The capital was too bright.
Even from a ruined moon base, I could see it—an orbit-wide ring of floating imperial towers encircling the planet like a golden halo. To most, it was a symbol of power, prosperity, unity.
To me, it looked like a crown of thorns.
[Destination Confirmed: Imperial Capital – Outer Ring Sector 7.
Distance: 120,000 km.
Available Travel Method: None.]
"I'll find a way," I said aloud.
Qin'er blinked from her seat across the fire, watching me wrap the final bandages around my arm. "You really mean to leave? They'll kill you before you reach the orbit line."
"They can try."
She stood quickly and bowed. "Then I will come too."
"No." My voice was flat, sharp. "This isn't loyalty, Qin'er. This is war. I need you alive to rebuild what they tried to erase."
She looked like she might cry, but she nodded. Good. I couldn't afford softness. Not yet.
I made my move the next morning.
There was only one supply skiff scheduled for the week, and the guards were lazy—they thought the moon exile was still broken.
Mistake.
I used the golem core I salvaged to override the skiff's access panel, siphoned just enough power from the lab's collapsed teleportation ring, and synchronized my pulse with the docking clamps.
[Skiff Override: 97% Complete… 99%… ACCESS GRANTED.]
The doors hissed open. I slipped inside and sealed them shut behind me.
Ten minutes later, the skiff launched.
[Stealth Flight Activated: Estimated Arrival – 3 hours]
I finally let myself collapse in the co-pilot chair, breathing hard.
Behind me, the moon shrank until it was nothing but a silver ghost.
What I didn't know—what the system didn't tell me—was that someone had already noticed.
Scene Break: Capital – Hall of White Vows
"You're certain it was her?"
Lord Yue, High Director of the Imperial Intelligence Circle, folded his gloved hands and studied the projection floating before him.
"Yes," the agent replied. "Energy imprint matches Shen Li. But…"
He hesitated.
"She's changed."
Yue's eyes narrowed. "Changed how?"
"She accessed a forbidden cache. Used a Void Seed. Fought and killed a Moon Warden Prototype. Alone."
A flicker of calculation passed through Yue's expression. "Impossible. Shen Li was a cripple. Her cultivation threads were locked at twelve."
The agent said nothing.
Yue waved a hand, dismissing him. Alone now, he turned to the sealed file embedded into the floor—a crystal drive bearing the Phoenix sigil.
"Another version of you?" he murmured. "Then we're running out of time."
> [Override Clearance: Level 7.
File Accessing: Project Crownfall – Subject: Shen Li 4X]
Back to Shen Li – Orbit, En Route
The skiff hit turbulence just as I started decoding another system subroutine. A surge of power flickered through the panel—too fast. Not natural.
[System Alert: External Scan Detected. Source: Capital Beacon Tower.]
[Ping Origin: Sector 7 – Hall of White Vows.]
So they knew I was coming.
Good.
Let them prepare.
I landed in an abandoned docking bay on the lower orbit tier—scrap workers and outer-ring beggars scuttled like insects through the dark. I ditched the skiff, masked my energy signature, and slipped into the city's veins.
Everything was sharper here. Louder. The system's interface adapted automatically.
[Map Fragment Unlocked: Capital Ring – Tier 3.
New Factions Detected:
– Hall of White Vows (Active Hostile)
– Ministry of Stars (Neutral)
– Ascendant Healers Guild (Unknown Affinity)]
I needed information. Allies. Cover.
And I needed a new name.
[Alias Protocol Activated.
Suggested Cover Identity: Lin Yue – Apprentice Spirit Alchemist.]
I smirked. Shen Li's old title. "Fitting."
The guild archives were deep beneath the city, sealed beneath four levels of bureaucratic nonsense. But I had a plan.
There was one person in this city who still believed Shen Li had never been guilty.
My sister.
Flashback: Earth Memory Overlay
I remembered her now—Shen An. Born five years after Shen Li. Sent to the Temple Sector. Quiet, bookish. Always watching.
She wasn't a fighter.
But she was the one who cried when Shen Li was taken away.
I tracked her to the Ascendant Healers Guild, Tier 2 district. Disguised, cloaked, pulse hidden.
She stood in a high greenhouse tower, weaving spiritual thread into a glowing herb that shimmered with healing Qi. Her face was older. Tired. But her eyes were the same.
I stepped from the shadows and whispered, "Do you still believe I was innocent?"
She froze.
The threads dropped from her hand.
Then she turned—slowly—and whispered, "No one else ever dared to ask me that."
Her voice cracked.
And for the first time since I woke up in this cursed world…
…I wasn't alone.
[New Character Unlocked: Shen An – Support NPC (Affinity: High)]
Skill Tree Branch: Herbalist / Spirit Sensor / Memory Keeper
Loyalty Bond Forming… 12%]