The Night Passed…
The night passed, but the carriage never stopped.
Outside, the cold was merciless.
Snow continued to fall without end, yet the carriage pressed onward, measuring out its path mile by mile.
Inside one of the wagons, several children sat wrapped in thick blankets, nibbling on dried fruits.
Bright smiles blossomed on their faces; their innocent eyes sparkled like little stars.
Watching the children eat so happily, the hearts of those nearby softened.
In the same carriage sat Master Ren Zhou, Lady Mei Ying, and Miss Su Ri.
Even in the depths of sorrow, those innocent smiles could melt steel.
Lady Mei Ying's chest tightened....
her heart a sea filled with grief.
She could not stop thinking:
If they had never discovered the terrible conspiracy....
if they had never learned that these little ones were to be sacrificed.....
what then?
Her heart trembled at the thought.
Had they not arrived in time,
the world might have ended without anyone ever understanding why,
without anyone given the chance to prevent it.
---
Flashback Begins…
Xueyan Huo Sect
The Winzhiong Family and the Fengxian Family were both descended from a single man....Yao Fing.
Yao Fing had two sons: Huye and Zengi.
Master Huye founded the Winzhiong Family.
Master Zengi founded the Fengxian Family.
Though both carried the poisoned bloodline of Yao Fing,
Zengi was born with a nature utterly different from the rest.
He was kind.....gentle in temperament beyond measure.
But this very kindness set him apart…
and soon, it cast him out of Yao Fing's inheritance entirely.
Zengi refused to follow the commands of the clan elders.
He knew the truth.....
the vile machinations of Yao Fing and Lin Chaoyuan,
the scheme that had destroyed so many lives.
Thus, he chose to walk away from his inheritance.
But they did not leave him be.
The pressure never ceased.
Time passed.
Master Zengi married....
and on his wedding day,
he erased his name from the family records entirely.
---
Long ago…
When Yao Fing himself had newly wed,
news came from Xuemo Sect:
Lin Chaoyuan and his true son had been slain by none other than the Black Heaven King.....Yu Sui.
Yes....this was the same Yu Sui
whose very soul Yao Fing's mother, Lady Fey Yuie,
had plotted to sacrifice.
She desired not only the Xuemo Sect,
but also the Fuzi Xion Clan, the Linyan Clan,
and above all, the Xuemo Sect's great heritage....
to rule over it alone.
But fate turned her own scheme upon her.
She believed the Black Heaven's foul law.....
a ritual no mortal could survive.....
would consume the soul of Yu Sui,
a mere child, the moment he entered.
But it did not happen.
Instead, the opposite occurred.
Yu Sui's soul was so pure,
his destiny so great,
that the throne of Black Heaven accepted him instantly,
choosing the fierce spirit Wuzu as his guardian.
Wuzu's form was that of a vicious vulture spirit...
a being whose sole purpose
was to raise Yu Sui's soul for its destined role.
Yet in that wretched ritual,
Yu Sui's pure soul was forever cursed.....
chosen as the next Black Heaven King.
When Yu Sui entered Black Heaven fully,
body and soul,
he slew its cruel ruler.....
a massive black dragon.
Fate, after all,
moves in every realm,
whether of the living or the dead.
---
When Yao Fing heard that his father had been slain,
he rushed to the site.
What he found was no less than a tragedy....
a home abandoned,
burnt to the ground.
Thousands of talismans lay scattered across the ground,
fluttering away with each passing gust.
Yao Fing's and Lady Fey Yuie's hearts raced.....
as if their very souls were about to flee their bodies.
And then.....
There lay the charred corpse of his father, Lin Chaoyuan,
and beside him, Lao Duan....
both lifeless.
Yao Fing broke completely.
What little he had was gone.
There was no one he loved more in this world than his father,
Lin Chaoyuan...
and it was Yu Sui who had slain him.
The air was bitter cold.
Before him stood nothing but the ashes of his heritage.
And there, Yao Fing swore an oath:
From this day forward,
every generation of my bloodline shall have but one purpose...
to exterminate Yu Sui's lineage.
We shall burn them alive,
generation after generation,
sparing only one each time,
so that they may taste this tragedy again and again.
The oath demanded blood.
Bowing his head,
he swung his sword through the air.
A throat was cut.
A body fell.
A soul was extinguished.
The wind stilled.
The sun had set.
Yao Fing rose,
tears in his eyes,
and yet.....a devil's smile on his lips.
He turned to leave.
And as he walked away from that place of loneliness and emptiness.....
where only a corpse remained.....
he spoke:
"Father warned you…
that your foolish scheme could doom us.
But you followed your own will....
and now his death… is your doing…
Mother."
---
He left behind the lifeless body of Lady Fey Yuie,
her throat still bleeding as the dry leaves blew against it,
as if nature itself cursed her.
How could she have ever thought
that Lin Chaoyuan could love her?
He loved only one woman.....
Princess Wan Yi.
Lady Fey Yuie's "information" had been nothing but a tool for his revenge.
He never intended to change the ritual at her command.....
the same ritual meant to destroy Yu Sui,
the Xuemo Sect, the Liuguang Sect, the Linyan Clan, the Fuzi Xion Clan.
His plan was to strike,
and then return in false heroism to claim their lands.
But he had not foreseen the depth of the Fuzi Xion Clan's and Linyan Clan's knowledge of ancient rituals.....
and it was their mastery that became the downfall of his betrayal.
Thus, the curse born of Yao Fing's hatred
was set upon his bloodline.
---
Though Master Zengi and his family were also bound by the curse,
they always tried to help where they could.....
but it was in vain.
They were stopped at every turn.
And deep down, they knew…
this curse would pass down to every future generation.
Yu Sui had no descendants.....
and they could never kill him,
despite Yao Fing's attempt to have Master Shen Jichuan do it,
once he learned that Mo Yan loved Yu Sui
and that some Su Tao Jue talisman was protecting him.
That was why Su Nian's mother attempted to split that talisman's seal in two...
a scheme in which Yao Fing himself took part.....
so that both Yu Sui and Mo Yan could be killed.
For with the High King alive,
how could Yao Fing hope to seize the throne.....
a throne now four times stronger than before?
His greed only grew,
fueled by his father Lin Chaoyuan's vengeance.
---
To be continued…