Xiao Chen's POV
I couldn't sleep.
Three days had passed since I'd thrown Yuyan off the mountain. Three days since I'd watched guards drag her to the cliff's edge while she screamed my name. Three days since I'd turned my back on the only person who'd ever loved me for ME and not for my power.
The wedding was tomorrow.
My wedding to Qingxue.
I sat alone in my study, staring at a portrait of Yuyan I'd hidden in my desk drawer. She was smiling in the painting—that soft, genuine smile she used to give me when we were children. Before I destroyed her.
She's dead because of you, a voice whispered in my head.
I poured another cup of wine. My hands shook.
"Sect Master?" Ji Mingyu entered without knocking—something only he dared to do. My second-in-command looked at me with barely concealed disgust. "The elders want to review tomorrow's ceremony details."
"Tell them I'm busy."
"You've been 'busy' for three days. Meaning you've been drinking alone and avoiding everyone." Ji Mingyu crossed his arms. "Feeling guilty?"
"Get out."
"Not until you admit what we did was wrong." His voice hardened. "We killed her, Xiao Chen. We killed an innocent girl because the elders wanted a stronger alliance. And you went along with it."
"I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE!" I slammed my cup down, wine splashing everywhere. "The elders threatened to remove me as Sect Master if I married her! They said the sect needed Qingxue's cultivation talent, her family's resources—"
"So you chose power over love. Like a coward."
The word hit me like a physical blow.
"She was weak," I said, but even I could hear how hollow it sounded. "Her cultivation was crippled. She couldn't help the sect—"
"She was KIND. She was LOYAL. She loved you when you were nobody, before you became Sect Master." Ji Mingyu's eyes blazed. "That girl would've walked through fire for you. And you repaid her by throwing her off a mountain."
"Enough!"
"No, not enough! Because tomorrow you're marrying Qingxue—the sister who orchestrated this whole thing. The woman who's already been caught stealing sect resources and meeting with suspicious cultivators. Your perfect political bride is a SNAKE, Xiao Chen, and you're too proud to admit you made the wrong choice."
I wanted to argue. To defend my decision.
But I couldn't.
Because he was right.
"She's dead," I whispered. "Yuyan is dead. I can't change that now."
"No, you can't." Ji Mingyu turned to leave, then paused at the door. "But you can live with it. You can marry Qingxue tomorrow, smile for the guests, and pretend everything is fine. Just don't expect me to congratulate you."
He left.
I was alone again with Yuyan's portrait and my guilt.
Tomorrow, I'd marry the wrong woman.
And I'd spend the rest of my life knowing I'd killed the right one
Lin Yuyan's POV
"Are you sure you want to watch this?" Yan Xiu asked for the third time.
I stood in his private viewing room, staring at a magical mirror that showed Heavenly Sword Sect in real-time. Tomorrow's wedding preparations were everywhere—red lanterns, flower decorations, servants running around frantically.
My wedding decorations. Just with a different bride.
"I'm sure," I said, though my hands trembled.
"It's going to hurt, little phoenix."
"Good. I WANT it to hurt." I turned to face him. "I want to remember every second of pain so I never forget why I'm training. Why I'm getting stronger. This is my fuel."
Yan Xiu studied me with those ancient red eyes. "You've changed in three days. The crying girl I found in the forest is gone."
"She had to die." My voice came out flat. "Crying doesn't bring justice. Power does."
"Now you're talking like a demon." He smiled approvingly. "I've arranged for us to watch the entire ceremony tomorrow. You can turn it off anytime you want."
"I won't want to."
He left me alone with the mirror.
I watched servants hang red silk banners with gold characters that read: "ETERNAL HAPPINESS FOR SECT MASTER XIAO AND LADY LIN."
Lady Lin. That should've been me.
My phoenix flames flickered around my fingers, responding to my rage.
Over the past three days, Yan Xiu had started my basic training. I could summon my fire now—not control it perfectly, but at least make it appear when I wanted. He said I was progressing faster than any cultivator he'd ever seen.
Anger, apparently, was excellent motivation.
"Lady Yuyan?" Gorm's deep voice came from the doorway. "Lord Yan Xiu says you need to eat. You've been staring at that mirror for six hours."
Six hours? It felt like minutes.
"I'm not hungry."
"Please eat anyway. My sister made you special demon fruit. She says thank you for saving her life." Gorm held out a plate of strange purple fruit that glowed faintly.
Despite my dark mood, I took the plate. "Thank her for me."
"She wants to meet you properly tomorrow. After... after you're done watching the wedding." Gorm shifted awkwardly. "Is it true? That your own family did this to you?"
"Yes."
