- Tower Top · The Empress Dowager's Final Gambit
Tiansheng 4 · Astrological Bureau High Tower
Qian Yiyan had stood on the observation platform through the entire night.
When dawnlight pierced the pale sky over Bianjing's eastern horizon, footsteps sounded behind her. Not the soft official boots of Zhao Yunbi, but hard-soled palace boots, each step steady, brooking no dissent.
She did not turn.
"Astronomer Qian has refined tastes." Empress Dowager Liu's voice halted three yards behind her, calm as if commenting on the day's weather. "A night spent watching the stars—have you discerned anything?"
Qian Yiyan turned and bowed: "Your subject pays homage to Your Majesty."
As she raised her head, for the first time she saw clearly the woman who had ruled from behind the curtain.
The Empress Dowager was past fifty, her features well-preserved, but the fine lines at the corners of her eyes and the slightly pursed lips spoke of years of exhausting deliberation. She wore plain clothes—a deep blue jacket over a crimson skirt, only a white jade hairpin in her bun—dressed simply for one who held the realm's power.
But her eyes… like琉璃 tempered in fire: clear, sharp, fathomless.
"Rise." The Empress Dowager raised a hand, dismissing the attendants. Only the two of them remained on the high platform; the dawn wind filled their sleeves.
"Three days ago, Cao Yan submitted a memorial." The Empress Dowager walked slowly to the railing, gazing down at the just-awakening Bianjing city. "He said you saved his life and destroyed the Liao anchor point at the powder workshop. No small merit."
Qian Yiyan remained silent.
"But he also reported your condition." The Empress Dowager turned to look at her. "Left arm rusted to the elbow, right hand skin mirrorized, memory damaged. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"Can you still hold a blade?"
Qian Yiyan raised her right hand. The mirrorized palm reflected cold light in the dawn; her fingers curled, joints emitting a faint metallic scrape.
"I can."
The Empress Dowager studied her palm for a moment, then suddenly asked: "Were you present the day your father fell?"
Qian Yiyan's heart tightened: "Your subject was on duty at the Astrological Bureau, not at his side."
"Then what were his last words to you?"
"…He told your subject to guard the star charts well, and not forget our origins."
"Falsehood." The Empress Dowager's voice was calm. "Qian Weiyan's last words were spoken toward the palace. He said: Your Majesty, that thing… is not a calamity. It is a scale."
Qian Yiyan's breath stopped.
"Three years ago, your father secretly entered the palace and presented the locations of twelve Gates." The Empress Dowager turned, her gaze sharp as a needle. "He said something is weighing the Song—weighing whether we deserve to survive. The rust-seed, the shadow-devouring, the rule崩解… all are weights on that scale."
She stepped closer, lowering her voice:
"Astronomer Qian, you are now the heaviest weight."
2026 · Xihe Medical Center
Lu Baoyi woke to pain.
Not wound pain—brain pain. As if someone were carving characters inside his skull with a chisel, each stroke cutting to the bone.
"Side effect of memory recovery." Qin Mu's voice came from beside the bed. "That encrypted data you stuffed into the mirror buffer started reverse-decoding last night. Your brain is now re-downloading the lost seventy-two hours."
Lu Baoyi opened his eyes. His vision blurred for several seconds before focusing.
Qin Mu sat in a chair, holding a tablet. Lin Wan was asleep on the Nursing care attendant bed across the room, dark circles heavy under her eyes.
"Download… progress?" Lu Baoyi's voice was wrecked.
"Forty percent. The worst part is over." Qin Mu set down the tablet. "Good news—that message in a bottle you sent? The other side received it."
Lu Baoyi froze.
"Spectral analysis of the museum bronze plate powder residue showed faint rule echoes. The information fragments in those echoes match the protocol signature of your encrypted data." Qin Mu adjusted his glasses. "We don't know who's on the other side, but they definitely opened the bottle."
Lu Baoyi lay back, staring at the ceiling.
Fragments of memory were reassembling in his mind: the powder workshop, the metal woman, the spherical void, and that… fleeting silhouette.
"Her name is Qian Yiyan," he said suddenly.
Qin Mu's fingers paused: "You remember?"
