C15 Chapter 15

Tang Yao wanted to say that she’d always known what kind of life he was after.

In her spare time, she’d taught herself how to cook dishes from around the world and learned flower arranging—everything so that once she finally had her freedom, she could fly to his side and build a real life with him.

But now, she couldn’t get a single word out.

It was as if fate understood what she meant. The instant her footing slipped into nothingness, Huangtian lunged forward and grabbed her arm.

From inside the sleeve of the arm he’d caught, a cold arrow shot out without warning, straight for Huangtian’s throat. If he didn’t let go, she would kill him—and the two of them would go down together.

Huangtian made the smart choice and released her, and she fell into that endless, lightless dark...

Those memories were complete and vivid, burned into her mind, existing alongside the original owner’s memories in this body—separate, never blending.

Tang Yao had no idea what was happening to her now. It felt like one of those stories where a soul slips into someone else’s body—or takes it over.

Back when she was alive, she’d spent two weeks living inside this massive tomb. She knew where monsters were most likely to show up. Moving like a wisp, she avoided the worst of it and quickly reached the stone chamber that held the Grand Profound Yin Yang Jade.

The chamber was bare. In the center, on a raised platform, sat a box made of some material that was neither metal nor stone—something she couldn’t identify.

Unlike the other treasure chambers packed with traps, this room had none. Instead, the box itself was locked into the platform as if it had been cast as one piece with it, and only the box was protected by an incredibly intricate mechanism.

The first time she’d opened it, it had taken a huge amount of effort—and a lot of time.

This time, though, she knew exactly what to do. She stepped up to the box, flicked a few parts of the mechanism with her fingers, and it opened on its own.

Her heart pounded. So it was still going to end up in her hands?

No matter what, Huangtian would never get it!

But when the box fully opened, she saw that the inside was completely empty.

She let out a small gasp, her mind going blank. For a long moment, she couldn’t accept it.

Then she thought it through again and understood: she’d come back in someone else’s body. The tomb itself hadn’t changed, though—and the Grand Profound Yin Yang Jade was gone. That left only two possibilities.

Either Huangtian had taken it, or it had fallen with her into the fissure deep inside the tomb.

The thought left a dull ache in her chest. She’d lost her life because of that thing, and now she couldn’t even lay a finger on it.

She was frustrated, but she still had to get out of this place as fast as possible.

The longer they stayed, the more likely something would go wrong. Back then, nearly a hundred people had gone into the tomb—elite fighters from the Dragon Clan, plus mercenaries like her and Huangtian—but by the time she’d fallen into the crack, only a little over a dozen were left.

Of course, that first time they’d gone in blind, feeling their way forward, which made everything harder. General Lang’s Wind God Battalion, on the other hand, had been unusually lucky.

She led them straight to the same escape route she and Huangtian had found before.

Even so, a place like this wasn’t somewhere you lingered.

When she rejoined the group, she did see General Lang. He looked lightly wounded—blood was seeping through the heavy armor at his waist. He tore off a strip from his inner robe, wrapped it over the armor as a quick bandage, and left it at that. Deputy Commander Chen had already organized the soldiers to move toward the exit. Out in the open area, Deputy Commander Zhang and several others lay dead.

Tang Yao didn’t ask questions. Deputy Commander Zhang had looked suspicious from the start—maybe he really had been the traitor—and General Lang didn’t seem foolish.

If Zhang had made it out alive, that would’ve been the surprising part.

But her calmness only made General Lang’s gaze settle on her again, tight as a net.