The night was as dark as ink, and rain poured down in torrents.
Within the peach blossom grove, countless petals were ruthlessly battered to the ground by icy raindrops. A young girl knelt in the mud, digging at a pit with her bare hands, blood seeping endlessly from her fingertips.
She drew a charred, blackened skull from her bosom, then scooped up handfuls of wet mud mixed with blood, burying the remains bit by bit.
“Master, this disciple came too late… But rest assured, not a single member of the Jiang family will I spare.” Her voice was so soft it was nearly swallowed by the sound of the rain.
“The seventy-seven lives of Qingwei Valley—this blood debt is irreconcilable! Jiang Heng deserves death. And I… I am even more deserving of a thousand deaths…”
After filling in the last handful of earth, Yun Zhao slowly rose to her feet.
Behind her, guards held aloft ink-black umbrellas, surrounding the man at the center.
The man wore a dark martial robe, his features as handsome as jade, an air of nobility about him that was impossible to conceal.
Yun Zhao walked past him with a blank expression, her Mystic Pupils activating silently in that instant.
Within her field of vision, the man was bound tightly by thick, viscous black qi so dense it seemed almost tangible.
Her gaze inadvertently fell upon the small white jade pig hanging from his waist, and Yun Zhao’s pupils contracted slightly.
After a moment, she said, “You are afflicted with a Malevolent Curse. Your days are numbered. Do you wish to live?”
A sharp glint flashed through Xiao Qi’s eyes.
That he bore a Strange Curse was an absolute secret—even the imperial physicians and national masters were helpless against it. Yet this girl, who appeared like a specter before him, could see through it at a single glance!
“You are a disciple of Qingwei Valley?” He narrowed his eyes.
He had come to Qingwei Valley at the behest of his aunt, the Grand Princess, to search for the missing Princess Jiale.
He had heard that the valley was filled with healers, but there was one extraordinary person who could glimpse the secrets of heaven and reverse the cycle of life and death. Though he found it absurd, he had come nonetheless, to soothe his aunt’s years of worry.
But the Qingwei Valley, legendary for its abundance of talents, had been utterly annihilated overnight by means most brutal!
His shadow guards had searched the entire valley, finding only this lone girl burying remains in the muddy peach blossom grove.
Yun Zhao’s steps were nailed to the spot by his words—”a disciple of Qingwei Valley.”
What right did she have to bear the name of Qingwei Valley any longer?
It was she—she who had personally led the wolves to the door!
The entire sect had been reduced to ashes because of her blind trust!
She was a foolish, worthless sinner, deserving of eternal damnation and endless torment!
Memories surged forth like a tide…
In her past life.
On the day of her coming-of-age ceremony, her master cast a divination for her. The hexagram revealed that she possessed the Phoenix Fate.
It was then that her senior brother, who had always treated her like a beloved younger sister, told her with reddened eyes the origins that had been hidden from her for so many years—
She was no orphan, but the legitimate daughter of Minister Jiang of the capital. Less than half a month after her birth, she had been abandoned in the wilderness by her own parents.
Her sect family had concealed this to spare her pain. Now that they saw her noble destiny, they felt perhaps it was time she knew.
The people of the valley had treated her with great kindness, but Yun Zhao insisted on seeking out the Jiang family—not for status or connection, but to find the truth of why she had been abandoned all those years ago!
It was also on that very day that she happened to rescue a man who claimed to have come to Qingzhou searching for family—her elder brother, Jiang Heng.
At the time, his face was brimming with joy, his gaze burning as if glistening with tears:
“Sixteen whole years! Mother has wept day and night, Father has searched the world over! Never did I imagine you had become a distinguished disciple of Qingwei Valley! A’Zhao, you have given your brother the greatest surprise…”
In that moment, she was utterly immersed in the joy of familial reunion, completely unaware of the deep-seated coldness and calculation hidden within Jiang Heng’s eyes.
She brought her elder brother back to the valley and told him everything. Perhaps the only silver lining was that she had not yet had the chance to tell him that her master had divined her Phoenix Fate.
On the night of the farewell banquet, Cultivation-Dissolving Powder mixed with a strange Incantation Talisman was silently sprinkled into the wine.
That very night, Qingwei Valley was engulfed in a sea of flames.
Black-clad figures slaughtered like specters, killing anyone they saw and burning every house they came upon!
Her master, whom she revered as a father, and her junior fellow disciples, who were like siblings to her… fell one by one before her eyes, their screams unending!
Jiang Heng walked through the fire toward her, his countenance as gentle as ever.
Despite her body being utterly drained of strength, Yun Zhao desperately clung to the leg of one black-clad figure, crying out: “Brother, run!”
She had already lost her family in the valley—she could not bear to lose this one remaining blood relative!
He still called her “A-Zhao” in that warm voice, yet the cold dagger in his hand plunged without hesitation into her chest, drawing her heart’s blood and dripping it onto the jade pendant that could reveal the Phoenix Fate.
Jiang Heng stared at the pendant for only a moment before his expression shifted.
“Xin’er is to marry the Crown Prince.” He wiped the blood from the dagger, his tone so calm it sent chills down one’s spine. “This Phoenix Fate should not rest upon you.”
Only then did she finally understand. The entire Jiang household had long regarded their adopted daughter, Jiang Wanxin, as the pearl in their palm!