"The name, yes. Her face…" Lu Baoyi frowned, " Still unclear. But I remember the way she looked at people—like she could see through the whole world."
Qin Mu was silent for a moment, then rose and walked to the window.
"Lu Baoyi, I need you to make a choice."
"Again?"
"Not an experiment this time." Qin Mu turned, the dawn light Outline his silhouette. "I obtained the complete Sowing Plan File last night. The cost was considerable, but worth it."
He Take out a silver storage card from his lab coat's inner pocket and placed it on the bedside table.
"Three things inside: one, your father Lu Yuan's complete Movement trajectory for the last seventy-two hours before he disappeared. Two, fragments of the Yuan-Yan Protocol. Three, a preliminary analysis report on Shao Yong's consciousness merge with The Other Side."
Lu Baoyi stared at the card but didn't touch it.
"And the price?"
"Cooperate with me on a dual-key resonance intensity test." Qin Mu's voice was steady. "Not using you as a lab rat—to collect data. Data to fight the system."
"System?"
"The thing that stole your time, that's been watching you." Qin Mu's eyes darkened. "The Sowing Plan isn't just an experiment. It's a war. Between human civilization and The Other Side's maintenance protocol. Your father, Qian Weiyan, Shao Yong… they were the advance scouts."
He paused:
"Now it's your turn."
- Resonance · Conversation Across the Void
Astrological Bureau High Tower
The Empress Dowager left Qian Yiyan three things.
A secret memorial sealed with gold thread, a bronze token engraved with complex star patterns, and one sentence:
"Three days from now, Longmen Mountain. Pei Yuanqing will be waiting for you there. See what needs seeing, take what needs taking, and kill what needs killing… without hesitation."
Qian Yiyan opened the memorial.
Inside were not words, but a star-track Superposition chart. Twelve points of light dotted the Song-Liao border, each with a date beside it—the nearest was just seven days away.
"These are the Gate's activity cycle predictions." The Empress Dowager's voice echoed in her memory. "The rust-seed outbreaks aren't By chance; they're Rule leakagefrom the Gate's periodic opening and closing. The Liao shamans just seized the chance to poison. The trueLesion… lies deeper."
Qian Yiyan closed the memorial and gripped the bronze token.
The token was warm in her hand; the star patterns on its surface glowed faintly, resonating weakly with the rust-mark on her left shoulder.
"This token can Reassignment three-tenths of the Hebei Route frontier forces, and…" The Empress Dowager had glanced back before leaving, her gaze Meaningful. "…the Astrological Bureau's sleeper agents in Luoyang. How you use them is your decision."
She was gone.
Qian Yiyan stood alone in the dawnlight, her mirrorized right palm reflecting her own pale face.
She looked down at the token, then reached into her bosom for the jade pendant.
The pendant was still cold, but held long enough, she could feel the faintest pulse—like a heartbeat,隔着 a thick layer of ice.
She suddenly remembered the words Lu Baoyi had stuffed into the message in a bottle.
"Take care."
Take care, my ass.
The corner of her mouth twitched. She spoke softly to the pendant:
"If you can still hear me, listen up—three days from now I'm going to Luoyang to dig up the protocol fragments your father left. If the whole thing blows up in my face, I'm coming back as a ghost and crawling through the fiber optic cable to yell at you."
Even as she said it, she knew how absurd it was.
Talking to a rock. The rust must really be eating her brain.
But the next second—
The pendant burned.
Not an illusion. Real heat, hot enough to sting her palm. On her mirrorized skin, a line of twisted, rapidly flashing characters appeared:
"Received. I'm going too. If there's a bill next to my father's fragments, burn it for me. ——681"
The characters lasted only three seconds, then faded.
Qian Yiyan stared at her empty palm, stunned for five full breaths.
Then she swore:
"…Lunatic."
But after swearing, the corner of her mouth, involuntarily, curved upward just a fraction.
Xihe Medical Center
Lu Baoyi nearly rolled off the bed from the pain.
Those three seconds had felt like someone stuffing an entire History of the Song Dynasty into his brain. Countless images, sounds, fragments of information exploded inward—the Astrological Bureau tower, a woman's back in the dawnlight, the patterns on a bronze token, and those crystal-clear words: "I'm coming back as a ghost and crawling through the fiber optic cable to yell at you."
