Contents
Epilogue
Overview
Zetian returns to Zhou to recover resources, organize the army, and retrieve Li Shimin, but learns a mysterious hovercraft has taken him and the Bird’s remains. Qin Zheng’s will resurfaces within the Dragon. Yizhi uncovers records revealing humans are settlers and Hunduns are native. The Heavenly Court intervenes, threatening Zetian and displaying Shimin alive yet mutilated as leverage.
Summary
Still piloting the Dragon, Zetian lands at Zhou’s ash-choked battlefield to recharge, address the army, and bring Li Shimin home. Qieluo, speaking through the White Tiger, reports that a giant hovercraft materialized, then vanished with the Bird’s severed head pieces—and Shimin. The revelation leaves Zetian reeling.
As Zetian processes this, Qin Zheng forcefully speaks through the Dragon for the first time since awakening, bitter that the “gods” never aided him. His growing presence alarms Zetian, who senses her control weakening.
A priority transmission from Yizhi interrupts: his team recovered a quartz drive from the ruined palace proving their history is a lie. The files claim humans were transplanted onto this world and that the Hunduns are the planet’s natives, overturning the foundational myth of humanity’s past war and collapse.
The feed is hijacked by the so-called Heavenly Court. They warn that if Zetian continues her upheaval or exposes the truth, they will intervene; if she obeys as the Sages did, they can restore what she has lost. To compel her, they show a live video of a tank containing a head and exposed, still-beating organs—recognizably Li Shimin, alive yet mutilated.
Memories of the Metal Emperor’s wail and the Water Emperor’s agony surge through Zetian as she confronts the horror and the implication that the “gods” control human fate. Overwhelmed by rage and grief, she screams, poised between defiance and the Heavenly Court’s threat.
Who Appears
- Wu ZetianProtagonist; returns to Zhou to regroup and retrieve Shimin, learns he was taken, hears Qin Zheng, and is threatened by the Heavenly Court.
- Li ShiminMissing partner; reportedly taken with the Bird’s head remains, later shown alive but mutilated in a containment tank.
- Qin ZhengRevived First Emperor bound to the Dragon; asserts himself angrily, signaling growing strength and waning control by Zetian.
- Gao YizhiAlly and strategist; discovers records proving humans are settlers and Hunduns are natives before the feed is hijacked.
- QieluoCommunicates via the White Tiger; reports a sudden hovercraft took Shimin and the Bird’s head pieces.
- Heavenly CourtHidden power; hijacks communications, threatens intervention, offers restoration for obedience, and displays Shimin as leverage.
- White Tiger (Chrysalis)Platform through which Qieluo speaks; witnesses the Dragon and reports the hovercraft abduction.