mory ca flooding back. The journey. The desperate need to see her daughter. i is supporting her through the city. Gates. A familiar aura. Arms caught her as she fell.
Shuyin.
The lady tried to sit up, her body protesting the movent with weakness but not pain. She managed to prop herself up on her elbows, and the scene before her made her heart stop.
A man, tall, handso, dressed in expensive sleepwear, was kneeling beside another sofa, holding soone. The woman in his arms was covered in blood, unconscious, her face pale as death itself.
Even from this distance, even in this condition, the lady recognized her daughter.
"No..." The word escaped her lips as a broken whisper.
Lu Yuze’s head snapped around at the sound. His eyes widened. "You’re awake."
But the lady wasn’t looking at him. She was staring at Shuyin, at the blood, at the terrifying stillness of her daughter’s body. Using strength she shouldn’t have possessed, she pushed herself off the sofa and stumbled forward, nearly falling. i rushed to support her, but the lady shook her off.
"What happened?" Her voice was stronger now, edged with a mother’s fear that transcended weakness. "What happened to my daughter?"
Lu Yuze’s expression was anguished. "She saved you. She removed all three afflictions, the poisons, the curse. But the Soul-Severing Poison... she had to absorb it into herself to extract it from you. And now..."
He didn’t need to finish. The lady could see it clearly, could see the spiritual damage written across her daughter’s aura like cracks in porcelain. The poison was inside her, doing its deadly work, severing the bonds that kept her soul anchored to her body.
"No. No, no, no..." The lady dropped to her knees beside her daughter, hands hovering over Shuyin’s body, afraid to touch, afraid that even the slightest contact might shatter what little remained. "Baby, what have you done? What have you done?"
Tears stread down her face, the first tears she’d shed in years, even through all her own suffering. She had endured torture silently, had crossed realms on the edge of death without complaint, but seeing her daughter like this broke her completely.
"I’m sorry," she sobbed, her voice raw. "I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have.... I wasn’t worth this. I wasn’t worth your life."
"She thought you were," Lu Yuze said quietly. "She didn’t hesitate. Not for a second." Yes, Lu Yuze had watched and couldn’t stop her.
The lady reached out with trembling hands and cupped Shuyin’s face, feeling the coldness of her skin, the faint flutter of breath that grew weaker by the mont. This was her baby. The child she’d given birth to, raised, and loved more than her own life. The daughter she’d been willing to die to see one last ti.
And now that daughter was dying because of her.
"Please," the lady whispered, pressing her forehead against Shuyin’s. "Please don’t leave . I just found you again. Please, baby. Please."
i approached cautiously, her own face wet with tears. "My lady... your strength. You should rest. The princess used enormous amounts of energy to heal you, but you’re still recovering...."
"I don’t care about my strength!" The lady’s head snapped up, eyes blazing with an intensity that made even Lu Yuze take a step back. "My daughter is dying. Do you understand? My daughter sacrificed herself for , and I will not... I cannot... just sit here and watch her fade."
She looked down at Shuyin again, and sothing shifted in her expression, grief transforming into determination, into the fierce resolve of a mother who would tear down heaven itself to save her child.
"There is a way," she said suddenly, her voice quiet but certain.
"What?" Lu Yuze leaned forward. "Tell . Anything."
"Life force transfer. Direct, unfiltered, from my soul to hers." The lady’s hands were already beginning to glow with a soft silver light, different from Shuyin’s golden radiance but no less powerful. "She gave her life force to stabilize while she worked. Now I give it back, with everything I have remaining."
"But you just recovered," i protested. "If you transfer your life force in your condition..."
"Then I die instead of her. So be it."
"My lady..."
"That is not a debate, i." The lady’s tone was absolute. "She is my daughter. She is my heart walking outside my body. If one of us must die tonight, it will be . I have lived centuries. She has her whole life ahead of her."
She placed both hands on Shuyin’s chest, directly over her heart, and closed her eyes. The silver light grew brighter, beginning to flow from her hands into Shuyin’s body.
Lu Yuze watched, torn between hope and horror. "Will this work?"
"I don’t know," the lady admitted, her voice already growing strained with effort. "The Soul-Severing Poison is inside her, doing its work. I can give her strength to fight it, to hold on longer, but I cannot remove it. Only she can do that, from the inside, if she has the will to survive."
"She has the will," Lu Yuze said with absolute certainty. "She’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever t."
Despite everything, the lady smiled faintly. "Yes. She gets that from ."
The silver light intensified, pouring from the lady into Shuyin in steady waves. The lady’s face grew pale, her hands trembling with exertion, but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop.
Ah Ling burst back into the room, the family physician rushing in behind her, a man in his sixties with silver hair and carrying a dical bag. He stopped short at the doorway, taking in the scene, the blood, the two unconscious won, the supernatural light emanating from one to the other.
"What in god’s na...."
"She needs help," Lu Yuze said curtly, gesturing to Shuyin. "Internal injuries, severe blood loss, possible organ damage. Whatever you can do."
The doctor approached cautiously, professional training overriding his shock. He knelt beside Shuyin, checking her pulse, her breathing, pulling out his stethoscope. His frown deepened with each examination.
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