19.When Shadows Speak

That night,

the fifth sky of Tianxu did not stir no wind,

no moon,

not even breath.

In such stillness, even the shadows dared to speak.

_______________

The Fifth Sky of Tianxu did not stir that night. Its stillness pressed against the chest like the hand of a forgotten god, holding back a breath that never came.

Shadows hung long from the palace ceiling almost lifeless despite the bright glow of the lanterns.

But even that brightness was strange, flickering dimly for no reason, pulsing like a reluctant heartbeat.

Zhenyu woke with her breath caught in her throat.

Her robes were soaked with sweat.

The silk drapes around her bed rippled gently not from wind,but from something unseen brushing against the edge of this world.

Rongxu Jing had felt too real.

Not a dream no,a fracture.

"You...

are a traitor...

to yourself."

The voice split through her thoughts. It was not Helian Qingyin. Nor was it her own. It was something else—something born from the fusion of the two. A third awareness.

"That...

Shadow Mirror...

has it already unlocked the third seal?" Zhenyu murmured, staring at her trembling hands.

The shadows in the corner of her room shifted soundlessly.

—

Elsewhere, behind the marble walls of the Yuzhao Pavilion, Bai Ruoxi bowed deeply. Before her stood Physician Yin Hou, cloaked in black robes, red threads of blood coiled around his wrists.

He handed her a small vial.

"Blood-purification elixir. If your mistress drinks it tonight, the seal upon her body will collapse. The soul hidden within… will awaken."

"And if she doesn't?" Bai Ruoxi asked softly.

"Then the Empress Dowager will brand you a traitor. And traitors have no place in this palace."

The bottle felt cold in her hand. Its silvery-blue liquid shimmered faintly, as if alive.

"Tell her it's for stabilizing her body," Yin Hou said. "Say it's for her health."

"But if she finds out…"

"Your mistress has never feared the truth. But sometimes, the truth needs to be wrapped in lies lest it kills too quickly."

Bai Ruoxi said nothing. She lowered her gaze, tucked the vial into her sleeve, and left without another word.

Behind the long curtains, the Empress Dowager stood with eyes closed.

"Good," she whispered. "Tonight… silence shall speak louder than blood."

—

In another wing of the palace, Ji Suling stepped into the Soul Purification Chamber. Her footsteps made no sound, yet each one seemed to scrape against the stone floor like claws on bone. In her hand, she held an ancient talisman the Ji family's sacred seal, once used to bind Helian Qingyin.

She placed it beneath the ritual altar and looked up at the lantern of blood that swayed above.

"Tomorrow, blood will speak. But tonight, we prepare the stage."

A young concubine stood at the threshold, pale and trembling.

"Your Ladyship…

why another test?

Wasn't her blood already purified during the banquet?"

Ji Suling offered a faint smile.

"You believe sacred water cleanses blood with just one sip? This world is far too filthy for that."

Her gaze drifted to the ceiling, where talismanic shadows flickered.

"Tomorrow, we'll see who truly dwells in Helian Qingyin's body. And whether she's still human."

—

In a forgotten storage chamber buried beneath the archives, Yuwen Jinhai read in silence. He had torn through shelf after shelf, until at last, behind a rotting wooden panel, he unearthed the long-lost genealogy scroll of the Helian clan.

His fingers brushed over names that had been erased:

Helian Muyu.

Helian Ranyue.

Helian Qingyin struck through with black ink.

"Declared dead… as an infant? Then why does her soul still remain? Who saved her?"

He turned to the ancestral altar's wall. Hanging there was an old mirror, its surface cracked like branching roots. Yet it reflected not his own face

but someone else's.

Someone who stared back at him with Zhenyu's eyes, even though Zhenyu wasn't there.

—

The skies over Tianxu remained unchanged. The cold night held its breath, and time bent ever so slightly. In the hidden corners of the palace, servants walked with light feet, as if afraid to wake something they could not understand.

In her chamber, wrapped in suffocating silence, Zhenyu stared into a silver basin. Its reflection no longer obeyed the laws of the world.

She whispered hoarsely, "What do you mean… your shadow?"

The water did not respond.

But its ripples shifted into a face not hers, not Qingyin's,nor anyone she recognized.

