They traveled for hours without stopping.
When darkness finally swallowed the road and the forest grew thick and quiet around them, they decided to rest for the night.
"In less than twenty-four hours, we should be home," Leng Yue said, jumping down from his horse.
They chose a peaceful clearing between tall trees and spread out their cloaks and blankets.
The horses were secured nearby, the fire burned low, and exhaustion soon pulled everyone into sleep.
The forest settled into silence, broken only by the soft crackle of burning wood and the distant chorus of night insects.
Leng Yue and Mei's father fell asleep quickly.
Yuyan remained awake. Far away from the other, with her husband.
She sat beside Tian Yu, her knees drawn close, staring up at the dark sky between the branches.
"Leng Yue says destiny is moving faster than we expected," she whispered.
Tian Yu turned to her. "He is rarely wrong."
She exhaled slowly. "That is what frightens me."
He reached for her hand. "You are not alone in this."
She looked down at their joined fingers as she said.
"Sometimes I wonder… if the world ends, will anything we do now matter?"
He shifted closer. "It already matters. You matter. Every moment with you matters."
She lifted her eyes to his."Do you ever get tired of being brave?" she asked.
"All the time," he admitted with a faint smile. "But when I look at you, I remember why I keep going."
Her throat tightened. "I don't know how to be strong without you."
He brushed his thumb over her knuckles. "Then don't try to be."
She leaned against him, resting her forehead on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her, drawing her closer until their breathing fell into the same rhythm.
"If tomorrow is war," she whispered, "let tonight be ours."
"It is," he said softly.
They continue to speak in low voices for a long while___ about the future they hoped for, the home they wanted after the war, the children they dreamed of, the peace they had never known but still believed in.
Each word drew them closer until silence returned and their closeness said everything their voices could not.
Yuyan lifted her head. "Stay with me."
Tain Yu chuckle as he said "I'm not going anywhere."
She brushed her fingers against his cheek. He leaned into her touch, closing his eyes briefly.
"No matter what happens," he murmured, "my heart is already yours."
"And mine is yours." she replied smiling sweetly at him.
While the forest slept, Leng Yue's spirit was pulled into a dream.
He stood in a land drowning in ruin.
Villages burned beneath a blackened sky. Smoke coiled upward.
People fled in every direction, their cries tearing through the air.
Across the fields marched Ji Woo's army.
Before them walked the status of man-beast___ the ancient creature that had once appeared before Ji Woo, the one who revealed the secret of the dragon egg and the forbidden ritual to hatch it. Its form was neither fully human nor fully beast.
Ji Woo had raised its status.
Now its towering image was carved into banners, raised on stone pillars, painted on village walls.
Everywhere Leng Yue looked, people were being forced to kneel before it. Those who refused were slaughtered where they stood.
Blood soaked the earth.
Children screamed for parents who would never answer. Mothers collapsed over broken families, begging a god that no longer listened.
Ji Woo's will filled the air itself:
When the world is destroyed, the worship of the beast shall remain.
My bloodline will rule the ruins, and this worship will bind eternity to my name.
Leng Yue moved through the chaos like a ghost, powerless, his chest splitting with helpless fury.
Then he saw a young man who looked painfully like Mimi's father, and a woman running beside him. They fled with villagers, terror in their eyes.
Leng Yue pause, could this be Mei's brother and mother… he thought as he ran after them.
A hand tapped his back, and a whisper brushed his ear:
"Where are Yuyan and Tian Yu?" the tapping continued and then the whisper .
Leng Yue opened his eyes to the quiet forest.
Mimi's father stood over him.
"Where are the princess and her husband?" he asked again.
Leng Yue frowned. "Is that why you woke me?"
Then he smirked. "You know those two are never up to anything good. They're probably sharing a very… passionate moment. Don't worry. The one destined to save the world is not hiding in the woods with the little witch princess who calls herself my elder sister."
He said making Mei's father to smile faintly.
Leng Yue's expression sobered. "Did you ever have a son?"
Mie's father pause, then shook his head. "No. Why?"
Leng Yue told him everything he saw in his vision.
Mimi's father went pale.
At that moment, Yuyan's voice came from the trees.
"Which man? You know this little witch can hear you from afar." she said. "Leng Yue, what are you talking about?"
She and Tian Yu stepped into the clearing.
Leng Yue looked at them, before telling them his vision.
Then he looked at Mei's father seriously and said, "The person you are looking for might be in Qingxu."
Without another word, they mounted their horses. And the forest fell silent behind them as they rode straight into the dark.
They rode through the early morning dew.
Before dawn, they reached Qingxu
-----
From afar, the village already looked wrong, like a village been abandon.
They dismounted and entered on foot. They sighted broken doors, cold food on the floor. And some clothes abandoned in the dust.
They walked towards the village square. The village square stood a newly raised stone pillar___carved with the image of the beast.
Around it, the ground was dark with dried blood.
Yuyan's breath caught. And Meis father froze.
"They were really here," Leng Yue whispered.
From a collapsed barn came faint sobbing.
They followed the sounds and they found some survivors.
"Please don't kill us", the elderly pleaded. "We accept". She said shaking.
Seeing the people that came, she breath down slowly, as she realized that this ones were different.
"Ji woo and her armies, they came." She said, her voice was empty dry.
A boy among them said as he clenched his fists. "My father refused. And they slaughtered him."
Mei's father who had been looking around the house finally walked inside.
Then he froze, hearing the older women voice.