They had sent Jiang Heng to find her only for the pendant on her chest—the one capable of bearing the Phoenix Fate!
Remorse gnawed at her bones as she begged her brother to spare the innocent people of the valley.
“A-Zhao, take care of yourself, and live well.” Jiang Heng’s voice was tender. “For every day you live, your sect family will live one more day.”
Jiang Heng threatened her with the lives of the valley’s people, demanding she willingly cooperate to completely transfer the Phoenix Fate’s fortune.
Before long, Jiang Wanxin “selflessly” took an arrow meant for the Crown Prince’s startled horse at the royal hunting grounds, and her reputation as a “bringer of fortune” spread throughout the capital.
Meanwhile, in a dark chamber, a blood hole inexplicably appeared in Yun Zhao’s chest, agony gnawing at her very bones.
After that came whip scars, brands, knife wounds… old scars not yet healed, new ones added on top.
Every bit of “fortune” that befell Jiang Wanxin was reflected back onto her flesh in the most cruel way.
As Jiang Wanxin’s relationship with the Crown Prince grew closer, her body withered day by day.
Yet for the sake of her fellow disciples in the valley, to atone for her sins, Yun Zhao endured willingly!
Until the night before Jiang Wanxin’s wedding to the Crown Prince, they dragged her into the ice chamber like a rag doll.
Naked, she was chained to the ice bed, her blood drained completely, her body convulsing in agony.
But her brother had said that once the wedding was complete, she would be reunited with the people of the valley.
Yun Zhao held on with all her might, pressing herself against the ice bed, until the first light of dawn…
The dark chamber door opened, and she saw, within the light and shadow, the woman reclining lazily upon a bed of fine sable furs.
Jiang Wanxin, draped in a crimson bridal gown, adorned with pearls and jade, radiant and glowing, was smiling at her.
Cowering in the corner, Yun Zhao breathed in faint wisps: “When… when can I see my sect… them?”
Hearing this, Jiang Wanxin let out a low, soft laugh. The sound echoed through the empty stone chamber, seeming especially sinister: “Which one do you mean?
The second senior brother, chopped into minced meat by blades? The third senior brother, drained of all his blood? Or… the eldest senior brother, whose remains were so devoured by wild dogs that not a single intact bone was left?”
Yun Zhao’s mind buzzed, and the entire world collapsed before her eyes!
Her brother had said… as long as, as long as she willingly…
Jiang Wanxin leaned down, lifting her withered chin with her fingertips:
“People of Qingwei Valley—your bones are all equally hard! Thanks to her, for thinking of that pretext—otherwise, why would you have willingly held on until now?”
Yun Zhao hated so fiercely she wanted to throw herself at the woman and die together with her, but was kicked aside.
Jiang Wanxin toyed with the pearls on her wedding dress, her tone as languid and contemptuous as if she were teasing an ant.
“If you want someone to blame, blame the fact that you were born lowly, yet somehow came to possess this Phoenix Fate. Your blood was born to pave the way for my glorious future.”
Like a torn rag, she was flung into the darkness to await death.
No one knew how much time passed before the door to the dark chamber opened once more. A figure strode quickly toward her, draping a robe still warm with body heat gently over her broken form.
“Quickly—summon Master Wen Kong!” The voice was low and slightly hoarse, carrying a panic and urgency she had never heard before.
She strained to see who it was, but her vision had already blurred. She could only vaguely make out a lustrous white jade pig pendant hanging at his waist.
…
When she opened her eyes again, Yun Zhao had been reborn—returned to the time after her clan’s massacre.
She had awakened the Mystic Pupils technique she never possessed in her past life, and the Tome of Ten Thousand Curses stirring in her mind granted her mastery over Forbidden Arts both ancient and modern.
She hated heaven. Since it had let her be reborn, why couldn’t it have sent her back earlier—back to when she could still mend the past!
“Qingwei Valley… has no one left.” Yun Zhao’s voice was hoarse, her gaze lingering on the white jade pig at Xiao Qi’s waist, around which a faint wisp of a lingering soul hovered.
Recalling the outer robe he had given her before her death in her past life, and that last trace of warmth, a decision suddenly crystallized in Yun Zhao’s heart.
“Your life—I can save it.” She looked straight at Xiao Qi. “And the owner of that jade pendant, I can find them too. The price is—
send me back to the capital.”
Xiao Qi’s gaze fell on the inconspicuous lone grave behind her. He raised an eyebrow. “Who do you want to kill?”
“Jiang Shian, the current Minister of Rites, is my biological father. I intend to reclaim my family name and return to the clan.”
Meeting the amusement flickering in Xiao Qi’s eyes, she spoke word by word, her killing intent unconcealed,
“After that, I want to watch with my own eyes as every single member of the Jiang family dies by my hand!”
“Interesting.” Xiao Qi let out a low laugh. “In ten days, at the Princess Chang’s spring banquet, you may accompany me.”
He leaned in close, his breath cold. “Remember—if you fail, the capital will be your grave. When that happens, this prince won’t be collecting your corpse.”
“That’s more than enough.” Yun Zhao slowly curved her lips upward.
Jiang Heng, the Jiang family… just you wait!
This time, I’ll take your lives to honor the seventy-seven souls of Qingwei Valley!