Sunlight spilled mercilessly onto her face, uncomfortably bright against closed eyelids. The figure on the bed frowned as if trapped in the clutches of a nightmare—within the dream's twisted landscape, a youth in crimson robes transformed his demonic energy into an icy Sword of pure malice that pierced inexorably toward her chest.
"No! Don't kill me!"
Bai Shuo's scream tore through the silence as she jolted upright in panic, her body drenched in cold sweat. Her heart hammered against her ribs like a caged bird desperate for freedom. The blurred scenery before her gradually sharpened into familiar shapes—yellow pearwood bed curtains carved with auspicious patterns, curling incense smoke rising from a bronze burner in lazy spirals.
This was the place she had lived for over a decade. The Bai Manor. Her secluded courtyard in Shu Luo Yuan.
Only, the grand red bridal decorations from yesterday's wedding—or what she had thought was yesterday—had already been replaced with the usual plain, elegant furnishings. It was as though the marriage ceremony had been nothing but another fever dream.
"How did I get back here?"
A sharp pain throbbed viciously in Bai Shuo's forehead. She massaged her temples with trembling fingers as fragmented memories of what happened before she lost consciousness replayed in her mind like scenes from a broken scroll.
Mu Xiao Mountain's treacherous paths... the Martial Virtue donkey's mocking voice... Long Yi Zhu's terrifying power... the bandits who died in ways too horrible to contemplate... Chong Zhao lying unconscious and vulnerable... and the Yao Race youth's cold, murderous gaze that promised death.
"A-Zhao!"
The name burst from her lips as reality crashed over her like icy water. Bai Shuo snapped fully awake, her face draining of color as she scrambled off the bed with graceless urgency. Her legs, weakened by prolonged unconsciousness, gave way beneath her, nearly sending her crashing face-first to the floor.
"Young Miss!"
Peach Blossom happened to enter the room at precisely that moment. Seeing Bai Shuo awake after so many days of deathlike stillness, she rushed forward to steady her mistress before turning to shout toward the doorway, "Quick, call Madam! The Young Miss is awake!"
"Peach Blossom? What's going on? Wasn't I in Wei City? How am I home?"
Bai Shuo felt like her head was about to split open, pressure building behind her eyes. She had staked everything—her family's honor, her father's reputation, her own future—to leave home in search of the Dao. Yet not only had she failed to find the path to immortality and nearly died in the attempt, but now she had somehow woken up back where she started, as though the entire journey had been erased.
"Young... Young Miss..." Peach Blossom stammered, her usual composure crumbling.
Bai Shuo snapped impatiently, frustration and confusion making her voice sharp. "Never mind, I'll ask Father myself! This is downright haunted!"
She pushed Peach Blossom aside with surprising strength and made to storm toward the door, but at the mention of "haunted," Peach Blossom—recalling the Crown Princess's stern warning—blocked her path desperately, arms spread wide.
"Young Miss! You can't go!"
"Peach Blossom!"
"Young Miss! The Master said that if I let you leave this courtyard, every servant in Shu Luo Yuan will be dismissed!" Peach Blossom, who usually never defied Bai Shuo in anything, was utterly unyielding this time, her voice trembling with genuine fear.
Bai Shuo halted as though struck. These were all people who had grown up with her—loyal servants who had wiped her tears, indulged her whims, covered for her mischief. She couldn't bear to bring catastrophe upon them for her own selfishness.
Still, anxiety gnawed at her insides like hungry rats. "Fine, I won't go. But tell me, how did I get back? And what about A-Zhao? Is he safe?"
Peach Blossom's expression shifted, hesitation creeping back into her features like shadows at dusk.
"Peach Blossom, out with it! If you don't tell me, I'll call for A-Xi!" Bai Shuo pressed, invoking her elder sister's authority.
"Young Miss, you and Young Master Chong were brought back by a donkey!" Peach Blossom finally relented, the words tumbling out in a rush.
Bai Shuo froze, certain she had misheard. "A donkey? Not a person?"
Peach Blossom shook her head vigorously. "That morning, just as the capital's gates opened to let in the first merchants, you and Young Master A-Zhao were returned through the heavy fog by a donkey. It barged straight into our General's Manor, pushing the gates open with its head. The whole capital is talking about it—they say it's either a divine omen or a demonic curse. The Master has forbidden you from leaving the manor from now on."
Her voice grew quieter with each word, as though speaking too loudly might summon more disaster.
Bai Shuo clutched her forehead, unable to resist asking despite the absurdity, "What happened to the donkey?"
"The Master said it saved you, so it should be treated well. It's being kept in the stable out back, eating better than most servants."
