The seeds of mistrust Jianyu had sown between Gong Xuelan and Mistress Zhao Hansu had begun to bear bitter fruit. Heifeng Cheng, already a crucible of political tension, simmered with an almost palpable anticipation. The "neutral" sect gathering, ostensibly a competition for patronage, had devolved into a series of veiled accusations and escalating spiritual provocations. Jianyu, as Niánmei, moved through it all with a chilling composure, his male form, Xu Jianyu, a constant, silent presence within his multiplexed spirit, ready to emerge.
The climax of the gathering was a grand "Veil of Truth" ritual, meant to foster transparency and forge alliances. It was a massive, shimmering spiritual array, woven from ancient light-threads, designed to reveal the deepest truths of those who stepped within its glow. It was a trap, of course, a desperate attempt by the combined sects to force revelations and solidify power. But Jianyu had anticipated it. He had planned for this.
He stepped onto the central platform, bathed in the ethereal glow of the Veil. The air crackled with qi, and hundreds of eyes, from every major sect, were fixed on him. Gong Xuelan, her face a mask of cold anticipation, stood on one side. Mistress Hansu, her eyes narrowed with suspicion, stood on the other. Empress Yuelian, her face etched with a desperate, possessive hope, watched from her bone-throne.
The Veil pulsed, its light intensifying, probing Niánmei's spiritual essence. Jianyu allowed it, for a moment, letting it brush against the carefully constructed layers of his identity. Then, with a silent command to his System, he unleashed it.
The Veil of Truth, instead of revealing a single, cohesive truth, shattered. Not physically, but spiritually. The light fractured, splintered into two distinct, shimmering forms. One, the ethereal, beautiful Xu Niánmei, her aura radiating the Moonlotus Saint's purity. The other, the stoic, resolute Xu Jianyu, his qi a sharp, tempered steel, undeniable in its masculinity.
A collective gasp ripped through the crowd, followed by a stunned silence. Then, pandemonium.
"Heresy!" a Chixia Gong elder shrieked, pointing a trembling finger. "A single soul, broadcast across two forms! It desecrates the very laws of cultivation!"
"Divine transcendence!" countered a Moonbone priestess, falling to her knees. "The Saint has manifested her perfect duality!"
The arena erupted into chaos. Many factions considered this an abomination, a perversion of the natural order. Others, particularly those seeking a shift in the established power, viewed it as proof of divine transcendence, a sign of a new age.
Nie Yuelian, her face a mixture of horror and desperate hope, shrieked, "Liberate the Saint from this male parasite!" She sent assassins, spectral figures wreathed in moonrot qi, directly at Jianyu.
Gong Xuelan, her eyes blazing with a cold, possessive fury, screamed, "Preserve the vessel at all costs!" Her agents, swift and deadly, moved to intercept Yuelian's assassins, attempting to capture both forms.
Jianyu, now split into two autonomous bodies, did not fight them. He fled.
"Jingmai Jing!" he commanded, his voice, as both Jianyu and Niánmei, echoing in unison. The Mirror Vein Realm. A hidden spirit plane, accessible through reflection and blood sacrifice. It was chaotic, unstable, but it was his only escape.
He and Niánmei moved in perfect, terrifying synchronicity, a blur of male and female forms, dodging attacks, weaving through the panicked crowd. They plunged into a shimmering portal that opened from a nearby reflective pool, a gateway to the Mirror Vein Realm.
Inside, time stuttered. The mirrored world was a kaleidoscope of fractured images, of echoes and reflections. Jianyu felt his forms fragmenting, collapsing into a void, then reforming. He saw glimpses of his past life, fleeting images of a world he barely remembered. And then, a memory, sharp and visceral, from the vessel's origin: Gong Xuelan, her face streaked with tears, kissing his dead lips in the Chixia Gong laboratory. A moment of profound, unsettling tenderness from his torturer.
He emerged from the Mirror Vein Realm, his two forms still distinct, though flickering with exhaustion, into a secluded, forgotten corner of Heifeng Cheng. He was free, for now, but the world now knew his truth. The veil had split, and his existence was no longer a secret.