Against my will, I was dragged with my half-brother into an evil spirit realm.
We stood in a garden that Perfectly mirrored the portrait.
Lotus flowers bloomed across a glass-like lake. The sky was blue, the sun radiant, yet it had been night just moments ago. Spirits and their tricks.
The air was fragrant, overwhelmingly floral. Almost enough to mask the scent of blood.
Almost.
What kind of ancient karma was I paying off for all this? Seriously.
My life better start shining golden after this... if I make it out alive.
Jianyu stirred beside me. My stomach twisted.
I braced myself for a fight, too tired to run again.
But strangely... he didn't speak. Didn't even look at me.
He walked past like I wasn't there.
His eyes were dull. Lifeless. A pale lotus-shaped mark glowed faintly in them.
A manipulation spell.
The spirit had cast it on him.
I called his name. Once. Twice. I even used every insult I'd ever coined for him since we were children.
Nothing.
This is bad.
I lunged forward, grabbing his arm. "Jianyu!" But he shoved me aside with inhuman strength, sending me sprawling across the stone path. My palms scraped against the cold marble, drawing blood.
Not that I wanted to save him. But my chances of making it out of here were slightly better with him alive.
Maybe.
I convinced myself of that.
Seeing how my attempts were unsuccessful, I decided to give up and explore the realm. If I could find a way to defeat the spirit, I could get both of us out.
I moved through the gardens, my footsteps echoing ominously. Past bridges and pavilions and painted stone.
The lotus smell was suffocating. I'd heard it was the queen's favorite, but it was overused, as if to hide a dark truth the fragrance held.
Slowly, the light faded. The scent grew less sweet. The perfume of lotus turned metallic again.
Darkness swallowed the path like a hungry beast.
I stepped into a shaded grove.
Bodies.
They lay everywhere.
Women. Girls.
Maids.
Their robes were Chongniang Palace-issued. Some I recognized, Mei Lin, who used to sneak me extra rice. Little yu, barely fourteen.
All of them had their necks slit. Their blood sucked dry. Their faces frozen in silent screams.
This is what became of the disappearing maids in my wing.
Food. For an evil spirit.
Evil spirits fell into two categories: those who fed on tears, terror, guilt, anger, and human emotions, considered weak, though given enough feeding and the right conditions, they could evolve into the second type. Blood-consuming dark spirits. Killers who slaughtered humans to exist. There were legends about soul-eating spirits too, but those were mostly considered myth.
Given this spirit occupied the dead queen's portrait, a place where her husband and children often came to express their grief, I could assume it had started as the first type and upgraded to a blood-sucker.
Her abilities couldn't be that deadly yet. That's why she relied on spells. But that didn't make her any less of a threat.
After exploring for what felt like hours, I paused near a cluster of blood-stained stones where the massacre had been heaviest.
A soft rustling caught my attention.
From behind a lotus stem, a small creature emerged. A fox kit, no bigger than my palm, with fur like fresh snow and eyes the color of rubies. It moved with the fluid grace that marked it as something otherworldly.
A newborn dark beast, likely spawned from all the spilled blood saturating this place.
These creatures usually choose high-level dark spirits as their owners. They complete some sort of irreversible ritual that binds them for their whole life, they're to dark spirits like dogs are to humans, their best friends.
It approached me cautiously, head tilted with innocent curiosity. Despite everything, I found myself smiling. It was... adorable.
I knelt down, extending my scraped hand—still bleeding from when Jianyu had shoved me earlier. The little fox sniffed delicately, then began lapping at the blood with its tiny pink tongue.
its red eyes shone a little brighter as it was being nourished.
I petted its soft fur gently. "Smart, aren't you? Playing innocent while you feast."
The fox kit purred, a sound like distant thunder, and nuzzled against my palm before scampering away into the shadows.
I watched it disappear with an odd fondness. Just a baby now, harmless enough. But if it survived and grew... well, that would be someone else's problem.
I had way bigger issues to deal with, the first being finding the evil spirit controlling this realm to get out. The longer I stayed, the weaker I'd become.
I followed the same direction Jianyu had gone. After a while, I reached a place that looked almost too beautiful to be real.
The lake shimmered like liquid starlight. A pavilion rested where two bridges met, delicate and ethereal.
Inside it, Jianyu lay reclined as if nothing had happened, sipping tea with a woman.
Her.
The queen.
She looked exactly like the painting.
Fresh. Serene. Gentle.
Kind eyes, long combed hair, a smell like home, genuine beautiful smile.
"Welcome home, dear."
Her voice was honey-sweet, like no one had ever spoken to me before.
She ran her hand over my cheek. Her touch was warm. Soothing. A mother's caress.
I didn't consent to it, but I found myself following her. Sitting beside Jianyu. Letting her pour tea.
So... this was motherly love?
It was... nice.
Too nice.
So nice it had to be fake.