"Demons don't do that," he said firmly. "Demons fight, yes. We're violent and we have wars. But we don't betray family. We don't throw away people we're supposed to protect." His yellow eyes glowed with anger. "Human cultivation sects are worse than any demon I've ever met."
I'd never thought about it that way.
Maybe the real monsters weren't the creatures with horns and red eyes. Maybe the real monsters wore beautiful robes and sat on golden thrones and smiled while they destroyed innocent lives.
"Gorm?" I asked quietly. "If I asked you to help me get revenge one day... would you?"
"Yes." No hesitation. "You saved my sister. I owe you a life debt. Whatever you need, Lady Yuyan, I'll help you get it."
I smiled—my first real smile in days. "Thank you."
After he left, I turned back to the mirror and whispered to myself: "Tomorrow, I watch them celebrate. Tomorrow, I see them happy while they think I'm dead. Tomorrow, Lin Yuyan gets buried forever."
My reflection stared back at me from the mirror's surface. My brown eyes flickered gold with phoenix fire.
"And tomorrow," I continued, my voice hardening, "Fairy Yue is born."
The Next Morning - Wedding Day
I woke before dawn and went straight to Yan Xiu's viewing room.
He was already there, lounging in a chair with a cup of blood-red wine. "Eager, are we?"
"Start the mirror."
He waved his hand, and the magical mirror activated, showing Heavenly Sword Sect in crystal-clear detail.
The wedding ceremony was beginning.
Hundreds of guests filled the main courtyard—sect leaders, elders, cultivation family representatives. Everyone who mattered in the cultivation world had come to witness Sect Master Xiao's marriage.
My father sat in the honored guest section, looking proud. He'd gotten his powerful alliance after all. I was just the sacrifice that made it possible.
Then the music started.
Qingxue appeared in a stunning red wedding dress—MY wedding dress, the one I'd spent months planning. Her hair was decorated with gold phoenix pins. She looked beautiful. Triumphant. Like she'd won the greatest prize in the world.
My hands clenched into fists.
Xiao Chen stood at the altar in formal Sect Master robes. His face was expressionless, but I'd known him long enough to see the tension in his shoulders, the tightness around his eyes.
He looked miserable.
Good.
The ceremony began. An elder droned on about eternal love, about partnership, about two souls becoming one.
Lies. All lies.
"The bride and groom will now seal their union with the sacred cup," the elder announced.
Qingxue and Xiao Chen each picked up a ceremonial cup filled with spiritual wine. They were supposed to drink together, linking their cultivation energies in an unbreakable bond.
This was the moment. The point of no return.
I held my breath.
Xiao Chen raised his cup to his lips—
And hesitated.
For just a second, his eyes flickered to the side, toward the mountain cliff where he'd had me thrown off. Where he'd murdered me.
His hand trembled.
"Drink!" Qingxue hissed under her breath, her smile never wavering for the guests.
Xiao Chen drank.
Qingxue drank.
The crowd erupted in cheers.
It was done. They were married.
I expected to feel devastation. Heartbreak. The final shattering of my foolish dreams.
Instead, I felt... nothing.
No. Not nothing.
I felt FREE.
"Well?" Yan Xiu asked softly. "How do you feel, little phoenix?"
"Dead," I said honestly. "Lin Yuyan is dead. She died the moment he drank that wine."
"And who's left?"
I turned away from the mirror, and my entire body erupted in golden-red flames. Not wild, chaotic fire like before—this was controlled. Powerful. MINE.
"Someone new," I said, and my voice came out different. Stronger. "Someone who won't cry over men who don't deserve tears. Someone who'll make them all regret throwing me away."
Yan Xiu's smile was proud and slightly wicked. "Welcome back to the living, Fairy Yue."
Behind me, the mirror showed the wedding reception beginning. Showed Xiao Chen and Qingxue accepting congratulations. Showed my father bragging about his family's new connection.
I didn't care anymore.
Let them celebrate.
Let them think they'd won.
Because in five years, when I walked back into their world as someone they wouldn't recognize—someone powerful and terrifying and absolutely untouchable—they'd learn the truth.
You can't kill a phoenix.
We always rise from the ashes.
And when we do, we BURN.
I left the viewing room, my flames trailing behind me like wings, ready to begin the training that would transform me from victim to victor.
Behind me, Yan Xiu whispered something I almost didn't hear:
"Five years, Xiao Chen. You have five years before your biggest mistake comes back to destroy you."
The prophecy hung in the air like smoke.
And somewhere deep in Heavenly Sword Sect, drinking wine at his wedding reception, Xiao Chen suddenly felt a chill run down his spine—like someone had just walked over his grave