I Refused The Male Lead And Got Claimed By His Triplet Sisters [GL]

Chapter 109: Birth of Shadows

That night Ru Yi had a strange dream. It didn’t come gently, it dragged her under and kept her underneath the bowels of reality.

At first, there was only silence.

No wind.

No breath.

No world.

Then— the smell. Metallic, heavy and wrong.

Ru Yi’s lashes trembled as she opened her eyes, and the world bled into shape beneath her feet. There was red. So much red.

The ground was soaked, dark and slick, stretching endlessly in every direction. Shapes lay scattered across it—bodies, unmoving, twisted in unnatural stillness. Armor dulled by dust and ruin. Broken weapons half-buried beneath them.

She was standing on them.

No-

She was standing above them.

A mound of fallen soldiers listed her higher than the rest, as though the battlefield itself had raised her up.

Ru Yi’s breath caught. "No..." Her voice sounded distant. Small. Like it didn’t belong to her.

There was something at her feet when she looked down. Three small forms that were still. Too still.

Her hands began to shake before her mind could catch up. She dropped to her knees, the world tilting violently around her.

"No...no...no..." she said over and over again.

She reached out but stopped at the last possible second. She couldn’t see the faces clearly. Not at first. Not through the blur, not through the trembling of her own vision.

But then...A strand of hair.

Pale gold.

Soaked dark at the ends. Her chest seized. "No!"

That was all it took, she didn’t need to see more. Didn’t need names, or proof. Her body already knew.

The wolves of Eastern Palace.

A sound cut through the stillness. It was soft but sharp. It made Ru Yi freeze. She was not alone in the bizarreness that was now her reality.

Slowly, stiffly, she lifted her head. Someone stood beside her. Close enough that she could feel their presence, but not close enough to touch.

A figure cloaked in shadow.

A sword rested in their hand, its edge catching what little remained in this ruined world that she was unfamiliar with.

Ru Yi turned toward them, desperate. "Who—" But the face, she couldn’t see it no matter how much she tried to.

Their identity remained hidden no matter how much she strained her eyes, no matter how much she leaned closer... it remained hidden.

Blurred. Obscured. Untouchable.

A chill crept up her spine. "Who are you?" she whispered in fear.

The figure didn’t answer. They only stood there...watching. Like they had always been there.

Then there was a wet sound that came from behind her. Ru Yi’s breath caught sharply as she turned around.

One of the bodies moved.

No...it wasn’t just anybody. It was Yexue.

She rose slowly from the ground, unsteady at first, like something pulled upright by unseen strings. Her now dark hair clung to her face, damp and tangled. Her clothes were torn, stained, clinging to her frame.

And her eyes—

Ru Yi’s heart stopped.

Blood traced from them, thin lines running down her cheeks like silent tears.

"Yexue..." Ru Yi’s voice broke. She scrambled toward her, hands shaking, reaching– "You alive."

Yexue flinched back. Not in pain, but rejection.

Ru Yi froze, something was wrong. Deeply wrong.

Yexue’s gaze slowly lifted to meet hers. There was no warmth in it, no teasing light, no quiet understanding.

Only something hollow, something accusing.

"Why?" Yexue’s voice was soft but distant. It echoed strangely, like it came from far away and too close all at once.

Ru Yi shook her head, panic rising fast in her chest. "I didn’t...I don’t..."

"Why did you betray us?"

The words landed like a blade, and Ru Yi recoiled as if it struck her.

"I didn’t," she cried, her voice cracking. "I would never do anything to hurt you, and you know that."

Yexue took a step forward.

Then another.

Each one slow and deliberate. The faint trails down her cheeks glistened in the dim light. "They trusted you. I trusted you!"

Ru Yi shook her head harder, her breath turning uneven. "You know I cared about them, I care about you."

"You left them." Yexue’s voice was rising with each spoken word.

"I had no choice!"

"You always say that."

Ru Yi’s voice faltered. The battlefield seemed to press in around her. The bodies. The silence. The dead weight beneath her feet.

"I was trying to protect them," she whispered, weaker now. "I thought if I left..." Her words dissolved. Even to her own eyes they sounded fragile and uncertain.

Yexue stopped just in front of her. Close enough now that Ru Yi could see every detail—the exhaustion, the grief, the quiet devastation carved into her expression.

"And how did that turn out?" Yexue asked in a broken voice that pierced right through Ru Yi’s heart.

Ru Yi’s throat closed. She couldn’t answer—but it was right there. At her feet. Behind her. All around her.

The shadow around Ru Yi stirred. It slithered at the edges of her vision, creeping along the ground like something alive. It curled around her ankles, tightening, rising...

Cold.

It was so cold.

Ru Yi gasped, clutching at her chest. It was happening again, that feeling like something inside her was breaking open. Or trying to hold itself together.

The unseen figure beside her shifted. The sword gleamed. And for a moment, just a moment...the shadow reached toward them. Like it knew them. Like it belonged to them.

"Look at what you’ve done." Yexue’s voice cut through everything.

Ru Yi squeezed her eyes shut. "I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. It wasn’t me."

"Then who?"

Ru Yi’s breath came out in short gasps. Her hands trembled violently now, nails digging into her palms. "I don’t know," she whispered, the words barely there.

The shadow tightened around her. Her chest burned. "I don’t know..."

"Ru Yi."

The voice that called to her this time was different.

"Ru Yi."

It was closer to her. Too real.

"Ru Yi."

Her eyes snapped open, her sight immediately engulfed in darkness. All she could see was the ceiling above her.

Ru Yi bolted upright, her breath coming out in sharp uneven gasps. Her hands clutched her chest like she expected to find blood there. But there was none. Only sweat, and the frantic pounding of her heart.