Midday in the Heavenly Palace was usually serene — servants glided along marble corridors, golden koi danced in lotus ponds, and music from zithers echoed faintly from the inner halls.
But not today.
A scream pierced the calm like a blade.
Li Hua had been walking through the eastern garden, carrying a scroll for the High Steward, when the world exploded.
A masked assassin dropped from the rooftop like a shadow made flesh, blades drawn.
She barely dodged the first strike.
Gasps echoed around her — the other servants scattered in terror.
But Li Hua stood still, her eyes locked on the attacker. Something ancient stirred in her blood, wild and furious.
The assassin lunged again.
And for a moment — just a breath — her body moved not like a servant's, but like the Fox Empress she had once been.
She twisted, grabbed a bamboo rake from a nearby pot, and met the assassin's blade with impossible precision.
But her disguise nearly cracked.
The blow sent her flying into a pillar, and she forced herself to crumple like a fragile girl — just as footsteps thundered in.
"Enough!" roared a voice.
Jin Xuan Yue arrived in a flash of white robes, divine energy crackling from his fingertips.
The assassin tried to flee.
He didn't get far.
With a wave of his hand, the War God summoned a spear of light that struck the attacker down mid-air.
Silence fell.
Jin Xuan Yue walked toward Li Hua, his eyes blazing.
"You're injured," he said.
"I… I'm fine, my lord."
"You are not." He knelt, his fingers brushing her wrist — the pulse under her skin raced like a storm.
She tried to turn her face, but he cupped her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"Who taught you to move like that?" he asked, voice low and dangerous.
Her breath caught.
Panic.
Too much. She had done too much.
"Just instinct," she whispered. "I—I got lucky."
He didn't believe her. Not fully. But he said nothing more.
Instead, he rose.
And to everyone's shock — lifted her into his arms.
"The healer," he said over his shoulder. "Now."
---
From a rooftop above, a figure in silver robes watched.
Jin Mei.
She'd seen the whole thing.
"Interesting…" she murmured, popping a sugared plum into her mouth. "Very interesting."
---
Deep in the shadows of the shrine, the Moon Goddess snarled as the mirror rippled with the scene.
"She's awakening too soon," she hissed. "That fox…"
The demon beside her smirked.
"You wanted blood. You got it."