Three days passed in a blink.

Lu Xingchen packed them full—mornings studying the fundamentals of light spirit arts at the Hall, afternoons in the capital library searching records on spirit vein disturbances, evenings following Shen Ye through the capital's streets and alleys.

Following, in practice, meant Lu Xingchen asking and Shen Ye answering.

"This stall's candied fruit is good." Lu Xingchen stood before a small vendor, eyes bright. "Two sticks!"

Shen Ye stood to one side, expression flat. "I don't eat sweet things."

"Liar." Lu Xingchen pressed one stick into his hand. "At the post station I saw you finish yours."

Shen Ye's fingers paused. He looked down at the candied fruit in his hand and said nothing.

"Good, right?" Lu Xingchen took a bite of his own, smiling until his eyes curved. "Told you. Nobody doesn't like sweet."

Shen Ye did not reply. But in the end, he ate the stick slowly, bit by bit.

Lu Xingchen noticed—it was the only time in three days Shen Ye had not refused his kindness.

On the third evening they assembled at the east gate on schedule.

Shen Ye had changed into dark fitted clothes, sharper and colder than before. A short blade hung at his waist, sheath black, material impossible to guess.

"Ready?" Shen Ye asked.

Lu Xingchen patted the jade pendant at his chest. "Ready."

What he did not say was that for three days one question had been turning in his mind—why was Shen Ye willing to help him? From their first meeting, Shen Ye had saved him, shared intelligence, even offered to guide him. Would someone from the shadowfolk council truly be this generous?

"Your brother. Shen Ming." Lu Xingchen spoke suddenly. "How much do you know about him?"

Shen Ye's steps faltered.

It was the first time in three days Lu Xingchen had brought up Shen Ming. He had held back before because he could feel Shen Ye did not want to discuss family. But the mission required it. He had to ask.

"Shen Ming is the legitimate heir," Shen Ye said, voice returning to its usual coldness. "Two years younger than me. Trained personally by our father from childhood. Extremely gifted. Extremely ambitious."

"You think the spirit vein disturbances are connected to him?"

Shen Ye was silent a while.

"I've seen records in the archive," he said at last, voice dropping. "Shen Ming has been researching a forbidden art lately—light spirit forbidden arts."

Lu Xingchen's heart lurched.

Light spirit forbidden arts—the legendary taboo said to be practicable only by shadowfolk, forcibly draining a light spirit wielder's life force to unseal certain locked powers. The drained wielder would be gravely injured at best—

"He wants to use light spirit wielders' blood to open the seal on the Spirit Vein Sanctum," Shen Ye continued, voice cold as ice, "and obtain the forbidden power of light-shadow fusion."

Lu Xingchen went still.

Light-shadow fusion—the legendary original state of light and shadow, and the most powerful force of all. Yet contact between light spirit wielders and shadowfolk caused erosion; union between them could cost their lives. Could anyone truly master such a forbidden art?

"How do you know this?" Lu Xingchen could not help asking.

Shen Ye turned to look at him. Those deep eyes were complicated in the sunset light.

"Because I've read those records too," he said. "And—"

He paused, hesitating whether to go on.

"And?" Lu Xingchen pressed.

Shen Ye looked away.

"And Shen Ming has been looking for a suitable light spirit wielder." His voice was so quiet the wind nearly carried it away. "He's been active around the capital many times, but never moved. I've been wondering what he's waiting for."

Lu Xingchen's heart sank.

Active around the capital.

Looking for a suitable light spirit wielder.

And the moment he arrived, the Light Spirit Hall selected him to investigate the spirit vein disturbances.

"You're saying…" Lu Xingchen's voice roughened, "he was waiting for me?"

Shen Ye did not answer. But his silence was answer enough.

Lu Xingchen drew a deep breath and pushed down the unease.

"Then why are you still willing to help me?" he asked. "If Shen Ming really is behind this, helping me means betraying your family."

Shen Ye looked at him—and smiled.

It was the first time Lu Xingchen had seen Shen Ye smile. Not mockery. Not bitterness. Just a very faint smile, yet it softened his whole person.

"Betray?" Shen Ye said. "From the moment I was born, I was already an outsider in that family."

He turned and walked toward the road out of the city.

"Shen Ming doesn't want the family. He wants power." Shen Ye's voice drifted back. "And I was never part of his plans."

Lu Xingchen hurried to catch up and walked beside him.

"Then why help me?"

Shen Ye did not answer immediately.

They walked a stretch of road. The sun sank toward the horizon. The sky burned orange and red. In the distance, the outline of Shadowvale loomed like a sleeping beast.

"The first time we met," Shen Ye said suddenly.

Lu Xingchen blinked. "What?"

"In the forest. When the shadowfolk ambushed you." Shen Ye's voice was low. "I was only passing through. After I saw them, I could have walked away."

"But you still saved me," Lu Xingchen said.

"…Yes." Shen Ye's steps slowed slightly. "I don't know why."

He lifted his head and looked toward Shadowvale.

"Maybe because of the way you looked at me." His voice was very quiet, almost talking to himself. "When you looked at me, there was no fear. No disgust. None of that…"

He stopped. Did not finish.

Lu Xingchen understood.

Shen Ye had been ignored and sidelined his whole life, transparent in his own clan. People looked at him with contempt, fear, or calculation—but never simply as a person. When Lu Xingchen first met him, he had only thought: quiet, bad temper, hard to get along with. Nothing more.

Maybe that was why Shen Ye had saved him.

"Let's go." Shen Ye quickened his pace. "Before dark, we need to leave the capital's jurisdiction."

Lu Xingchen matched his stride.

Night fell. Stars began to prick through the sky. They walked side by side on the official road—the capital's lights behind them, unknown danger ahead in the shadow lands.

Lu Xingchen knew that from this moment, his fate and Shen Ye's were truly intertwined.

Whatever waited ahead, he would not regret traveling this road together.