"Resonance intensity Break through the threshold!" Qin Mu stared at the monitors. "Did you two just… talk?"
"Sort of." Lu Baoyi gasped, forehead covered in cold sweat. "She's going to Luoyang to dig up what my father left. Three days from now."
Qin Mu recorded rapidly: "A brief Consciousness-level information exchange across a thousand years and through the Gate… This exceeds the theoretical Upper limit of the dual-key mechanism."
"Then the theory needs an update." Lu Baoyi wiped his forehead. "Dr. Qin, that resonance test—I'm in. But I'm adding a condition: the test site must be near Luoyang."
"You want to go there physically?"
"My father's fragments are there. Qian Yiyan is there." Lu Baoyi grinned. "If she really blows it up, I need to be on site to collect the body… or get yelled at by her."
Lin Wan woke, rubbing her eyes as she sat up: "Boss, what kind of stupid stunt are you pulling now…"
"This is serious." Lu Baoyi looked at Qin Mu. "Can you arrange it?"
Qin Mu was silent for a moment, then nodded.
" Xihe has an observation station in Luoyang, which is 15 kilometers away in a straight line from the Longmen Mountain vein. But you need to understand—the rule contamination concentration there is three hundred times the safety limit. You go in, you might not come out."
"If my father could come out, so can I." Lu Baoyi lay back, staring at the ceiling. "Oh, when does the test start?"
"Tonight." Qin Mu put away the tablet. "You need a full Strengthening first. The process… will be somewhat unpleasant."
"How unpleasant?"
"Roughly equivalent to disassembling your brain and reassembling it." Qin Mu walked to the door, then looked back. "You can still back out now."
Lu Baoyi raised his metalized right hand's middle finger.
Qin Mu nodded: "Understood. Two hours, Level Three Laboratory.."
The door closed.
Lin Wan rushed to the bedside, eyes red: "Boss, you're insane? Three hundred times the contamination! You'll turn into…"
"Into what? Rust scraps? A mirror man?" Lu Baoyi managed a smile. "Lin Wan, the last place my father went before he disappeared was Luoyang. Now Qian Weiyan's daughter is going there too. You think that's coincidence?"
He paused, his voice dropping:
"I think… this is the last chance. To understand what they really did back then, what they were really fighting."
Lin Wan bit her lip, and after a long moment said: "Then I'm going with you."
"No."
"I can—"
"You need to stay outside." Lu Baoyi cut her off. "If I'm not back in three days, or if I come back but I'm not me anymore… you need to make the contents of the Yuan-Yan Protocol public. Not to Xihe. To Amber."
Lin Wan froze.
"Amber?" she repeated. "That cultural heritage organization?"
"They're more than just cultural heritage." Lu Baoyi lowered his voice. "My father's lab notes mentioned them—Amber is the only faction that dared to publicly question the ethical Bottom line of the Sowing Plan. They might have… leverage against the system."
He took Lin Wan's hand. His metal fingers were cold, but his grip was tight.
"This, I can only entrust to you."
Lin Wan looked at his hand, then up at him. Finally the tears fell.
"…Come back alive." Her voice cracked. "Otherwise I'll post all those shady videos on your hard drive to the company group chat."
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lu Baoyi froze for a second, then burst out laughing:
"Holy shit, when did you find those?"
"Last month when I was fixing your computer." Lin Wan wiped her tears. "Don't worry, I didn't watch them. Just saw the File name—How to Predict Double Color Ball Lottery Numbers Using the Liu Ren Algorithm.pdf. Your taste is terrible."
"That's academic research!"
"Academic research needs a hidden folder named 'study materials'?"
They looked at each other, then both laughed.
When the laughter faded, Lu Baoyi sighed:
"Lin Wan, if I really don't make it back… do me a favor."
"Name it."
"Burn some paper money at my grave. Burn some incense. And burn me a computer." He grinned. "Just in case there's internet down there too."
Lin Wan punched his shoulder lightly.
"…Get lost."
