Lin Yue had questions.
Many questions.
Most of them variations of:
Why is this happening?Why me?Why does the most powerful man in existence know I touched his moon-string thingy???
But Xuan Mo did not appear to be accepting questions today. His aura wrapped around her like a leash woven from moonlight and destiny.
Shen Qiao stepped in front of her, trembling but brave."Your Majesty, Lin Yue is under Azure Sect protection. If she is summoned, we must provide an escort—"
"If she requires protection," Xuan Mo replied, "I will provide it."
A simple sentence.
A horrifying sentence.
The kind of sentence that said: I can erase your entire sect before breakfast; sit down, little boy.
Shen Qiao sat down.
Well, collapsed.
Lin Yue cleared her throat carefully. "Your Majesty, I think there's some misunderstanding. I didn't touch your Thread intentionally. It just kind of… touched me. Without consent. Which is frankly a little inappropriate—"
Every elder gasped like she had casually insulted the heavens.
Xuan Mo's eyes glinted with something unreadable.
"Lunar Threads do not approach mortals without purpose," he said. "They found you. That is enough."
Found her.Purpose.Great. Fate was shipping them now.
"But," she tried, "I am very ordinary. Painfully ordinary. Impressively ordinary."
"Lies," he said simply.
She gaped. "Excuse me?!"
He stepped closer.
Close enough that moonlight curved around him instead of passing through — as if he commanded even photons to obey.
Close enough that she could see the faint silver veins running under his skin, glowing like constellations trapped in flesh.
Close enough that his aura pressed against her like cold fingers examining the shape of her soul.
"You perceive qi differently," he murmured. "You defied an envoy. You unravel fate without knowing it. And you touched my power…"
His voice dropped to a whisper edged with danger and curiosity:
"… without fear."
Lin Yue swallowed her panic so hard it almost became a new organ.
"Fear is a luxury," she muttered.
His lips curved — just faintly — like someone discovering an intriguing new toy.
Without warning, he extended his hand.
"Come."
"I—I haven't agreed to go anywhere—"
Moonlight coiled around her wrist, gentle but unbreakable.
"You have now."
And just like that, the Night Emperor pulled her into the sky in a cascade of silver light.
The courtyard, the elders, her ruined almost-wedding — all vanished beneath her as they soared toward the distant, towering Abyssal Moon Palace.
Lin Yue's last coherent thought was:
I should've stayed in bed today.