The third young lady of Xingyang Sect, Qu Yaoyao, had perished.
As the daughter of one of the six sect leaders, Qu Yaoyao had been arrogant and willful in life. Relying on her written marriage contract with Qingxi Immortal Venerable, she stirred up trouble everywhere without restraint, never learning proper immortal sect techniques and always dabbling in unorthodox and heretical practices.
Retribution was swift. Last night, an evil entity invaded Xingyang Sect, harming no one else but killing Qu Yaoyao, leaving her soul scattered and spirit dispersed—a tragic death.
Inside Xingyang Sect.
The maid Yun Zhi had cried until her eyes were swollen. Kneeling beside the crystal coffin, she refused to let anyone close the lid, sobbing, “Everything was fine last night before bed. The young lady even said she was going to see Qingxi Immortal Venerable today. How could this… how could this happen…”
She still couldn’t believe Qu Yaoyao was dead. Yet, the fact remained that Qu Yaoyao’s life lamp had extinguished. Once the lamp goes out and the soul scatters, not even the Saint Venerable of Wanmen Immortal Sect could bring her back.
“Enough, Yun Zhi. Please accept our condolences and get up.”
“Yes, the most important thing now is to find the one who killed the third young lady.”
With the help of several people, Yun Zhi wiped her tears and said fiercely, “My young lady died so tragically. I will definitely find that evil entity—”
“Ah!”
Before Yun Zhi could finish, someone interrupted her in terror, pointing a trembling finger. “Is… is my eyesight failing? Everyone, look at the third young lady’s body!”
Turning around, they saw the corpse lying peacefully in the crystal coffin move. A pale, stiff hand reached out from the coffin, followed by a white-clad girl with disheveled hair sitting up. To facilitate the investigation of clues about the murderer, Qu Yaoyao was still wearing the blood-stained plain dress she died in—white stained with red, eerie and terrifying.
It hurts.
The chaotic cries and shouts around her woke “Qu Yaoyao” from her deep slumber. A surging sense of suffocation nearly overwhelmed her as she gasped for air, struggling to awaken.
“Ah—a reanimated corpse!” someone exclaimed in panic.
Amid the chaos, Qu Yaoyao struggled to sit up in the crystal coffin. Before she could clearly see the people around her, a talisman was suddenly slapped onto her forehead.
Slap—
The excessive force made Qu Yaoyao wince in pain. Someone shouted loudly, “What evil entity dares to cause trouble in Xingyang Sect? Do you know whose body you’ve possessed?!”
The spiritual talisman glowed, flickering faintly before falling still. Qu Yaoyao only felt a slight stinging pain on her forehead. Frightened by the person’s fierce tone, her shoulders trembled slightly. She looked at the one who had slapped the talisman on her, nervously and confusedly repeating, “Whose body have I possessed?”
So, she had possessed someone else’s body?
As Qu Yaoyao turned her head, the talisman on her forehead, barely clinging, fell off. Her dark hair parted, revealing a pale, delicate, and beautiful face.
Yun Zhi stared blankly at Qu Yaoyao’s face, then slowly looked at the talisman that had fallen to the ground.
This was an evil-warding talisman personally drawn by Qingxi Immortal Venerable of Wanmen Immortal Sect for her young lady, capable of vanquishing all evil spirits and malevolent entities in the world. If this talisman had no effect, it could only mean…
“Young lady!” Gazing at the face gradually regaining its color, Yun Zhi fell to her knees with a thud. “Young lady, you’ve finally awakened!”
She always knew her young lady was blessed with great fortune and would be fine.
Qu Yaoyao’s neck still burned with the searing pain of being torn, and she was utterly bewildered by everything around her. Scanning the hall, her eyes settled on the kindest and most familiar-looking girl kneeling on the ground. “Who are you?”
You still haven’t told me whose body I’ve possessed.
“…”
The third daughter of the Xingyang Sect had returned from death.
The life lamp reignited, and under the clear flame, there was no sign of soul usurpation or evil spirit possession. Thus, within a day, the Xingyang Sect experienced a shift from profound sorrow to immense joy. Soon, however, their joy turned back to sorrow, as they discovered that the third daughter had not only lost all her memories but had also begun behaving like a child.
