Chapter 599 - 595 – THE CHAIN OF A FALSE COVENANT, THE BLOOD OF THE HUA FAMILY, AND THE WHITE TIGER’S DEADLINE

A pair of pale golden eyes stared up at Sylvia from the bottom of the crater, dim, yet still holding a sharpness that made the hair on her neck stand on end.

’"It depends," you say?’ Baihu’s voice echoed in their minds, hoarse and weak, but with something like bitter laughter in it. ’It has been a very long time since any human dared to answer like that. They usually prostrate themselves, beg for blessings, or brandish weapons while trembling.’

"I’m not the type to prostrate myself," Sylvia replied lightly, stepping to the edge of the spiral stone staircase that descended to the crater floor. "And I only carry weapons when I need to. May I come down?"

The white tiger did not answer right away. His eyes shifted, passed over Sylvia, and came to rest on the giant golden dragon standing rigid at the crater’s rim. His two round ears twitched slowly.

’Golden Dragon,’ he whispered. ’I know that aura. The bloodline of the sky guardians. What is your name, young one?’

’S-Sol,’ Sol answered in a voice Sylvia had never heard from him before: small, reverent, almost stammering. ’I am Sol, born from the last egg of the ancient Golden Dragon. I... never imagined I would meet one of the Four Guardians.’

’Not "one of". Only I remain,’ Baihu corrected softly. ’The other three left this world long ago. And now I am about to follow them.’ His eyes returned to Sylvia. ’Come down, creature who reeks of death. I want to see you more clearly.’

Sylvia raised the corner of her lips. "Reeks of death? Is that a compliment or an insult?"

’Both. I have not yet decided.’

The spiral staircase was made of white marble veined with gold. Ancient script was carved into every step, half of it already eroded away. Sol shrank into a tiny cat and leapt onto Sylvia’s shoulder, while Noir stayed within her shadow and sent only one short sentence by telepathy: ’Be careful. The chains are alive.’

When she reached the floor of the stone chamber, Sylvia could finally see Baihu up close. What she saw made her chest tighten.

The white tiger was far larger than she had expected. His body stood as tall as a five-story building, and his black stripes gleamed like ink on snow. Yet that majestic body now looked gaunt. His ribs showed through his dull fur, his breathing was labored, and wrapped around his whole body were thick purple chains, each as big around as a human waist. The chains pierced straight into the flesh of his four legs, his neck, and his back. At every puncture, dried golden blood clung stiffly to his white fur.

From the chains, three pipes of blackish-purple energy crawled up to the stone walls and vanished into the darkness above. They pulsed slowly and steadily, like blood vessels draining something out of Baihu’s body.

"How long has it been?" Sylvia asked quietly.

’Since a few years after the world cracked. Time feels long when it is spent in chains,’ Baihu answered. ’Back then the land shook, the sky split open, and millions of people ran in panic with nowhere to live. I descended from the layers of the heavens to protect them, because that was the duty passed down to me since the first age.’

Sol held his breath on Sylvia’s shoulder.

’An Eighth-Tier mage came with his followers. He was not yet an emperor then. He introduced himself as Hua Chen. He offered a covenant: I would become the protector of the territory he would one day found as a kingdom, and in return, he promised to look after me and this sacred land forever. I accepted because I believed humans could be trusted.’ His eyes closed for a moment. ’But the instant I let my blood fall upon that magic circle, the circle turned into chains. The covenant was false. He never wanted a protector. He wanted a source of power to build his kingdom.’

Sylvia narrowed her eyes. With True Sight, she traced the three energy pipes crawling upward, following that dense purple current far to the north, past mountains, past plains, toward a point she already knew.

"The capital," she murmured. "That floating island. The magic chains that anchor it to the pillar of the earth."

’You see it?’ Baihu opened his eyes. There was a faint surprise in them. ’Yes. Most of my energy flows into the magic core that supports the Upper District, its crystal towers, its light trains, its gold-and-white walls. All the splendor of that capital was built within a handful of years, and it stands upon my body, which is slowly wrung dry every day.’

