Author's POV:
The hills trembled under the weight of dawn's first light, their rugged slopes scarred by blood and ash, a battlefield where the family stood defiant yet fraying at the seams. Huang Yanyan gripped her star-etched dagger, its scratched symbol a tether to Yue's past, her knife raised against the crestless tanks rolling from Wuhan's edge. Their iron hulls gleamed, turrets swiveling, a mechanical voice crackling: "Heiress, surrender. The Council claims you." Wu Haoyu flanked her, pipe slick with blood, his wounded arm and thigh oozing, his eyes locked on Yanyan—love, guilt, and fury warring within at Master Wu's betrayal, his cousin's shadow.
