Light swallowed Lin Yue whole.
When she opened her eyes, she wasn't in the palace.
She wasn't anywhere.
She floated above a vast, white expanse — silent, weightless, eerie. Like a blank page waiting for a story to ruin it.
"Hello?" she called.
Her voice echoed far too long.
A figure emerged.
Her.
But older.Wearing moon-silver robes.Eyes glowing with the same dual-colored resonance she'd struggled to control.
The figure smiled sadly."I was wondering when you'd come back."
Lin Yue recoiled. "No, thank you, I'm not emotionally stable enough for clones."
"I'm not a clone," the woman said. "I'm your first self."
"…My what now?"
"Your first incarnation. The one who wrote the prophecy."
Lin Yue blinked.
"Okay. I need a moment. Or forty."
The woman walked closer, shimmering like a dream. "You think you're a transmigrator — someone from another world. But you were reborn once before that. Long ago."
Lin Yue grabbed her head. "Why does my backstory have DLC??"
"You created the Lunar Path," the first self continued. "You loved the Night Emperor. And you wrote a prophecy to protect him."
Lin Yue choked. "I WHAT—?!"
"You wrote it so you would be reborn strong enough to save him from the heavens' judgement."
Lin Yue felt her soul tilt sideways.
"So… I'm my own prophesied disaster?"
"Yes," the first incarnation said gently."And you're the only one who can stop what comes next."
A distant crack split the sky.
Lin Yue flinched. "What was that?!"
"The Night Emperor," her past self whispered."He's breaking reality to reach you."
Lin Yue gasped. "HE CAN'T DO THAT—!"
"He already is."