“Let it be. At least she has come back to life. Everything shall be decided when the Young Sect Master returns.”
The door was wide open. In the fragrant chamber scented with lotus, Qu Yaoyao curled up at the corner of the bed, watching the last person leave the room.
Yun Zhi’s feelings were complex at this moment. Walking to the door, she met her young mistress’s clear, curious eyes and sighed, comforting her: “Young lady, rest assured and sleep. I will be guarding you outside the door and will never let you be harmed again.”
Perhaps when she wakes, all her memories will have returned.
Qu Yaoyao blinked her eyes and responded after a moment: “Alright.”
She was likely going to disappoint Yun Zhi. Those lost memories, no matter how long she slept, she probably could not recover. The reason was simple: she was not the real Qu Yaoyao, but a Little Snow Lotus that had just transformed into form in the cold pond.
Her neck hurt terribly, seemingly reminding her of what she had experienced before rebirth. Recalling the events before her death, Little Snow Lotus’s eyes filled with moisture. She sniffled and crawled down from the bed.
She still could not believe that all of it was true.
Sitting before the mirror, Little Snow Lotus saw a pale, delicate young girl. She blinked, and the girl in the mirror blinked as well. Those large, round eyes, red at the corners, shone brightly through the moisture like a bright moon.
This was an overly vivid and beautiful face. With such a countenance, the girl should have been radiant and dazzling. Yet, perhaps because the soul within the body had changed, the girl’s once sun-like aura had become pure and gentle. That look of tearful sorrow in the mirror resembled a clean, harmless snow lotus flower.
Indeed, she was a Little Snow Lotus.
Little Snow Lotus gazed at ‘herself’ in the mirror with low spirits, because her time in transformed form was too short. She had not even had the chance to properly see her own appearance before eagerly seeking the Immortal Venerable she adored. Yet, who could have imagined?
She did not meet the Immortal Venerable but instead encountered a brutal fallen immortal wearing the Immortal Venerable’s face.
The fiery pain in her neck did not fade. Little Snow Lotus endured the pain and pulled open her collar. Following the mirror, her pupils widened abruptly, seeing a large patch of dark, heavy bruising on her neck, tinged with blood marks.
“!!” Who had inflicted such a vicious hand? Qu Yaoyao had also been strangled to death!
Little Snow Lotus fearfully covered her neck. Memories from before rebirth uncontrollably surged forth. She would not forget that she too had been strangled to death.
“…”
Little Snow Lotus was a snow lotus growing in the cold pond of the Wanmen Immortal Sect, already a thousand years old.
Since she awakened her spiritual intelligence a hundred years ago, she often saw a white-robed, beautiful Immortal Venerable. Others feared the millennium chill emanating from her, but only he dared to touch her soft petals with his hand. Every full moon, the Immortal Venerable would come to the cold pond to speak with her. That low, gentle, pleasing tone was the motivation encouraging her to strive in cultivation and transform into form.
The day she transformed into form was precisely a full moon.
Little Snow Lotus thought she could finally respond to the white-robed Immortal Venerable’s affection, yet she never expected that day to delay, never waiting for the Immortal Venerable she longed for.
Having waited a thousand years to transform into form, this was the moment Little Snow Lotus had been anticipating. Growing impatient, she couldn’t help but climb out of the cold pond to search on her own. Looking back on that night now, Little Snow Lotus regretted it so deeply it ached her heart. If there were a chance to start over in this world, she would have stubbornly stayed by the cold pond until dawn, never daring to wander off again.
.
On the night of her transformation, the full moon was not as clear and bright as usual. Shrouded by dark clouds, the moonlight was dim and eerie.
Little Snow Lotus made her way forward along the deserted corridor, completely unaware of the faintly visible bloodline barrier hidden beneath the ground.
By the time she noticed something amiss in her surroundings, the full moon overhead had already taken on a bloody hue, and faint, distant screams echoed from afar. Little Snow Lotus had far too little life experience, so when that blood-stained hand emerged from the dense thicket, she was too terrified to even think of fleeing.
But even if she had run, where could she have gone?
