The cliffs reeked of burnt talismans and spilled Qi. The cold wind tugged at Li Shen's torn robe as he stepped over Zhen Wu's corpse. Below, the Moon Sect disciples held their breath, half-bowing, half-reaching for blades they no longer trusted.
Li Shen could feel the Codex stirring like a chained dragon under his ribs — not silent, never silent, but contained by a will that refused to break. Ku Mo's voice still rasped in the depths of his mind, more amused than enraged now.
So the cub bares its teeth at the master. Good. How long can you hold me, boy?
Li Shen ignored him. He looked at Yue Lan instead. She hadn't moved, though her pale hands trembled at her sides. Her spirit threads — soft strands of silver Qi — fluttered in the wind like moonlit silk.
They stood alone in a circle of dead runes and cold stone. The disciples gave them distance. No one dared to break the silence first.
Li Shen's voice was rough as dry leaves. "Take them home, Saintess."
Yue Lan's eyes widened. "What?"
"You came to hunt a monster," he said, voice steady despite the blood drying on his skin. "You found one. But the price was yours to pay, not theirs."
He gestured at the young disciples, their faces pale in the lantern light. Some trembled under his gaze, others held it — children who thought themselves hunters until tonight.
"Go home," Li Shen said again. "If they stay, I won't let them walk away twice."
The threat was not a snarl — it was a promise, quiet and cold. And they all knew he could keep it.
Yue Lan stepped closer. Her boots scraped the stone, soft yet louder than the wind. She didn't flinch from him — not now, not with the Codex's glow pulsing under his skin.
"I could call them," she said softly. "I could bind you while you bleed. Take you back to the Inner Pavilion. Break you. Seal you."
Li Shen's lip twitched — the ghost of a smile, bleak and tired. "Do it."
She didn't move. The wind curled a strand of black hair across her cheek.
"You're not him," she whispered. "Not completely. Not yet."
He looked away — to the moon overhead, round and distant. He wondered, in some small corner of himself, if the Nine Heavens looked down at this moment. If they cared. If they laughed.
"You gave me a chance once," he said. "I won't ask for another."
Yue Lan's breath caught. "Then what will you do, Li Shen?"
He stepped past her — his shadow crossing hers, the Codex's heat brushing her spirit threads. For a moment, it seemed he would speak more — but he didn't.
He looked back only once. His eyes still gleamed red, but beneath that was a spark — a stubborn, defiant thing that refused to drown.
"When the Nine Heavens come," he said, voice like iron on stone, "tell them the Bloodbound does not bow."
Yue Lan's lips parted, but no words came.
Li Shen turned and vanished into the high cliffs, leaving cold silence and broken chains behind.
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⚡ End of Chapter Ten
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