The Ancestral Shrine was the cold, silent heart of the Han Mansion. Incense smoke coiled around rows of spirit tablets like ghostly fingers, and the air was thick with the suffocating weight of a thousand years of "Pure" lineage. This was the one place Han Feng had been forbidden to enter as a child—the place where his "Filthy Blood" was considered a sacrilege.
Han Feng kicked the heavy vermillion doors open. He didn't carry Stepsister Yue; he dragged her by the wrist, her white Academy robes sweeping through the dust of his ancestors. Behind them, Stepmother Lin followed in a daze, her eyes hollow, and Captain Sarah stood at the entrance, her hand on her sword, sealing the exit.
"Welcome home, Yue," Han Feng's voice echoed off the high rafters.
"You… you dare?" Yue choked out, her voice trembling. She looked at the tablets of the Han ancestors, her eyes filling with tears of holy indignation. "To bring your filth here… in the presence of the Great Masters… the heavens will strike you down!"
"The heavens are blind, little sister. Look at them." Han Feng pointed a bronze-glowing finger at the highest tablet—his father's. "They watched while your mother sold these tablets to the highest bidder. They watched while she turned this shrine into a vault for her stolen treasures."
He walked to the main altar and, with a violent sweep of his arm, cleared the offerings. Jade bowls and silver incense burners shattered on the floor. Beneath the silk cloth, he revealed a hidden compartment. He pulled out a bundle of ancient, yellowed scrolls.
"The Secret Scrolls of the Han," Han Feng sneered, tossing them at Yue's feet. "The Academy told you they were 'Demonic,' didn't they? They told you your brother was born with a curse."
Yue looked at the scrolls, her hands shaking. She recognized the seal of the Heavenly Academy. "These… these are forbidden…"
"They're not forbidden because they're evil, Yue. They're forbidden because they prove your 'Holy' lineage is a lie." Han Feng stepped closer, his [Sovereign's Aura] filling the room, turning the sacred incense smoke into a swirling vortex of dark musk. "The 'Pure Light' you're so proud of? It's just half of the equation. Without my 'Filthy Blood' to ground it, you're just a flickering candle waiting to be snuffed out."
"No… no, that's impossible!" Yue screamed. She tried to ignite her Light Qi, but the air in the shrine was now saturated with Han Feng's dominance. Every time she tried to channel her power, it was absorbed by the bronze glow of his skin.
"Mother! Tell him he's lying!" Yue turned to Lin, pleading.
Stepmother Lin didn't look at her daughter. She walked forward with a rhythmic, mechanical gait and knelt at Han Feng's feet. She leaned her forehead against his leather boots, her voice a broken whisper. "The Master… is correct, Yue. The Academy lied. We all lied. Only the Master holds the truth now."
The sight was the final hammer blow to Yue's mental fortitude. Her "Holy Mother," the woman she worshipped as the pillar of the family, was worshipping the "Trash" she was supposed to purge. The "Justice Heart" in Yue's chest—the core of her power—gave a sickening, audible crack.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Mental Fortitude: 5% (CRITICAL).
Target Yue: Psychological Break Imminent.
Condition Met: 'Sacred Ground Defiled.'
Han Feng grabbed Yue by the throat, pinning her against the very altar dedicated to their ancestors. Her silver blade fell from her nerveless fingers, clattering onto the stone floor.
"Your Light is dying, Yue," Han Feng whispered, his gold-flecked eyes inches from hers. "You can feel it, can't you? The cold? The emptiness? The Academy gave you a soul made of glass, and I'm about to shatter it."
"Please…" Yue sobbed, her pride finally dissolving into raw, biological terror. "Don't… don't take it all…"
"I'm not taking it, Yue. I'm filling it." Han Feng reached down, his hand gripping the hem of her white silk robes. He began to pull the fabric upward, exposing the porcelain skin of the Saintess to the cold, judgmental eyes of her ancestors. "You wanted to exorcise a demon? Then let's see how your 'Sacred Body' handles the devil himself."
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Quest: 'Double Harmony' – 90% Ready.
Reward: Golden Core Breakthrough
(Ready for Initiation).