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墨書 Inktalez
As the chill from the Cold Palace Well seeped into my bones, I clutched the blood-stained handkerchief tightly. The blood between my fingers had already dried into a brown crust, and with a slight pressure, it crumbled away.
The snoring of the Veteran Coroner echoed off the well walls, and the Wine Gourd he held rolled to my feet, its spout leaking a familiar peacock blue liquid. "Is this... Soul-Awakening Incense?" I dipped my finger into the liquid and twisted it, sending ripples of Liuli Color spreading out from my fingertips.
A wildcat squatting on the edge of the well suddenly arched its back, its amber pupils reflecting the Veteran Coroner's neck—what I had thought were mere wrinkles now writhed like living creatures, gradually forming into a phoenix with outstretched wings.
Chen Xing's Copper Coin Sword grazed my ear as it embedded itself into the well wall, the sword tassel jingling with the sound of the Twenty-Eight Constellation Finger. The Veteran Coroner twitched suddenly in his sleep, his age-spotted hand gripping his collar tightly. What spilled between his fingers was not blood but glimmering Jade Agate flecked with Stardust.
"Don't look into his eyes!" Chen Xing's warning came just a moment too late. The Veteran Coroner's sclera turned white as his eyes shifted to Liuli Color, his pupils splitting into seven petals, each iris inscribed with words from the Ministry of Works Secret Archives.
A sharp pain shot through my right leg; looking down, I saw a sheen of mutton-fat jade shining through my pant leg—the patterns of Jade Transformation were creeping up my veins toward my knee. As the intricately carved door of the library creaked in the torrential rain, my Fire Starter suddenly erupted in azure flames.
Chen Xing's sword tip pricked at half of a Ministry waist token; the gilded characters reading "Zhen Ming Year Seventeen" were melting away, dripping gold onto the Azure Brick below, forming an image of the Big Dipper. "The secret recipe for preserving living puppets sealed three hundred years ago," I traced the newly formed Jade Pattern along the edge of a hidden compartment, "was made from the flesh and blood of cabinet ministers."
Suddenly, Chen Xing covered my mouth. Amidst the vibrations from the sword sheath striking the ground, an entire wall of books slowly turned, revealing nine hundred life-sized jade sculptures bathed in moonlight as they rotated.
The neck of the Minister of Rites' jade statue cracked open with fine lines, blood trickling down along the brocade pattern of a golden rooster on his official robe. Outside, I could hear the startled cries of night watchmen—the real Minister of Rites was rolling on his bed, clutching his neck.
The dragon vein beneath the floor tiles suddenly let out a low wail. As Chen Xing cleaved through the fifth jade statue, a Glazed Tile in the southeast corner exploded in response, revealing the National Master's face, aged like tree bark peering through a crack.
He still had remnants of Jade Agate at the corners of his mouth; his torn sleeve revealed a forearm stitched together with Gold Thread—there lay skin from a young girl. "Lord Ye, do you know what immortality is?" The National Master's fingernails suddenly elongated by three inches as he pried open his own flesh at his chest. "Drinking a cup of Maiden Jade Essence every new moon and full moon is far more effective than any elixir your majesty concocts."
The sword energy unleashed by Chen Xing sliced off half of the National Master's face, exposing stark white bones engraved with the princess's given name.
My Twenty-Eight Constellation Finger suddenly burned with heat, and the phantom of the Xuanwu Position cast a star map of entwined turtles and snakes on the roof. From the direction of the Cold Palace, a series of cracking sounds echoed.
The moment I dashed into the torrential rain, my right leg turned completely rigid like a jade pillar. The Child Figurines on either side of the palace path collectively turned their gaze, their eyes filled with Southern Red Agate shattering simultaneously, blood flowing in the rain like pulsating astrological lines.
As the first lightning split the dark clouds, nine hundred innocent voices chanted in unison amidst the rain: “Mars Guards the Heart, Earth Dragon turns over, July Fourteenth, Opener perishes—”
The Blood Jade in my arms suddenly burned through three layers of fabric. Just as Chen Xing pulled me toward the Taiye Pool, a multitude of Bronze Coffins floated up from the bottom of the pool. Each coffin lid was inlaid with a Double Fish Jade Pendant, and the positions of the Yin Yang Fish eyes corresponded to the birth dates of both me and the princess.
As pool water rushed into my nostrils, I heard two versions of myself screaming across different timelines—myself in the Modern Laboratory trembling before the Dissection Table, where beneath my Willow Leaf Blade lay the corpse of the National Master, covered in stitches.
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