The wind on the rooftops of the Forbidden City was a razor, howling through the emerald-tiled ridges and carrying the distant screams of the burning stables. Lu Yan moved not like a man, but like a localized storm. His amber eyes, narrowed into vertical slits, tracked the shadow-guard, Mei Lin, as she danced across the sloped roof with the "overpowered" grace of the Empress's elite.
"HAND HER OVER!" Mei Lin shrieked, her voice an "extreme" manifestation of her fanatical loyalty to the palace. She launched three throwing daggers, each tipped with a viscous, green alchemical poison.
Lin Xiyao, crouched behind a decorative stone chimney, felt her "Heavenly Forensic" System flare with a cold, blue warning. This was the "immersion" moment where the reader sees the system as a bridge between life and death.
[Heavenly Forensic System: Combat Mode] Projectile Analysis: 3 Venom-tipped blades. Trajectory: 15 degrees left. Target: Commander Lu Yan's carotid artery. Counter-Measure: Disrupt the thrower's balance.
"LU YAN! DUCK AND STRIKE HER RIGHT ANKLE!" Xiyao screamed, her voice cutting through the roar of the fire. "HER STANCE IS UNEVEN!".
Lu Yan didn't hesitate. He dropped into a low crouch, the silk of his Jinyiwei robes snapping in the wind. The daggers whistled harmlessly overhead, embedding themselves in the chimney just inches from Xiyao's head. With a snarl that sounded more beast than human, he lunged forward, his fingers—now tipped with obsidian-black claws—aiming for the guard's vulnerable joint.
Mei Lin gasped, her "classic support character" arrogance crumbling into shock. She tried to pivot, but the "niche" injury Xiyao had detected earlier—a hidden hip wound—betrayed her. Lu Yan's strike didn't just find her ankle; it shattered the tile beneath her feet.
As Mei Lin stumbled, Lu Yan delivered a "posturing scene" blow, his palm slamming into her chest and sending her spiraling off the rooftop toward the dark courtyard below.
Silence returned, save for the crackling of the distant inferno.
Lu Yan turned toward Xiyao. His "complex personality" was visible in the way he fought the "Berserk" adrenaline still coursing through his veins. He approached her, his breathing a ragged, heavy sound.
"How..." he rasped, his eyes gradually receding from gold back to human brown. "How did you see her wound through the dark?"
"I told you, Commander," Xiyao said, clutching her medical chest as she stood up. Her "character growth" was evident in her steady hands and firm voice. "I see the soul in the blood. And she was bleeding long before she drew that blade."
[System Update: Relationship Level Up] Current Bond: Level 3 (Mutual Trust). Reward: Unlocked 'Heart-Pulse Sensing' (FL can now sense ML's transformation threshold).
"The arches are turning their torches this way," Lu Yan said, his "responsibility" sub-personality returning as he prioritized her safety. "The rooftops are no longer safe. We must go to the 'Rat-Hole'."
The "Rat-Hole" was a "niche" safehouse located in the slums of the Outer City, a "small place" designed to let the story progress into bigger conflicts later. It was a far cry from the Forbidden City's majesty, but in a world of "scarcity and pervasive danger," it was a sanctuary.
He grabbed her, his touch now devoid of his previous "feral secret" aggression, and leaped into the shadows of the eaves. As they fled the palace, Xiyao knew that the "survival" trope was only the beginning of their "epic clash" against the alchemists who had turned the Ming Dynasty into a hunting ground.