Morning mist hung like a sheer veil over the city outskirts, casting the distant mountains and fields in a hazy gray, as if the world were shrouded in a mysterious mask. Shen Mingyue walked along the dew-slicked flagstone path, heading toward the place etched in her memory. The moss on the stones was slippery underfoot, forcing her to tread with extreme caution, lest she lose her footing.
She had tossed and turned all night aboard the *Ink Scale*, the fragments of her childhood—awakened by the words of the Tianji Pavilion master—flashing through her mind like shards of a shattered mirror. In those blurred images, a gentle female voice hummed an unknown tune, soft and lingering; there were small figures darting through intricately carved beams, innocent and filled with wonder; and finally, that roaring inferno, the flames licking the sky and devouring everything, leaving behind only endless darkness and terror. Her palms were damp with sweat as she gripped the half-piece of a Jade Pendant she had brought from the secret alley near Jishi Hall—a token the one-eyed shopkeeper had slipped to her as she left the Tianji Pavilion, claiming it held the secret to her lineage.
The pendant felt icy, and its carved patterns bit into her palm, yet it only solidified her resolve to unearth the truth, as if it were the key to unlocking the mystery of her past. Turning the final corner, a dilapidated estate appeared before her. The vermilion paint on the great doors had peeled away, exposin…
Chapter 52