Chapter 605 - 601 – THE WHITE TIGER’S FIRST HOTPOT, A FAINT PULSE FROM THE SOUTH, AND THE SHADOW OF THE COUNCIL AWAKENS

The hot steam rolling up from the giant copper pot in the middle of the Fallen Star City governor’s mansion dining table carried the scent of dried chili, monster-meat oil, and Nocture’s signature spicy herbs, so thick it stabbed the nose of anyone standing within three steps. The red-black broth inside the pot boiled gently, showing off fist-sized chunks of Alpha Shadow Tiger meat that Sylvia had harvested from the Forest of Death a few days earlier.

Sylvia sat gracefully at the head of the table in her elegant black casual dress, silver chopsticks in her right hand and a smile at the corner of her lips that reflected no sincerity at all. In the lap of First Princess Hua Zhaoyue, seated on the right side of the Queen of Death, a small white cat with thin black stripes on its back had just opened its pale golden eyes wide, its tiny nose bobbing up and down as it sniffed the steam drifting in the air.

’What is that?’ Baihu’s telepathic voice sounded clear but slightly shaky, echoing in Sylvia’s and Zhaoyue’s heads. ’It smells... dangerous. Like a fire with no name. But why is my stomach rumbling?’

"It isn’t fire," Sylvia answered gently, picking up a thin slice of meat from the broth with her chopsticks and dipping it into a small bowl of sesame oil and minced garlic. "It’s hotpot. One of the greatest inventions of human civilization before the apocalypse, and the only reason I still think this world is worth preserving."

’You exaggerate, Sylvia,’ Sol grumbled from the silk pillow on the opposite chair. The flower garland made by the elf children still circled his golden-furred neck. ’You say that every time there’s red broth before your eyes.’

"Because it’s true."

’And you call this food dangerous,’ Noir added from the shadow behind Sylvia’s chair, only a pair of small black ears poking out. ’Yet last night you ate thirty pieces of meat and only stopped when Brom ran out of stock.’

’That wasn’t eating. That was energy recovery,’ Sol argued with the dignity of an ancient golden dragon who didn’t want to lose face.

Zhaoyue held back laughter with the back of her hand. At the far end of the table, Second Prince Hua Tianming, whose eyes were still swollen and whose appearance was far from majestic, sat with his head bowed, chewing slowly like someone who had lost all will to live but couldn’t stop eating good food. Beside him, Stacia, who had only arrived toward evening with messy golden hair and eye bags black as charcoal, had finished a whole bowl in silence before her head drooped slowly onto the table, and she fell fast asleep with chopsticks still pinched between her fingers.

"Let her be," Sylvia said when Zhaoyue moved to wake Stacia. "Two days explaining a reactor to forty court mages is enough to make anyone want to become a stone."

Sylvia turned back to the white cat in Zhaoyue’s lap. Carefully, she lifted a piece of dipped meat, blew on it twice, then brought it to the White Tiger’s small lips.

"This is level two," she said kindly. "Brom says level one is for elf babies and level three is for dwarves who want to prove something. Since you’ve only just woken after decades, I chose the wise middle path. Please, Guardian of the West. Bite."

Baihu looked at the piece of meat with doubtful eyes. Its nose sniffed once more. Then, with the caution of a sacred creature who had survived a thousand sufferings and did not want to lose to a bowl of broth, it opened its tiny mouth and bit.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then both pale golden eyes widened until they nearly covered its whole small face. Its ears shot upright. The white fur on its back puffed out like a squirrel’s tail struck by lightning.

’HOT!’ The telepathic scream was so loud that Sol toppled off his pillow and Noir popped fully out of the shadow. ’HOT! MY TONGUE IS BURNING! WHAT DID YOU GIVE ME, WOMAN WHO SMELLS OF DEATH?! THIS IS POISON! THIS CAN KILL AN ANCIENT GUARDIAN!’

"Calm down, calm down, breathe slowly." Sylvia laughed without trying to hide it at all, while Zhaoyue panicked, grabbing a glass of cold water and shoving it in the cat’s face. "Don’t drink water, that just spreads the chili. Drink milk. Brom, bring warm milk!"

"Milk, Miss Sylvia!" The orange-bearded dwarf appeared from the kitchen door in an oil-stained apron with a porcelain cup in hand, his face beaming like someone who had just watched his first customer cry from happiness.

The porcelain cup of warm milk was set on the table, and Baihu stuck out its tiny tongue into it desperately, like someone just rescued from a forest fire. It gulped, coughed, gulped again, then lay limp in Zhaoyue’s lap, its small belly rising and falling, eyes half closed.