- Longmen Mountain · Protocol Fragment
Three Days Later · Northern Range, Longmen Mountain, Luoyang
When Qian Yiyan stood at the entrance of the third mine pit, dawn was just breaking.
The pit had been abandoned for years; the wooden framework at the entrance had long since rotted and collapsed, leaving only a dark, downward-sloping hole. The rock surface around the opening was covered in a layer of greyish, velvet-fine rust.
Behind her stood more than thirty people.
Half were elite frontier troops lent by Cao Yan; half were the Astrological Bureau's sleeper agents—Star officials have been lurking for years. in various places monitoring Gate activity. Their leader was a tall, lean man named Pei Yuanqing. A scar ran from his forehead to his jaw, but his eyes were clear and his bearing steady.
"Astronomer Qian." Pei Yuanqing clasped his hands. "The rule contamination inside is extremely concentrated. Ordinary people won't last a quarter-hour. Are you certain you want to go down yourself?"
"Certain." Qian Yiyan checked her equipment—three newly forged steel short-spikes at her waist, a roll of special fireproof oilcloth on her back containing the Empress Dowager's star chart and bronze token.
She looked at Pei Yuanqing: "Captain Pei, if I haven't emerged by nightfall, seal the entrance and report to the Empress Dowager that… Qian Yiyan died in the line of duty."
Pei Yuanqing was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Your subordinate accepts the order."
Qian Yiyan turned, bent down, and crawled into the pit.
Darkness swallowed her.
The tunnel was deeper than she'd imagined.
After descending for about half an hour, the air had grown thick enough to choke. Not lacking in oxygen—rule-level oppression. Each step felt like walking against a gale, invisible pressure crushing from all sides.
The rust-mark on her left arm began to burn.
Her mirrorized right palm reflected the tunnel walls: deep within the greyish rust layer, Dark gold veins of light flowed like tributaries of an underground river, all converging in the same direction.
She followed the light.
Another half hour, and the tunnel opened suddenly.
Before her was a naturally formed cavern. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, but every surface was covered in thick, flowing dark-gold corrosion. The entire cavern pulsed slowly, rhythmically, like the internal organs of some great beast.
At the cavern's center stood a black stone stele, twice a man's height.
Its surface was smooth as a mirror, densely carved with characters that were neither Song nor Liao script. Qian Yiyan moved closer—the characters flowed like living things, sometimes twisting into seal script, Sometimes it breaks down into star chart symbols, and finally solidifies. into a line she could read:
【Yuan-Yan Protocol · Fragment One】
【Covenanters: Lu Yuan (Mirror-Seed First-Generation Receptor), Qian Weiyan (Rust-Seed First-Generation Receptor)】
【Covenant Time: Tianxi 4, Seventh Month, Fifteenth Day · August 21, 1023 CE (Temporary Gate run through Period)】
【Core Clause: Before the harvest procedure activates, the Twin Receptors must complete at least three rule-resonances, establishing a Collaboration network independent of the system. If successful, Qualification obtained to enter dialogue with The Other Side. If unsuccessful…】
The text broke off there.
At the base of the stele was a palm-sized depression, shaped like a jade pendant—or a jade ring.
Qian Yiyan Take out her jade pendant, hesitated a moment, then pressed it in.
Perfect fit.
The stele came alive.
Countless light streams Gush out from its surface, weaving together in midair into fragmentary images—
Image One: Two men stood side by side in the cavern. One wore modern Lab coat—Lu Yuan. The other wore Song star-official robes—Qian Weiyan. Together they pressed their hands to the stele; behind each, a phantom image formed—rippling mirror-surfaces behind Lu Yuan, corroded star charts behind Qian Weiyan.
Image Two: They both coughed blood. The blood fell on the stele and fused into dark-gold patterns.
Image Three: Lu Yuan spoke rapidly; Qian Weiyan nodded. Together they slashed their palms and smeared blood on each other's wrists.
Image Four: A rift opened in the cavern roof. From it, countless dark-gold threads descended, trying to ensnare them. Lu Yuan raised a hand and programmed a mirror barrier; Qian Weiyan triggered a counter-rush from the corroded star chart. The threads snapped.
