The starship "Shen Yuan" is drifting in the reef star field. Outside the portholes is the death light of hundreds of millions of years ago, as cold as a knife hardened by frost. A black stone star scale hangs in the center of the bottom cabin. The surface of the scale is polished like a mirror and has fine silver lines, which are the traces of meteorite stars - each one corresponds to an erased star.
Sitting on the Yinhan River in the east, Pingdong wears mysterious clothes and silver armor, his long hair is tied with an ebony hairpin, his eyebrows are like a knife and an axe, and an old scar cuts diagonally at the corner of his mouth, like a cliff. She is the deposed crown prince of the "Cangwu" interstellar dynasty. She has been defecting for ten years. Bounty orders have been posted in seventy-six star fields. The bounty is enough to buy a medium-sized planet. There was half a pot of cold tea in her hand, and the tea soup reflected the faint silver light on the scale.
Sitting on the west side is Gu Mo, wearing white clothes and bare feet. A string of small bronze bells are tied to his ankles. When they move, they jingle like the evening bells of a distant temple. She is the chief astrologer of "Yuan Pavilion" and the only one who can find traces of Yin Hanjiang on the big star map. At this moment, she was twisting a sunspot and rubbing the mark on it with her fingertips. It was the word "death".
"You have been chasing me for seven years." Yin Hanjiang picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup. The sound of water was particularly clear in the quiet cabin. "You chased me from Cangwu Imperial City to the Ghost Mist Star Sea, and today you finally cornered me on the Shen Yuan - just to play a game of chess?"
Sunspots fell from Gu Mo, and the silver light on the star scale suddenly shrank. "Your Majesty ordered me to take you back and make you the 'North Star Lord'." She raised her eyes, her pupils were like deep pools, with a star map inverted, "But you and I both know that the throne should not be his. On the day Yin Hanzhou ascended the throne, twelve star cities were bloodbathed - I have divined the stars, and Cangwu's luck is with you, not Yin Hanzhou."
Yin Hanjiang's fingers paused. That name was like a broken blade, nailed to her chest for seven years. Yin Hanzhou, the current sole emperor of the Cangwu Dynasty, was also a monster that she raised with her own hands for ten years.
"When he was four years old, I taught him how to hold a sword, and when he was eight years old, I went to the school field for him to be whipped. When he was twelve years old, he killed someone for the first time. It was me who held down his trembling hand and told him, 'You are the prince, you can't be afraid.' Then when he was seventeen years old, he took advantage of my expedition to fight ghosts. Fog Star Sea—" Yin Hanjiang's voice sounded like cracked ice, "I poisoned my father, slaughtered all three hundred attendants in the East Palace, and cut off the head of my son who had just turned one year old, and hung it on the archery tower of the imperial city for three whole months."
Gu Mo fell again, the black one suppressed the white one's breath, and the silver light on the star scale began to fade away. The bell on her ankle jingled softly. "In the second year after Yin Hanzhou came to the throne, he built the 'Ten Thousand Bones Tower', and the bricks in the tower were the skulls of ministers who opposed him. In the third year, all the Yin tributaries in Cangwu were burned to the Sea of Ember Stars - no stars, no supplies, and less than 10% of the people alive. In the fourth year," Gu Mo raised his eyes, "he began to search for you all over the sea of stars. The reward order said 'capture alive', and said that he would make you kneel in front of the Tower of Ten Thousand Bones and watch him nail you up with your own eyes."
Yin Hanjiang's knuckles turned white when he pinched Bai Zi. "He hates me. Because I escaped. I cut off one of his arms before I escaped."
The silver light of the star scale suddenly brightened, and an image from seven years ago appeared on the scale - Yin Hanjiang rushed out of the East Palace covered in blood, followed by Yin Hanzhou chasing after her, holding the baby's head in his right hand, and slashing at her back with a sword in his left hand. Yin Hanjiang turned around and cut off his left arm with a sword. The severed limb flew out, and blood spattered half of the wall. Yin Hanzhou knelt down and roared, but then raised his head and smiled: "Sister, run away. The further away the better. When you come back, I will use my remaining hand to nail you to the top of the Ten Thousand Bones Tower with my own hands."
The image fades. Yin Hanjiang slapped Bai Zi hard on the heart of the pan, and the silver light solidified instantly, like the entire Milky Way frozen.
"There's no need to finish the third game. I admit defeat." She stood up, Xuan Yi swept across the table, walked to Gu Mo, leaned over, the ebony hairpin slipped off, and her long hair hung down to cover the sight of the two of them. "I'll go back to the imperial city with you."
Gu Mo raised his head and the bell swayed: "You... Don't ask me why I didn't save my father back then?"
"Don't ask." Yin Hanjiang reached out and held Gu Mo's wrist. There was a red rope tied there with an identical bronze bell. "I saw the knife mark on your right wrist seven years ago - the people from Yin Hanzhou restrained you and did not hand out the antidote."
Gu Mo's eyes suddenly turned red, he bit his lip, and the bell rang urgently. After a while, she said: "You win, I lose. According to the rules, I will do anything for you."
Yin Hanjiang squatted down and looked at her level, while the cold tea swayed out of the pot with the last trace of warmth. "Okay. You do one thing - now, immediately, run with me. If you don't return to the Imperial City, the Star Master is inappropriate, Cang Wu doesn't want it anymore. Take all the star maps of Yuan Pavilion with you, go to the depths of the sea of stars, and find a place where there is no chess game, no astrology, no Yin Hanzhou, and no Ten Thousand Bones Tower."
Gu Mo threw himself into her arms, and the bell jingled, like a bell in a temple that had finally been rung. The silver light on the scale slowly dimmed, like an ebbing tide.
"Have you taken it?" Yin Hanjiang asked in her ear.
"I've taken it." Gu Mo replied in a muffled voice, "figure it out - you will take me away."
The last sunspot on the black stone star scale shattered silently, and the word "death" split into two halves, turning into two rays of silver light and chasing the Shen Yuan away, like two cranes that had just spread their wings.
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