Ghost in the palace

Night settled over the Imperial Palace like a heavy veil.

The moon hid behind drifting clouds, leaving only scattered lanterns to push back the darkness.

Unlike the lively palace where laughter still echoed through every corridor, the palace had become eerily silent.

Only the cold wind wandered through the stone pathways.

High above the tiled roofs, three translucent figures floated quietly.

Fen Yu stretched her arms.

"I miss the Duke residence already."

General Wei Rong folded his arms.

"You miss the food."

"I also miss the food," Li Shen admitted with unusual honesty.

Fen Yu looked at him in surprise.

"You?"

Li Shen coughed lightly.

"Even ghosts appreciate good cooking."

The three laughed softly before their smiles slowly faded.

Tonight, they had left the Duke residence for only one reason.

To investigate.

Ever since the Empress had nearly died, they had all sensed the same thing.

Something dark...

Was hiding inside the palace.

Fen Yu lowered her voice.

"Where should we begin?"

Wei Rong looked toward the western side of the palace.

"There."

Fen Yu followed his gaze.

"Shin Gu’s courtyard..."

Li Shen adjusted his sleeves.

"If someone is connected to dark cultivation..."

"...it is the place most worth examining."

For the first time since becoming ghosts...

None of them looked excited.

Instead—

They looked uneasy.

---

They floated silently over rooftops.

The palace below seemed asleep.

Guards patrolled in orderly lines.

Maids carried dim lanterns through long corridors.

Everything appeared normal.

Too normal.

Soon...

A lonely courtyard appeared beneath them.

Fen Yu frowned immediately.

"...Why does this place feel strange?"

Even before entering—

An icy chill crawled through her soul.

Wei Rong slowly landed near the gate.

The courtyard entrance stood open.

No guards.

No servants.

No lanterns.

Only darkness.

Li Shen looked around carefully.

"Every other noble residence in the palace keeps flowers."

"Even abandoned courtyards have weeds."

"But here..."

He stopped.

There was nothing.

Not a single flower.

Not one blade of healthy grass.

The ground looked dry and lifeless.

Ancient trees stood with twisted branches, their bark blackened as though burned long ago.

Fen Yu hugged her own arms.

"I don’t like this."

Wei Rong nodded.

"Neither do I."

They floated inside.

Each step made the silence heavier.

No insects chirped.

No birds rested in the trees.

Even the wind seemed unwilling to enter.

Fen Yu whispered,

"It feels..."

"...like a graveyard."

No one argued.

Because they all felt it.

The air itself carried an oppressive weight.

As though countless unseen eyes were watching.

Li Shen suddenly stopped.

"...Wait."

The other two looked toward him.

"Listen."

They became completely still.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Not even leaves rustling.

Fen Yu swallowed nervously.

"I’ve never heard silence this loud."

She instinctively grabbed Wei Rong’s sleeve.

A second later—

She grabbed Li Shen’s sleeve too.

The scholar sighed.

"We’re ghosts."

"I know!"

Fen Yu whispered urgently.

"But this place is frightening even for ghosts!"

Wei Rong didn’t pull away.

To his surprise...

He wasn’t ashamed to admit...

He felt the same.

The three unconsciously moved closer together.

Almost shoulder to shoulder.

Fen Yu tried to joke.

"If something jumps out..."

"...General, you’re first."

Wei Rong looked at her.

"If something jumps out..."

"...we’re all running."

Li Shen nodded immediately.

"A wise strategy."

For once—

All three agreed.

They continued deeper into the courtyard.

Broken stone paths stretched toward the main residence.

The doors stood slightly open.

A faint...

Almost invisible...

Black mist drifted from inside.

Fen Yu froze.

"...Do you see that?"

Wei Rong nodded slowly.

"I do."

Li Shen’s face lost all color.

"That isn’t ordinary spiritual energy."

They entered carefully.

The rooms were nearly empty.

No decorations.

No paintings.

No incense.

No warmth.

Everything looked stripped of life.

Even the furniture felt abandoned.

Fen Yu whispered,

"Does anyone actually live here?"

Wei Rong looked around.

"It doesn’t feel lived in."

Li Shen suddenly pointed toward a narrow corridor.

"There."

At the end of the corridor...

A single door remained closed.

Unlike every other room.

The closer they floated—

The colder everything became.

Fen Yu’s voice trembled.

