Chapter 87

The night in the Capital was as thick and heavy as spilled ink, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression. Shen Mingyue leaned low over her horse's back, her fingertips unconsciously brushing against the reins as the residual stench of blood from the leather soaked into her skin. In the distance, the palace walls pierced the night sky like the fangs of a giant beast. Torches blazed along the battlements, stretching the guards' shadows into elongated, distorted shapes cast across the mottled bricks, resembling vicious, clawing ghosts. These shadows writhed and warped in the flickering light, swelling like small mounds one moment and shrinking like phantoms the next, as if foreshadowing the terrifying events unfolding within the Imperial Palace. The air was thick with the pungent stench of gunpowder mixed with the odor of burning flesh, declaring that this place no longer symbolized peace and authority. Shen Mingyue inhaled faintly, and her stomach churned. Suppressing her nausea, she raised her eyes to look at Gu Jinghong beside her. Under the moonlight, Gu Jinghong's profile was taut, his jawline locked in a rigid line, and his dark eyebrows knitted tightly into a heavy frown, as if he might turn into a sharp blade at any second and pierce the enemy's heart.