The Infernal Hall was alight with the clash of Qi, flame, and dark magic.
Shui Lin knelt in the circle of red mist, pressing both palms over Yue Chányīn's forehead. Her expression remained frozen, caught between rage and grief. Threads coiled tighter around her limbs, writhing like snakes.
He closed his eyes.
"Let me find you."
The moment he touched her spiritual thread, the world around him twisted.
He was pulled into her illusion.
Yue Chányīn stood in the heart of the Sword Hall, surrounded by broken weapons and crumbling banners. The skies above burned crimson. Her father, battered and bloodied, was being overwhelmed by elders she once trusted. Demons poured through shattered gates. No one helped.
She fought alone.
"Father!" she screamed, slashing through a demon with a blazing arc of sword Qi.
But every step forward pushed him further away.
"You abandoned me," a voice said. It came from her sword. From within.
She froze.
Then, a hand touched her shoulder.
Warm.
Real.
"Chányīn," Shui Lin said softly. "This isn't truth. It's a trap."
She turned sharply, sword raised.
Then her eyes widened.
"Lin...?"
He smiled. "You're not alone. Never were."
The illusion wavered.
Demons screeched. The elders froze mid-motion.
Chányīn gritted her teeth. "I... I couldn't save him."
"And he never blamed you. You must wake now. They need you. Xuanye needs you."
Her hand trembled.
Then she drew a deep breath.
Her blade ignited with starlight.
And with one slash, shattered the illusion.
Back in the hall, Yue Chányīn gasped awake, eyes glowing with renewed clarity.
Shui Lin caught her. "Welcome back."
But the moment was shattered by a sound like ripping silk and bone.
In front of the altar, Blood Serpent Empress · Mèi Xuán raised one hand.
From her palm, crimson threads bloomed like blossoms, spreading outward in fractal veins. The threads danced unnaturally, pulsing with soul-force.
"血魂丝牢." (Bloodthread Soul Cage.)
The threads erupted, targeting everything alive.
Xuanye roared. "Feilí—brace!"
Together, they launched into a counterassault.
Su Feilí's hands ignited in a spiral of red-orange lotus flames.
"涅焰九轮 · Nirvana Flame Lotus Strike!"
She launched it forward—nine rings of burning lotuses crashing into the incoming threads.
Xuanye followed, drawing his blade in a reverse grip.
"裂空鸣剑 · Skycleave Howl!"
A single, devastating slash of golden sword Qi tore across the chamber like a divine arc.
Both attacks hit.
The threads burned.
The floor shook.
The dust cleared.
Mèi Xuán stood untouched.
The serpentine eyes behind her tails blinked once—mocking.
Feilí's breathing turned ragged. "That was everything I had."
Xuanye grit his teeth. "She didn't even block."
The Empress stepped forward, eyes shining with disdain.
"Tricks... pretty. But they cannot wound me."
Feilí hissed. "She's not just powerful. She's—"
"The Serpent Demon Empress." Xuanye finished. "The blood-forged Queen of the Threaded Abyss."
They backed toward the others.
Feilí's voice dropped to a whisper. "Even if every disciple of Qingling Sect stood with us… we'd still lose."
Xuanye's hand twitched over his next talisman. "Then we don't fight to win."
"We fight to buy time."
The Empress raised both hands now. Behind her, nine tails arched high like spears. The blood silk that had surged forward now pulled back—and then snapped forward like a tidal wave.
Xuanye and Feilí exchanged a final look.
"Hold the line," he said.
"And make it loud," she answered.
Together, they stepped forward.
Xuanye activated his final card—a rare dual-tiger sigil carved from ancient jade.
"双灵封印 · Twin Spirit Seal!"
Twin phantoms—one black, one white—roared out from his body, forming a dome of celestial resistance.
Feilí drew from her own Qi core and channeled a last forbidden art passed down to her by her guardian clan.
"炎殇噬魄 · Flame Devour of Spirit and Sin!"
Her body burned bright—too bright. A silhouette of a phoenix roared behind her, wings of spiritual flame spreading to shield the sleeping cultivators.
The Empress finally paused.
"Interesting," she whispered.
But even then, her gaze didn't flicker with fear.
Only… hunger.
And her third eye remained closed.
To be continued...