Bai Shuo mused that the donkey was rather clever to secure such comfortable accommodations, then suddenly realized something was fundamentally wrong with this entire situation.
"Father only said I can't leave the manor?"
"Yes."
"No kneeling in the ancestral hall? No whipping? No reciting the family precepts until my voice gives out?"
Peach Blossom shook her head, confusion evident in her own expression.
"That's strange. After causing such a catastrophic mess, running away from my own wedding, how come I don't even have to kneel in repentance...?"
Bai Shuo's voice trailed off as suspicion bloomed in her chest. This leniency was so unlike her strict father that it felt more ominous than any punishment. A wave of dizziness hit her, the room tilting sickeningly.
Peach Blossom quickly helped her sit back on the bed, easing her down with practiced care. Before Bai Shuo could voice her growing dread, a mournful cry rang through the courtyard:
"Shuo'er!"
Madam Bai rushed into the room supported by her maidservant, moving with undignified haste that sent her ornamental hairpins jingling. She immediately gathered Bai Shuo into a crushing embrace. "My Shuo'er, you're finally awake!"
"Mother..."
Bai Shuo feared nothing in the world—not bandits, not demons, not even death itself—except seeing Madam Bai shed tears. Those tears unmanned her utterly. She quickly patted her mother's back to comfort her, feeling wetness seep through her sleeping robe. "Mother, it's alright, it's alright. Look, I'm perfectly fine!"
"Perfectly fine?!" Madam Bai pulled back, wiping her tears with trembling hands. "You little troublemaker! You've been unconscious for half a month! Your mother was worried sick, keeping vigil by your bedside every night!"
Half a month?
As Madam Bai continued weeping, Bai Shuo froze and glanced sharply at Peach Blossom, only to find the maid studiously avoiding her gaze, suddenly fascinated by the floor patterns. A terrible suspicion took root in her heart, spreading like poison through her veins.
"Ah, Mother, look how lively I am!" Bai Shuo forced brightness into her voice, hastily jumping up and bouncing twice with exaggerated energy. "I could wrestle an ox to the ground now! See? Strong as ever!"
"You!" Madam Bai sighed helplessly, the sound carrying the weight of years of maternal exasperation. She pulled her youngest daughter back and tapped Bai Shuo's forehead lightly, a gesture of affection and reproach. "When will you ever grow up?"
"Mother, I'm sorry for causing trouble again."
Bai Shuo lowered her head in genuine remorse, the playfulness draining from her expression. "I've brought shame upon you and Father... and A-Xi too. The whole capital must be laughing at the Bai family."
Madam Bai's eyes reddened further as she gathered Bai Shuo back into her arms, holding her as though afraid she might vanish. "Your mother only wants you safe and sound. If you don't wish to marry, then you shan't. That's all that matters."
"Really?!"
Delight flashed across Bai Shuo's face like sunlight breaking through storm clouds. Devoted as she was to cultivating the Dao, she had never intended to marry, had never wanted to become someone's wife and spend her days managing a household. "Did Chancellor Zhong agree?"
Madam Bai's expression faltered momentarily, a shadow passing across her features before she nodded with forced casualness. "With your unruly Heart-Nature, how could you be fit to be the chancellor's daughter-in-law? Your father personally pleaded your case, and Chancellor Zhong has consented to break the engagement."
The words should have brought relief, but something in her mother's tone set off alarms.
Bai Shuo exhaled anyway, choosing to accept this gift at face value. She nuzzled against her mother like a child seeking comfort. "Mother, you're the best."
Madam Bai looked down at her daughter, a fleeting sorrow passing through her eyes—grief so profound it seemed to age her a decade in a single moment—before she composed herself with visible effort, saying no more.
Only after Bai Shuo had drifted into deep, exhausted sleep did Madam Bai finally leave the secluded courtyard, her steps heavy as though wading through deep water.
Outside, General Bai had been waiting for hours like a statue, unmoving despite the cold. In just these few days, streaks of white had appeared at his temples like frost touching autumn grass, aging him visibly in a way that years of warfare had never managed.
Madam Bai's eyes welled up at the sight of him. She stumbled, caught by General Bai's steady hand. "Husband."
The general merely sighed, a sound that seemed to carry all the world's weariness. He was unwilling to speak further, to give voice to the catastrophe that had befallen them, as he supported his wife away through the garden's lengthening shadows.
Night fell over the capital like a burial shroud, but Bai Shuo remained asleep, her body demanding rest after its ordeal. Peach Blossom entered with a night lamp, its flame dancing in the darkness. She placed it carefully on the table before tucking in her mistress with gentle hands.
Suddenly, fingers seized her wrist in an iron grip.
