Chapter 18: The Mandate of Sun and Moon

Part I: Blood Oath

Cracks spread across the celadon vase in the Purple Palace like frost on a dying leaf. Shen Qinghuan sat upon the malachite throne bestowed by Empress Wu, fingertips grazing the vermillion thumbprints staining the roll call—376 names of Cui Shangyi's former faction. Their foreheads kissed the icy jade steps outside, morning frost crystallizing in their hair.

"Kill us if you dare!" A young eunuch lunged from the ranks, dagger aimed at Mingyue's throat. The serpent compass mark slithered to Qinghuan's fingertips. The blade twisted into a corkscrew half an inch from flesh. As the boy collapsed, his reflection in the bronze floor tiles dissolved into smoke.

"Craving martyrdom?" Mingyue ground her golden slipper into his spine. "Go launder Cui Shangyi's death shrouds."

Three figures approached—a palace maid and two hulking guards. At Qinghuan's nod, they knelt. "Our parents perished by Wu Meiniang's decree," the maid hissed, forehead bleeding onto the Eight Trigrams she'd drawn. Mingyue whispered: "Mercury-poisoned puppets from Gan'ye Temple."

Qinghuan studied the maid's unbroken gaze. "You'll serve as Caiyun." She branded the girl's instep with matching serpent tattoos and pierced her ears with modern titanium studs.

The guards trembled as her embroidered slipper tilted up their chins. "This court keeps no male servants." The serpent mark pulsed at their sternums. They convulsed, vomiting three coded lead pellets—identical to the Mingtang foundation relics from her father's cache.

"But as Mingyue and Caiyun's attendants…" Qinghuan's smile cut colder than the frost.

"Qingfeng. Zun." The men accepted their names through bloodied teeth, branded and pierced like livestock.

Part II: Dual Contracts

The naming ritual unfolded at midnight. Qinghuan mixed modern iodine with cinnabar as Caiyun presented laser-etched bronze plaques. When the simplified Chinese characters for Qingfeng and Zun glowed, their big dipper tattoos burned.

"Blood binds, mercury transmits." Her fingertip bled into their ear piercings. Nanobots spiraled through the earring grooves into their cochleae, projecting 3D blueprints of Wu Zhou's Mingtang onto their eardrums. Qingfeng screamed—AR coordinates for Luoyang's buried heaven Temple seared his retinas.

"Their brains hold shape-memory alloys," Mingyue warned. "Empress Wu's sleeper agents."

"Precisely what I need." Qinghuan's Kun Yu Treatise shimmered with real-time satellite imagery. Nanobot feeds showed Qingfeng's lead pellets transmitting signals to the modern Ciyun Temple coordinates.

By fifth watch, Qingfeng and Zun knelt kissing their mistresses' serpent tattoos. "We live to serve the Mandate."

Empress Wu's tribute arrived—seven lacquered sandalwood chests containing Qinghuan's modern laptop. The boot screen showed her mother trapped in a Mingtang VR simulation, the red-clad woman beside her wearing Caiyun's twin earrings.

Part III: Shattered Orbits

Dawn bells shattered the waning moon's reflection. Inside the chests, Qingfeng uncovered Tang-era copper circuits fused with micro nuclear batteries. Wu Meiniang's voice crackled: "Adequate dowry, dear disciple?"

Caiyun's laser pen revealed a holographic edict in simplified Chinese: "Co-regency of Empress Wu and Grand Astrologer Shen."

Qinghuan recalibrated the data stream. "I don't share thrones, Meiniang."

Part IV: Twin Gambits

As Mingyue secured bomb-laced hairpins, Qinghuan watched Ciyun Temple's surveillance feed. Her mother's skeletal fingers typed 703 AD coordinates—the exact moment Wu Meiniang's pierced the heavens.

The serpent mark coiled around Qinghuan's wrist in triumph. Two eras, one crown.