’I was chained for decades,’ it murmured weakly. ’I was drained until near death. But none of that ever made my tongue feel as if it were burning from the inside.’

"That means you’re still alive," Sylvia replied calmly, taking another bite of meat with a face that clearly felt no guilt whatsoever. "The dead can’t taste spice."

"Sylvia," Zhaoyue scolded softly, but her shoulders shook with suppressed amusement.

For a full minute the dining table was silent, with only the bubbling of the boiling broth and Stacia’s soft snoring at one side. Then, without warning, a small white paw lifted from Zhaoyue’s lap and pointed straight at the pot.

’One more,’ Baihu said in an extremely calm telepathic voice, as if moments ago it hadn’t been lamenting its fate. ’The one from before. But smaller and not so hot.’

Silence.

Sol stared at the white cat with his mouth slightly open. Noir peered out of the shadow with one black eyebrow raised. Zhaoyue blinked twice. And Sylvia, who had held one simple goal behind this entire adventure, began to curve a very wide smile of victory.

"You like it," she said softly.

’I did not say that.’

"You asked for more."

’That is... energy recovery,’ Baihu argued, turning its face away, and Sol across the table immediately choked on his own saliva.

’THAT’S MY LINE!’ the golden dragon protested. ’You stole my excuse, Old Tiger!’

’You said earlier that only dragons need rest,’ Noir needled coldly.

As the two dragons began trading telepathy at an intensity that disturbed the peace of the whole room, Sylvia dipped a fresh piece of meat in the broth, blew on it, and fed it to the White Tiger’s little mouth. This time Baihu chewed more slowly. Its eyes were half closed, its tiny white tail swayed thinly in the air, and a soft purr began to come from its small chest, a purr no longer of exhaustion, but of comfort.

’This... tastes like summer,’ it whispered after swallowing. ’Like running across a meadow under the midday sun without caring about anything. It has been so long since I felt this way.’

"You’ll eat much more," Sylvia promised. "I’ve already ordered Brom to prepare a special menu. Hotpot with root vegetables, monster lamb, and snow mushrooms from Quiet Bay. The spice can be adjusted."

’I want it spicy.’ Baihu yawned widely. ’But not too much.’

"That can be arranged."

At the end of the table, a hoarse voice sounded for the first time since dinner began.

"So... is it really him?"

Everyone turned. Hua Tianming looked at the white cat in Zhaoyue’s lap with an expression hard to untangle, not anger, not fear, not arrogance, but something more fragile. His small silver crown had been taken off and placed beside his bowl, and without it he looked like an ordinary young man carrying too heavy a burden.

"The one who has been holding up the capital," he continued softly. "I saw him once. When I was fifteen, I followed Father north out of curiosity. He was enormous then, and his eyes... looked at me from beneath the chains." He stopped, swallowed. "I told myself that creature was only a resource, like a mana stone. If I hadn’t, I couldn’t have slept."

Zhaoyue looked down at her brother, and for a few moments no one spoke.

Baihu opened one pale golden eye. That eye regarded Tianming with a calm that demanded nothing.

’You are the one who shouted on the plain this morning,’ it said. ’The Second Prince.’

"Yes," Tianming answered, barely audible.

’You were afraid.’

"I’m very afraid."

’That is good,’ Baihu said. ’One who knows his fault and is still afraid has not fully fallen. It is the one who is not afraid who is dangerous.’ It yawned again, blinking slowly. ’Finish your food, young man. Red broth is good for those who are repenting. I only learned that ten minutes ago.’

Tianming looked at it for quite a while. Then, with trembling lips he tried to hide, he lifted his chopsticks and began chewing again. A single tear fell into his bowl, but no one mentioned it. Zhaoyue merely reached out and patted her brother’s shoulder once, lightly, without a word.

Night descended slowly over Fallen Star City. Magic lamps lit one by one along the black-paved streets, and from afar came the merry laughter of workers who had just finished laying stones for the new fortress wall. The servants had cleared the leftover bowls from the table. Stacia, still asleep, was carried by Celes to the guest room like carrying a precious crate, while Tianming was escorted by two Nocture soldiers back to the second floor with far calmer steps than before.

Sylvia stood on the dining room balcony, sipping warm tea with her gaze sweeping the horizon. Beside her, Zhaoyue sat leaning against the balcony rail with the white cat now sleeping curled in the crook of her arm, belly bloated and purr soft.

"He ate seven portions," Zhaoyue whispered in amusement.

