The wheels of the carriage groaned against the gravel, a rhythmic lullaby that should have put Nan Si to sleep.
But inside the plush interior, the air had turned static. The scent of dried plums was still sweet on her tongue, but her mental space was a siren of red lights.
'Baby, why is the wind whistling in C-sharp?' Nan Si thought, her eyes wide and vacant as she clutched a silk cushion to her chest.
'The trees are too quiet. Even the crickets have stopped gossiping.'
[Host, stay in character,] Baby's voice flickered, sounding oddly distorted.
[My sensors are picking up high-velocity metallic signatures. Thirty meters... twenty meters... Host, the plot is deviating. This isn't the Imperial Guard. These are—]
Thwack.
An arrow, fletched with black crow feathers, buried itself into the wooden frame of the carriage, inches from Nan Si's head.
The carriage lurched. Outside, the world exploded into the sound of steel meeting steel.
"Sisi! Stay down!" Shen Jue's voice sliced through the chaos. It wasn't the hypnotic murmur he used to coax her into eating sweets. It was filled with concern and panic.
Nan Si tumbled to the floorboards.
'Baby! You said this was a low-level escort mission! Why is there a rain of death outside?!'
[I don't know! My database doesn't show any assassin during travel but these assassins... they aren't wearing Imperial colors. They're wearing the mark of the Ghost Sect. Host, You should be careful!!]
Through the silk curtains, Nan Si saw a flash of dark robes. Shen Jue was no longer a man; he was a hurricane of obsidian silk and silver light.
Every movement of his dagger was a stroke of calligraphy written in blood. He was fighting with a frantic, desperate speed, his eyes constantly darting back to the carriage.
He managed to lead a large group of them away, his silhouette disappearing into the mist-heavy trees, drawing the primary threat into the forest to keep the battlefield away from her.
'He's leaving...' Nan Si whispered internally as she paced in carriage.
'Baby, Check whether he is okay..keep eye on them.'
[Host!!] Baby whispered, his digital voice trembling.
[Five signatures just detached from the main group. They aren't following the Fragment. They're circling back.]
Nan Si's heart thundered against her ribs.
She looked at the carriage door. Shadow 2 and Shadow 3 were already engaged, their blades clashing against three masked figures.
But more shadows were creeping from the treeline like ink spilling on a map.
'My power,' Nan Si hissed, her childish mask slipping for a fraction of a second. 'Unlock the soul-seal, Baby. Just for five minutes.'
[Denied! Host, you used 80% of your soul-reserve to stabilize this body's original consciousness! If you use it now, the world-will will eject you! You'll be a wandering ghost in the void!]
"Sisi... scared!" Nan Si wailed aloud, her voice high and piercing, even as her mind calculated the distance to the forest's edge. "Jue Jue! Big bad men!"
One of the assassins sliced through the carriage roof, the blade whistling past her ear.
'Fine,' Nan Si's eyes turned cold,she jumped from the carriage and ran towards forest. 'If I can't use magic, I'll use physics. Baby, GPS on the Death Valley. Now!'
[Host! Left! Sharp left!] Baby's voice was no longer bored; it was a frantic glitch in her ear.
[The assassin at your ten o'clock is gaining. His blade is coated in Neuro-toxin Type B. One scratch and you will really become fool.]
Nan Si didn't respond with words. She couldn't. Her lungs were burning, each breath a jagged shard of glass in her chest.
To any onlooker, she was a terrified girl stumbling blindly into the dark, her skirts catching on brambles, her movements erratic and clumsy.
But internally, she was a master conductor of her own kinetic energy.
She used every stumble to roll further into the shadows, every "trip" to kick up a spray of dirt into the eyes of the shadows pursuing her.
'Baby, stop complaining and give me the distance! Where is the cliff?'
[Two hundred meters! But Host, Shadow 2 is down. Shadow 3 is holding off three of them, but he's leaking blood like a broken faucet. You are officially unprotected.]
The forest grew denser, the ancient trees closing in like the ribs of a giant beast. The moonlight was a fractured thing here, silver needles piercing the canopy.
Nan Si could hear the rhythmic thud-thud-thud of the assassins' boots behind her—the sound of inevitable doom.
Suddenly, the ground vanished.
Nan Si skidded to a halt, the heels of her embroidered shoes sending a cascade of pebbles into the void.
