Dawn burned red over Hollow Sky as the envoy's shape melted into mist. No footsteps, no fading breath — just a ripple where her words lingered in the cold river wind.
Yue Lan lowered her spirit threads, but they didn't retreat far. They flickered around her shoulders like pale wings, each strand humming with silent tension.
Li Shen watched the river swirl where the envoy had stood. For a heartbeat, the Codex's old hunger pressed against his ribs — devour her, devour them all — but his will slammed the chain tight again. Ku Mo's voice fell back to a low hiss behind his teeth.
He turned to Yue Lan. "They won't send another whisper."
She met his eyes — raw but unflinching. "No. Next, they send blades."
---
They didn't linger at the shrine. By dusk they pushed deeper into Hollow Sky — a valley of cracked prayer towers and dry riverbeds where wind dragged old silk banners through broken windows. The place reeked of stories the sects had buried — rebel monks who called down storms, dream-eaters who starved heaven's hounds.
Yue Lan traced runes on the tower walls as they passed — binding threads in case the sect's Warden Blades came before nightfall.
Li Shen let her work. He stood in the tower's broken courtyard, staring at the stars. For a moment, he almost asked her to tell him about her dreams — the ones she never shared in all these miles of frost and ruin.
But there was no time left for soft things.
---
They made camp under the hollow arch of an ancient bell tower. Its iron bell lay cracked in the snow, half-buried in wild sage. Li Shen rested his blade across his knees. Yue Lan sat opposite him, weaving silver thread through her fingertips, shaping a net that hummed when the wind touched it.
"Promise me something," she said, voice hushed.
Li Shen's eyes flicked up. "Speak."
"If they break through — the hunters, the elders, the Heavens themselves — don't open it all."
Her gaze dropped to the Codex marks flickering at his throat. Even chained, they pulsed with hungry embers.
"I'd rather watch you die as you than watch you burn the world wearing his face."
Li Shen's throat tightened. He almost laughed — but it came out ragged.
"Then stand by me. Make sure I remember my name when the sky falls."
---
By midnight, the first rumble came.
Far above, clouds boiled into strange shapes — whorls of pale flame and distant bells tolling where there was no wind to carry them. The Nine Heavens cracked open a single eye, and Hollow Sky felt it like frost creeping down ancient bones.
Li Shen rose — blade humming with the Codex's pulse, his own chain locked iron-tight around Ku Mo's scream.
Yue Lan's threads wove a dome of silver over the tower's ruins. She pressed her palm to the frost, whispering old mantras no sect scroll dared keep.
Out in the snow, shapes emerged. Not mortal hunters. Not sect blades.
Spirit devourers — robed in void silk, faceless masks marked with drifting brands. Heaven's Hounds — bound to hunt anything that dared bleed the immortal order dry.
Li Shen watched them prowl the cracked stones — too silent to belong in this old, broken world.
"They'll take your soul piece by piece," Yue Lan whispered at his shoulder. "Leave nothing for you to bind back together."
Li Shen grinned — teeth bared against the frost.
"Then let's see if they choke."
---
The first hound lunged — faster than the wind, claws slicing silver lines through the snow. Yue Lan's threads snapped forward, binding jaws mid-lunge. The hound twisted — dissolved into black mist — reformed behind Li Shen's shoulder.
His blade spun back — a clean arc that split the mist in two. But the pieces wriggled — knitting back together as the wind sucked the spirit Qi from the cracked stones.
Ku Mo snarled behind Li Shen's ribs — Eat them, tear them whole—
Li Shen opened the chain just enough. A flicker of crimson roared down his blade. When he struck the hound's reforming shape, it didn't heal — it shrieked like ice snapping under flame, then blew apart into drifting embers.
Yue Lan's eyes snapped to him — saw the Codex's runes flicker too bright. Saw his jaw clench, will slamming the chain shut again.
One gone. Four more in the snow, drifting closer.
---
The next came in a blur — a snare of void silk coiling around Yue Lan's shoulder, yanking her to the stones. Her spirit threads snapped free — silver wires flicking through the darkness, binding the hound's mask tight.
Li Shen's roar cut through the snow — not Ku Mo's voice, but his. He plunged into the tangle — blade first. The hound's mask cracked. A flash of old sigils burst from its core — Heaven's seal screaming in the cold air.
It didn't matter. He crushed it under his boot.
---
When the last hound fled — a wisp of broken spirit brands lost in the swirling snow — Li Shen dropped to one knee beside Yue Lan. Blood ran from a cut at her temple, dripping onto his palm.
She blinked up at him — dazed, but breathing. "You're still—"
He caught her wrist — pressed her fingers to the Codex's pulse at his throat.
"Mine," he rasped. "Still mine."
---
Above them, the clouds shuddered — another ripple of pale bells echoing behind the stars.
One gate cracked. Another opened.
The Nine Heavens did not blink. They stared.
And somewhere beyond the veil, the last broken chain rattled against Li Shen's iron heart — waiting for the final choice.
---
⚡ End of Chapter Twenty-Three
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