"Seven and a half," Sylvia corrected. "I counted. That’s much faster progress than Sol. He took three days to dare to try level two."

’I heard that,’ Sol muttered from the balcony rail without turning.

"I said it on purpose."

Just as Sylvia was about to sip her tea again, the small ears of the white cat in Zhaoyue’s arms twitched. Once, twice. Its pale golden eyes opened slowly without a sound, no longer drowsy, but sharp and alert. It rose from Zhaoyue’s arms, leapt lightly onto the balcony rail, and sat facing south, its tiny body rigid as a statue.

"Baihu?" Zhaoyue called anxiously. "What is it? Does your stomach hurt?"

’No.’ The telepathic voice was much quieter than usual, almost a whisper. ’There is something... I have only just felt.’

Sylvia set down her cup. Her violet eyes narrowed, and True Sight began to light up silently. "What?"

’While I was chained, I could feel nothing beyond that mountain. The chains sealed all my senses, leaving only pain.’ Its white ears rotated slowly, as if listening to something thousands of kilometers away. ’Now the chains are gone. And I can hear it.’

"Hear what?" Sylvia asked.

’A pulse. Very faint. Like a small ember in cold ash.’ Those golden eyes shifted south, past the city rooftops, past Stacia’s fertilizer test fields, past the forests and dark mountains in the distance. ’From the south, far beyond the edge of this land, in a place once called the Fire Mountains. I know that pulse. I have known it since before the sky cracked.’

Sol, who had been indifferent all this while, suddenly straightened. His breath caught.

’You mean... one of the four Ancient Guardians?’ he asked in a voice suddenly small. ’But you said yourself that only you remain.’

’That is what I believed,’ Baihu answered quietly. ’For years I felt alone in this world, and I thought the other three had left it. But this pulse... it is very weak, weaker than anything I have experienced myself. Perhaps it only sleeps. Perhaps it is dying.’ Its white tail swayed slowly. ’I do not know. But it exists.’

Zhaoyue covered her mouth with both hands. Behind her shock, her eyes sparkled. "So there are others," she whispered. "There are still others we can save."

Sylvia did not answer at once. She looked at the dark southern horizon, while her right index finger began tapping her knee in a slow rhythm known only to those closest to her. The boredom that had haunted her for weeks, ever since the port city began running on its own, now shifted into something else. Not mere curiosity, but the drive of a hunter who has caught the scent of a new trail.

"South," she murmured. "The mithril mountain Sol destroyed was also at the southern end, wasn’t it?"

’Only two hours’ flight from the city,’ Sol answered weakly. ’But the Fire Mountains, if they are the ones I’m thinking of, are far out there. In a region that is no longer on any map.’

"Good." Sylvia smiled broadly, a smile that made Sol instantly regret having opened his mouth. "That means no one will disturb our picnic."

’That’s not a picnic!’

"It’s a picnic with a little cosmic risk," Sylvia corrected lightly. "But not tonight. Tomorrow Stacia wakes up, Zhaoyue must settle matters with the Council, and Baihu still needs to eat more before it can make a long journey. I’m not an impatient monster."

’You are most certainly an impatient monster,’ Noir retorted from the shadow, half asleep.

"Quiet, my secretary."

Baihu turned and looked at Sylvia from atop the rail with pale golden eyes that now held something that had never been there before, not hope, but its seed.

’Thank you, woma,n who smells of death,’ it said. ’You have given me food, freedom, and now something to seek.’

"The price is steep," Sylvia replied. "You must tell me the name of the owner of that pulse once you’re sure."

’Its name is Zhuque,’ Baihu answered quietly. ’The Vermilion Bird of the South.’

Meanwhile, far to the north, in the Holy Capital of Tianhua, which no longer depended on the breath of a tiger, political shadows moved silently beneath the silver-blue crystal light, alien to its inhabitants. In a windowless stone chamber beneath the Upper District, a supreme elder of the Grand Noble Council stared at the shard of dead black crystal in his palm. The Emperor had returned and saved the island. The Legion had surrendered. The Second Prince was imprisoned by a foreign woman. All the cards they held had fallen one by one.

But not all of them.

The elder rose with an ivory staff in hand and walked toward an iron door hidden behind the crystal wall, a door that had not been opened since Emperor Hua Chen ascended the throne, a door whose existence even the Emperor himself did not know.

"Baihu was only the first seal," he whispered to the darkness behind the door. "And I have always prepared for the possibility that someone would break it."

Behind that door, something that had been locked away for decades began to shift.