Before she could gasp, she found herself staring into Bai Shuo's pitch-black eyes—fully awake, fully alert, all traces of sleep vanished as though they'd never been.
"Young Miss?"
Bai Shuo pressed a finger to her lips, lowering her voice as she fixed Peach Blossom with a gaze that held none of her usual carefree abandon. "Peach Blossom, what's really happened in our household?"
Peach Blossom's hands trembled as she averted her eyes, unable to hold that penetrating stare. "Young Miss, what could possibly have happened in our—"
"Peach Blossom, we grew up together. You know I'm no fool, despite what others think." Bai Shuo's voice carried a new hardness, a maturity born of recent horrors. "You might hide the truth today, but not forever. My betrothal was decreed by His Majesty himself—how could it be dissolved so easily without consequences?"
Her voice turned hoarse, her eyes reddening with unshed tears. "Has Father or A-Xi been implicated because of me? Have they been punished? Stripped of rank? Tell me!"
"It's not the master or the elder young miss, it's Young Master Zhong..."
Peach Blossom blurted out in distress before horror at her own words made her cover her mouth, dropping to her knees with a painful thud.
"A-Zhao? What's happened to him?"
Bai Shuo's face paled to the color of paper as she leapt barefoot from the bed, gripping Peach Blossom's shoulders hard enough to bruise. The cold floor sent shivers through her feet, but she didn't notice.
Seeing the raw desperation in Bai Shuo's eyes—a desperation that stripped away all pretense and laid her soul bare—Peach Blossom finally broke down weeping, tears streaming down her face.
"Young Miss, the Zhong family has fallen."
The words hung in the air like an executioner's blade.
Bai Shuo stood frozen as Peach Blossom's tearful voice continued, each word landing like a physical blow.
"The day after you and Young Master Zhong were brought back, His Majesty ordered the chancellor's residence raided! They came at dawn with soldiers, searched everything, arrested everyone—"
Bai Shuo drew a sharp, disbelieving breath that burned her lungs. "How could this be? Uncle Zhong has always been upright and prudent, loyal to a fault! Why would His Majesty destroy his household?!"
"Raising a private army."
Peach Blossom lowered her head and murmured the damning words. "Your Majesty has sentenced the Zhong family to execution by decapitation for the entire household. Men, women, children—all of them. The sentence will be carried out tomorrow at noon."
Bai Shuo's legs gave way completely, and she collapsed to the ground as though someone had cut her strings. Her mind refused to process the information, rejecting it as impossible.
Then survival instinct kicked in. She suddenly scrambled up, not even bothering with shoes, and pushed open the door to run outside into the night, her sleeping robe billowing behind her like wings.
"Young Miss!" Peach Blossom hurried after her, but Bai Shuo was already gone, disappeared into the darkness with desperate speed.
Bang!
The door of the ancestral hall in the General's residence was flung open with enough force to crack the wood. Bai Shuo rushed in, chest heaving, and indeed saw Bai Xun standing alone with his head bowed in the cold candlelight, his shadow stretching long and distorted across the floor.
"Father!"
Bai Xun did not respond, remaining silent as a tomb marker. Bai Shuo ran forward and dropped to her knees before him with a painful thud, her voice hoarse and cracking. "Uncle Zhong wouldn't—he couldn't possibly—"
"Ten thousand private soldiers, hidden in Wei City. The evidence is irrefutable; there's no overturning the verdict."
Bai Xun's voice was heavy as stone. He sighed and patted her head with a hand that trembled slightly. "Shuo'er, these past days, I've done all I can. I've called in every favor, exhausted every connection. You must understand, raising a private army is the crime of treason. There's nothing more I can do."
Bai Shuo slumped to the ground, utterly lost. She had lived in luxury and indulgence for over a decade, sheltered from the world's cruelties, and only now did she realize that not only was Immortal Ascension beyond her naive reach, but even many worldly matters were beyond her control.
Power, she understood now with bitter clarity, was everything.
"Even if Chancellor Zhong is guilty, A-Zhao... A-Zhao knew nothing about it..." Her voice broke completely. "Father, I beg you, save A-Zhao... Please, I'll do anything..."
"Guards!"
Hearing Chong Zhao's name spoken with such raw emotion, Bai Xun's brow furrowed slightly with something that might have been reluctance or pain. But he hardened his heart—he had to, for the family's survival—and turned to call out loudly.
"General." Guards immediately approached from outside the ancestral hall, their armor clinking softly.
"Confine the Young Miss to the ancestral hall for three days. Without my order, she is not to leave! Post guards at every entrance."
"Yes!"
"Father!" Bai Shuo's scream was desperate, broken.
