Mingxi stiffened. “You’re not blaming Poppy.”
“No,” Mingzhao said calmly. “I am stating the truth.”
Xu Yunlian turned to Poppy, her expression softening. “We must protect you. Both of you.”
Poppy looked around the room—at the elders, the family, the foxfire trembling above them—and felt the weight of something vast pressing at the edges of the realm. Not touching. Not attacking. Just waiting.
“What do we do?” she asked.
Mingzhao folded his hands.
“We prepare,” he said. “For the day the fragment stops whispering…” His gaze sharpened. “And starts calling.”
The foxfire lanterns flickered in answer, as if the valley itself recoiled from the idea. Poppy drew a measured breath. Mingxi’s hand tightened around hers, grounding her even as a faint unease crawled across her skin.
Mingzhao continued, voice grave, “The elders will monitor the shrine wards. Mingxi, Poppy… rest. Tomorrow, we begin wider investigation of the leylines surrounding Huoyáo Jìng.”
But rest was not what waited for them.
Not that night.
Not with the valley humming under their feet like a heart with an irregular beat.
Chapter 96
They had barely stepped out of Council Hall when Poppy froze.
“Mingxi.”
He seemed to feel it the same instant she did—the air tightening, the faint shimmering thread pulling at her chest. His tails snapped around her in alarm.
“What is it?” he asked.
She pressed a hand over her sternum. “It’s like… something tugging. Like a thread caught to my ribs.”
Mingxi’s breath went sharp. “Your qi is reacting.”
She shook her head, confused. “No, this isn’t me. Something outside is pulling on it.”
His expression hardened with the fury of instinct. “We’re going to the Leyline Chamber.”
Poppy blinked. “Now?”
“Now.”
He took her hand and didn’t let go.
The chamber beneath the old library felt colder than usual. Normally, foxfire orbs drifted near the ceiling, humming softly. Tonight, they hovered low, dimmed to a cautious glow. At the center, the leyline swirled—a pool of liquid light shifting through pale gold, moonlit silver, soft glacier-blue. It pulsed with an energy that always felt alive.
Tonight, it trembled.
Mingxi stepped in front of her immediately, shielding her with his body and his tails. “Stay close to me.”
Poppy exhaled and stepped to his side, refusing to be completely sheltered.
“It’s okay. I want to see,” she said.
He shot her a pained look—half worry, half admiration—but said nothing.
