Night lay heavy. Outside the Yao Manor, wind snapped at the corners of the banners—
like a secret on the verge of waking.
Youqing and Si Moheng's silhouettes had only just vanished into the deeper stretch of corridor beyond the council hall. The silence was so complete you could hear fallen leaves scraping the ground somewhere far off.
And then—
Knock. Knock.
A frantic pounding shattered the stillness.
A guard pushed open the side gate. A traveler in plain blue-green robes stumbled inside, dust and wind all over him, as if the gale itself had chased him to the threshold.
"F-find… Miss Youqing…!"
The guard caught him by the arm, voice sharp with caution, gaze keen. "This late? Where did you come from?"
The man's breathing was ragged. Still, he forced trembling hands into his robe and pulled out a sealed letter, its surface threaded with faint, shadowed patterns.
"Th-the Deputy Steward… told me… no matter what… I had to deliver this to… 'Miss Youqing'…"
Youqing and Si Moheng had reached the corner. Hearing the commotion, they appeared at once.
Youqing crouched and took the letter. The moment she saw the imprint on the seal, her fingertips jolted.
It was the hidden mark Ye Qixiu used to use.
But Ye Qixiu was dead.
Youqing looked up, her voice steady. "This letter… truly comes from Lord Ye's side?"
The messenger nodded and forced out the words with what sounded like his last breath. "Lord Ye… before he died… instructed the Deputy Steward… if Ye Yi ever moved again… it had to… be given to you…"
He didn't finish.
His mouth opened. A gush of black blood spilled out.
People rushed in at the sound.
Sang Qi dropped to one knee immediately, fingers on the man's pulse. His face darkened in an instant. "Gu poison… and it's Ye Yi's Soul-Gu."
Cang Yuan frowned. "He gambled his life just to bring that letter here."
The messenger fought for one last sentence. "In… the letter… is Ye Yi's… true nest… the place… he will… return to…"
The moment the words left him, his arm went limp. He collapsed into unconsciousness.
Sang Qi barked an order as attendants moved in. "Carry him to the infirmary. I'll try to save him, but whether he can hold on… hard to say."
Youqing didn't move. Her eyes stayed fixed on the seal bearing Ye Qixiu's mark.
Si Moheng stepped to her side, voice low. "Open it."
Youqing drew in a breath and broke the seal.
The handwriting inside was vigorous, familiar—
Ye Qixiu's hand.
"Ruins of the Demon Capital. Northern Ridge Wasteland. At the deepest seam where the Nether Domain border meets the outer ring of the Yao Realm, there is a place called Abyssfall."
"It was the last forbidden territory before Ye Yi was sealed, and the ground where his nightmare-soul grows."
"He will return there. He must."
"The origin of Soul-Seizing, and the source of the Rift-Yao, are all there."
Youqing's breath stopped for half a beat.
Si Moheng's pupils tightened. "The Demon Capital…?"
Cang Yuan arched a brow. "The one that's literally painted as a forbidden zone on every map?"
Lin Lie's voice turned cold. "Ye Yi's lair. His demonic source. If he's hiding anything that matters, it will be there."
Luo Ye's clenched fist trembled. "So… Ling Dang… might be there?"
Youqing lowered her gaze, tapping the thin sheet of paper like she was testing the weight of Ye Yi's intent.
"He won't bring Ling Dang onto the battlefield."
"She's his bargaining chip. His lever over Luo Ye, and over us."
"He'll hide her in the safest place… the place he knows best… the place only he can enter and leave freely."
She lifted her eyes. Her voice held a certainty it had never carried before.
"The ruins of the Demon Capital. Because Ye Yi knows: the only place that can truly kill me… is the place he believes is safest."
The air in the hall tightened at once.
Garo muttered, low and vicious, "No wonder he never named the time or place for the exchange… he never planned to exchange anywhere else."
Lianyu's voice was blade-thin. "He'll stay inside his nest. He'll wait until we can't find her… then force the Imperial Daughter to walk into his trap."
Luo Ye's eyes went blood-dark, ready to spill. "Then we go now—"
"No."
Youqing raised a hand, stopping him cleanly.
Her gaze was calm, but behind it burned a fire that refused to die.
"Since Ye Yi chose 'unknown place, unknown time,' he's counting on our panic. Our disorder. Our desperation. He wants us to stumble into the snare ourselves."
Si Moheng narrowed his eyes. "Meaning… he's waiting for us to guess the location?"
"Yes." Youqing's fingertip knocked softly against the letter. "If we bring up 'Demon Capital ruins' first, he'll believe—"
Cang Yuan let out a small laugh. "That we swallowed the hook."
