Breakthrough During the Blood Moon Battle

I held the cloth up to the morning light and saw my mother’s face appear where only wax and dye should have been. My hands shook. The hidden image showed the man who helped ruin my clan, and the name I had worn for four years inside a male-only school suddenly felt like a blade against my own throat. I had trained my body to follow a man’s energy flow, hidden my real sex under sweat and bruises, and learned how to smile through every wrong word. That disguise kept me alive. It also kept me close enough to revenge. Then the school’s quiet rules, the old dye craft from my grandmother, and a sealed path under the treasure pavilion started pulling me toward the truth I had buried. I was ready to...