I stared at the jade vial in his hand. The Ninth-grade Marrow Condensing Pill within gleamed warmly beneath the candlelight. The incense had not yet burned out; its last wisp of smoke had only just dispersed. The people in the hall rose and left one after another, their footsteps fading until only he and I remained where we stood.
I did not put away the medicine cauldron.
He knew what I was waiting for.
The elders had barely vanished around the end of the corridor when I moved. With a flicker, I slipped behind the offering table and, shielded by the towering ancestral stele, closed in behind him. A silver needle slid from my sleeve and pressed against the artery at his neck. I did not use much force, but it was enough for him to notice.
"Three years of playing mad, hiding your true talent so deeply—what exactly are you after?" My voice was low, almost brushing his ear.
He did not evade.
He did not even turn around.
He merely raised his hand slowly, spread his five fingers, and gently clasped the needle's tip. The skin broke. Blood ran down the lines of his palm and dripped onto the bluestone floor with a soft tap.
Then he spoke, his voice slightly hoarse. "Miss Ye's needle is sharper than the Blood Demon Sect's blades."
My heart clenched.
The words Blood Demon Sect were like a red-hot iron wire piercing straight through my mind. The pursuit at the end of that Black Market alley that night, the poisonous mist filling the air, the righteous disciples' faces carved onto the puppet men—none of it had ever been mentioned to anyone. Even the Ji Clan's higher-ups believed I was merely an orphaned girl from a collateral branch, stranded beyond the borders. But he knew.
Not only did I fail to loosen my grip, I pushed the silver needle forward another fraction, forcing it nearer to a deeper meridian. "How did you know?"
At last, he turned his head. His gaze fell deep into my pupils, as though he wanted to see through every layer of my disguise. The ancestral hall's candlelight flickered in his eyes, reflecting a faint golden glimmer that vanished in an instant.
"You think you're investigating me?" he said quietly. "Or have you also forgotten who you are?"
I said nothing.
But he continued, "You went to the Forbidden Ground last night not for a Medicinal Guide, nor for materials. You went for that Remnant Dao fluctuation—because you sensed the aura of your own kind. The Primordial Blood Phoenix Body is innately sensitive to the anomalies of heaven and earth, isn't it?"
My fingertips trembled slightly.
He was right. I had sensed that something was wrong when the crows spat ash. The lingering energy trails within that ash were identical to what I had felt while fleeing through the Black Market—the suffocating pressure that came before being hunted down. I could not have been mistaken.
That was why I went to the Forbidden Ground. That was why I saw him sitting cross-legged atop the remnants of the altar, pale golden patterns flowing around him as he devoured the Remnant Dao.
Yet he had seen through all of it.
"You had your eye on me long ago," I said coldly.
"Likewise." He released his hand and allowed the blood to slide down his wrist, staining his sleeve red. He did not bandage it. Instead, he pressed that bloodied hand against the ancestral stele at the center of the hall, as though performing a rite of sacrifice.
The gesture seemed reverent, yet it carried another meaning.
I could sense some kind of power slowly gathering within him. It was neither Spiritual Energy nor True Essence, but something more primordial and more repressed, lurking and flowing through his meridians like a sleeping thunderstorm.
"What exactly do you want?" I withdrew my silver needle but did not step away.
"I want to live." He looked at the names carved upon the stele, his tone calm. "When they destroyed my Dao bones three years ago, they never intended to let me live. Now that I can stand here, refine pills, and walk again, do you think they'll let me off?"
I fell silent. He was stating a fact.
Someone who should have been crippled to death suddenly displaying such ability would only invite greater suspicion and murderous intent.
But that did not mean I could trust him.
"Then why did you agree to the bet?" I asked. "You knew that once you acted, you would become a target for all."
The corner of his lips lifted, revealing a nearly mocking smile. "Because someone has already prepared to make a move."
Before his words had faded, orderly footsteps sounded outside the door.
There was more than one person. It was a squad of guards, their steps uniform. Though their weapons remained sheathed, killing intent already filled the air.
I quickly retreated two steps and slipped into the offering table's shadow. My hand reached for my medicine pouch, my fingertips touching the porcelain bottle of Spirit Sealing Powder.
The door was pushed open.
Ji Hantian walked in.
