I sat in the corner of the side room, leaning against the wall. The pendant in my sleeve pressed against my palm, still warm from my body heat. The rune etched by the golden thread on the inside of my wrist had long since vanished, but something felt like it was crawling beneath my skin, throbbing painfully. What happened in the Deduction Hall last night was like a red-hot iron, searing me so I couldn't close my eyes.
The broken chain swayed gently against my chest. It wasn't vibrating anymore, nor was it cold; it just hung there quietly. But I knew it wasn't asleep.
I took a deep breath and pressed the pendant harder into my palm. Blood was still flowing, not from a wound splitting open, but from the demonic power surging wildly within my meridians, stabbing like needles, burning like fire. Situ Mo's parting words echoed in my mind: "The demonic power backlash will burn through your meridians." I didn't believe him, but I believed this pain.
I have to get it out.
I closed my eyes and tried to guide that energy toward the pendant. At first, it was slow, like drawing silk, pulling it out of my arm bit by bit. The pendant began to heat up, and golden light seeped out from the fissures, faint but steady. I breathed a sigh of relief and tightened my fingers.
Just then, the door was pushed open.
I didn't open my eyes, but I recognized the footsteps—light landing, steady rhythm, the right foot dragging half an inch more than the left. It was Lu Jiuxuan.
He stopped at the doorway. "What are you doing now?"
"None of your business," my voice was a little hoarse.
He took two steps closer, the hem of his battle robe sweeping the floor. I smelled medicinal ash, and a faint scent of blood wafting from his sleeve. He had just finished regulating his energy; his condition wasn't stable.
"Your palm is bleeding," he said.
"It's fine," I gritted out, "Just give me a moment longer."
Before I finished speaking, the pendant suddenly trembled.
It wasn't heat; it was suction.
A force pulled out from within, directly drawing out whatever was in my meridians. I involuntarily leaned forward, bracing my hand on the ground, but the force grew stronger, threatening to yank my very soul out.
Immediately after, I heard a muffled groan from him.
When I opened my eyes, Lu Jiuxuan was already kneeling on one knee, one hand bracing the wall, the other pressed against his heart area. His face was ashen, veins bulging on his temples. The ancient sword hummed behind him, the sword scabbard barely containing it.
"You—" He looked up at me, his gaze heavy. "Are you sucking me dry?"
"I'm not!" I roared back, but the moment the words left my mouth, I understood—it wasn't me sucking, it was the pendant devouring.
It wasn't just swallowing mine; it was swallowing his too.
Our spiritual power was like two rivers, both being sucked into a black hole. The cracks on the pendant's surface widened, and the golden light was no longer seeping but spraying out, exploding outward in streams. I couldn't move; my hand felt welded to the pendant, struggling even to blink.
Lu Jiuxuan tried to pull back, but his feet seemed nailed to the floor. He bit his tongue until it bled, spitting a mouthful of essence blood onto the sword hilt. The ancient sword instantly unsheathed three inches, the Star Script inscription "Non-action" flashed once, then changed to "Protect Master."
But this move was useless.
The suction grew stronger, pulling in even the sword qi. The clothing over his heart area split open, revealing a seal—gold pattern entwined with a blood line, currently seeping light. That was the Star Gazing Clan's rune, something he had hidden all along.
Now, the pendant was absorbing it all.
My throat tightened, I wanted to scream for it to stop, but the sound was stuck in my chest. My vision began to darken, the edges turning gold. I saw my own hand; fine golden threads surfaced beneath the skin, crawling along my blood vessels toward my arm. It wasn't Star Script, nor a demonic rune, but something much older, like writing carved into the bone.
"This can't go on," Lu Jiuxuan gritted his teeth and reached out to pry my fingers open.
The moment he touched me, the suction doubled.
We were both yanked forward, our knees slamming onto the ground. He reached out to shield me, trying to use his body to separate us from the pendant, but the thing seemed set on us both, not even sparing his shadow.
The beams in the roof began to shake, roof tiles rattling down. All the lights in the side room went out; only the pendant shone, growing brighter and brighter, as if about to explode.
At that moment, a streak of ethereal blue flew in from outside the window.
No sound, no wind, it shot straight toward the pendant.
