Silence.Heavy, ancient, suffocating silence.
The moment Jiao Shui spoke those words, the ancestral hall seemed to inhale sharply and forget how to breathe again.
"It was the Crown Prince."
The Emperor's hand slid against the altar as he staggered. His eyes, wide and brittle, locked on Jiao Shui like she had just cracked open the heavens and revealed a truth mortals were never meant to touch.
Prince Yang froze so completely he might have turned to stone.His lashes didn't even flicker.
Shenzha Jao…The fury swirling around her collapsed into a stillness too unnatural to be calm.Her floating hair fell limp around her shoulders.Her glow dimmed.
"Say it again," she whispered.
Jiao Shui straightened, pushing past the trembling in her knees. "The one who killed us. The one who orchestrated everything. The one who made us enemies."
A sharp inhale swept the hall.
"It wasn't me," she said steadily. "It was the Crown Prince."
Shenzha Jao's lip trembled.Not from rage.From clarity seeping through the fog of vengeance.
"No," she murmured. "No… why would he…?"
Her voice cracked.A sound like broken porcelain.
The Emperor found his voice at last—fragile, strained. "Jiao Shui… do you understand what you are accusing?"
"Do you?" she countered quietly. "Because I remember every detail."
Ting'er floated upside down, whispering, "Here we go."
Lian folded her ghostly arms. "Finally, plot."
Ruomei leaned close to Jiao Shui. "Steady. He'll deny everything."
Jiao Shui lifted her chin. "In my past life, weeks before the Empress selection ceremony, the Crown Prince approached me. He warned me that choosing Shenzha Jao would destabilize the court. He claimed the noble clans supported me and feared her influence."
Shenzha Jao's eyes widened. "He came to me too."
Jiao Shui nodded. "Yes. He whispered the opposite to you. That I wanted you removed from the competition. That I despised you. That Prince Yang only tolerated you for appearance's sake."
Prince Yang's jaw clenched so tightly the sound echoed like bone grinding bone.The betrayal, the manipulation, the cruel architecture of their tragedy—it all began to make sense.
"The Crown Prince needed us divided," Jiao Shui said. "Because he feared Yang's rise."
The Emperor's pupils trembled.Not shock.Recognition.
As if deep down, he had always suspected.
Shenzha Jao placed a trembling hand over her chest—over where her heart once lived. "So I died hating the wrong person."
Her form flickered.
Prince Yang finally moved.One step forward.Slow.Controlled.
"Father," he said, voice low, "where is my brother now?"
The Emperor hesitated.Too long.Too telling.
"He is confined," the Emperor said at last. "For disobedience. For… things I did not yet reveal."
Prince Yang's expression darkened. "Confined? Or protected?"
Shenzha Jao trembled with rising rage—but this time, the fury wasn't aimed at Jiao Shui.
Ting'er whispered, "She's recalculating vengeance."
Lian chimed in, "New target unlocked."
Ruomei added, "Proceed with caution, and possibly popcorn."
Jiao Shui ignored her ghostly chorus.
"Shenzha Jao," she said softly. "We were both used. Both broken. Both—"
"Stolen from," Jao finished bitterly.
Her eyes met Jiao Shui's.
"Then answer me one thing."
Jiao Shui nodded.
Shenzha Jao's voice quivered, barely audible.
"But why did you die?"
The question slashed across the hall.
Because that was the one truth Jiao Shui had never spoken aloud.The memory she never let resurface.The ending she had never fully accepted.
The moment she exhaled to answer—
The entire hall shook violently.
A rush of dark energy spiraled from the entrance.
Every lantern exploded.
Wind howled through the ancestral hall like a beast tearing itself free.
And a voice—deep, cold, furious—rolled across the floor stones like thunder made of venom:
"Because she wasn't supposed to survive."
Jiao Shui froze.Shenzha Jao gasped.Prince Yang reached for his sword.
A figure stepped out of the shadows.
Tall.Regal.Eyes burning with hatred.
The Crown Prince had arrived.And he was no longer human.