His Purple-Gold Python Robe gleamed coldly in the dim candlelight. He gently waved a folding fan in his hand, a mild smile on his face, yet his gaze was like nails driven into us. "What a tacit pair of partners." He strode slowly into the ancestral hall as dozens of Law Enforcement Team members filed in behind him, sealing off every door and window. "Destroying the medicine cauldron in secret, forging pills, and now gathering in the ancestral hall for a private discussion—Ji Wuchen, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Ji Wuchen remained where he was, his hand still pressed to the ancestral stele, his expression unchanged.
"The Great Elder's Direct Grandchild has personally led the team. It seems you came well prepared." He spoke blandly. "May I ask which Family Rule I have broken to warrant your bringing troops to surround me?"
"The evidence is conclusive. Why bother quibbling?" Ji Hantian sneered. "A man with severed meridians refining a Ninth-grade Marrow Condensing Pill on the spot? How could such a thing exist under heaven! Unless... you have long colluded with foreign enemies, stolen secret arts, and intend to overthrow the Ji Clan's legitimate lineage!"
He pointed with one hand, and two guards immediately stepped forward to seize Ji Wuchen.
Ji Wuchen did not move.
But I saw the fingers he had pressed against the stele curl slightly.
The next instant, an invisible pressure spread from within him. It was not powerful, yet the two guards approaching him halted mid-step, their faces turning pale as though they had struck an invisible wall.
Ji Hantian frowned. He snapped his folding fan shut and tapped it against his palm. "Just as I thought. Something is wrong. Men, send in more! If he resists, kill without mercy!"
More guards surged forward, their long halberds aimed directly at the center of the ancestral hall.
Standing at the edge of the offering table, my heartbeat quickened. The Spirit Sealing Powder could only suppress Spiritual Power for a short time. It might work on ordinary people, but against this disciplined Law Enforcement Team, it would not last ten breaths.
At that moment, Ji Wuchen suddenly turned his head and looked at me.
There was neither a plea for help nor fear in that glance, only something close to certainty.
It was as though he were saying: If you do not trust me, you may leave now.
I did not move.
He turned back to Ji Hantian, his voice not loud, yet clear enough to carry through the entire ancestral hall. "You say I colluded with foreign enemies? Then tell me—when did I contact them, whom did I contact, how did I pass messages, and what physical evidence do you have?"
Ji Hantian snorted coldly. "No physical evidence is needed. Your abnormal actions alone are enough to throw you into prison for interrogation!"
"Then please do." Ji Wuchen actually removed his hand from the ancestral stele and spread his arms. "If I were truly a traitor, I could break through the encirclement and flee right now. But I am standing here, allowing you to deal with me as you wish. If you want to arrest me, then come and take me."
Those words plunged the entire hall into silence.
The Law Enforcement Team hesitated.
Ji Hantian's face darkened.
He knew that if he acted by force here, he would struggle to escape suspicion of framing the Direct Lineage. Especially since Ji Wuchen had refined a pill before everyone's eyes; quite a few had witnessed his restored ability. To convict him rashly might stir unrest within the clan.
"You think this will clear you of guilt?" Ji Hantian gritted out. "I will thoroughly investigate every trace of your past movements! Especially last night—you were not in your residence at all. You appeared in the Forbidden Ground! That is the Lineage's Forbidden Ground. Anyone who enters without permission shall be executed!"
My heart tightened.
As expected, he had also sent people to watch the Forbidden Ground.
Ji Wuchen laughed. "Forbidden Ground? The formations in that ruin are already broken beyond repair. What 'strict prohibition' is there to speak of? You, on the other hand, are the Great Elder's Direct Grandchild. Rather than guarding the treasury properly, you are relentlessly pursuing a cripple like me. What are your true intentions?"
"You—!" Ji Hantian was furious beyond measure. He abruptly pointed his folding fan at him. "Take him down! Whoever dares obstruct you shall be treated as an accomplice!"
The guards closed in again.
At last, Ji Wuchen moved.
He slowly raised his right hand, palm facing upward, as though receiving something.
The air in the ancestral hall seemed to freeze for an instant.
I could feel the power inside him circulating faster, like an undercurrent rushing toward its breaking point. Yet he did not strike. He merely turned his palm over and gently laid it against his own chest.
A faint golden pattern flashed across the scar on his left cheek.
Ji Hantian seemed to sense something. His pupils suddenly constricted as he shouted sharply, "Quick! Restrain him! Don't let him—"
Before he could finish, Ji Wuchen raised his head. His gaze was blade-sharp as it pierced straight at him. "Do you want to know what I did in the Forbidden Ground?"
He paused, a cold curve rising at the corner of his mouth.
"I was waiting for someone."
Before you continue