Below her lay Death Valley—a throat of darkness so deep it seemed to swallow the very light of the stars.
Mist swirled in the gut of the abyss, white and ghostly, like the souls of those who had fallen before.
"Sisi... trapped?" she whimpered, turning around to face the four masked men emerging from the trees.
The lead assassin didn't speak. He didn't need to. He raised a heavy, curved blade, the steel reflecting the cold indifference of the moon.
To him, she was just a fool and his Target, a piece of political debris to be swept away.
'Baby,' Nan Si's internal voice was eerily calm. 'Where is he?'
[He's coming. Host, the Fragment has gone full Asura. He felt the shift in the air. He realized the trap. He's... he's pushing his physical limits so hard his meridians are literally cracking. 30 seconds. Just 30 seconds!]
"Bad men!" Nan Si cried, her lip trembling as she took a precarious step back.
Her heel hovered over the empty air. "Jue Jue will... he will make you boo-boo! He will!"
The assassin stepped forward, a low, mocking hiss escaping his mask. He swung the blade in a horizontal arc, aiming for her delicate throat.
Nan Si didn't dodge perfectly—that would break character. Instead, she "tripped" backward. The blade missed her jugular but bit deep into her shoulder.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE!] Baby screamed. [Host! Vital signs dropping! Pain receptors at 90%!]
The agony was a white-hot brand, searing through her nervous system.
The pain detonated behind her eyes. She swallowed the scream, biting it down before it could become bait.
In that exact moment, the forest behind the assassins didn't just open; it exploded.
A silhouette of pure nightmare burst from the treeline. Shen Jue didn't look like a scholar, a general, or even a human.
His robes were shredded, soaked in a mixture of his own blood and the blood of the dozens he had just slaughtered.
His eyes were no longer obsidian; they were glowing with a terrifying, demonic crimson light.
The air around him seemed to vibrate with a murderous intent so thick it felt like physical pressure.
"Get. Away. From. Her."
The words weren't spoken; they were spat out like venom.
Before the lead assassin could even turn his head, Shen Jue was there. He didn't use his dagger. He used his bare hands.
There was a sickening crack as he shattered the man's ribcage, throwing the body aside like a broken doll.
He moved with a frantic, jagged grace, finishing the remaining three in a blur of violence that was too fast for the human eye to follow.
It wasn't a fight; it was a massacre.
But as the last assassin fell, the ground beneath Nan Si gave a final, treacherous groan.
"Jue Jue..." she whispered, her voice weak, her eyes fluttering.
Shen Jue lunged. "SISI!"
His fingers, stained crimson and shaking with a terror he had never known in a hundred battles, clamped around her wrist just as the ledge crumbled.
The world tilted. Nan Si hung over the abyss, her weight anchored only by Shen Jue's grip.
He was flat on his stomach, his other hand clawing into the breaking earth.
The pressure was immense—his own shoulder popped from its socket with a dull thud, and blood began to seep from his fingernails as they tore against the rock.
"I have you," he gasped, his voice breaking. "Sisi, look at me. Don't look down. Look at Jue Jue. I won't let go. I will never let go."
Nan Si looked up. She saw the madness in his eyes—the "Yandere Danger Zone" had been surpassed. He looked like he would jump into the hell itself if it meant holding her hand.
She felt the ground beneath him sliding. If he kept holding her, the entire ledge would take them both.
'Baby,' she thought, a sad, beautiful smile touching her lips. 'Can you protect me..if I fall?'
[Host... Yes, but if you do this, your original soul may fall into sleep for few weeks and even i wouldn't be able to contact you...]
"Jue Jue," Nan Si whispered aloud, her voice clear and sweet, devoid of the childish lisp for the first time. "Wait for me. In the Capital... wait for Sisi."
"No," Shen Jue's eyes widened, realization dawning with a crushing horror. "No! Sisi, hold on! Pull! Please, pull!"
She didn't pull. Instead, she gently uncurled her fingers from his bleeding hand.
"Live," she breathed as she looked at Shen Jue and smiled and let go.
"SISI!!!"
Shen Jue's scream was the sound of a soul being torn in half.
He watched as the white mist of the valley swallowed her whole, her small, broken form disappearing into the darkness like a falling star.
He reached into the empty air, his fingers grasping at nothing but the cold, indifferent wind.