The wooden rafters of the herbalist shop groaned under a weight that was no longer human. As the chimney collapsed entirely, a thick, choking cloud of soot and ancient mortar rained down, blanketing the dying patients in a grey shroud. From the gaping hole in the roof, Eunuch Wei descended. He did not fall; he floated downward, his bloated, scaled hand gripping a thick silken cord. His face was a patchwork of surgical seams and pulsing violet veins, his eyes entirely consumed by a predatory, milky-white cataracts that nonetheless saw with perfect, alchemical clarity.
"Look at this squalor, Lu Yan," Eunuch Wei rasped, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together at the bottom of a well. "You fight for these insects, these failed scraps of humanity, when you could have been the progenitor of a new god-race. Give me the essence, girl, and I might let him keep his mind as he serves me."
Lu Yan stood between Xiyao and the nightmare, his body trembling so violently that the floorboards beneath his boots began to crack. His amber eyes had bled into a dark, scorched orange, and the fur emerging from his collar was no longer silver-white—it was turning a dangerous, obsidian black.
"I would rather be a dead man than your dog, Wei," Lu Yan growled. The sound was so deep it rattled the glass vials remaining on the shelves, several of them shattering and spilling their pungent contents onto the floor.
Lin Xiyao clutched the mortar containing the 'True Stability' essence. Her "Heavenly Forensic" System was screaming in her mind, a chaotic overlay of red and violet warnings that threatened to blind her.
[Heavenly Forensic System: Final Warning] Subject: Lu Yan. Stability: 18%. Heart Rate: 240 BPM. Status: Irreversible Feral Collapse Imminent. Solution: Administer 'True Stability' Essence via the Dazhui point immediately.
"Lu Yan! Stay still!" Xiyao cried out, ignoring the Shadow-Hounds that were beginning to regroup in the corners of the room. She knew that if she didn't act in this precise second, the man she had traveled through the bowels of the Forbidden City with would be lost forever.
"Get back, Xiyao!" Lu Yan roared, his arm expanding with a sickening crack of bone. He swung his spring saber, the black-lacquered blade cutting a path through the air that sent a wave of heat toward the approaching assassins. "The beast is winning... I can't see you anymore!"
Xiyao didn't listen. She utilized her "System: Tactical Movement" to predict the trajectory of Eunuch Wei's reaching claws. She lunged forward, not away from the danger, but directly into the heat of Lu Yan's aura. She reached into her medical chest and pulled out her longest silver needle, dipping it into the shimmering, blood-bonded essence.
"I won't let you drown!" she screamed.
She drove the needle into the Dazhui point at the base of Lu Yan's neck. The reaction was not a scream, but a total, deafening silence. For a heartbeat, the flickering braziers in the shop seemed to freeze. A pulse of pure, silver light erupted from the injection site, traveling through Lu Yan's veins like liquid moonlight. The obsidian fur receded, the scorched orange in his eyes vanished, and in its place came a calm, piercing gold—a color of absolute sovereignty.
[System Update: Evolution Successful] Achievement Unlocked: The Perfect Alpha. Stability: 100% (Permanent). New Ability: 'Aura of the Sovereign' (Suppresses all lower-tier mutations).
Lu Yan exhaled, a long, steady breath that carried the scent of mountain air and fresh pine. He stood taller than before, his presence no longer a chaotic storm but a focused, lethal blade. He turned his gaze toward Eunuch Wei, and for the first time, the mutated eunuch actually recoiled.
"What... what have you done?" Wei hissed, his scaled hand trembling. "The formula was supposed to be mine! It was my destiny!"
"Destiny is for those who survive," Lu Yan said, his voice calm, resonant, and terrifyingly human. He didn't use his sword. He moved with a speed that the Shadow-Hounds couldn't even track, his hand catching Wei by his bloated throat. "And you, Wei, are nothing but a failed experiment."
With a single, effortless surge of power, Lu Yan threw the monster through the side wall of the shop. The impact was like a cannonball, the wooden structure splintering as Wei was launched into the muddy street of the Weaver's District.
Xiyao slumped against the desk, her strength finally failing her. She looked at the patients in the back room; the silver light from Lu Yan's transformation had reached them, their twitching limbs going still as the resonance was forcibly neutralized by his presence.
"Lu Yan," she whispered.
He turned to her, his golden eyes filled with an intensity that made her heart skip—not from fear, but from a profound, soul-deep recognition. He walked over and knelt beside her, his hand, now perfectly human and steady, gently cupping her cheek.
"I see you, Xiyao," he said softly. "I see everything now."
The shop was a ruin, and the night was far from over, but as the howling in the distance turned from a hunt into a whimper, Xiyao knew the tide had turned. Yet, a final hook remained: From the hole in the wall, a single, black-feathered arrow whistled through the dark, embedding itself in the desk inches from Xiyao's hand. Attached to it was a scroll sealed with the Emperor's private, golden dragon wax.