Chapter 15: The Fractured Court

Vermilion Palace – Throne Hall

The grand chamber echoed with the rustling of silk robes and the soft murmurs of uneasy nobles. After Minister Lian Guo's arrest and public exposure, silence no longer meant peace—it meant tension.

Li Tianming sat high upon the Vermilion Throne.

Though young and newly crowned, his presence was impossible to dismiss. He wore no imperial ornaments. His robes were plain. But his eyes—cold, sharp, and unreadable—held the pressure of someone who had stared down death and chosen to grin back.

The trial had sent shockwaves through the Outer Realms.

The nobles expected a token scapegoat.

Instead, they witnessed a surgical purge—truth laid bare, backed by illusions, confessions, and exposed blood contracts. That scared them more than any sword.

Lady Xue Lanyan, matriarch of House Xue and perhaps the sharpest court strategist alive, approached the throne with poised grace and no flattery.

"You move swiftly, Your Majesty. Some admire it," she said, voice as polished as lacquer. "Others… question whether such velocity disturbs more than it stabilizes."

Tianming leaned back slightly.

"Only those whose roots are tangled in rot would fear clean soil."

Her lips twitched—half amusement, half warning. She stepped closer, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"There are tremors beyond this palace. The Western Tiger Basin's eyes grow bolder, and the Shadow Lotus now wears temple robes and spiritual titles."

"They say it's the Heartline Corridor they covet—grain and ore, spirit stone flow. Others whisper of leyline convergence under your capital."

She studied his face. "But some of us… believe something else stirs beneath Vermilion soil."

Tianming met her gaze, voice even.

"Those who dwell too long in rumor forget how quickly a kingdom bleeds when it loses focus."

Silence.

Lady Xue inclined her head deeply and stepped back. Not chastised. But warned.

She understood, always did.

Weeks earlier, a Black Tortoise envoy, Hao Shen, had arrived at the capital gates bearing words of peace and tribute. The court called it diplomacy.

Tianming knew better.

During a palace feast, his shadow moved out of sync.

From that shadow, a wraith emerged—no blade, no poison, only a whisper meant to sever Tianming's spirit.

It failed. Thanks to Itachi's illusions, Kisuke's seal arrays, and Tianming's own spiritual resistance, the attack was exposed—live.

The envoy was detained, interrogated, and eventually returned alive—but hollow.

His mind had been severed from the true puppeteer—a Nascent Soul-level controller from afar.

Since then, the Western Tiger Basin had not protested.

Not publicly.

But sect agents had surged across Vermilion's border towns. Merchant lords loyal to Tiger-aligned clans began buying up land around critical leyline points.

Kisuke laid out the reports with quiet certainty.

"The envoy's path passed through three Tiger-friendly strongholds. His mission wasn't just espionage—it was a test."

Tianming replied coldly.

"They wanted to see if I would flinch. Instead, I flayed the mask off their pawn."

He walked to the map and traced a finger along the Heartline Corridor.

"Control this vein, and you control ore, grain, and spirit commerce across the Outer East."

But he tapped deeper—at the center of the capital.

"That's what they admit wanting. What they suspect lies beneath… that's what draws them like carrion to a corpse."

Few in the kingdom knew the truth.

Beneath the capital, locked behind six sovereign seals, lay a fragment of an Immortal's Core World—a place where spiritual energy condensed unnaturally, where time and cause blurred.

Tianming had not opened it.

Not fully.

But he could feel it: an echo pulling at his spirit like gravity.

The sects did not yet understand what slept below.

The Tiger Basin suspected.

The Shadow Lotus? They'd been digging for Centuries.

That's why they funded traitors.

That's why they moved through temples.

And that's why Tianming could trust no one outside his mirror network.

Council debates turned venomous. Some nobles demanded compromise with the Tiger.

Others warned of internal rebellion.

A few—those paid by Shadow Lotus—asked Tianming to step down temporarily "for balance."

He responded with a single decree:

"From this day forward, all spiritual correspondences between nobles and external sects must be mirrored through the Whisper Network."

"Any house caught hiding interactions with the Tiger or Tortoise shall be tried as collaborators in sedition."

That night, Tianming stood in the sealed sanctum beneath the throne room, gazing at the Immortal Vault.

Kisuke arrived silently, holding a report.

"The envoy's handlers have gone quiet. But they've moved their pawns near River Gate City. They're… preparing."

Tianming closed his eyes.

"Then let them come."

He turned toward the vault, pressing his hand to the rune-seal.

"Let them try to bleed us for what they think is power."

"And when they fail, I'll bury their ambitions here—beside the bones of every king who died protecting this secret."