeast corner, where fragments of an armillary sphere Lady Cui hadn't managed to destroy lay hidden.
Just after the midnight watch bell tolled, ashes of paper drifted through the window. Shen Qinghuan pinched a piece between her fingers, detecting the faint scent of sulfur and saltpeter—the reconnaissance team was burning suspicious talismans. Dipping her finger in the broth, she traced patterns on the table; the ash marks aligned eerily with the "Mars Guarding the Heart" formation recorded in *The Dragon-Shaking Scripture*.
"Mistress..." a faint whisper came through the half-open window lattice. Shen Qinghuan spun around to see the shadowy figure of Su Que leaning against a corridor pillar—a maid who should have been obliterated in the temporal turbulence that night. The outline of a bronze key emerged on the phantom's chest, her lips moving silently: "Ice cellar... Mao hour..."
**Act Three: The Ice Cellar Hides a Blade**
In the predawn fog of the fifth watch, Shen Qinghuan slipped into the ice cellar. Fragments of a bronze armillary sphere hung suspended among the icicles, its gears etched with modern binary code. When she activated the core mechanism with the key, the magnetic needle abruptly swung toward the Western Bi constellation—the precise location of Princess Changping's bedchamber.
"No wonder they silenced Lady Cui," Shen Qinghuan sneered. The holographic star map projected by the armillary sphere revealed an artificially altered trajectory in the Purple Forbidden Enclosure, its frequency matching the mechanical floral ornament at Changping's eye. She snapped off an ice shard; its refracted light revealed Wu Meiniang's recent pulse record—her sudden recovery from liver qi stagnation coincided perfectly with the formation of the reconnaissance team.
The ice shattered with a deafening crack, and twenty-eight bronze automatons burst forth. Their foreheads bore vermilion moles glowing with the same red light as Lady Cui's, their bronze joints dripping crimson cerebrospinal fluid. Shen Qinghuan's snake tattoo flared in response, but as it touched the automatons, an electromagnetic barrier scorched her—these were upgraded killing machines from the Tianji Pavilion!
**Act Four: Transplanting Flowers onto Wood**
"Supervisor Pei has quite the taste for adventure," Changping's voice echoed from the top of the ice cave. Her waist sash glittered with miniature armillary sphere models. "Sneaking into a forbidden area at night—perhaps you mean to bolster my achievements?"
Shen Qinghuan played along, stumbling deliberately toward the lead automaton. Magnetic powder from her sleeve dusted its forehead, and the tampered vermilion mole oozed black blood. "Your Highness, I discovered Lady Cui had secretly altered the star charts and came to gather evidence..."
Changping's gold-woven slippers crunched across the ice, but she froze as they neared the automaton—the black blood climbed her sash, coalescing into the ominous "Mars Guarding the Heart" pattern on the miniature spheres. Seizing the distraction, Shen Qinghuan bit her tongue, spitting blood onto the armillary sphere's core.
In a flash of quantum entanglement's blue light, the ice cellar flickered with dual visions: the Tang Dynasty's bronze automaton array overlapped with a modern Tianji Pavilion cloning lab. Sparks erupted from Changping's floral ornament—her mechanical components were overloading!
**Act Five: Shadows Concealed in Mount Qi**
"Your Highness! The Taishi Bureau is ablaze!" A distant cry saved Shen Qinghuan. As Changping swept her sleeve and departed, cracks marred the armillary sphere on her sash.
Shen Qinghuan collapsed onto the ice, pale golden blood seeping from her snake tattoo—the price of forcibly invoking the ancient rites of *The Dragon-Shaking Scripture*. She hid the armillary sphere fragments in the lining of her palace skirt; the binary code reassembled under her body heat, forming an encrypted message:
**"First year of Shenlong, seventh day of the seventh month, Mingtang underground palace—only one of the twin phoenixes will survive."**
As morning light pierced the icicles, Shen Qinghuan finished embroidering a "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix" tapestry in the Shangfu Bureau. She deliberately added a vermilion mole to the phoenix's eye, an exact match to Changping's floral ornament. When the embroidery reached Wu Meiniang's desk, a search warrant from the reconnaissance team arrived at the Shanggong Bureau—the Empress demanded a thorough investigation into the histories of all supervisory female officials.
"Mistress, your medicine." A newly assigned maid knelt, offering a bowl of broth. Shen Qinghuan caught the familiar scent of aconite and gripped the girl's wrist—etched on the inner side was the unique Tengshe hexagram of Su Que.
**Finale: The Return of Old Shadows**
"This servant is called Mingyue," the maid said, lifting her gaze, a flicker of data-stream blue glinting in her pupils. She pulled aside her collar, revealing a bronze key scar on her collarbone that perfectly fit the armillary sphere's missing piece from the ice cellar. "The princess's reconnaissance team has traced the bloodstains on the Si Tian Tai tiles, but I... redirected them to the dry well in the Cold Palace."
Shen Qinghuan's snake tattoo throbbed sharply—a backlash from the temporal correction mechanism. She glanced at the reconnaissance team's pigeons circling outside, their eyes glinting with tiny cameras. As Mingyue styled her hair, their reflections in the bronze mirror revealed nascent tear-shaped moles forming at the corners of their eyes.
"Will you follow me to achieve imperial dominance?" Shen Qinghuan asked abruptly. "This servant is willing," Mingyue replied, kneeling to kiss the tattoo on Shen Qinghuan's instep as a pledge of loyalty. Shen Qinghuan then marked her with an identical tattoo on her instep, pierced her ears, and adorned them with modern studs—a ritual unique to her way of claiming maids.
The clepsydra pointed to the third quarter of the Mao hour, and the bells of Taiji Palace tolled. Shen Qinghuan knew this drama of the phoenix concealed in Mount Qi had only just begun.