Fu Cai remained where she was, her gaze fixed on the cocoon at the center of the chrysanthemum field. Golden petals continued to return to the soil behind her, one after another, as if the land itself were undoing what had just been attempted.

Her expression barely shifted, yet disappointment settled across her face with unmistakable clarity.

"So this is how mortals end," she murmured softly."Bold with words… hesitant when truth demands its price."

Her gaze sharpened.

"If the heart-veins return," Fu Cai said coldly, "she dies."

A pause.

"What a foolish gamble."

She turned away.

The boundary of the Ghost Prison shimmered as she stepped through.

Outside the Ghost Prison domain, the group stood far closer than before, their unease thick enough to press against the air. No one spoke. No one dared to ask until Kiaria and Diala stepped forward together.

"How did it go?""Was it successful?"

Fu Cai answered only by shaking her head once.

The motion was small, but it struck like a verdict.

Kiaria's teeth ground together as he forced his breath steady. He reached for Diala at once, catching her before her strength faltered, his grip firm but controlled. Around them, heads lowered instinctively–not in ritual, but in understanding.

Condolence arrived too quickly.

"No," Fu Cai said suddenly."Not yet."

She turned back toward the domain.

"If you wait," she continued evenly, "she will be lost."

Kiaria and Diala followed without hesitation.

Inside the Ghost Prison, the air felt heavier than before. The cocoon of roots and vines loomed ahead, thick and unmoving, its presence oppressive. Neither Kiaria nor Diala looked directly at it–not because they could not, but because they understood what it meant to look too long.

Fu Cai stopped.

"I know," she said calmly, "that it is unbearable to see her like this."

Her eyes shifted toward them.

"But you two are the only ones who can still interfere."

Kiaria tightened his hold on Diala's hand.

"Whatever it takes," he said quietly. "Tell us."

Fu Cai nodded once.

"Kiaria," she said, "you purify evil through light. Then do the same with doubt. Warm her heart until it remembers why it chose sacrifice."

Her attention moved to Diala.

"And you–Phoenix."

Diala's shoulders stiffened.

"Your blood carries rebirth. You will sustain her life while the heart resists its return."

"I'm willing," Diala said immediately, stepping forward before Kiaria could speak.

Kiaria did not stop her.

He could not.

"You will bleed continuously," Fu Cai continued. "Kiaria's healing mist will keep you conscious. Do not falter."

Kiaria moved first, hovering forward without touching the ground. Not a single chrysanthemum bent beneath him as he levitated beside the cocoon. Two fingers rose to his forehead, and a pale, mist-white orb slowly condensed at their tips.

The moment it entered the vines, his breath deepened.

Inside the cocoon, Lainsa's body hovered on the edge of collapse. Heart-vein roots threaded through her nervous system, replenishing essence, yet her heart rejected it violently–confused, resistant, unwilling to accept rebirth.

Kiaria activated the Eyes of Insight.

He guided the mist directly toward her heart, wrapping it in steady warmth, cleansing not corruption–but hesitation. The effort drained him faster than battle ever had. His aura thinned, his breathing slowed, yet his control never wavered.

Above the cocoon, Diala hovered beside Fu Cai.

"Are you ready?" Fu Cai asked.

Diala nodded instead of answering. She bound her mouth shut with will alone, afraid even her voice might break Kiaria's focus.

Fu Cai regarded them briefly.

"Mortals," she thought, watching their silent coordination. "Foolish… and relentless."

She floated forward until only an arm's length separated them. Then she raised her hand and pressed two fingers precisely between Diala's ribs.

A chrysanthemum bloom.

Root burst forth.

It pierced through the narrow space between bone and flesh, driving directly into Diala's heart. Her body jerked violently as pain detonated through her chest, sharp enough to whiten her vision.

Diala bit down hard, blood filling her mouth as she forced the sound back down her throat. Tears welled instantly, but she wiped them away before they could fall and taint the formation.

The root pulsed.

One drop of phoenix blood fell.

Then another.

Each drop burned as it landed, boiling with rebirth energy. The vines below shuddered in response, drinking deeply. The red thread binding Diala to Kiaria flared violently, splitting the pain between them.

Kiaria's hand trembled.

But his light did not.

Three minutes passed.

The vines darkened.

Across the field, the golden chrysanthemums began to turn crimson once more.

The scar on Kiaria's forehead began to glow.

A misty-white light seeped out from it, thin at first, then dense enough to veil the space around him. The mist spread outward and wrapped around Diala, swallowing her figure completely until she vanished within it. Her presence remained, but her form did not.

The mist nourished her.

It did so by draining Kiaria.

His spiritual consciousness was pulled steadily, relentlessly, into the mist. The Fairy Nature Essence he had accumulated across Winter Soul Mount–every refined trace of it–was consumed without remainder as the mist continued to flow for nearly thirty minutes.

Kiaria's sea of consciousness trembled.

Stability began to fracture at its edges.

At the same time, Diala's blood completed its transformation. The Body Truth Chrysanthemums across the field deepened from gold into a saturated crimson, petals loosening and lifting from their roots. Red petals spiraled upward, circling, gathering, aligning with purpose as they assembled around the cocoon.

A massive red chrysanthemum formed.

This time, it did not wither.

The constant dripping of phoenix blood preserved its vitality, anchoring it firmly in existence. The mist no longer spread–it focused entirely on Diala alone.

Kiaria received nothing in return.

No healing. No replenishment.

