The sound of Lu Yan's spring saber hitting the jade pillar was not a metallic ring but a deep, vibrating boom that felt like a crack in the soul of the Forbidden City. For a heartbeat, the world turned into a blinding flash of violet and crimson light as the lunar resonance, suddenly deprived of its anchor, sought a new conductor. The central pillar of the altar did not just break; it disintegrated into a fine, glowing dust that was instantly caught in a whirlwind of spiritual energy.
"Hold on to me!" Lu Yan roared over the screeching of the wind.
He didn't wait for her to respond. He wrapped one massive arm around Lin Xiyao's waist, pulling her back against the relative safety of his chest as the ground beneath the Imperial Garden began to heave. The jade pavilion above them groaned, its foundations built upon the very altar they had just destroyed. Huge cracks, glowing with the remnants of the violet catalyst, raced across the stone walkways like jagged lightning.
Heavenly Forensic System: Structural Collapse Alert Current Stability: 12% and dropping rapidly. Environment Hazard: Falling masonry, pressurized steam leaks, and localized seismic shifts. Escape Route: The Northern Drainage Tunnels are the only stable conduit.
"The altar's destruction is triggering a chain reaction in the underground laboratories!" Xiyao screamed, her voice barely audible over the thunder of falling stones. "If we don't move now, the entire garden will sink into the void!"
The Empress stood on her crumbling platform, her silver robes stained with grey ash. She looked at the purple peonies as they dissolved into black sludge, her face a mask of shock and realization. "It was all a lie," she whispered, her voice carrying a haunting clarity through the chaos. "The immortality, the glory... it was just rot hidden beneath a veil of silk."
"Your Majesty, come with us!" Xiyao called out, reaching out a hand. Despite the Empress's role in the nightmare, Xiyao's medical oath demanded she save whoever she could.
But the Empress only shook her head, her gaze fixed on the red moon above. "The Ming Dynasty does not retreat into the shadows with monsters. If the palace falls, I fall with it."
A massive section of the pavilion roof gave way, crashing down between the leads and the platform. Lu Yan didn't hesitate. He knew the Empress had made her choice, and his priority was the woman in his arms. He pivoted on one foot, his claws digging into the shifting earth for traction, and lunged toward the hidden hatch they had used to ascend.
"Lu Yan, the hatch is blocked!" Xiyao cried, her system highlighting the pile of rubble that had buried their previous entrance.
"Then we find a new way," Lu Yan growled. He looked toward the perimeter of the garden where the mutated shadow-guards were beginning to wake from their hive-mind trance. Without the altar's signal, they were no longer puppets, but they were still feral, their minds caught in a state of violent confusion.
One guard, his face halfway between man and wolf, lunged at them with a broken spear. Lu Yan didn't draw his saber; he simply struck the guard with a shoulder-charge that sent the man flying into a flowering hedge.
"The drainage grates near the pond!" Xiyao pointed, her "Golden Finger" highlighting a structural weak point in the garden's water management system. "The pressure from the laboratory explosion has blown the seals. We can drop directly into the secondary tunnels!"
They ran as the world fell apart behind them. The Garden of Veiled Petals, once a symbol of the Empress's vanity, was being swallowed by the earth. Just as they reached the edge of the pond, the central jade altar let out one final, explosive pulse of energy. The shockwave threw them forward, sending them tumbling into the dark, cold waters of the drainage system.
The water was freezing and tasted of sulfur, but it was moving fast, carrying them away from the epicenter of the collapse. Xiyao felt the rush of the current, her system mapping the twists and turns of the tunnels as they moved toward the Outer City.
"Stay close!" Lu Yan's voice echoed in the dark, his hand never leaving her waist. Even in the freezing water, his body heat was a constant, grounding force.
They traveled through the dark for what felt like hours until the current slowed and the air began to smell of the city's common streets again. They emerged in a narrow, muddy canal in the Weaver's District, miles away from the Forbidden City.
As they climbed out of the water, Xiyao looked back toward the palace. A faint glow of orange and red lit up the horizon where the fire and the moon met. The "Blood Moon" arc had ended, and while the palace still stood, its heart had been hollowed out.
"We did it," Xiyao whispered, her body shaking from the cold and the adrenaline.
"We stopped the ritual," Lu Yan agreed, his amber eyes settling into a calm, human brown. "But Eunuch Wei is still alive, and he will have seen the altar fall. We are no longer just fugitives, Xiyao. We are the only ones left who know how to kill the beast he created."
The chapter ended with a high-value hook: As they stood in the mud of the slums, a low, rhythmic howling began to echo from the rooftops around them. It wasn't the sound of the palace guards. It was the sound of the city's people, and the howl was one of hunger.