The journey began before sunrise.
Long before the first light kissed the peaks, Yun Qianyu and Fenghua stood at the edge of the Hidden City, cloaked in the silence of pre-dawn. Behind them, the city slowly stirred, but ahead—the world lay vast and uncertain.
The Sea of Ghost Lanterns was a cursed place. Once a sacred lake, it had turned after the fall of the Moonlight Sovereign. Now, it shimmered with cold fire, dotted with floating orbs said to be the lost souls of starborn beings.
As they rode beneath a darkening sky, Qianyu kept her gaze fixed on the eastern horizon.
"Do you remember this place?" Fenghua asked.
She hesitated. "Not clearly. But something… calls to me from there. Like a lullaby I once knew."
They passed through ruined borderlands where time bent and shadows moved against logic. Creatures of the old war still lurked here—half-formed, driven mad by celestial fallout.
Hours passed before they reached the lake.
It was haunting.
Mist curled over the surface, and thousands of pale blue lanterns floated above the water, their flames flickering with whispers. Some drifted close, and Qianyu could almost hear them breathe her name.
"So many voices," she murmured.
"They're drawn to your soul," Fenghua said. "This lake remembers you."
A single lantern pulsed brighter than the rest, drifting toward the shoreline. As Qianyu stepped forward, her reflection on the water shifted—showing her with glowing eyes, a silver crown on her brow, and wings of radiant starlight.
She staggered back.
"I was like that… once?"
Fenghua looked at the reflection. "You were more than that. You were hope itself, to those who followed you."
Before she could respond, the lanterns pulsed violently. The water stirred. From beneath the surface, shadows began to rise—echoes of celestial soldiers who had drowned during the last rebellion.
Their forms were hollow, but their weapons still burned with divine fire.
A voice rippled across the water:
"Return the stolen star. Or be unmade."
Qianyu stepped forward. "I stole nothing. What was torn from me, I have come to reclaim."
The spectral warriors charged.
Fenghua moved instantly, his blade meeting theirs with elegant precision. But there were too many—dozens, maybe hundreds. For each one cut down, another rose.
Qianyu stood still. Her hands trembled… then steadied.
"This lake remembers pain," she whispered. "Let it remember light too."
With a deep breath, she extended her arms. Her starlight flared—not in rage, but in resonance. The lanterns responded, circling her like guardians. One by one, the spectral warriors froze… then bowed.
In the center of the lake, the water parted. A shrine rose from its depths—broken, ancient, but intact enough to hold a single object glowing like moonlight.
Qianyu stepped forward, crossing the water as if it knew her feet.
She reached for the object.
A fragment.
Sharp-edged, but pulsing with warmth.
"The first shard," Fenghua said. "The Memory of the Moon."
She closed her fingers around it. Her mind opened—and visions returned: an oath sworn beneath a sky of falling stars. A hand reaching out to hers. A betrayal. A choice.
"I remember," she whispered. "Not all… but enough."
Suddenly, the sky darkened. A rift tore open above the lake—celestial magic laced with fury.
From it descended a new figure—cloaked in robes darker than night, face veiled in starlight.
The Veiled Empress had arrived.
"Step away from the shard, traitor," she commanded, her voice echoing like a thousand bells. "You walk a path that must not exist."
Qianyu stood firm, the fragment glowing in her hand.
"Then you should not have cast me from it."
The lake began to shake.
The next battle would not be against memories—but against the full weight of Heaven.