[Yao Manor · Council Hall]
The lamps in the council hall flickered.
Everyone had only just returned from the formation training grounds, their nerves still tight from Youqing's limit-pushing drill, when the air abruptly turned sharp—
—a tremor ran through the soul-lines.
Black mist twisted in midair, like a torn seam in vision, and from it emerged a face both familiar and nauseating.
Ye Yi's projection stepped out of the soul-fog, his eyes cold as a bottomless well.
His voice, low and carrying the shiver of demonic qi, thundered through the entire hall:
"Imperial Daughter, Youqing.
"If you want that little thing alive—Trial Valley.
"One day from now. Bring the Yao Spirit Heart to exchange."
The shadow vanished.
The council hall exploded.
Luo Ye surged to his feet, rage burning red in his eyes.
Li Yan clenched his armored fist, heavy as iron.
Lin Lie's fingertips steamed with frost as hidden gear-runes clicked awake.
Sang Qi's brow twitched, his face darkening.
Cang Yuan went cold as winter water, tapping the knife hilt until it rang—a crisp, murderous note.
Everyone's mind slammed into the same question:
Why not Abyss Hollow?
The choice of Trial Valley was wrong in a way that made the skin crawl.
Because—
Abyss Hollow was Ye Yi's territory.
The Soul Well was there.
The ruins of the Demon Capital were there.
His Nightmare Heart Formation was strongest there.
Everyone had assumed the exchange would happen at Abyss Hollow.
But Ye Yi had deliberately chosen Trial Valley instead.
A shattered battlefield. A forbidden land buried with the corpses of countless Fractured-Yao. Nether qi ran wild, broken formations overlapped and tangled. It was more dangerous—and far less controllable.
They couldn't understand.
Luo Ye's fury flared. "He—he's playing with us!"
Li Yan's voice was low. "Trial Valley's terrain is complex. If there's an ambush… escape will be nearly impossible."
Lin Lie spoke with calm that hid blades. "Ye Yi won't choose the place that's safest for him… he chose the battlefield where we're most likely to be dragged down."
Sang Qi rubbed his brow. "Meaning he wants us in the place that's most dangerous, the place most likely to make us waver. Not his weakness—ours."
Cang Yuan tapped his knife again, his tone cold as icewater. "What Ye Yi wants isn't just the Yao Spirit Heart… he's forcing us toward the fate he picked."
Luo Ye snarled, voice raw. "Is he… not in Abyss Hollow?"
Cang Yuan shook his head. "No. He's there. Ling Dang is there too."
Sang Qi narrowed his eyes, thinking fast. "Then choosing Trial Valley… there are only two possibilities."
Li Yan answered, heavy and steady. "One: he's luring us to a place that traps us more easily."
Garo added, jaw tight inside his beast-armor. "Two: he's afraid Abyss Hollow… will let the Imperial Daughter see a flaw."
Cang Yuan's eyes narrowed further. "Three—"
Everyone turned toward him.
His voice cut like frozen steel.
"That place… is better for stealing a Yao Heart."
Garo's gauntlet creaked. "He wants, in the instant of exchange… to rip the Imperial Daughter's soul right out."
The hall went silent.
A thick, crushing pressure settled over the room.
Every gaze slid to Youqing—
waiting for her to speak.
Waiting for the decision.
Youqing lifted her eyes to the last wisps of soul-smoke fading in the air.
She understood exactly why Ye Yi chose Trial Valley.
And that reason—
only she could read.
Her voice remained even. "Trial Valley… isn't the exchange site."
"It's—"
She raised a hand and pressed her Black-Yao bracelet.
"The place Ye Yi is using to bait me into stepping into his formation voluntarily."
Her fingers were steady. Her voice even steadier.
"Trial Valley or Abyss Hollow…"
"Where he chooses doesn't matter."
For a heartbeat, it felt as if her presence pinned the entire hall in place.
"Because no matter where it is, I will draw his soul out."
"And seal it into this bracelet."
Si Mo Heng, standing one step behind her, was a blade in human shape. His gaze was night-deep.
"If he insists on throwing himself into the net, we'll oblige."
Youqing delivered the last line like a dropped guillotine.
"Prepare to move."
"Tomorrow, Trial Valley—we end Ye Yi."
Ye Yi, elsewhere, believed his chosen ground and the arrangement of the Fractured-Yao remnants would guarantee the Yao Spirit Heart.
He never realized—
during the time at Yaonan Hidden Manor, Youqing had already learned the true arts of Soul Ferrying and Soul Luring.
In Ye Yi's eyes, her willingness to risk the Yao Spirit Heart as a bargaining chip existed for one reason only:
Luo Ye wanted to save Ling Dang.
Youqing, to keep the Five Yao team intact, had "compromised."
He never imagined—
what Youqing truly wanted to exchange was never a person.
It was his soul.
What she wanted was to lure Ye Yi's soul out of Ling Shuo's body, then ferry the rightful owner back into his own flesh.
Ye Yi hadn't even considered that possibility.
In his mind, Youqing was still the Imperial Daughter who only knew how to crush others with the pressure of her Crimson Eyes, still someone who had not touched the true taboo arts that could move a soul—still ignorant of the Crimson Eyes' real secret.
He was wrong.
Spectacularly wrong.
There was only one thing Ye Yi truly understood:
the Crimson Eyes.
While studying forbidden Black-Yao soul arts, he unearthed a secret buried in ancient volumes for a thousand years:
—Crimson Eyes can see soul threads.
—Crimson Eyes can pull at souls.
—Crimson Eyes can ferry souls, steal souls, reverse souls.
It was the heaven-marked talent he had obsessed over.
What shocked him most was this—
when he had lived long under You Nian's command under the name Feng Mian, he discovered You Nian knew nothing of the Crimson Eyes' true power.
You Nian treated Crimson Eyes as a symbol of brave blood, a royal lineage that could steady the Nether Domain and raise morale.
So You Nian ruled with steel and war, built a fractured border by force, held the frontier upright with power.
—He never realized the true forbidden gift in his own bloodline was the soul-sight that could rewrite the world.
The year Feng Mian learned You Nian had a daughter, he saw an opening.
He whispered poison into Wan Luo—
the woman who adored You Nian and burned with jealousy toward Qing Fei.
He told her, "That infant… will bring annihilation to our people."
Love and envy swallowed Wan Luo whole. Driven by fear and the desperate need to prove herself, she secretly took the baby girl away.
But the one who ultimately stole the Crimson-blood infant wasn't Wan Luo—
It was Ye Yi.
He planned to hide the child.
Because Crimson Eyes weren't disaster.
They were power.
The one singular genius talent that could push soul arts to their ultimate peak.
Ye Yi had never intended to raise a child.
He wanted to shape her into a puppet:
make her see the threads of ten thousand souls, make her ferry souls, steal souls, lure souls for him—
use her to complete the taboo art he had failed to finish.
Only—
after the infant vanished, the plan broke. She disappeared for years, and his design collapsed with her.
Until he saw Youqing's Crimson Eyes again.
Only then did he understand—
what he had missed was not merely a "kind" that could stand beside him.
It was the one and only key to the summit.
And yet Ye Yi still didn't know—
Youqing's power now was nothing like it had been.
He didn't know her Crimson Eyes could already see every thread of his soul—could even rip him out of Ling Shuo's body alive.
He still believed she would follow his board.
Still believed she would bow for Luo Ye, for Ling Dang.
He didn't realize—
the one trapped in an old game…
was Ye Yi himself.