Her pale face twisted in panic. Without a second thought, she shot upright from her bed, ignoring the cold marble beneath her bare feet. The silken sheets slipped from her shoulders as she moved, her robes fluttering around her like restless clouds.
"Moon… Moon… Moon…!" she cried, her voice breaking with desperation.
She didn't care about anything—neither the chill of the floor nor the way her robes clung and swayed around her body. She ran, unthinking, driven purely by the need to reach him. With every hurried step, her chest heaved, her full breasts bouncing against the soft folds of her night garment, each motion a raw testament to her urgency and frantic emotion.
"Moon!" she screamed again, repeating the name as if it were the only word that could hold the world together. Tears streamed freely down her cheeks, and her long hair whipped around her face, catching in the air like silver threads chasing her frantic energy.
Her bare feet pounded the floor, echoing through the grand hall, each step carrying the force of her fear, her longing, and her heartbreak. Nothing existed except that name—Moon—repeated endlessly, a desperate plea that consumed her entirely.
She didn't wait a second longer. Drawing in a deep breath, she gathered her Qi, feeling it coil like a living serpent within her body. In an instant, she soared upward, her white robes and long hair streaming behind her like ribbons of light, vanishing through the towering doors of the palace with barely a whisper.
The wind tore past her face, and the cold air burned against her skin, but she didn't care. Her eyes were fixed, scanning, desperate, calling for him.
She glided across the palace grounds, her movements precise, elegant, and impossibly fast. Every beat of her heart, every surge of energy, pulsed with urgency. Then, with a graceful arc, she descended into the castle backyard, landing lightly on the ground as if she weighed nothing at all.
But what she saw stopped her in her tracks.
The backyard was… empty.
Flat, barren, lifeless. No flowers bloomed. No bonsais bent beneath the sun. Not a single blade of grass dared to pierce the soil. The earth itself seemed afraid to grow anything in this place, as if even nature recognized the desolation.
Her chest heaved as she scanned the area, eyes blazing with disbelief and panic. She spun slowly, searching every corner, every inch of the land, but the emptiness remained. No garden paths curved through verdant hedges. No wooden cabin stood in quiet repose, no subtle smoke curling from a hearth. There was… nothing.
A cold, eerie silence hung over the barren expanse, pressing against her like a weight. The very air seemed to recoil from her presence, making her instinctively step forward, fists clenched, Qi coiling tighter within her.
Her voice broke again, trembling with desperation.
"Moon… Moon…! Where are you?"
But the barren backyard offered no answer. Only the wind whispered across the empty earth, carrying with it the faintest echo of her own cries.
She knelt, fingertips brushing the cold soil. It felt… dead. Unyielding. Void of life. Her Qi surged outward instinctively, probing, searching for a trace, a pulse, anything… but the land returned nothing.
The emptiness gnawed at her heart, sharper than any blade, heavier than any mountain. No cabin. No sign of him. Nothing. The boy she had called, screamed for, risked everything for… simply wasn't here.
Her tears flowed unchecked, dripping onto the barren soil as her voice echoed one last time into the void.
"Moon… where are you…?!"
And still, the backyard remained silent.
A voice behind her cut through the emptiness like a blade.
"Madam Shu! What are you doing here?"
Shu Bing turned slowly, her pale face still streaked with tears. Standing before her was her fifth disciple, Zu'er. She had short black hair that framed her sharp features, long dark eyelashes, and piercing black eyes. Her petite frame was accentuated by the flowing white dress she wore—it hugged her curves tightly, revealing the swell of her chest, the smooth line of her stomach, and the long, elegant legs beneath the slit that ran up the side. Despite her small stature, her form exuded a dangerous, almost magnetic allure...(👉🏻)
"Madam, what are you doing here… in the practice area?" Zu'er asked, concern laced with hesitation.
Shu Bing didn't answer. Her eyes were distant, staring past Zu'er. Slowly, her gaze fell upon her disciple, noting the sharp black hair, the dark eyes… and then her memories began to flood back.
Blood. The screams. The sword that had torn through flesh.
The memory clawed at her mind, unrelenting.
She remembered. The boy… the pain.The blood.
Uckk…
She doubled over, vomiting violently as the horror of it all surged through her body.
Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the barren earth of the practice yard, lying sprawled across the soil where he should have been.
Zu'er rushed forward, reaching out, her voice trembling.
"Madam! Shu Bing! Stay with me!"
But Shu Bing's eyes were glazed, the weight of memory and grief crushing her into unconsciousness. The empty backyard seemed to swallow her whole, the desolation around her matching the storm within her mind.