Image Five: At the final moment, they looked at each other and simultaneously spoke a sentence—their lip movements clear:
"Leave it for the children."
The images ended.
The stele returned to its original state, but in the depression, something new had appeared—a palm-sized bronze mirror, its back engraved with star patterns identical to the jade pendant's.
Qian Yiyan picked up the mirror.
Its surface reflected her face, but in the next instant, the image changed.
It became Lu Baoyi.
He sat in a lab filled with instruments, wearing a hospital gown, grimacing as he endured something. In the mirror, he seemed to sense something; suddenly he raised his head, his gaze appearing to Penetrate the mirror—
Across a thousand years, across the mirror's surface, their eyes met.
Same Moment · Xihe Luoyang Observation Station
Lu Baoyi was in agony.
The "full It was "not" a reinforcement - it was torture. Qin Mu had implanted seven micro-components sensors in his brain, each frantically extracting his memories, cognition, emotions, converting them into data streams injected into the resonance device.
What the device was connected to, Qin Mu hadn't said.
But Lu Baoyi could feel it—that thing was like a black hole, greedily devouring everything.
"Hold on." Qin Mu's voice came through, unusually tense. "Resonance intensity has reached 180% of theoretical value. Just five more minutes—"
"Hold… your… grandmother…" Lu Baoyi ground out through clenched teeth. "What the hell… are you connecting to…"
Qin Mu didn't answer.
Then, suddenly, light exploded before Lu Baoyi's eyes.
Not the lab's light—a cavern, a stele, dark-gold corrosion, and… Qian Yiyan's face.
She held a bronze mirror; in it, reflected, was him.
They looked at each other.
All pain vanished instantly.
In its place was a strange, Across time and space synchronization. He could feel her breathing rhythm, her heartbeat, the burning pain in her left arm's rust-mark, the cold of her mirrorized right hand. He could even "hear" the thought flashing through her mind:
"…So you can actually see me?"
The corner of Lu Baoyi's mouth twitched. With all his remaining strength, he mouthed to her in the mirror:
"No shit."
Qian Yiyan blinked.
Then, in the mirror, she rolled her eyes.
A perfectly executed, utterly vivid, utterly "Qian Yiyan" eye-roll.
Lu Baoyi almost laughed out loud.
But before the laugh could escape, everything changed.
- The Harvester · Descends
The dark-gold corrosion layer on the cavern ceiling suddenly split open.
Not a physical crack—a tear at the rule level. From the rift, a viscous, almost liquid-metal dark-gold torrent poured forth. Within it, countless扭曲, inhuman silhouettes emerged.
They had no fixed form—sometimes human, sometimes beast, sometimes just writhing light and shadow. But all shared one feature: in their chests, a huge, rotating dark-gold vortex.
From the vortex, a voice came:
【Detected unauthorized protocol activation… Retrieved evidence of Twin Receptor Collaborative network construction... Executing cleaning procedure...】
The voice didn't enter through the ears—it was branded directly into consciousness.
Qian Yiyan's brain blazed with pain; blood seeped from her seven orifices. Gritting her teeth, she gripped the bronze mirror. Its surface flared, projecting a pale golden barrier that barely managed to withstand the initial wave of consciousness assault.
But cracks instantly crawled across the barrier.
"Pei Yuanqing!" she screamed. "Pull everyone back! Seal the entrance! That's an order!"
From the tunnel entrance, Pei Yuanqing's roar: "Astronomer Qian! Come with us—"
"Can't!" Qian Yiyan stared at the growing number of dark-gold silhouettes in the rift. "They've locked onto me… Go! Now!"
Footsteps hesitated for an instant, then rapidly retreated.
Qian Yiyan exhaled in relief, then turned to look at Lu Baoyi in the mirror.
Things had gone wrong on his side too.
Observation Station Laboratory
All instruments simultaneously erupted in sparks.
Qin Mu stared at the monitors, for the first time fear on his face: "Rule contamination concentration… exceeding monitoring limit! Something has forcibly broken through the gate! Lu Baoyi, sever the connection! Now!"
But Lu Baoyi couldn't sever.
The mirror's link had penetrated to the core of his consciousness. Forcibly severing would cause immediate brain death.
