Contents
Chapter Six: Let’s Dance
Overview
An unexpected Hundun attack forces immediate deployment. Yang Guang overpowers and restrains Zetian, hauling her to the Nine-Tailed Fox and locking her into the yin armor despite her resistance. The cockpit closes and the needles pierce, binding their minds for battle. Zetian’s agency is stripped as war overrides consent.
Summary
A sudden Hundun alarm shatters the night in Yang Guang’s loft. Checking his wristlet, Yang Guang insists they must deploy immediately. Zetian panics, knowing a pilot takes the nearest concubine, and tries to flee. Yang Guang restrains her, binding her arms with a robe garland and silencing her with tape.
Carrying the struggling Zetian, Yang Guang opens a concealed escape hatch and descends a pole to a bridge leading to the Nine-Tailed Fox. The colossal chrysalis looms beneath the stars, its cockpit hatch waiting. Despite Zetian’s terror and muffled screams, Yang Guang pushes onward to launch.
At the Fox, Yang Guang tears away Zetian’s robes and forces her into the yin seat’s spirit armor, which clamps shut at his command. He frees her wrists only to pin them into the gauntlets, immobilizing her. Zetian’s fear spikes as the neural connection needles align against her spine.
Yang Guang settles into the yang seat behind her, his Earth qi illuminating the cockpit. He laces his armored fingers with hers, urging compliance—“Let’s dance”—as deployment is imminent. The needles pierce Zetian’s spine, initiating their link and locking her into a battle she never consented to.
Who Appears
- Zetian (Wu Zetian)Narrator; panics at the alarm, resists capture, is restrained and forcibly linked as the yin pilot.
- Yang GuangAce pilot; subdues Zetian, transports her to the Nine-Tailed Fox, and initiates forced neural linkage for battle.
- Nine-Tailed FoxYang Guang’s chrysalis; its yin-yang cockpit and spirit armor imprison Zetian as the neural needles pierce.