Bai Xun turned and left without looking back, his footsteps echoing with finality. Bai Shuo rushed toward the door, but it slammed shut heavily before she could reach it, the sound like thunder, trapping her inside with the tablets of her ancestors as her only company.
Bai Shuo paced the ancestral hall like a caged beast, her mind racing frantically for solutions that didn't exist. Just as despair threatened to swallow her whole, a faint creak came from the corner. A gust of wind blew in through a gap, making the candle flames flicker and dance wildly.
Bai Shuo turned her head sharply and saw a donkey hoof poke through the narrow window before the creature nimbly jumped inside, landing with surprising grace.
It was still that Martial Virtue Donkey, but its body was noticeably smaller than before—now pocket-sized, allowing it to move freely even in the heavily guarded General's residence without detection.
Bai Shuo silently watched the donkey, a faint wariness entering her eyes that hadn't been there before. With the Chancellor's residence raided and Chong Zhao trapped between life and death, she seemed to have aged years overnight, shed the last remnants of childish innocence.
"Hey!" A playful voice rang out in the solemn ancestral hall, jarring and inappropriate.
Bai Shuo startled, looking around wildly for the source.
"Stop looking around like a confused chicken! It's me!" The Martial Virtue Donkey tapped its hoof impatiently on the ground.
Bai Shuo's eyes widened as she stared at the donkey, watching its mouth move in sync with the words. She eyed the creature with deep suspicion as it circled around her with the swagger of someone enjoying their advantage.
"You were pretty bold back at Mu Xiao Mountain, weren't you? All full of schemes and tricks. How come you're so wilted now that you're back in the capital? Not so tough at home, huh?"
The donkey, having been deceived by Bai Shuo both openly and covertly at Mu Xiao Mountain, seized this golden opportunity to taunt her, its voice dripping with satisfaction.
Bai Shuo pressed her lips together, refusing to take the bait. "Why were you the one who brought me back? What about that..." She paused, carefully choosing her words. "Lord of the Moonlight Hall? Didn't he want to kill me?"
The donkey's ears twitched with interest, and it snorted lightly through its nostrils. "Oh, he wanted to alright. Believe me, he was very enthusiastic about the idea. But it was my exceptional loyalty and unparalleled bravery that saved you and that fool at the risk of my own life."
The self-aggrandizement was so thick it was almost visible.
Bai Shuo frowned, clearly unconvinced by this transparent lie. The donkey snorted again, hastily changing the subject before she could press further. "You still have the mind to worry about the Lord of the Moonlight Hall? Don't you care about that little fool of yours anymore?"
"You can save him?"
Bai Shuo's expression transformed instantly, lighting up with desperate excitement. She couldn't help stepping forward, hands reaching out as though to grab the donkey. "Right, you're a demon—you must be able to save him, right? You have power, magic!"
"I can't save him."
Wu De Donkey shook his head, crushing her hopes with brutal efficiency. "That flower demon has caused such a massive disturbance in the mortal realm. Now the capital is absolutely crawling with high-ranking immortals stationed at every corner to prevent the Yao Race from wreaking further havoc in the imperial city. I'm injured from the fight—if I tried to rescue a death row prisoner from the heavenly prison now, I'd be skinned alive by those immortals before even escaping the imperial walls!"
The explanation made tactical sense, but it still felt like defeat.
Bai Shuo's eyes dimmed with crushing disappointment, hope draining away like water through cupped hands. But then Wu De Donkey spoke again.
"Though I can't help you save that fool, I can arrange for you to see him before his execution."
"Really?"
Bai Shuo's head snapped up, but wariness tempered her hope. "But you're injured. How will you get into the heavenly prison undetected?"
Wu De Donkey snorted lightly with obvious pride, flicking his tail. A faint green glow flashed around his body like foxfire. Then he vanished completely into thin air before Bai Shuo's astonished eyes.
Bai Shuo looked around frantically, only to hear the distinctive clip-clop of hooves on the stone ground, seemingly coming from empty space.
Another flash of verdant light, and Wu De Donkey reappeared exactly where he'd been standing. "Just a simple concealment trick, nothing fancy. Sit on my back, and I'll take you into the heavenly prison—but we'll only have fifteen minutes. After that, the immortals' detection arrays will sense the disturbance."
"What do you want from me, Long Er Donkey?"
Bai Shuo stared calmly at Wu De Donkey, her voice steady despite the turmoil in her heart. She finally called him by his true name, acknowledging what he really was.
The playful atmosphere shifted, becoming something more serious. The ancestral hall fell silent except for the guttering candles and the weight of ancestors watching from their tablets.
The donkey's eyes gleamed with something calculating in the flickering light.
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