Receiving no further updates from Yizhi, who has retreated into the Gao Estate's bunkers, Zetian races the Yellow Dragon back toward Chang'an, fearing Liu Che and Wei Zifu in the Azure Dragon will arrive first. The Yellow Dragon lacks sufficient qì, forcing her to stop at Mount Zhurong's volcano to recharge. There she reunites with Qieluo and Yang Jian in the White Tiger and the surviving pilot army, and learns their motive for aiding her: as pilots nearing twenty-five, they expected to be 'tributed'—sacrificed to the Hunduns. Zetian rallies them to imagine a new system without the rigged pilot order, and recruits the White Tiger and a few trusted units to come defend Chang'an.

Arriving in a curfew-silent Chang'an, Zetian receives a chilling text-to-speech command—presumably from the gods—forbidding her from destroying the Azure Dragon or killing Liu Che and Wei Zifu, threatening unspecified consequences. She lands at the Palace of Sages ruins as the Azure Dragon arrives in Heroic Form, fast and Wood-typed, with type advantage over her Earth-type Yellow Dragon.

Liu Che and Wei Zifu, only fourteen and thirteen, refuse all offers, calling Zetian a harlot. The Azure Dragon's speed outclasses her, and Liu Che's Fire-channeled rib-swords slash the Yellow Dragon's head, leaving Zetian overwhelmed. She begs Qin Zheng for help. He coldly demands she beg, then instantly splits a humanoid subunit from the Yellow Dragon—unknown to modern pilots—matching the Azure Dragon in size and overpowering it.

Qin Zheng pins the Azure Dragon in Unification Plaza, destroying his own statue and shattering nearby skyscrapers, and forces Liu Che and Wei Zifu's cockpit open. Zetian realizes that, had she known about this subunit, she could have spared her family when she destroyed the Palace of Sages. Confronting Qin Zheng for withholding this knowledge, he admits he wanted to see how far she would go for power. Enraged, she punches his spirit form repeatedly, until he restrains her and rips out her spine in the yīn-yáng realm.