Xīng Hé returned to her room and found Bai Jinxue waiting inside.
The woman sat on the edge of her bed with casual ease, as if the space belonged to her. Her crescent-white hair caught the ambient light and scattered it like frozen crystal. Those golden eyes fixed on Xīng Hé the moment she entered.
"Elder sister Bai," Xīng Hé said carefully. "It's been a while."
Bai rose and crossed the distance between them.
She wrapped her arms around Xīng Hé in an embrace.
"It's okay, Xīng." Soft. Warm. The voice of an older sister. "I heard about your mission. Don't ask how. Everyone is talking about it."
She pulled back, golden eyes meeting Xīng Hé's with something that looked like genuine sympathy.
"I'm sorry you had to experience that." Her expression grew serious. "Now you understand how cruel they can be. And I'm sure you want to do something about it."
Xīng Hé said nothing.
"I'm part of a group," Bai continued, her voice dropping. "People who plan to change things. To bring peace. To end the suffering that beings like Heiyun inflict on the innocent."
She paused.
"I want to ask if you would be my ally."
The timing. The sympathy. This conversation arriving immediately after Heiyun's offer.
Xīng Hé kept her face still.
She was being fought over. The Transcendents had noticed Heiyun's withdrawal—his months of silence, his absence from their circles. They wanted to know why. Wanted whatever he had found before he could use it.
And Bai was standing in her room, weaponizing her grief to find out.
She's one of them too.
Not a revolutionary. Not someone who cared about children sent to die on missions designed to break them. A Transcendent wearing sympathy like a mask, reaching for the same prize Heiyun had already moved to claim.
Xīng Hé let her face go uncertain. Frightened. The expression of a girl who desperately wanted to believe.
What is it about me that makes me worth this?
"Won't you help your big sister?" Bai pressed, gentle and insistent. "Don't you want to put an end to this?"
She reached out, taking Xīng Hé's hands in her own.
"Another mission is coming soon. I need you to cooperate with me. Help me prevent more lives from being lost. Help me make this world a better place."
Xīng Hé sighed—the sound of reluctant surrender.
"I don't know how I can help you," she said, letting her voice carry appropriate hesitation. "But I will try."
She paused.
"He has taken me as a disciple."
Bai's expression flickered.
A Transcendent preparing for ascension, taking a disciple from the new generation. The drafted children had no future beyond the rulers' departure—most would be dead before the current Transcendents ascended. Heiyun was notoriously practical about resource allocation.
Unless he intends to bring her with him.
A natural awakener. Three concepts simultaneously. Unprecedented progress. And now personal investment from someone who didn't make personal investments.
What are we missing?
Outwardly, Bai smiled.
"Take it easy, dear Xīng. Your big sister is with you." She pulled her into another embrace. "When you start receiving guidance from him, let me know. We'll figure out what to do together."
She stepped back.
"I'll be watching over you."
Then she vanished, dissolving into the void as silently as she had arrived.
---
Xīng Hé stood alone in her room.
Two offers in one day. Two predators wearing different masks, reaching for the same thing.
She still didn't know what that thing was.
But she would.
The tugging sensation returned at the edge of her awareness—that external presence, wanting something she couldn't name. She pushed it aside.
One problem at a time.
Cut every tie. Leave no loose ends.
She was beginning to understand what Yao had meant.
---
Deep within the infinite layers of space, ten figures gathered.
The chamber existed outside normal reality—accessible only to those who had transcended ordinary existence. The air felt heavier here, saturated with the presence of beings whose power could reshape continents.
Ten rulers.
Eleven seats.
One empty.
Heiyun Jue had not appeared.
Mo Qinghai stood apart from the others. Dark green hair framing a colorless face. Eyes black as the void between stars, reflecting nothing. When he shifted his weight, the temperature dropped in ways that had nothing to do with natural cold.
Bai Jinxue occupied a position near the center, golden eyes pulsing with their strange inner rhythm, watching everything, revealing nothing. Around her, the others arranged themselves according to patterns established over centuries—Lan Xiwu already radiating impatience, Hong Yanluo's presence making the air taste of blood, Yao Shiqiu's beard crackling with residual lightning.
Heiyun's absence wasn't permitted.
These gatherings decided the fate of the next generation, coordinated actions in the endless war, maintained the careful balance that kept them from destroying each other. His absence was a violation of protocols established over millennia.
"Should we storm his realm?" Hong Yanluo asked, her voice carrying the hunger of someone who enjoyed confrontation. "Force him to compensate us for this insult?"
Bai raised her hand before others could respond.
"Allow me to explain."
The others fell silent. When one Transcendent claimed knowledge, the rest listened—if only to assess what advantage that knowledge might provide.
She shared what she had learned.
Heiyun had taken a disciple. The natural awakener—the girl whose emergence had caused such interest when she first appeared. Evolved to Attuned stage in three days following a catastrophic first mission. Bound to him immediately upon his return from wherever he had been.
She omitted certain details. That she had already positioned herself as the girl's ally. That Xīng Hé had agreed to cooperate, to share information, to serve as eyes within Heiyun's most private operations. That she already had threads of influence extending into territory that should have been exclusively his.
Most importantly, she omitted what she suspected about the girl's true value. She didn't fully understand it yet. And revealing suspicion prematurely would only invite competition.
"So he's leaving us out of opportunities," Jin Lianhai observed, smile sharpening into something predatory. "Claiming resources before we can stake our own claims."
"Perhaps we should remind him what happens when someone grows too greedy," Yao Shiqiu rumbled, lightning crackling through his beard.
Mo Qinghai raised a hand.
The chamber went silent. Not just quiet—silent in a way that suggested sound itself had been stripped from the space. The temperature dropped further. Frost formed on surfaces that shouldn't have been capable of freezing.
When Mo Qinghai spoke, reality adjusted to accommodate his words.
"Inform us," he said to Bai, his voice carrying the calm of deep still water, "when you learn the true reason behind his actions."
Not a request.
The others understood. Mo Qinghai rarely spoke. When he did, the matter was settled.
The meeting continued. Other matters addressed, other decisions made, the endless business of ruling a world that didn't know it was ruled. But the undercurrent remained.
Heiyun had made a move they didn't understand.
They wouldn't rest until they did.
---
✦
In his own realm, Heiyun sat alone.
He was aware of the meeting. Could feel their curiosity pressing against the boundaries of his territory like water against a dam.
He didn't attend. Couldn't.
Appearing before them now—weakened, still recovering—would be announcing vulnerability to predators who descended the moment they sensed blood. They would see it in the subtle delays before his responses, in the expressions he couldn't fully control.
Let them wonder.
His tea had gone cold sometime during his contemplation. He didn't reach for it.
Bai had already made contact with Xīng Hé. The others would follow. Each one seeking leverage, each one convinced they could claim whatever prize he was protecting.
He needed to begin the girl's training before they made their moves. Needed to bind her more tightly, cultivate her trust, make the idea of following him feel like her own choice rather than his design.
He rose from his seat.
There was no more time with the ache of his damaged soul.
Work to do.