The Weaver's District was no longer a place of industry; it was a furnace of silk and bone. As Lu Yan, Lin Xiyao, and the wounded Gao retreated from the collapsing lofts, the shadow of the Forbidden City loomed over them like a silent, judgmental god. The air was so thick with the scent of burning mulberry wood and alchemical ash that even Lu Yan's refined senses struggled to find a clean draft. Behind them, the Imperial Vanguard remained frozen in the street, a hundred men paralyzed by the crushing weight of the Alpha's newfound authority.
"This way," Xiyao urged, her hand gripping the strap of her medical chest as she guided the limping Gao through a narrow gap between two smoldering warehouses. "My system is picking up a concentration of medicinal herbs and human vitals beneath the floorboards of the old dyer's guild."
[Heavenly Forensic System: Life-Sign Mapping] Detection: 42 Human Signatures. Condition: 30 subjects in Stage 0.5 (Latent Infection); 12 subjects in Stage 1 (Stabilized). Aura Analysis: High concentration of Artemisia and Sulfur being used as air purifiers. Location: Subterranean cellar, 15 feet below the guild hall.
Lu Yan stepped ahead of them, his presence a calm, golden eye in the center of the district's storm. He did not draw his sword; he simply placed a hand on a heavy iron grate set into the cobblestones. With a grunt of effort that barely strained his features, he tore the grate from its mount, revealing a steep stone staircase leading into a dimly lit basement.
"Who goes there?" a voice shouted from the darkness below. It was not the voice of a soldier, but of an old man, thin and cracking with terror. "We have no gold! Only the sick and the dying!"
"I am Lin Xiyao, daughter of the Imperial Physician Lin," Xiyao called out, her voice echoing down the stairs with a tone of authority that made the voices below go silent. "I have the stability essence. Open the inner door."
A moment of heavy silence followed, broken only by the roar of the fires above. Then, the heavy oak door at the bottom of the stairs creaked open. Xiyao and Lu Yan descended, Lu Yan carrying Gao with one arm as if the man weighed nothing at all.
The cellar was a vast, low-ceilinged vault filled with the rhythmic sound of labored breathing and the low hum of prayers. Rows of simple mats covered the floor, occupied by weavers, dyers, and their families. These were the people the Emperor intended to burn—the "scraps" of his empire. In the center of the room, a group of exhausted-looking local doctors were frantically grinding herbs and applying poultices to the dark, pulsing veins of the infected.
"Physician Lin?" an elderly doctor stepped forward, his eyes widening as he saw the silver-embroidered robes of the Jinyiwei beside her. He recoiled from Lu Yan, sensing the sheer power radiating from the Commander. "You... you brought a beast into our sanctuary?"
"He is the one who will ensure this sanctuary remains standing," Xiyao said firmly. She knelt beside a young child whose skin was already beginning to sprout patches of grey fur. "He is the Sovereign. And I am here to finish what my father started."
Lu Yan placed Gao on an empty mat and stood at the center of the room. He closed his eyes, and a soft, golden ripple of energy expanded from his body, washing over the patients like a cool breeze. The sounds of whimpering and labored breathing instantly softened as the 'Aura of the Sovereign' suppressed the violent alchemical resonance of the red moon.
"You have suppressed their pain," the old doctor whispered, falling to his knees. "How?"
"The curse is a frequency," Lu Yan said, his voice resonant and deep. "I have simply changed the note. But the poison remains in their blood. Physician Lin, how much of the essence do we have left?"
"Not enough for everyone," Xiyao admitted, her "Golden Finger" scanning the room and calculating the numbers. "I can stabilize the Stage 1 subjects, but to cure the district, we need the original 'Mother Catalyst' hidden in the Emperor's private laboratory. My father's notes suggest it is the only thing that can reverse the cellular decay on a mass scale."
"Then we are no longer running," Lu Yan said, his golden eyes fixing on the ceiling as if he could see through the stone and the fire to the palace beyond. "The Emperor has ordered the destruction of his people to hide his own transformation. We will take this pack and we will march on the Meridian Gate."
"Commander, the Vanguard is outside," Gao rasped, struggling to sit up. "And the Silver-Wolf guards... they are the Emperor's personal elite. They are not like us. They are mindless, loyal only to the dragon's blood."
"Then they will learn the difference between a puppet and a king," Lu Yan replied.
Xiyao stood up, her gaze meeting Lu Yan's. The "emotional connection" between them was now a pillar of strength for the forty souls in the room. She was no longer the frightened girl in the drainage tunnels; she was the architect of their survival.
"I will prepare the 'Lunar Shield' tonics for the survivors," Xiyao said. "If we are going to storm the palace, we need every man who can hold a blade to be immune to the Emperor's resonance."
[System Update: Quest Initiated] Objective: The Assault on the Meridian Gate. Requirements: 40 doses of 'Lunar Shield'; Lu Yan's 'Aura' at 100%. Reward: Unlocking the 'Palace Forensic Archive'.
As Xiyao began to bark orders to the local doctors, Lu Yan walked to the stairs. He looked back at her, his golden eyes softened for a brief second.
"Xiyao," he said. "If we do not survive the dawn, know that my heart was human until the very end because of you."
"We will survive," Xiyao promised, her hands moving with surgical precision. "I haven't finished your final check-up yet, Commander."