He stared at Qian Yiyan's blood-soaked, struggling figure in the mirror. Only one thought filled his mind:
She can't die.
"Dr. Qin…" his voice rasped. "Crank the resonance Power… to maximum."
"The rule Turbulence will tear you apart!"
"Maximum!" Lu Baoyi roared. "Then… activate the Mirror-Seed Ultimate Agreement… the one my father left!"
Qin Mu's pupils contracted: "Are you sure? That protocol is incomplete, Side effects unknown—"
"ACTIVATE!"
Qin Mu clenched his jaw and entered a thirty-two-character password on the console.
At the center of the lab, the resonance device connected to Lu Baoyi erupted in blinding dark-gold light.
Within the light, Lu Yuan's phantom materialized.
The phantom turned, looked at Lu Baoyi, and smiled—a faint, relieved smile.
Then the phantom dissolved into countless data streams, flooding into the Mirror-Seed patterns on Lu Baoyi's right arm.
Lu Baoyi screamed.
The metalization on his right arm instantly spread across his entire body. His skin surface erupted in densely packed, constantly flowing mirror fragments. Each fragment reflected a different时空 scene—
A Song-dynasty Bianjing market. A modern Donghai City skyscraper. The Luoyang mine cavern. And even… an endless, Dark gold color void.
He raised his completely mirrorized right hand toward the mirror, toward Qian Yiyan within it, and rasped:
"Qian Eyes… catch… this is… my father's legacy…"
His right hand pressed against the mirror's surface.
In the Cavern
The bronze mirror in Qian Yiyan's hands suddenly erupted with the same Dark gold light.
The light flow surged against the current upwards her mirrorized right arm, instantly covering her entire body. She felt a terrifyingly vast rule privilege flooding into her—not power, but "privilege," like being handed the administrator key to some system.
She looked up at the dark-gold silhouettes pouring from the rift. Instinctively, she raised her right hand, fingers vaguely grasping.
In her consciousness, operational Instruction automatically appears:
【Mirror-Seed Protocol · Ultimate Privilege Temporarily Granted】
【Operable Items: Rule-Editing (Basic Level), Spacetime Anchoring (Temporary), System Interface Forced Access (One Use)】
【Remaining Time: Thirty Breaths】
Thirty breaths.
Enough for one thing.
Qian Yiyan fixed her gaze on the largest dark-gold vortex at the rift's center. Her voice, distorted by rule-resonance, emerged with a metallic Superposition:
"In the name of the Twin Receptor Collaboration network… I request dialogue with The Other Side!"
The vortex froze.
All the dark-gold silhouettes halted simultaneously.
Three breaths of dead silence.
Then, from deep within the vortex, came a voice—completely different from the earlier mechanical tones:
Warm, aged, freighted with weary sorrow:
"…Finally, someone has reached this point."
As the voice fell, all the dark-gold silhouettes dissolved simultaneously into All over the sky light-points.
The light-points merged into the vortex. The vortex contracted, solidified, and finally took shape as a blurry human phantom, floating in midair.
The phantom's features were indistinct—only an old man in ancient robes, long hair loose. He looked down at Qian Yiyan, his gaze seeming to穿透 the millennium, also穿透 the bronze mirror—
Seeing Lu Baoyi simultaneously.
"Children of the Mirror-Seed and the Rust-Seed…" The old man spoke slowly. "My name is Shao Yong. Or rather… I am the remnant consciousness of Shao Yong after fusion with The Other Side's maintenance program."
"The protocol your fathers left—I have received it."
"Now, listen well—"
"The harvest is not destruction. It is assessment. An assessment of whether human civilization deserves to continue existing."
"The rust-seed, the shadow-devouring, the rule Disintegration… all are tools of assessment."
"And you two are the control group—proof that even in extremity, humans can birth Collaboration and sacrifice that transcend individual interest."
"But the assessment is ending."
"The remaining time… is not three hundred ninety-eight days."
Shao Yong's phantom raised a hand and pointed.
