Gu Changsheng held the icy 501st lightning crystal between his thumb and forefinger, watching the silver phoenix reflection pulse inside its core.
In his breast pocket, Empress Luo Qingxue’s [Frost-Phoenix Hairpin] hummed at the exact same frequency, pointing straight down toward the center of Planet Canglan.
“Dad?” eleven-year-old Gu Nian leaned over the edge of the table, his black-gold eyes locking onto the glowing crystal. “That’s Mom’s frost-phoenix mark!
Why is it echoing from down in the planetary core?”
“Because when your mother left this planet eleven years ago,” Gu Changsheng said, his voice quiet and steady, “she wanted to draw the Script Enforcers away from our house. She didn’t just leave her hairpin on your baby pillow. She also left a frost-seal down at the planet’s heart to keep those four Upper-Realm Script-Nails from draining the world dry too fast.”
Nine-year-old Su Nuannuan gasped softly, touching the hairpin tip peeking out of her dad’s pocket. “So Mommy has been helping protect Little Fifth’s egg down in the dark this whole time?”
“She has,” Gu Changsheng said, closing his fingers warmly around both the crystal and the hairpin. “Even from ten thousand light-years away in Sector 6, your mother never forgot our family or this planet. And now that the Blood-Sea Vanguard is chipping away at the core seal, her frost mark is calling us to come take over the shift.”