"...I don’t want to open it."

Wei Rong stared at the door.

"...Neither do I."

Li Shen took a slow breath.

"But if we’re here..."

"...we must know."

Wei Rong slowly pushed.

The wooden door creaked open.

The sound echoed unnaturally through the silent building.

Then—

All three froze.

The room was unlike anything they had ever seen.

Heavy black candles surrounded a low stone platform.

Dark-colored talismans hung from the ceiling.

Strange symbols had been carved into the floor in circular patterns.

At the center stood a black altar.

The surface was stained dark, covered with ritual objects they did not recognize.

The entire room radiated suffocating spiritual pressure.

Fen Yu’s eyes widened.

"...What..."

Li Shen stared silently.

His hands trembled.

Wei Rong slowly stepped closer before stopping abruptly.

"No."

His voice was firm.

"We go no farther."

Fen Yu nodded rapidly.

"I agree."

Li Shen swallowed.

"...This isn’t ordinary spiritual practice."

Wei Rong kept his eyes fixed on the altar.

"It feels..."

"...wrong."

The darkness around it seemed almost alive.

Not moving—

But watching.

Fen Yu suddenly felt an overwhelming instinct.

"Leave."

"Now."

No one argued.

The three ghosts turned immediately and floated out of the room as quickly as they could.

Only after leaving the courtyard and reaching the palace rooftops did they finally stop.

Fen Yu let out a long breath.

"I never want to go back there."

Wei Rong looked back toward the distant courtyard.

"I’ve fought armies."

"I’ve faced death."

"But that room..."

He shook his head.

"...I’ve never felt anything like it."

Li Shen remained unusually quiet.

After a long silence, he finally spoke.

"The Empress was right."

Fen Yu looked at him.

"What do you mean?"

He answered slowly.

"The force behind everything we’ve witnessed..."

"The sleepwalking."

"The strange energy."

"The attacks."

He looked toward Shin Gu’s deserted residence.

"They are not isolated events."

Wei Rong’s expression hardened.

"And Shin Gu..."

Li Shen nodded gravely.

"...is far more dangerous than we imagined."

The three ghosts exchanged uneasy glances.

For the first time since becoming spirits...

They realized they were not hunting a mystery.

They had stepped into the territory of someone whose power exceeded anything they had encountered before.

And deep inside the abandoned courtyard...

The black candles on the hidden altar flickered—

As though something had sensed their visit

Moonlight streamed through the carved wooden windows of the Empress’s chamber, bathing the room in a pale silver glow.

Outside, the estate slept peacefully after a long day of wedding preparations.

Inside...

Lian An slept soundly.

Her breathing was slow and steady beneath the embroidered quilt.

She looked peaceful.

Safe.

Unaware.

Beside the bed, however...

Not a single one of the three ghosts could relax.

Fen Yu sat hugging her knees at the foot of the bed.

General Wei Rong stood silently beside the window with his arms crossed.

Li Shen remained near the door, his eyes fixed on the darkness outside.

No one spoke.

For the first time since they had met Lian An...

The room was completely silent.

---

Fen Yu finally whispered,

"...I’m scared."

Her voice was so quiet that even she barely heard it.

Wei Rong looked toward her.

Normally, he would tease her for admitting fear.

Tonight...

He couldn’t.

Because he felt exactly the same.

Li Shen closed his eyes briefly.

"So do I."

The confession hung heavily in the room.

Fen Yu looked at both of them in surprise.

"You too?"

Wei Rong nodded once.

"I’ve died once."

"I’ve fought battles."

"I’ve faced things most people would call nightmares."

He looked toward the sleeping Empress.

"But whatever was in that room..."

"...was different."

---

The memory returned vividly.

The black altar.

The blue flames.

The suffocating darkness.

It wasn’t merely frightening.

It felt...

Hungry.

Fen Yu hugged herself tighter.

"I thought ghosts couldn’t feel cold."

Li Shen answered quietly,

"It wasn’t cold."

"It was spiritual oppression."

Fen Yu frowned.

"What’s the difference?"

Li Shen looked toward the moonlit window.

"Cold affects the body."

"What we felt..."

"...affected the soul."

Silence returned.

---

Wei Rong finally spoke.

"Did either of you notice the symbols?"

Li Shen nodded slowly.

"I did."

"I recognized fragments."