In Qian Yiyan's and Lu Baoyi's consciousness, the countdown interface simultaneously refreshed:
【Assessment Final Phase Initiated】
【Remaining Time: Thirty Days】
【Assessment Indicators Quantified and Anchored: 】
【1. Emotional Resonance Intensity: Must reach threshold capable of 'briefly distorting local reality rules' (Historical precedent: Tianxi 4, Seventh Month, Fifteenth Day, Lu Yuan and Qian Weiyan resonated in Longmen Mountain cavern, causing rust逆流 within three yards for three breaths).】
【2. Information Exchange Efficiency: Must achieve 'continuous unmediated consciousness dialogue' exceeding ten breaths (Historical precedent: None).】
【3. Cross-Temporal Rule Collaboration Success Rate: Must complete at least one 'bidirectional rule-editing' (Historical precedent: None).】
【Break any one indicator within thirty days, assessment extended. Break all three, Qualification obtained for formal dialogue with The Other Side. Fail all…】
The phantom began to dissolve.
In his final moment, Shao Yong looked at Qian Yiyan, then through the mirror at Lu Baoyi, and said softly:
"Children, this is not an examination. It is civilization's self-proof. Your fathers only achieved the first… now, it's your turn."
The phantom completely dissipated.
The echo of his voice lingered in the cavern:
"…All things return to nothing."
- Separate Battlefields
The cavern returned to dead silence.
Qian Yiyan collapsed to her knees. The bronze mirror slipped from her hand, fell to the ground, and cracked—a thin line.
She looked down at her right hand. The mirrorization had receded, normal skin color restored, but in her palm was a new mark—a rotating Dark gold star-pattern.
The brand of temporary privilege.
And the death sentence of the thirty-day countdown.
From the tunnel entrance came urgent footsteps. Pei Yuanqing and his men rushed back, saw the wreckage and Qian Yiyan on her knees, and paled: "Astronomer Qian! Are you—"
"I'm fine." Qian Yiyan pushed herself up, retrieved the cracked mirror, and tucked it into her bosom. "Is the entrance sealed?"
"Sealed, but…" Pei Yuanqing hesitated.
"But what?"
"Outside the pit… two people have arrived." Pei Yuanqing's expression was grim. "Cao Sanlang, and… a lady-in-waiting from the Empress Dowager. They say they have imperial orders to escort you back to the capital."
Qian Yiyan closed her eyes.
The Empress Dowager couldn't wait.
Or rather… the Empress Dowager had sensed something too.
"Let's go." She turned and took one last look at the black stele.
On its surface, the characters "Yuan-Yan Protocol" were slowly fading, as if erased by a rubber.
Only one new line remained:
"The time left for the children… is short."
Qian Yiyan clenched her fist. Her nails dug into her palm, drawing blood.
The blood dripped to the ground and was instantly absorbed by the dark-gold corrosion layer.
As if something had licked it up.
Xihe Observation Station
When Lu Baoyi was dragged out of the resonance device, he was barely human.
Seventy percent of his skin was mirrorized—he looked like a shattered Lijie (referring to glass) statue. Qin Mu wrapped him in special isolation cloth, quickly injecting neutralizers.
"Vitals stable… but rule contamination Infiltration deep." Qin Mu stared at the data screens. "He'll need at least three months of rest and purification."
"He has thirty days." Lin Wan's eyes were red.
Qin Mu was silent.
Lu Baoyi convulsed in his coma. His mirrorized lips moved, spitting out Fragmentation syllables:
"…Qian… Eyes…"
"…thirty… days…"
Lin Wan took his hand. Her tears fell on his mirrorized skin, sliding off without a trace.
Qin Mu turned, walked to the console, and called up an encrypted File.
Archive title: [Sowing Plan · Final Phase Contingency]
He stared at the screen for a long time, then entered a string of Instruction.
The archive opened.
The first line:
【If assessment fails, execute Ember Protocol—select no more than one thousand human individuals for forced Time travel across different eras, preserve the embers of civilization. The rest… abandoned. 】
Qin Mu closed his eyes.
In the lab, only the hum of machinery and Lu Baoyi's ragged breathing remained.
Three Days Later · Bianjing, Astrological Bureau
Qian Yiyan knelt in the center of the observation platform. Before her stood the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager did not look at the secret memorial, did not look at the bronze mirror. She only stared at the Dark gold star-pattern in Qian Yiyan's palm, for a long time.
