✨----
The sanctuary lay beyond the western star paths, in a region of heaven that most celestial beings preferred to pretend did not exist.
Here, the stars were dimmer, as if their light had grown tired. The sky carried a faint silver haze, and the air itself felt thinner—like the world was only half-remembered by creation.
Li Yun slowed as they crossed the last broken arc of starlight.
"We're here," he said quietly.
Before them stretched a floating landmass shaped like a crescent island, surrounded by drifting fragments of stone and ancient ruins. At its center stood a temple—old, weathered, and cracked, yet still standing, as if stubbornly refusing to fade.
Lian Yue felt something strange the moment she stepped onto the island.
Not fear.
Recognition.
"This place…" she murmured. "It feels… lonely."
Kezhong looked around cautiously.
"It was built before the current Heavenly Order. When laws were still… flexible."
"That explains why the Council avoids it," Li Yun said. "They can't control what they can't fully define."
He gently lowered Lian Feng onto a smooth stone platform inside the temple. Soft light gathered around him automatically, responding to his weakened but still divine core.
Lian Yue sat beside her brother, brushing a strand of hair away from his face.
"You're safe for now," she whispered, more to herself than to him.
For a moment, everything was quiet.
Too quiet.
The temple was larger inside than it appeared from the outside. Its halls were lined with faded murals—depicting stars being born, worlds rising, and ancient gods walking among half-formed skies.
Lian Yue found herself staring at one mural in particular.
It showed a vast shadow swallowing a dying star… and from the ashes, a new constellation being born.
Her chest tightened.
She looked away.
Li Yun noticed.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
She shook her head.
"Not yet."
He didn't push.
Kezhong stood near one of the broken pillars, his arms folded, eyes closed as if listening to something far away.
"The Council's searching," he said after a while. "They haven't found us yet… but they will."
Li Yun nodded.
"We're not staying long."
"Then what's the plan?" Kezhong asked.
Lian Yue answered before Li Yun could.
"We find out how to separate me from what's inside me… without killing either of us."
Kezhong looked at her carefully.
"You're talking about something no one has ever done."
"Then someone has to be the first," she replied quietly.
Li Yun felt a strange mix of fear and pride rise in his chest.
They explored deeper into the temple.
In its heart, they found a circular chamber with a shallow pool of liquid starlight. The surface was perfectly still, like a mirror.
Kezhong's expression changed the moment he saw it.
"This is a Memory Basin," he said. "They were used in ancient times to view sealed or forgotten truths."
Lian Yue's breath caught.
"Could it show… my past?"
"Possibly," Kezhong replied. "But it doesn't just show memories. It shows truth—even the kind you're not ready to face."
Li Yun immediately said, "Then it's dangerous."
Lian Yue stepped closer to the pool anyway.
"Everything about this is dangerous."
She looked at her reflection in the starlight.
It looked normal.
Too normal.
"If I'm really carrying something like that inside me… I need to know why. And how."
Li Yun hesitated.
"Yue…"
She turned to him.
"If we don't understand it, we'll always be running."
Kezhong studied her, then nodded slowly.
"I'll stand guard. If anything goes wrong, I'll pull you out."
Li Yun's jaw tightened.
"And if that thing tries to surface?"
"Then we stop it," Kezhong said simply.
Li Yun didn't like how calm he sounded.
Lian Yue knelt beside the basin and slowly reached out.
The moment her fingers touched the starlight, the world vanished.
She was standing in darkness.
No stars.
No sky.
No ground.
Then, far away, something moved.
A massive, distant shadow—so large she couldn't even see its full shape.
Not evil.
Not kind.
Just… endless.
Stars were dying around it, but from their remains, new lights were forming.
A voice echoed—not spoken, but felt.
I am balance.
Her heart pounded.
I am the end that allows beginnings.
The shadow slowly turned toward her.
And for the first time, she felt something like… curiosity from it.
You are… small.
She swallowed.
"And you're what they locked inside me."
The presence didn't deny it.
They were afraid.
"Should I be afraid too?"
The shadow was silent for a long moment.
Then:
I do not wish to destroy. But I cannot exist without change.
Her chest tightened.
"Then why me?"
The darkness shifted.
Because you were not empty. You were… gentle. Stable. Strong enough to hold what others could not.
Her vision blurred.
"So my life was decided before I was even born."
Your path was prepared. But your steps were your own.
She clenched her fists.
"That doesn't feel fair."
Existence rarely is.
Suddenly, the vision cracked.
She saw another memory—
A group of ancient gods standing in a circle.
A crying newborn in the center.
A sealing formation burning into the sky.
And a voice filled with sorrow:
"May you forgive us… Moon Child."
Lian Yue gasped and fell backward—
—and Li Yun caught her.
She was breathing hard, eyes wide, skin cold.
"Yue! What did you see?" he asked urgently.
She shook, gripping his sleeve.
"I saw it… and I saw them. The ones who sealed it. They knew. They all knew."
Kezhong's face was grim.
"And?"
She looked up at them, eyes full of complicated emotion.
"It's not evil," she said. "But it's not something that can stay asleep forever either."
Li Yun's chest tightened.
"Did it try to take over?"
She shook her head.
"No. It was… watching."
That somehow felt worse.
A sudden tremor ran through the sanctuary.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Kezhong turned sharply toward the entrance.
"They found us."
Li Yun's aura flared.
"How many?"
"More than we can fight head-on."
Lian Yue stood slowly.
Her fear was still there.
But so was something else.
Resolve.
"Then we don't fight them here."
Li Yun looked at her.
"What are you thinking?"
She met his eyes.
"We go somewhere even the heavens can't follow."
Kezhong's eyes widened slightly.
"There is only one place like that."
Li Yun said the name at the same time:
"…The Mortal Realm."
Far away, the sanctuary's outer barrier shattered.
And the hunt truly began.