The subterranean clinic was filled with the rhythmic sound of grinding pestles and the bubbling of medicinal pots. Lin Xiyao stood before a wall of rotted wooden shelves that the elderly local doctor had identified as the guild's hidden record room. While Lu Yan stood at the foot of the stairs, a silent sentinel whose golden gaze kept the encroaching panic of the survivors at bay, Xiyao focused her "Heavenly Forensic" System on a singular, iron-bound ledger tucked behind a jar of preserved ginger.
[Heavenly Forensic System: Document Recovery] Object: Private Journal of Senior Physician Lin (Lin Xiyao's Father). Condition: Encrypted with a TCM pulse-lock. Residual Aura: Contains traces of 'Imperial Dragon' ink and dried human plasma.
"He was here," Xiyao whispered, her fingers trembling as she touched the cold iron of the ledger. "Before the palace guards took him, he hid his final findings in the one place Eunuch Wei would never look—the slums he treated for free."
"Open it, Xiyao," Lu Yan said, his voice a low rumble that seemed to steady her hands. "The truth is a weapon we need before we face the Meridian Gate."
Xiyao pressed her thumb to the iron lock, channeling her pulse in the specific 'Rapid-Flooding' rhythm her father had taught her during her first year of training. The lock clicked open with a sound like a snapping bone. As she turned the pages, her system translated the dense, hurried calligraphy into a terrifying timeline.
"It wasn't just a mutation project," Xiyao said, her voice rising in pitch as she scanned the final entries. "My father discovered that the 'Mother Catalyst' wasn't found in the north. It was manufactured within the Imperial bloodline itself. The Emperor didn't just authorize the experiments; he is the source. Every carrier in this city is technically bound to his specific biological frequency."
The shocking revelation hung in the air. Her father hadn't been executed for failing to stabilize the catalyst; he had been killed because he realized the only way to cure the city was to kill the Emperor, the biological 'Anchor' of the plague.
"He knew he wouldn't survive the night he wrote this," Xiyao said, tears stinging her eyes. "He wrote that the Emperor's transformation was incomplete, requiring a 'Pure Kin' sacrifice to reach the final stage. Lu Yan... my father wasn't just a physician. He was the one who stalled the Emperor's evolution by hiding the Mother Catalyst in my own medical chest's secret compartment."
"So the hunt for you was never just about the research," Lu Yan stated, his golden eyes flaring. "It was about the key you carry without knowing it."
[System Update: True Identity Revealed] Lore Entry: The Physician's Daughter is the 'Stabilizing Element'. New Objective: Reach the Imperial Alchemical Heart to neutralize the Emperor. Risk Level: Maximum.
"We have to move," Xiyao said, wiping her eyes and turning to the local doctors. "The 'Lunar Shield' tonics are ready. Administer them to every man and woman who can stand. We are going to the palace, but we are not going as subjects. We are going as the cure."
Xiyao distributed the vials of shimmering, pale-green liquid. The 'Lunar Shield' was a complex TCM decoction designed to insulate the human nervous system against the Emperor's high-frequency resonance.
"Drink," Lu Yan commanded the survivors. "The fire above will not touch you. The fear in your hearts will not move you. Today, the Weaver's District marches on the dragon."
The forty survivors, men and women whose faces were etched with the scars of the slums and the shadow of the curse, stood in unison. They drank the tonic, and as the liquid took hold, the amber glow in their eyes settled into a calm, steady gold—a reflection of Lu Yan's own sovereign light.
They ascended the stairs, leaving the safety of the clinic behind. Outside, the Weaver's District was a landscape of ash and glowing embers. The Imperial Vanguard, still paralyzed in the street by Lu Yan's earlier display of power, watched in horror as a column of commoners emerged from the ruins, led by a golden-eyed commander and a physician whose gaze held the weight of an empire's sins.
"The Meridian Gate is two miles north," Lu Yan said, his black-lacquered spring saber finally sliding from its sheath with a ring of cold steel. "Xiyao, stay in the center of the formation. If the Silver-Wolf guards appear, do not use your needles for healing. Use them for the kill."
"I am a physician, Lu Yan," Xiyao said, her grip tightening on her medical chest. "I know exactly where the life ends and the monster begins."
As the 'March of the Forsaken' began, the red moon reached its highest point in the sky. The city was silent, save for the rhythmic stomp of forty pairs of boots and the low, resonant hum of the Sovereign's Aura. They were no longer running from the beast; they were bringing the beast home.