Chapter 17: Fractured Souls Revealed

Candlelight flickered in the Liuli Workshop, casting dancing shadows over ancient meridian diagrams and Su Mingli's contemplative face. The air hung heavy with medicinal herbs, the night so still even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

"Fractured Souls... What exactly are they?" Su Mingli murmured, fingertips absently tracing the frayed edges of the parchment.

Xiao Jingxuan stood beside her, eyes burning like smoldering coals. "If the Gilded Bronze Figures are truly a 'key,' perhaps they unlock more than secrets—they might open gateways to realms beyond our comprehension."

Her brow furrowed. She'd studied genetic mutations in her past life—even encountered radical theories about DNA bifurcation—but never imagined confronting such enigmas here, in this ancient world.

The workshop master broke the silence, voice gravelly with age: "A millennium-old text speaks of 'Fractured Souls—beings existing across dimensions, divided yet inseparable. Converged, they birth miracles; scattered, they sunder worlds.'"

Su Mingli's heart stuttered. "You mean... dual existence?"

"Both yes and no," the master replied, face grim.

Xiao Jingxuan's hand twitched toward his sword hilt. "Speak plainly."

"Fractured Souls defy mortal laws. Legends claim they manifest across timelines. The Gilded Bronze Figures detect their presence. Whoever deciphers the Figures' truth..." The master's gaze locked onto Su Mingli, "...must be a Fractured Soul."

Her pulse roared. Her unexplained transmigration, the unresolved fate of her modern body—did this mean she was the anomaly?

Suddenly, Xiao Jingxuan gripped her arm. "You're pale."

She hadn't noticed her trembling fingers until vertigo struck—a sickening lurch between realities.

Pain stabbed her chest.

The Liuli Workshop dissolved. Night became void. Harsh surgical lights blinded her as beeping monitors screamed in her ears. The sharp scent of antiseptic hung in the air.

Modern times.

Through the glare, a man in surgical scrubs loomed over her—features achingly familiar yet altered. No longer clad in ancient robes but a sterile white coat, his eyes held clinical precision instead of battlefield steel.

"Su Mingli?" The modern Xiao Jingxuan's voice cut like a scalpel. "Your body was declared brain-dead. Yet here your heart beats."

Her throat constricted. Brain-dead? Then what am I now—a ghost in two worlds?

Before she could speak, reality rippled—

—she gasped back into the candlelit workshop, drenched in cold sweat. Xiao Jingxuan's hand steadied her shoulder, his ancient guise restored but eyes blazing with new intensity.

"What did you see?" he demanded.

Her lips moved soundlessly before the words tore free: "You."

Night wind whipped through the chamber, tangling their robes like threads of fate being violently rewoven.