Crawling out of the dense forest was a young man covered in blood, desperately pleading for help when he saw Little Snow Lotus. Nurtured by the immortal sect’s spiritual energy, Little Snow Lotus possessed a kind and pure heart, even without anyone teaching her. So, despite her fear, she instinctively chose to help.
But before Little Snow Lotus could even extend her hand, she suddenly saw a glowing orb approaching in the distance, like a lantern.
It was indeed a lantern.
A dim candlelight pierced through the darkness as a young man in white robes, holding a lantern, stepped out of the misty gloom. With silver crown and dark hair, phoenix eyes and crimson lips, his pale complexion glowed warmly under the candlelight. His features were exquisitely beautiful, yet he carried the unparalleled, ethereal grace of a celestial being descended to the mortal realm.
At that moment, the scene left Little Snow Lotus utterly stunned.
Not only because this celestial being had blood splattered on his cheek and his robes and lantern were stained with large patches of blood, but also because this breathtakingly beautiful, almost demonic face was identical to the gentle Immortal Venerable from her memories.
A shattering cry echoed in her ears as the young man shouted, “The Immortal Venerable has fallen into demonhood.””
How could the Immortal Venerable fall into demonhood?
Thinking of this, Little Snow Lotus whimpered and covered her cheeks, somewhat unwilling to continue recalling the memory.
At the time, although she wanted to save the young man, she was still hidden in the bushes and hadn’t yet revealed herself. By the time she tried to form a hand seal to rescue him, the fallen Immortal Venerable had already noticed her presence, abruptly appearing behind her and grabbing her by the neck.
So, not only did the young man die, but Little Snow Lotus’s life was also lost in the dense forest. And the fallen Immortal Venerable only spoke one sentence to her from beginning to end: “You saw everything?”
That gentle yet chilling voice gradually overlapped with the Immortal Venerable from her memories.
Little Snow Lotus trembled with fear, her eyelashes fluttering once, then twice. At such close range, face-to-face, she noticed that the fallen immortal’s eyes were a deep crimson-gold, hauntingly beautiful and profound. Aside from the eye color, he truly looked exactly like the Immortal Venerable she adored.
But how could they be the same person?
Her mind was filled with memories of the gentle Immortal Venerable lightly touching her petals. Little Snow Lotus couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t even emerged from the joy of transforming and seeing the Immortal Venerable, feeling as though everything before her was an unreal nightmare.
After a thousand years of companionship, Little Snow Lotus’s love was pure and fervent. And it was precisely because of this simple, straightforward love that, even when someone was gripping her neck, she didn’t think of fleeing. Instead, she asked, “I am…”
[I am the most beautiful Little Snow Lotus from the cold pond.]
[Are you the Immortal Venerable I adore?]
Her lingering confusion and bewilderment received no response, because before Little Snow Lotus could finish speaking, her neck was instantly snapped, and her body was flung to the ground with immense force.
How ruthless indeed. Strangling her wasn’t enough—that person even shattered her newly formed human body, not sparing her soul spirit either. Truly left without a whole corpse, soul and spirit utterly annihilated, devoid of any life force.
The blood moon slowly faded its color, and the dark clouds that had obscured the moon vanished without a trace.
The bloodline barrier on the ground receded. The Immortal Venerable, clad in bloodstained white robes, bent down to pick up the lantern he had dropped, leaving without stirring a single emotion.
He did not know that he had killed the Little Snow Lotus who had accompanied him in the cold pond for a thousand years, and along with her, scattered her purest and most intense admiration for him.
The memory ended. Little Snow Lotus clutched the collar of her robe and rubbed her moist eyes. She thought, if that Immortal Venerable who had fallen into demonic ways was truly the one she had admired, she wondered if he would regret killing her after learning her identity.
After all, he had once been so gentle and caring toward her.
But now, it was all too late. “Little Snow Lotus is already dead.”
She told herself, “From today onward, I am Qu Yaoyao.”
The candle burned to its end, emitting wisps of white smoke. In the distance, the sky brightened with faint light, and outside, it seemed to be snowing.
Her body and soul spirit not yet fully merged, Qu Yaoyao’s weary eyelids fought to stay open. She had just lain back on the bed to rest when, not long after, the door was gently knocked twice. Yun Zhi hesitated before calling out, “Miss.”
“Young Sect Master has returned.”