At the moment of impact, I didn't see what it was clearly, only feeling a 'buzz' in my head, as if someone had struck a great bell.
Then—it exploded.
Not fire, not smoke, but light. Blue and gold intertwined, blasting out like a storm. I was thrown onto the floor, my back hitting the wall, my ears filled with a piercing whine. Lu Jiuxuan lunged over and pinned me down, the ancient sword held before him, its sword body blindingly bright, the inscription "Protect Master" fixed firmly onto the rune.
After the shockwave passed, the room was a wreck.
Tables and chairs were smashed to pieces, the wall cracked, and a corner of the roof had collapsed. I lay on the ground, my ears still ringing, but my hand felt lighter—the pendant had stopped sucking. It had cracked, shattering into several pieces, but every shard was glowing, brighter than before.
I pushed myself up to sit, and something cool touched my forehead.
I raised my hand to touch it; it was blood. But the blood wasn't flowing from a wound; it was seeping from my brow. A golden mark had appeared there, like something drawn with a brush, terrifyingly hot.
I closed my eyes, and an image flashed before me—a blood moon, a wasteland, a black-robed person kneeling in the snowfield, holding an infant in their arms. They shoved an amber into the swaddling clothes, their fingers trembling violently. The wind was strong, messing up their hair and revealing half their face.
It was Situ Mo.
The image vanished instantly.
When I opened my eyes, Lu Jiuxuan was standing up, leaning on the wall, blood at the corner of his mouth. The ancient sword was stuck in the ground, a fissure running along its sword body. He glanced at me, then looked down at his own hand—a golden spot had appeared on his palm, as if branded by something.
"What did you see?" he asked.
I shook my head, about to speak, when a laugh came from the doorway.
Situ Mo leaned against the doorframe, his black robe torn at one spot, the old scar at his collar seeping blood. He held no saber, his sleeve empty. The nine fox tails were not visible, but there was a scorched smell in the air, like the residue of a burned soul.
"You lasted quite long," his voice was hoarse. "I thought you two would have been sucked dry by now."
I ignored him. "What did you throw?"
He raised his hand, and a wisp of blue light dissipated from his fingertip. "The inner core. Half of it."
"Are you insane? If that thing shatters, you won't survive!"
"It didn't shatter," he gave a cold laugh. "It just exploded. The pendant couldn't swallow it, so it blew up. He looked at the golden mark on my brow, his expression changing. "Now it recognizes you. Not because your mother left it, but because you are the person it was waiting for."
I didn't understand.
He took a step forward, standing before the pendant fragments. A piece of golden light brushed against the tip of his shoe; he neither dodged nor moved.
"It's not a talisman," he said. "It's a key. The key to the star disk. When I sealed it three hundred years ago, I made it clear—it will only awaken when the destined soul returns to position."
Lu Jiuxuan suddenly spoke up: "Who exactly are you?"
Situ Mo glanced at him and smiled. "Don't you remember? In your past life, you died by my blade."
"But you saved us."
"I didn't save you," he pointed at me. "I saved her. I should have killed you that night, but I saw the pendant on her neck light up. It recognized me, and it recognized her. So I stuffed the star disk fragment into her swaddling clothes and let her go."
The room fell silent for a few seconds.
I looked down at my hand. The pendant was broken, but my palm was still hot. It wasn't pain, but warmth, like something was emerging.
I grabbed a fragment and pressed it against my palm.
It didn't suck; instead, it expelled.
A warm current flowed through my meridians. The stinging pain of the demonic power receded, the purple mark faded, and even the golden mark on my brow felt less scorching.
Situ Mo watched me, then suddenly raised his hand and threw the broken saber from his sleeve onto the floor. The blade was cracked, as if it had endured immense force.
"Next time, I won't save you," he said, then turned and left.
Wind poured in through the hole in the roof, making the scattered gold flash wildly. I clenched the remaining fragment, able to feel it pulsing, like a heartbeat.
Lu Jiuxuan stood beside me, silent. The crack on his sword remained, but the inscription "Protect Master" had not extinguished.
I raised my hand, holding the fragment up to the light.
The golden light reflected on the floor, illuminating a shadow.
It wasn't mine.