Lin Yue POV
"She's MINE?" I repeated, my voice rising. "I'm not a possession!"
The mysterious immortal didn't look at me. He kept his frozen sword pointed at the crater where the ancient entity lurked. "I said be quiet."
Anger surged through me—hot and bright as phoenix fire. I'd just escaped being owned by my family. I'd just survived seventeen deaths to become powerful. And now some arrogant immortal shows up and declares he owns me?
"Listen here—" I started.
The ancient thing in the crater attacked again.
This time, ten shadow claws erupted from the darkness, each one targeting a different person. One went for Shen Qinghe. Four went for the terrified cultivators. Five came straight at me and the immortal.
The immortal moved like winter wind—fast and merciless. His sword flashed, and ice spread through the air. Each shadow claw froze solid mid-strike, then shattered into black dust.
It took him three seconds to destroy all ten attacks.
I stood there, mouth hanging open. That kind of power was impossible. Even Master Shen looked shocked.
"Immortal Venerable Jun Wuya," she breathed, bowing deeply. "I didn't know you'd left Frozen Moon Peak. It's been three thousand years since anyone saw you."
Jun Wuya. The name hit me like a physical blow. Even I'd heard stories about him—the youngest cultivator to ever reach Immortal Venerable realm. The man who severed all seven emotional ties to achieve perfect immortality. The living legend who'd isolated himself from the world for millennia.
And he'd just saved me.
Why?
"Because you're fated partners, little host," Hei Long said in my mind. He sounded worried. "That golden thread connecting you to him? That's a fated bond. It means your souls are linked. Your cultivation will affect each other. Your lives are intertwined now."
"No," I whispered. "No, that can't be right. Fated bonds form when people are young. I'm eighteen. He's—how old is he?"
"Ten thousand years, give or take."
Ten thousand years. This immortal was older than most recorded history. And somehow, we were fated partners?
The universe really hated me.
"THE VENERABLE CLAIMS THE PHOENIX GIRL," the ancient entity rumbled, amusement in its terrible voice. "HOW DELIGHTFUL. TELL ME, IMMORTAL—WILL YOU WATCH HER DIE? WILL YOU FEEL PAIN WHEN I RIP HER APART? I WONDER IF YOUR SEVERED HEART WILL FINALLY BREAK."
Jun Wuya's expression didn't change, but his spiritual pressure increased. The air around us grew so cold my breath fogged. Ice crystals formed on my phoenix flames.
"You talk too much," Jun Wuya said flatly. "Let me show you what happens to things that threaten what's mine."
He raised his sword, and the temperature dropped so fast that even I—with phoenix fire burning in my veins—felt it. The ground froze solid. The air turned white with frost. And from his sword, a massive ice dragon formed, roaring with enough power to shake the mountain.
"Frozen Heaven's Judgment," he said calmly, and sent the ice dragon crashing into the crater.
The ancient entity screamed.
The sound was horrible—like every nightmare and fear I'd ever had given voice. The shadow claws retreated, pulling back into the crater as the ice dragon dove after them, freezing everything it touched.
For a moment, I thought Jun Wuya had won. The entity would freeze and we'd all be safe.
Then the crater exploded.
Not outward. Inward. Like reality was being sucked into a black hole.
The ancient entity rose.
It was massive—easily a hundred times bigger than I'd imagined. Made of living shadow with too many eyes, too many mouths, too many limbs that bent in wrong directions. This wasn't a demon or spirit. This was something older. Something that existed before the cultivation world had rules.
"NICE TRY, IMMORTAL," it said, shaking off the ice like water. "BUT I FEASTED ON PHOENIX FLAMES FOR TWELVE THOUSAND YEARS. YOUR COLD MEANS NOTHING TO ME."
Jun Wuya's eyes narrowed. "Then I'll have to get creative."
He glanced back at me for just a second. Our eyes met, and the golden thread between us pulsed. I felt something flow through it—not just his power, but his emotions. Determination. Protectiveness. And underneath it all, fear. Not fear of the entity.
Fear of caring about me.
"Can you fight?" he asked.
"I—yes. I think so." My phoenix flames responded to my will, growing brighter. The demon power from Hei Long stirred, ready to be used. "What do you need me to do?"
"Combine your flames with my ice. Opposing elements can sometimes—"
"Create something neither could achieve alone," I finished. "My phoenix showed me that technique in her memories."
Something flickered in Jun Wuya's expression. Almost like surprise. "Your phoenix taught you? Interesting."
"Stop flirting and kill that thing!" Shen Qinghe shouted, throwing up barriers to protect the other cultivators. "It's trying to escape the crater!"
"We're not flirting—" I started.
"Definitely not flirting," Jun Wuya agreed.
The golden thread between us pulsed warmly, and I felt his amusement leak through. He was trying not to smile.
Despite everything—the ancient monster, the danger, my exhaustion—I almost laughed.
Then the entity attacked both of us at once.
"Now!" Jun Wuya commanded.