The red thread between them intensified, and the pain that faded from Diala surged into him instead. His body absorbed it without resistance, without sound. He kept his eyes open, forcing clarity as he continued feeding the white cleansing orb into Princess Lainsa's body.

His spiritual energy fell dangerously low.

His vision blurred.

Still, he did not move.

Heart Demon remained silent within him, bound by helplessness. To switch now would pollute the process with demonic essence. Kiaria bore everything himself, breathing growing uneven, chest rising sharply as though the air itself had thinned.

Diala could see nothing inside the mist.

But she felt Kiaria.

Her worry for him and for Lainsa held her upright, unaware that the same worry flowed through the red thread and weighed even heavier on him. Kiaria's consciousness wavered, his breath leaving him in a long, hollow exhale.

Then–emptiness.

But before collapse could claim him, something moved.

Inside Kiaria's sea of consciousness, the sealed floating island revealed itself. The barrier dissolved, and within the shrine he had once constructed, the resting Primordial Spirit opened its eyes.

It tapped a single finger against the armrest.

The sound did not echo–

but the power did.

A vast surge of spiritual energy poured outward, restoring Kiaria's reserves and stabilizing the sea of consciousness in an instant. The wave surged beyond him, washing outward and erasing three converging sufferings at once.

Fu Cai felt it.

Her breath caught.

That presence–

that breath–

She stopped watching.

She began to dance.

This time, without restraint.

Her movements rippled through the domain, and with each step, consciousness returned. The blood dripping ceased. The mist shattered. The cleansing orb dispersed. Everything that had occurred fractured like a dissolving dream.

Kiaria, Diala, and Princess Lainsa awoke together.

They lay where they had fallen.

Princess Lainsa's forehead burned faintly as a mark revealed itself–an Anatomy Chrysanthemum in full bloom. Its inner core glowed a deep, rich red, while the outer petals faded into pale green at their tips, luminous and alive.

The awakening was complete.

"What just happened?" Diala asked, disoriented. "Why are we lying here? Weren't we listening to Fairy Fu Cai?"

"My head is spinning," Princess Lainsa murmured.

Fu Cai laughed softly.

"Mortals," she said, amusement threading her voice, "you are truly interesting."

She glanced at the two of them, then at Lainsa.

"Even within her dream, the bond between you became the key that completed her awakening."

None of them understood her words.

But the bloodline had answered.

Fu Cai studied the three of them in silence.

Her gaze moved slowly–from Kiaria, to Diala, and finally to Princess Lainsa. There was no judgment in her eyes, only a quiet recognition, as though she were observing something that had already bloomed.

"I can see doubt," Fu Cai said at last.

"Not in your thoughts. In your eyes."

None of them spoke.

"The three of you walked together for a long time," she continued calmly. "You bled together. Fled together. Watched lives end together. A bond like that does not vanish just because one of you closes her eyes."

She turned to Princess Lainsa.

"The moment you chose sacrifice, the rest of what followed was no longer the world outside."

Her voice softened slightly.

"It was your heart."

Fu Cai lifted one hand, palm open.

"I only took your hand and placed a single vine into your body. From that moment onward, you entered your Heart Realm."

She looked back at Kiaria and Diala.

"I am called the Body Truth Chrysanthemum because Body and Truth are the only gates that lead to the heart. In the Heart Realm, nothing is false–and nothing is controlled."

Her gaze settled on Princess Lainsa.

"When your heart began wandering, it was not alone. Because of the depth of your connection, both Kiaria and Diala were drawn inside as well. Not by my will–by yours."

Fu Cai's eyes narrowed slightly.

"She saw how you heal others without hesitation. She saw how much you protect Diala."

A pause.

"And her heart concluded something dangerous."

She turned her head from Kiaria towards Lainsa.

"That even if her awakening failed… Kiaria would still save Diala."

Diala's breath caught.

"In her heart," Fu Cai continued, "you were never someone who could stand by helplessly. So your presence changed the realm."

She faced Diala fully now.

"You wished to help. Not to be protected. Not to be spared. From what you knew of Phoenix rebirth, your heart imagined as the solution."

Fu Cai's tone remained even.

"If she was dying, you would give your heart's blood."

She shifted her gaze again–back to Princess Lainsa.

"And because you believed Kiaria would save Diala…"

Fu Cai said quietly,

"your heart manifested the healing mist."

Silence deepened.

Then Fu Cai turned to Kiaria.

"But you," she said, voice sharpening just a fraction, "carry a flaw."

Kiaria did not look away.

"You believe–without realizing it–that when you reach the brink, something within you will always answer."

Her words were not accusation. They were fact.

"That belief anchored the Heart Realm. The existence you rely on became the core that stabilized everything when collapse was inevitable."

She exhaled slowly.

"As for the dance you saw…"

Fu Cai glanced briefly at the ground where flowers had bloomed.

"That was never my doing."

Her eyes returned to Princess Lainsa.

"It was the sensation of heart-veins rooting through your blood. Your heart needed a form to understand it–so it imagined movement. Rhythm. Purification."

She let her hand fall.

"You saw me dancing because your heart required it."

At last, Fu Cai stepped closer to Princess Lainsa.

"Now," she said, "your awakening is complete. But bloodlines do not grow on power alone."

Her gaze sharpened–not cold, but precise.

"What did your heart learn from its journey?"

"This answer," Fu Cai continued, "will determine how far your bloodline can truly go."

She waited.

The chrysanthemum mark on Lainsa's forehead pulsed softly–

alive, listening.

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