Lucius hung from the ancient oak tree, his feet dangling inches above the blood-stained grass. The vines Shara had summoned were tight, pulsating with a faint green light that drained his strength every time he tried to struggle. Yun Caos stood before him, his violet eyes reflecting a coldness that made the merchant's heart skip beats.
"I have gold! I have accounts in every major city!" Lucius pleaded, his voice cracking. "Just let me live, and I'll give you everything!"
"Gold is a currency for those who believe in a future, Lucius," Yun said, his voice a low vibration. "But you sold our future to the Iron Blood Hall. Why should I allow you to have one?"
Yun reached out, his hand not touching Lucius's flesh, but the air inches from his forehead. The violet mark on Yun's neck began to glow with a rhythmic intensity. This was not a physical interrogation; it was a Cognitive Devouring. Yun was literally reaching into the merchant's memories, sifting through the "trash" of a lifetime of greed to find the one thing that had value.
Lucius's eyes rolled back. Images of dusty archives, secret meetings, and a forbidden scroll hidden in a hollowed-out jade cane flashed through Yun's mind.
"There..." Yun whispered.
With a sudden pull of energy, Yun extracted a mental projection. He saw a map—not of the physical world, but of the Ley Lines of the Primordial Void. It pointed toward a region in the heart of the Neutral Lands known as the "Graveyard of Sovereigns," a place where the First Poeira Púrpura was said to have touched the earth.
As the memory was pulled out, Lucius's eyes went blank. He wasn't dead, but his mind was now a clean slate, his greed and his treachery wiped away by the void.
"He's useless now," Meilin said, flicking a spark of fire at the base of the tree. "But that map... it felt different. It didn't feel like Qi."
"It's a map of resonance," Shara explained, looking at Yun with a mixture of concern and wonder. "It leads to the place where your bones were forged before you were even born. But it's in the Neutral Lands—a place where the Empire has no power, because the laws of physics themselves are unstable there."
Yun looked at the mental map burned into his consciousness. "We have what we need. Lucius was just a pebble in the path. The real hunger is calling from the Graveyard."
He turned to the two women, his presence now feeling more anchored, more sovereign. "Are you ready to walk into a place where even the Gods are forgotten?"
Meilin smirked, her crimson flames dancing. "I've been forgotten my whole life. It'll feel like home."
Shara simply took his hand, her silence her vow. "Where you go, the Void follows. And where the Void follows, I shall be."