From that day forth, I crossed into a new existence. Liu Rufeng's words—the price of power—became a thorn embedded deep in my flesh, aching with every step I took.
Moonfall City thrived on betrayal, its very air thick with schemes. Yet I knew the unvarnished truth: in this quagmire, only the coldest and most unyielding could survive. This was no mere contest of commerce and politics—it was an unraveling of the soul.
I began navigating the city's power structures: merchant guilds with their gilded treachery, nobles who traded lives like chess pieces, military factions with bloodied hands, and the shadow syndicates that lurked beneath it all. Each faction demanded its own currency—sometimes coin, more often secrets or souls. These were creatures of calculation, not conscience.
There were nights I questioned whether any part of me remained untainted. The ideals I'd once carried like a lantern now lay shattered, their light smothered beneath layers of artifice and compromise.
Then came the summons.
Liu Rufeng's study swam with incense smoke, the candlelight painting his sharp features in flickering chiaroscuro. He stared out at the moon, leaving me to stand in silence—a deliberate pause to let the weight of my choices settle upon me.
"You still hesitate." His voice cut through the quiet. "You cling to the fantasy of purity. In this world, that is the rarest luxury of all."
I lowered my gaze. His words were scalpels, dissecting the last tender places within me. He wasn't wrong. Every decision in Moonfall demanded payment in flesh—usually someone else's.
"What do you imagine you can still preserve?" He turned now, eyes like polished obsidian. "These people, these games—they've already consumed you. Who do you serve now? Not ideals. Not even vengeance. Only yourself."
The silence that followed was a hammerblow to the chest. No rebuttal came. Moonfall had given me power, but it had taken my humanity as collateral.
"You will choose." He rose, his hand resting on my shoulder—a mockery of camaraderie. "And when you do, I'll be there. To burn it all down... or rebuild it in your image."
When I met his gaze, I saw the truth laid bare: here stood a man who had long since sold his soul to the abyss.
Days later, when I next stood at the city's beating heart, something within me had crystallized. The scholar was dead. The runaway girl was a ghost. What remained was something sharper—a blade honed by Moonfall's darkness.
Survival demanded supremacy.
And for that, I would pay any price.
The true game was only beginning.
My next move would be the point of no return.
ns216.73.216.174da2
and then Add to home screen.