A foreign visage,layered and fragmented,as though the mirror gathered shards from a soul long scattered.

Then,a voice echoed from within her mind:

"A shadow is not an imitation.

It is the remainder.

What's left behind when truth is buried too deep."

Zhenyu groaned, clutching her head.

The Rongxu Jing within her trembled.

She no longer felt like the sole occupant of her own body.

It wasn't just Qingyin.

There was something else.

Outside her room,

Bai Ruoxi hesitated at the door, the vial of blood-purification still in her hand. Her face pale, her heart torn.

"If I give it to her… she might lose control. But if I don't…" Her fingers shook.

Faintly, she heard voices from within Zhenyu's room—not human voices. Not screams. But whispers. Layered voices, overlapping from another realm.

Ruoxi bit her lip. She took a step back… and froze. Unable to enter. Unable to walk away.

Just then, Meilan emerged from a side corridor. Her face mirrored confusion—and suspicion.

"What are you holding?" Meilan whispered, eyes locked on the vial.

Bai Ruoxi quickly hid it. "Just a calming tonic."

Meilan frowned. "You're lying."

"We all lie," Ruoxi said quietly. "Even our mistress."

They stared at each other. Two maids. Two paths of loyalty.

Meanwhile, in the purification chamber, Ji Suling knelt before the blood lantern. Beneath its pulsing red light, she unrolled an ancient scroll the Ji family's sealing technique.

She murmured, "If tomorrow, her blood speaks… then fate will lean in my favor."

Behind her, a servant fidgeted nervously. Ji Suling didn't care.

She looked to the ceiling.

"My father sealed that girl when she was just a child.

Now she's back face,

body,

blood…

none of it truly hers.

This isn't vengeance."Her smile turned sharp."This is justice."

Then her eyes narrowed.

"But why… has her blood never rejected that body?"

Before the question could be answered, in another chamber draped in purple veils, the Empress Dowager sat, cradling a jade pendant shaped like a flower.

"Helian Qingyin…" she breathed. "Or whoever now lives inside that body…"

She summoned Yin Hou, who knelt silently.

"Are you certain the elixir will break the final seal?"

Yin Hou nodded. "If her blood remains half-spirit, tonight will render it whole. But… it may also awaken a soul that does not belong to her."

"Let it," whispered the Empress Dowager. "Better we see what kind of monster dwells in her… before this palace burns."

—

Within Rongxu Jing, Qingyin stood at the edge of a fog-bound bridge. Blurred shadows of the past surrounded her memories she had once sealed away.

A child's voice called out:

"Don't leave me, Qingyin-jie…"

She turned. A young boy knelt at an ancient altar, his body marred with seal wounds, weeping in silence. Qingyin shut her eyes. She knew who he was. A brother. A victim. But also… a traitor.

"I'm no longer a victim," she whispered. "But… am I a redeemer?"

Suddenly, darkness swallowed the bridge. From within the fog, the Shadow Mirror's voice echoed:

"If you wish to survive… one of you must vanish."

Qingyin screamed. The Rongxu Jing quaked.

Back in her chamber, Zhenyu clutched her chest. A sharp pain surged. Blood dripped from her lips.

"I can't go on like this," she whispered. "I have to choose… but who?"

The basin's reflection answered:

—"You are no one… but the will of discarded darkness."

Zhenyu struck the water's surface. But the basin did not shatter. Instead, from its depths, a pale hand reached up trying to grasp her.

—

Midnight.

The sacred bell's echo rang from the inner sanctum.

Tomorrow morning,

the Blood Trial would begin.

But tonight... was a night of silence steeped in dread, as the Shadow Mirror gnawed at the veil between spirit and flesh.

And Zhenyu...

or Qingyin..

or both..

no longer knew who held the reins of their soul.

Bai Ruoxi approached.

The vial was now in Meilan's grasp. A decision awaited.

And far away, beyond stone walls and buried history...

Something stirred.

Something that could not be bound by blood, by name, or by any seal.

__________________

The sacred bell tolled in the distance,and the Shadow Mirror trembled in the dark. Tomorrow, blood would speak.

But tonight, silence was already screaming.