Chapter 23: The Echoes of Power
Pain.
That was the first thing Lin Ma felt as consciousness returned. A deep, gnawing ache throbbed through every nerve in his body. His limbs twitched, vision blurry and swimming with colors, as if his eyes were trying to adjust to a different reality.
His hand, the one that had touched the stone tablet, was glowing faintly with strange, spiral-shaped runes.
"What happened…?"
His breath came in ragged gasps. The garden was no longer quiet. The breeze had stilled. The birds had vanished. It was as if nature itself held its breath, watching him from the shadows.
"You touched it," Ji Yanyu's voice came from behind him — sharper now, almost panicked. "I told you not to—!"
"I didn't mean to!" Lin Ma growled, staggering to his feet. "It pulled me in."
Her eyes darted to his glowing palm. Her expression flickered between fear and something else… something like recognition. "That mark… that's not from the Ji family's records."
Lin Ma stared at the pulsing symbol etched into his flesh. "Then whose is it?"
"I don't know." She bit her lower lip, a rare crack in her usual composure. "But it's not normal. That tablet was sealed for a reason."
A gust of wind blew through the garden, rattling the branches and rustling the grass. It sounded almost like a whisper — faint, unintelligible, but real.
Lin Ma's eyes narrowed. "I heard that."
Ji Yanyu didn't respond. Her face had gone pale.
The wind whispered again. This time, clearer: "You are chosen."
Chosen?
Lin Ma spun toward the tablet. The vines had withered. The carvings now glowed with the same energy as his hand. He stepped forward, cautiously, but before he could touch it again, Ji Yanyu grabbed his arm.
"Don't," she whispered.
He looked at her, truly looked at her for the first time — not as a cold-hearted daughter of the Ji family, but as someone caught in the same web of lies he was slowly unraveling.
"What aren't you telling me, Yanyu?"
She flinched at the use of her name. "There are legends. Old ones. About someone who would awaken the buried bloodline. Someone who doesn't belong to this world — yet shapes its destiny."
Lin Ma froze. "You mean… me?"
"I don't know." She let go of his arm. "But you're not ordinary. And my father… if he finds out what just happened—"
As if summoned by her words, loud footsteps echoed from the main estate.
Voices. Guards.
Ji Yanyu's eyes widened. "They're coming."
Lin Ma didn't hesitate. He grabbed her hand. "Come with me."
"What?!"
"They'll blame you, too. For letting me near it."
She didn't answer — but didn't pull away either.
The two darted into the deeper garden paths, weaving between twisted trees and stone lanterns overgrown with moss. Lin Ma's breathing was harsh, but his mind was sharper than ever. Whatever the tablet had done to him, it had also awakened something. A clarity. A force.
Finally, they reached the old storage house at the garden's edge — disused, hidden beneath layers of cobwebs and time.
They slipped inside.
Darkness swallowed them whole.
Ji Yanyu slumped against the wall, chest heaving. "They'll search everywhere."
Lin Ma knelt, inspecting the strange mark on his hand. The runes were beginning to fade. But he could still feel the hum beneath his skin, like a buried engine waiting to be switched on.
"What do they want with that stone?" he asked.
Yanyu looked away. "Power. It's always about power in this family. And secrets. So many secrets…"
She paused. "The Ji family weren't always like this. But something changed a generation ago. After my uncle disappeared."
Lin Ma's brow furrowed. "Disappeared?"
She nodded. "He was meant to inherit the Ji legacy. But he vanished one night — right after touching that same tablet. No one ever spoke of him again. And my father... he changed. Became obsessed with purity, obedience. Tradition."
Lin Ma sat back, his mind reeling. Was the tablet cursed? Or was it a key? And had he just begun unlocking something that even the Ji family feared?
He looked at Ji Yanyu again — truly seeing her now not as his cold-hearted wife, but a reluctant heir trapped in a gilded cage.
"Yanyu," he said softly, "what if we stop running?"
She blinked. "What?"
"What if we fight back? Not just the Ji family — but whatever this is. This system. These secrets. I don't know what's happening to me, but maybe it happened for a reason."
She stared at him for a long moment. "You think you're destined for something?"
He met her gaze. "Maybe. Maybe not. But I'm not going to live on my knees anymore."
Silence.
Then, to his surprise, she let out a short, bitter laugh.
"Maybe you really aren't ordinary after all."
The door rattled.
Voices. Closer now.
Yanyu turned to him, her voice firm. "We'll need allies. And answers. The tablet... the mark... there are records. Hidden under the Ji library."
Lin Ma nodded. "Then that's where we go next."
Outside, the world hunted them.
Inside, a rebellion had just begun.
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End of Chapter 23