The incense offered by the lotus was all but extinguished. The last wisps of its smoke wandered through the destroyed Imperial Hall like ghosts that could not leave.
Shen Liuxue stood barefoot before the Dragon Throne. The marble between her feet was slippery with blood that maybe hers or maybe that of the empire's. Behind the broken doors, the capital was screaming as the flames consumed all the things that Shen Liuxue had constructed.
The Celestial Empire was dying, and the man who had sworn eternity to her watched as it burnt.
"Your Majesty," she whispered. The taste of ash flavored her voice.
"Tell me. .. was it worth it?"
Emperor Yun Zhao didn't respond.
The flames highlighted gold and red on his armor, as if making the dragon painted on his breastplate come alive.
He looked magnificent and unreachable, as if every inch the ruler that she once loved.
"You should have given in when I asked you to," he finally said. His tone was as cold as the steel he was holding.
Liuxue let out a weak, bitter laugh. "Yield to her?"
The concubine emerged from behind him, the jewel-covered veil glinting with firelight. The smile was full and triumphant.
"The ministers saw the truth," Yun Zhao went on. "You conspired with the northern sects."
"I conspired?" Liuxue's eyes flared with anger. "I protected your throne while you were out chasing glory on the battlefield. My blood protected the Demon Gate you failed to see."
His hand clutched his sword tightly. "Enough."
The poison coursing through her veins spread with each breath. It was a cold poison, not a hot one, a burning that numbed before it killed. He could have selected a far more expedient poison, far easier to pass off as a mercy rather than a murder. He wanted this slow, ritualistic, absolutely unmistak
As her legs gave out, she looked at him. The man standing before her was far from the scholar-general that she once loved. The quality of him was all wrong, colder than before, as if something else was living inside him.
The idea flared and was extinguished as the guards drew near.
"You will remember me, Yun Zhao," she whispered softly. "Even in your next life."
"Three sentences, as promised has been given and your punishment will be even greater next time, you traitor!"
"I didn't promise anything to the empire"
There was no pain. There was no body. It was just silence and light drifting by
The void was filled by a voice, an undefined vocal tone, far away and yet somehow close by.
[System initializing…]
[Identified Host soul: Shen Liuxue
Warning: Karmic Imbalance at Ninety-Eight Percent. Collapse Imminent
Rebirth Protocol Starting:]
"Who dares summon me?" her thoughts whirled furiously on.
[Authority confirmed: Celestial System]
[Rewriting fate thread. Transferring consciousness]
A blinding flash of light pushed her forward through the ages.
When she awoke, the world around her smelled like wet wood and smoke.
She rested on a straw mattress under a leaking roof. The rain tapped out a rhythm above her head. The skin of her fingers quivered as they touched her throat, smooth, unravaged, and young.
She pushed herself up and made her way toward a broken mirror. A stranger faced her: a girl still young, pale, with eyes that were far too old for her face.
Foreign memories shattered into fragments, bursting into her mind. A servant named Lian, beaten for shattering a cup, starved in the servants' quarters of the Qingyang Sect. A life of silence and fear.
"So this is my vessel," she whispered. "A servant girl in a forgotten sect."
Then the chime rang out, loud, metallic, and somehow divine.
[Welcome, Host.]
[The Celestial System is tied to your soul.]
[Primary Mission 1: Reclaim Your Name.]
[Reward: Awakening of Spiritual Roots]
Liuxue pressed a hand against her chest. Within her, a muffled light beat like a second heartbeat.
Spiritual energy… five hundred years later?
The room seemed be infused with a lot of fresh air
[Notice: fragments of your past life remain in this period.]
[Karmic signatures identified: Bloodline of Emperor Yun Zhao: active.]
Her breathing caught. His bloodline was still around. His treachery had endured the ages.
"A slow smile curved her lips. "So history kept your name, Yun Zhao. Let us see if it remembers mine."
The system chimed once again, this time rapidly, as if answering to her anger.
[Hidden Mission: Unlock – Uncover the Anomaly that Changed Your Death.]
[Reward: Memory Fragment 'The Golden Seal' .]
[Warning: Unknown Entity Detected Within The Celestial System.]
Liuxue froze, "Unknown entity
Static filled her mind, then a whisper that wasn't the system speaking to her. It was a human voice, low and familiar.
"Do not trust the heavens, Liuxue….Carefully consider"
"Who's there?" she repeated, noticing that there was
No response. Nothing was there but silence, and the lingering chill from that forbidden voice.
The rain intensified outside, beating onto the roof. It was a beat, almost as if marching soldiers, a world that had forgotten its empress.
She stood, pulling the thin blanket around her shoulders. Every fiber in her being told her this was a typical reincarnation. Some person or thing had interfered with the fabric of destiny well before she'd died.
The Celestial System could be the route to revenge, or perhaps this is the trap that could be the end of her once more. Whatever, she will go along with it.
Liuxue pushed open the door. Dawn bled into the horizon, painting the mountains a pale silver. The ruinous courtyards of the Qingyang Sect lay before her, scar-like, at the foot of the cliffs.
She whispered into the wind, "If the heavens have given me a second chance, let the heavens watch then. Let them watch this time as I write my own ending."
[Mission Progress: 1 percent.]
[Next Task Initiated: Find the Masked Stranger.]
The last words of the system drifted away into the early morning air. A shadow emerged out of the fog-shrouded trail leading away from the sect. A tall figure with a silver mask caught a glimpse, as if he could feel the attention directed at him. Liuxue, once again, was conscious of a gaze she once knew, soft and fleeting. The wind changed, and the stranger disappeared into the mist. It rattled and pounded deep inside her body.
Who was he?
An ally?
Or a ghost?
Or the echo of the man who destroyed her? She didn't know. But the heavens had reminded her of their favorite game. "Fate was moving again," it was a male It seemed, somewhere deep inside this hidden system, a voiced whispered amused
[Let the game begin.]