Fen Yu immediately looked at him.

"You’ve seen them before?"

Li Shen shook his head.

"Only in very old manuscripts."

"They were described as forbidden."

"Practices abandoned generations ago."

Fen Yu swallowed.

"...Dark cultivation?"

Li Shen answered quietly.

"Worse."

---

The room became silent again.

Fen Yu looked toward Lian An.

She smiled faintly in her sleep.

Completely unaware.

Fen Yu whispered,

"She trusted us..."

Wei Rong nodded.

"She did."

"She gave us names."

"Talked to us."

"Laughed with us."

Li Shen’s expression softened.

"No one has treated us as people for centuries."

Fen Yu’s eyes became moist.

"We can’t let anything happen to her."

---

A sudden gust of wind brushed against the window.

All three ghosts instinctively turned.

Nothing.

Only moving branches.

Yet...

None of them relaxed.

Fen Yu lowered her voice.

"...Do you think..."

"...Shin Gu saw us?"

Wei Rong didn’t answer immediately.

He remembered that strange feeling.

The moment they stood before the altar.

It had been as though...

Something had looked back.

Li Shen answered instead.

"I don’t know."

"But..."

He hesitated.

"...I don’t think she is an ordinary person."

Fen Yu’s face paled.

"You mean..."

Li Shen nodded slowly.

"I think she sensed something."

---

Fen Yu buried her face in her knees.

"I knew we shouldn’t have gone."

Wei Rong sighed.

"We needed answers."

Fen Yu looked up.

"And now?"

"Now we know too much."

No one disagreed.

---

Li Shen slowly walked toward the bed.

His transparent hand hovered above Lian An’s sleeping face.

"...She almost died once."

He whispered.

"And now..."

"...we’ve discovered someone capable of things we don’t understand."

Wei Rong looked toward him.

"If Shin Gu truly noticed us..."

Li Shen finished quietly,

"...then she may realize the Empress has ghosts around her."

Fen Yu’s eyes widened.

"No..."

Wei Rong’s expression became grave.

"If she learns that..."

"...our greatest advantage disappears."

---

Fen Yu suddenly stood.

"What if she comes here?"

Neither of them answered.

Her breathing became quicker.

"What if she barges into this room?"

"What if she uses that altar?"

"What if..."

Her voice trembled.

"...what if she sends us to the Grim Reaper?"

Silence.

Li Shen looked down.

"We don’t know what that altar can truly do."

"But..."

He met their eyes.

"I don’t want to find out."

---

For the first time in centuries...

Ghosts feared disappearing.

Not because of death.

They had already died.

But because of what lay beyond.

Fen Yu whispered,

"I don’t want to leave..."

"I finally found a family."

Her words broke the silence.

Wei Rong looked away toward the moon.

"...So did I."

Li Shen smiled sadly.

"I never thought I would hear myself say this..."

"But I don’t wish to disappear either."

---

They all looked at the sleeping Empress.

Fen Yu smiled weakly.

"She’ll be so lonely if we’re gone."

Wei Rong gave a rare smile.

"She’d also have fewer people arguing in her room."

Fen Yu glared at him.

"Not funny."

"...A little funny."

Even Li Shen let out a faint chuckle.

The laughter lasted only a moment.

Then the fear returned.

---

Wei Rong finally made a decision.

"Until we understand Shin Gu..."

"We don’t leave her alone."

Fen Yu nodded immediately.

"I agree."

Li Shen spoke firmly.

"We take turns watching."

"If anything unusual happens..."

"We wake her immediately."

Fen Yu blinked.

"...Can ghosts even wake humans?"

Li Shen paused.

"...We’ll think of something."

Wei Rong laughed quietly.

"For a scholar..."

"...that’s not much of a plan."

Li Shen sighed.

"It is the best one I have."

---

The three ghosts settled around the bed.

Wei Rong guarded the window.

Li Shen remained by the door.

Fen Yu sat beside Lian An, watching her sleep peacefully.

She gently whispered,

"You protected us when everyone called us monsters."

"So now..."

"...it’s our turn to protect you."

Outside, the moon slowly crossed the night sky.

Inside the quiet chamber...

Three spirits kept their silent vigil.

For the first time since becoming ghosts...

They prayed.

Not for themselves.

But that the darkness hidden within the palace...

Would never reach the woman sleeping peacefully before them..