A heavy silence fell over the stone chamber. On Sylvia’s shoulder, Sol let out a low growl that trembled with rage.

"So Emperor Hua Chen himself is the mastermind," Sylvia said flatly. She remembered the Eighth-Tier ruler who had slapped his own son at the palace banquet and looked at her with wary respect. It turned out that man was keeping a secret this big.

’He is the one who set these chains with his own hands. Afterward he entrusted the guarding of the seal to the Council of Nobles. They send mages every month to renew the seal and make sure the flow is never interrupted. It seems only a handful of people within the Council know the truth.’ Baihu snorted weakly. ’That same Council later enlarged the capacity of the magic core for their fleets and new projects.’

Sylvia nodded slowly. The pieces of the puzzle began to fit together in her head: a kingdom that had risen so fast, the extreme inequality between the mage caste and the common people, and a capital whose grandeur seemed to have appeared out of nothing. All of it built upon a single sacred being bound in the dark.

"And now you’re nearly dead," she continued. "Because they’re squeezing too much."

’Because in recent months, the Council has increased the drain to power their new fleet. My body can no longer recover as fast as the energy is taken.’ Baihu’s breath came in gasps. ’My life thread... you can see it, can you not?’

"Yes." Sylvia raised a hand and pointed gently toward Baihu’s neck. "Only one thin strand left. It will snap within days."

’How many days?’

"Three," Sylvia answered honestly. "Maybe fewer if the drain increases."

Baihu fell silent. Then he laughed softly, a bitter laugh that made Sol’s chest throb with pain. ’Three days. After years of being bound for having trusted a human, I will die in three days. How ironic.’

"I can change that," Sylvia said.

The golden eyes flashed. ’Do not give me false hope, woman who reeks of death.’

"I never give false hope," Sylvia smiled faintly. "That’s not my style. But I need to know how these chains work. If I just break them outright, what happens?"

Baihu drew a long breath before answering. ’There are three layers. The first layer is the binding chains, which hold my body in this place. The second is the three channels that drain my energy. The third is the central seal beneath my belly, which unites everything.’ His eyes glanced downward. ’The binding chains can be broken by great power, but every break will send a signal to the Council in the capital. They will know at once. The channels can be severed, but if they are cut suddenly, the energy along the pipes will snap back and destroy my heart. And the central seal...’

He stopped.

"The central seal?" Sylvia pressed.

’The central seal cannot be removed by anyone except under one condition. Blood. The blood of a Hua descendant, given willingly. It mirrors the false covenant he tricked out of me. Only the same blood can undo it.’

Sylvia went quiet. One face immediately surfaced in her mind: a young girl with black hair, who at this very moment was welcoming guests in Fallen Star City with a courageous smile.

’I can guess what you are thinking,’ Baihu said softly. ’One of the Hua descendants is near you.’

"One person." Sylvia sighed. "Emperor Hua Chen’s First Princess. She’s my friend. And she doesn’t know anything about this. She’s the daughter of the man who chained you."

’Then the choice lies in the hands of you both,’ Baihu said gently. ’I will not force it. Even after all this, I do not wish to drag an innocent child into her father’s sin.’

There was something very deep in that tone, something that made Sylvia look at him with a slight change in her eyes. Baihu, a being who had been drained for years, was still thinking about the possibility of hurting a girl he had never even met.

"You’re too kind," Sylvia said at last.

’I am simply tired of hatred,’ Baihu replied tenderly.

Sylvia crouched beside one of the chains and pressed her palm against its cold, vibrating surface. The chain was alive. She could feel the pulse of ancient magic creeping through her palm, trying to find a way into her soul.

"Noir," she called softly.

The shadow at her feet moved, and Noir finally emerged fully, a small black cat with glowing purple eyes. He yawned wide and stretched. ’Finally, some work.’