I didn't think. I just acted. Phoenix fire poured from my hands—golden, pure, burning with the heat of rebirth. Jun Wuya's ice met my flames in midair, and instead of canceling each other out, they merged.
Fire-ice. Burning cold. Freezing heat. A new element that shouldn't exist but did because we created it together.
The combined attack hit the ancient entity straight in its center mass. It screamed—a sound of genuine pain this time. Black ichor sprayed as the fire-ice tore through its shadow body, burning and freezing simultaneously.
"IMPOSSIBLE! TWO WHO JUST MET CANNOT ACHIEVE PERFECT SYNCHRONIZATION!"
"We're fated partners," Jun Wuya said, his voice cold. "Perfect synchronization is literally what we were made for."
The entity staggered back, parts of its body crumbling. "YOU'LL REGRET THIS, VENERABLE. THE GIRL HAS FREED ME. I AM BOUND TO HER BY ANCIENT LAW. WHEREVER SHE GOES, I CAN FOLLOW. WHOEVER SHE LOVES, I CAN KILL. SHE IS MY ANCHOR TO THIS WORLD!"*
My blood ran cold. "What?"
"YOU BROKE THE SEAL WITH YOUR BLOOD, LITTLE PHOENIX. YOUR BLOOD IS MY KEY. AS LONG AS YOU LIVE, I CAN NEVER BE FULLY SEALED AGAIN." The entity laughed even as it crumbled. "KILL ME A THOUSAND TIMES. I'LL RETURN. BECAUSE YOU EXIST. BECAUSE YOU FREED ME."
Horror washed over me. I hadn't just released this thing. I'd bound it to myself permanently. Which meant—
"Everyone I care about will be in danger," I whispered. "As long as I'm alive, this thing can hunt them."
Jun Wuya was very still. "That's not your fault."
"Isn't it? I broke the seal. I freed it. Now it's going to kill people because of me."
The entity's laughter echoed as its body finally dissolved, sinking back into the crater. "WISE GIRL. YOU UNDERSTAND. I'LL SLEEP NOW. REBUILD MY STRENGTH. BUT I'LL BE BACK. AGAIN AND AGAIN. UNTIL EVERYONE YOU LOVE IS DEAD."
Then it was gone. The crater stopped glowing. The corrupted energy faded.
Silence fell over the mountain.
Shen Qinghe approached slowly. "Lin Yue, don't listen to that thing. We'll find a way to—"
"No." I stepped away from all of them. Away from Jun Wuya and his protective stance. Away from Shen Qinghe and her kindness. "Don't you understand? I'm dangerous. That thing is bound to me. If I stay near people, it'll kill them to hurt me."
"So your solution is what?" Jun Wuya's voice was sharp. "Run away? Hide? Die?"
"Maybe!" The words burst out. "Maybe if I died, the bond would break. Maybe everyone would be safer."
Jun Wuya moved so fast I didn't see it. One moment he was ten feet away. The next, he was gripping my shoulders, his face inches from mine. His eyes—dark as midnight—burned with an intensity that stole my breath.
"Listen to me carefully," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "You don't get to die. You don't get to run. You freed that thing, yes. But you also survived seventeen deaths to gain power. You're a phoenix-demon hybrid with more potential than anyone I've seen in millennia. And you're my fated partner whether either of us likes it or not."
"That's not a reason to—"
"It means I'll help you." His grip tightened. "I'll teach you to control your power. I'll help you find a way to break your bond with that entity. And I'll protect you from anything that tries to use you as an anchor for evil. Do you understand?"
I stared at him. "Why? You don't even know me. You said yourself—I'm supposed to be a threat to your immortality."
"You are a threat." Something flickered in his expression—vulnerability, quickly hidden. "You're the biggest threat I've faced in ten thousand years. But I've decided that's a problem for future me. Present me is going to keep you alive."
The golden thread between us blazed with warmth.
And I realized: he meant it. This ancient, emotionless immortal who'd isolated himself for three thousand years was promising to protect me.
"Okay," I whispered. "Okay. I'll trust you."
"Good. Now—"
The ground beneath us shattered.
Not from the entity. From something else. Something that had been waiting for us to lower our guard.
Elder Liu erupted from a hidden tunnel, his hand glowing with dark energy. He grabbed my arm before anyone could react.
"Finally!" he snarled. "I've been waiting for the perfect moment. Now that the Immortal Venerable is distracted, you're mine, girl. Your phoenix power will be extracted and transferred to someone more worthy!"
Pain shot through my arm as his energy invaded my meridians, trying to rip out my phoenix flames just like they'd ripped out my Pure Yin root.
"No!" I screamed. "Not again!"
Jun Wuya's sword flashed.
But Elder Liu was already pulling me into the tunnel, into darkness, using some kind of spatial technique to escape.
The last thing I saw was Jun Wuya's face—his perfect emotionless mask finally breaking into rage and fear.
Then the world went black, and I was being dragged back toward the Lin Clan estate.
Back toward the family that had tried to kill me.
And this time, I was too exhausted from fighting the entity to resist.