I felt myself losing control to her illusion, so I forced out the question I needed answered most from someone who acted like a mother.
"What am I mother?"
She smiled again. Her eyes shone with false certainty.
"My beautiful child."
Ah.
Something in me snapped like a blade through silk. Her alluring spell shattered.
Because although I'd spent my life longing for a mother, I knew damn well I didn't and never will have one. The thought of pretending otherwise irritated me to incomprehensible levels.
No manipulation spell could ever make me forget that.
My hand reached for her throat, still pretending I was under her spell. Once close enough, I struck like a viper. My supposedly soft princess hand, one that had never worked a day transformed into something monstrous as I wrapped my fingers around her neck.
She struggled, eyes bulging. "Li Na, you're hurting your mother.."
I laughed. How ironic she'd jump to that conclusion.
She'd crafted a trap perfect for the Queen's children. Luring them with affection, with false memories. Pretending to be someone lost and beloved.
She'd gathered all this from my father, who no doubt visited the painting everyday and talked to it like a fool, about Lina. About the twins.
But not me.
He never mentioned me.
She didn't know who I was because she never heard of me.
I met her eyes, letting my own burn red with fury.
It wasn't her fault, poor thing only did all of this to live. But I had no one else to take my rage out on.
The moment she saw my true face, her smile faltered.
Her illusion cracked like breaking glass.
Gone was the soft woman.
In her place, hollow black eyes, pulsing dark veins, razor claws, fangs like curved daggers.
She snarled, thrashing against my grip. "What are you?!"
I didn't answer.
She couldn't hurt me.
Not yet.
She wasn't strong enough.
This was going to be easier than I thought.
Until-
Agony exploded through the back of my skull like lightning.
Jianyu hit my head from behind.
That bastard.
His sword, still unsheathed, whistled through the air again as I crashed to the floor. Blood poured from my scalp in hot, sticky waves.
It hurt like nothing I'd ever felt.
The spirit stroked his head lovingly, her puppet master's touch gentle.
"good boy! yu'er," she cooed.
I had never seen him so... docile.
Mothers really are terrifying.
Even fake ones.
I struggled to sit up, the world spinning violently. My previously white sleeves were now crimson with blood flowing from my head. I felt it, liquid and warm, trickling down my neck. a sensation that terrified me. But I still managed to rise, my hand clawing at the false floor of the realm.
After a moment, the bleeding slowed. My wound felt suspended, blood didn't flow, but the pain remained.
The spirit lifted my chin with one clawed finger, peering into my eyes. Her own shimmered with curiosity.
I glared at her, hatred burning in my chest.
Unable to do anything else, I was far too injured to fight back.
I'd expected her to tear my head off, but surprisingly she was inspecting me, taking a long look into my eyes. Another trick?
"Your mind games don't work on me," I declared through gritted teeth. Even on the verge of death, I refused to be fooled by anyone's fake motherliness.
After surviving everything life had thrown at me, dying to some amateur blood-sucker felt like the ultimate insult.
"No," she said quietly, voice oddly sincere. "You're.."
BANG!
The sound tore through the realm like thunder, splitting the sky in half with a crack that made my bones vibrate.
Wind howled, carrying the scent of raw power.
A figure emerged from the chaos, stepping through the tear in reality itself. Mist swirled around him like living smoke.
My head snapped toward this new arrival. Even injured, I could feel his overwhelming presence, like standing too close to a lightning storm.
From the dissipating fog, I could see him clearly. White hair that moved like clouds in an eternal breeze. A sharp, unsheathed blade that seemed to drink in the light around it. Crystals hung from his waist, marking him clearly as what he was.
A spirit hunter.
One I'd never seen before.
The spirit's grip on me tightened, panic flooding her features. Her claws dug into my neck, drawing thin lines of blood.
"Move one step and she dies," she hissed, using me as a human shield.
She wasn't stupid. From his boldness, tearing through her realm like paper, she knew exactly how much of a threat he posed. His aura screamed immense, terrifying strength.
Jianyu stood at her side, obedient as a trained dog, sword still raised.
The spirit hunter took one look at me, then at her.
He smiled.
I stared at him in fascination and growing dread, unable to read what lurked behind those pitch-black eyes that reflected nothing.
The next thing I saw was him lifting his dark metal sword. His white hair whipped around his face as power gathered around the blade like a storm. The spirit's nails dug deeper into my throat, making me bleed.
I expected him to care, to stop his attack and try to trick her into releasing me first.
But he didn't give a damn.
He raised his weapon, drawing in enough power to level mountains. The very air around us began to crack and splinter.
And his strike was aimed directly at her.
And me.
The hostage she was clinging to.
Time slowed as I saw my life flash before my eyes, killed by a powerful spirit hunter was a much more tragic ending than I'd imagined for the nameless bloody fourth princess.
The blade descended like a falling star, carrying enough force to obliterate us both.
Everything went white.