"You’re the one who said you needed exercise."

’I never said that.’

"I know. But now you have to. Those three energy channels, can you hold them without cutting them? Think of it as plugging the pipes with shadow."

Noir looked at the three pulsing pipes on the wall. His purple eyes narrowed, and then a thin smile appeared on his tiny lips. ’You want me to restrain the flow without stopping it, so the capital thinks everything is normal.’

"Exactly."

’Difficult, but doable. I need help.’

"Sol."

’I’m ready,’ Sol answered quickly, hopping down to the floor. His cat body glowed gold. ’Whatever I need to do.’

"Channel your sacred energy into Baihu’s body. Not to heal him completely, but to stabilize his life thread. I don’t want his heart to fail when Noir starts blocking."

Sol looked at Baihu with eyes that had gone teary again. ’It would be an honor.’

Sylvia took out a chest from the System Inventory. Hundreds of bottles of high-concentration mana recovery potion made by Nocture were scattered across the marble floor, pure golden liquid glimmering softly. She opened twenty bottles at once and poured them onto Baihu’s half-open tongue.

’It feels... warm,’ the white tiger whispered. ’Like morning sunlight. It has been so long.’

"Drink more," Sylvia said flatly. "I still have plenty."

Over the next few minutes, the stone chamber filled with Sol’s golden light and waves of Noir’s shadow crawling along the walls. One by one, the energy-draining pipes were wrapped in a thick dark sheath. The purple pulse that had been fast and aggressive slowed until it was almost imperceptible. And in the middle of the chamber, Baihu’s life thread, which had been as thin as a hair, slowly thickened and glowed brighter.

Sylvia straightened and drew a long breath. A thin sweat dampened her temples. Stabilizing a being of Baihu’s caliber while hiding the traces from the capital’s monitoring magic turned out to be quite tiring.

"That should be enough for now," she said. "Your life thread is stable. With the potions I gave you, you can last about a week. The Council won’t be suspicious either, since the energy flow still looks normal from their end."

Baihu closed his eyes, then slowly opened them. His gaze was brighter now. ’Thank you,’ he whispered. ’I never thought I would say this to a human again.’

"I’m not purely human," Sylvia chuckled.

’I know.’ A faint smile adorned the tiger’s lips. ’But perhaps that is exactly what lets you see what they cannot.’

Sylvia stood tall and looked straight into those golden eyes. "Baihu, I want to set you free. But I have to talk to Zhaoyue first. She has a right to know. And she has a right to decide for herself."

’I understand.’

"I’ll come back with her, if she agrees. At the latest..." Sylvia counted in her head, "...four days from now."

’I will wait,’ Baihu answered calmly. ’But remember, woman who reeks of death. Even though you have stabilized my life thread, the Council may increase the drain once they notice a disturbance. My time may not be as long as you think.’

"I know." Sylvia met those eyes once more, then smiled slightly. "So don’t die yet. I just found a new friend, and I don’t like losing one before I’ve had the chance to treat you to hotpot."

Baihu was silent for a moment. Then, for the first time in years of captivity, a small, sincere laugh echoed softly through the ancient stone chamber.

’Hotpot,’ he repeated, chuckling. ’I do not know what that is. But I will stay alive just to try it.’

The sun was already slanting to the west when Sylvia returned to the top of the crater. Sol, in dragon form, waited at the marble rim with eyes still swollen, while Noir had already returned to her shadow and was purring softly.

"Sol."

’Yes.’

"Home. We have a girl to talk to, and two days before those uninvited guests arrive."

Sol nodded slowly, then spread his wings. Before they shot into the sky, Sylvia looked once more at the crater beneath her feet. Deep within the white mountain, the golden-white thread of life shimmered faintly, and for the first time, it no longer looked about to snap.

"Wait for me," she whispered.

The mountain wind carried the words into the darkness. Far below, an old white tiger who had long forgotten the taste of hope closed his eyes slowly, and for the first time in years, slept in peace.