Then she said: "Shao Yong appeared?"
"Yes."
"He said thirty days?"
"Yes."
The Empress Dowager was silent.
Dusk gathered. The wind on the high platform was cold as a blade.
After a long moment, the Empress Dowager slowly rose, walked to the railing, and gazed down at the capital she had guarded for more than a decade.
"Qian Yiyan."
"Your subject is here."
"If it truly comes to that in thirty days…" The Empress Dowager's voice was very soft, almost carried away by the wind. "Take Cao Yan, take whoever you can, and go south. There are ships at Quanzhou harbor—ships with grain, with medicine, with artisans… enough for you to survive a while."
Qian Yiyan's head snapped up: "Your Majesty—"
"I cannot leave." The Empress Dowager turned, her gaze calm. "I am the mother of the Son of Heaven, the Empress Dowager of the Great Song. While the city stands, I stand. If the city falls…"
She did not finish, but stepped closer, her voice dropping to barely a whisper:
"…On those ships are also young children of the Zhao clan, and a few Hanlin academicians. If it truly comes to that, Astronomer Qian, the dynasty's legacy and cultural脉… I entrust to your inhuman hands."
Qian Yiyan shuddered.
Entrust it to her? A half-rusted "tool" that the Empress Dowager herself had sent into danger?
The Empress Dowager saw her shock and smiled—a faint, exhausted smile, with a trace of nearly cruel clarity:
"It is precisely because you are inhuman that you might survive until then… that you might remember there was once a nation called 'Song' in this world."
She patted Qian Yiyan's shoulder:
"Your father had the same look in his eyes. Unwillingness. Anger. Wanting to punch a hole through heaven itself."
"Then do it."
"Thirty days. Enough for one good punch."
Same Night · Donghai City Hospital Room
Lu Baoyi woke.
The mirrorization had mostly receded, but beneath his skin, Dark gold veins still flowed, as if ready to erupt again at any moment.
Lin Wan was asleep at the bedside, still clutching that storage card.
Lu Baoyi gently extracted it and inserted it into his terminal.
The screen lit up.
His father Lu Yuan's image materialized—not a phantom, but a true, pre-recorded final message.
In the recording, Lu Yuan sat in his lab, Background dense with data screens. He looked exhausted, but his eyes were bright.
"Baoyi, if you're seeing this, it means you've activated the Mirror-Seed's Ultimate protocol and met Shao Yong."
"Sorry for dragging you into this."
"But it's the only way—the way for human civilization."
Lu Yuan took a deep breath:
"Thirty days is not a deadline. It's the last chance. The true purpose of the Yuan-Yan Protocol is not to fight the harvest. It's to prove that humanity deserves equal dialogue with The Other Side."
"What we need to display is not power, but 'civilization's possibility'—the possibility that even in extremity, new orders, New collaboration, new hope can be born."
"You and Qian Weiyan's daughter are the best proof."
"So go."
"Find the other protocol fragments. Complete what your fathers left unfinished."
"Tell that cold Other Side—"
Lu Yuan grinned at the camera, grinning like a child who'd just pulled off a prank:
"The thing humans are best at… is making the impossible, possible."
The recording ended.
Lu Baoyi stared at the dark screen for a long time.
Then he raised a hand and wiped his face.
His hand came away wet.
"Dad…" he whispered. "You really know how to give me a hard time."
Outside the window, the night sky held no stars.
But Lu Baoyi felt there should be a light.
A Dark golden, stubborn, refusing-to-admit-defeat light.
He reached into his bosom and grasped the jade ring.
The jade ring pulsed faintly with warmth, as if responding.
As if saying:
"Thirty days left."
"Enough for one hell of a gamble."
Deepest Night
Atop the Bianjing Astrological Bureau tower, Qian Yiyan clenched the jade pendant.
In the Donghai City hospital room, Lu Baoyi clenched the jade ring.
Across a thousand years, they simultaneously raised their heads and looked out at the same night sky.
In the depths of their consciousness, the countdown pulsed silently:
【Twenty-nine days, twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes】
Time had begun.