Si Moheng's eyes flashed with something darker. "And that he didn't expose his lair. That we selected it."
Luo Ye's jaw clenched. "Then… the Heart of the Yao-Spirit? Are we actually going to hand it to him?"
Youqing lifted her gaze, expression level. "A fake heart."
Ding Yuxuan startled. "Y-you mean—?"
Lin Lie had already understood. "The alloy core of a Yao Carriage… dressed in a light-vein stone shell, engraved with guiding Yao-runes… it could mimic the Heart of the Yao-Spirit to seventy percent."
Ding Yuxuan's eyes brightened with immediate, reckless enthusiasm. "I can cover the other thirty."
Si Moheng's voice dropped. "Ye Yi will try to confirm真假 the instant he faces you."
Youqing raised her hand. The obsidian bracelet caught candlelight and gave back a deep, devouring sheen.
"So the exchange won't be the real heart."
"It will be—"
She pointed to the bracelet.
"Soul-lure."
In a single heartbeat, everyone understood.
Ye Yi would think he was trading.
But Youqing was baiting.
The ruins of the Demon Capital were not a location Ye Yi offered.
They were the place Youqing would force him to step into—the place he believed was safest—
the place that would become his grave.
[Northern Ridge Wasteland · Abyssfall]
After the battle at the Yao Tower, Ye Yi took Ling Dang from the hut and traveled north, toward the Northern Ridge Wasteland. The ruins of the Demon Capital waited there—his familiar ground, his hiding place.
The wind howled. The night sank deeper.
Heaven and earth were so dark they looked soaked in ink.
Ling Dang stumbled on a flight of cracked stone steps. Pain shot up her wrist, numb and hot.
She looked up—and saw a face that was her brother's, wearing a smile that did not belong to him.
Ye Yi stared down at her.
There was no warmth in his eyes.
But that face… it was Ling Shuo's face. The face she'd looked up to her whole life. The face that used to ruffle her hair, that used to hold her when she cried.
Bitterness flooded Ling Dang's throat like someone had poured her an entire pot of medicine.
She knew it wasn't her brother.
And yet she couldn't stop needing him.
"Get up," Ye Yi said, flatly.
He hauled her upright. Ling Dang's body shook despite herself.
Ye Yi frowned, impatient. "What are you afraid of?"
She bit her lip, voice so small it barely existed. "B-because… when you're angry… you're terrifying…"
Ye Yi watched her.
The silence that followed was so sharp it made her heart feel like it might stop.
Then the "Ling Shuo" face lowered slowly, black hair falling in front of her.
Ye Yi lifted a hand and patted her head.
"Don't tremble."
It wasn't comfort.
It was an order.
And still—Ling Dang's eyes stung with sudden tears.
Because that gesture. That height. That pressure.
It was almost exactly the way her brother used to soothe her.
She knew Ye Yi was using her. Scaring her. Forcing her.
Yet her body betrayed her, stepping half a pace closer on instinct.
Ye Yi saw it. The corner of his mouth curved slightly, like he was mocking her weakness.
"Clinging to this body," he said, voice like a blade, gentle and cruel at once, "are you thinking about your brother?"
Ling Dang shook her head too fast, too hard. The more she denied it, the more the tears gathered.
Ye Yi smiled.
"Good."
"The more you rely on me like this… the more he'll be… dead for good."
Something snapped in her chest. The tears fell.
Ye Yi reached out and wiped them away like he was wiping grime from glass.
"Why cry?"
His tone sounded almost curious, like someone watching a toy make noise.
Ling Dang sniffed, struggling to hold herself together. "I just… I just hope… my brother… doesn't hurt…"
Ye Yi's fingertip paused.
He stared into her eyes, into the earnestness that was almost stupid in its purity.
Ling Dang didn't know what he was thinking. She only felt the air turn even colder.
Ye Yi turned away abruptly, impatience returning like a slammed door. "Move."
Ling Dang lifted her head, startled. "W-where…?"
Ye Yi didn't look back.
"To the Demon Capital."
His voice held no emotion at all. "It's the place I know best.
And the place you should never have gone near."
Then, softly, like a verdict: "But you don't get to choose."
Ling Dang froze. A yank at her wrist dragged her forward, and she stumbled after him.
Her heart hammered so violently she thought she might cry again.
But she still reached out and caught the corner of his sleeve.
It was her brother's sleeve.
She knew getting close was dangerous. But her feet didn't listen.
Even if it was only a borrowed skin—
she still couldn't let go.