Before Bai Xi could draw another breath, before her lips could form a single word of protest, Bai Shuo shoved her backward with surprising force. The younger girl stumbled several steps, arms windmilling for balance, as her sister spun away and ran—straight toward the black-robed figure's towering shadow.
"Eat me!" The words tore from Bai Shuo's throat, raw and desperate. She planted herself at the creature's feet, a small figure against an impossible darkness. "Eating me can also prolong your life—just let my sister go!"
The black-robed figure's gaze drifted downward, almost lazy in its cruelty. "Oh?" The word dripped like poison. "What's stopping me from devouring both of you? What gives you the right to bargain with me?"
Bai Shuo's chin lifted, defiance blazing in her young eyes. "Because my father is Bai Xun!"
A sneer curled beneath the black hood. "Hmph, a mere Mortal..."
"They kidnapped us from the southern part of the city." Bai Shuo's voice turned cold, calculated—the tone of a strategist twice her age. She thrust one finger toward the Qian Brothers, who stood frozen like guilty statues. "Someone must have seen me and Bai Xi there. Our guards lost track of us at the border between the northern and southern districts."
She paused, letting each word land with precision. "At most, within half a shichen, my father will realize we were taken from the southern city. It will take him two shichen to search the entire southern district. Once he finds no trace of us in the city, he will definitely search beyond the walls."
"So what!" Qian Da's voice cracked with panic, his fear of the black-robed figure's wrath overriding his common sense. "We brothers frequently pass through the southern gate. Who would suspect you're hidden in our ox cart!"
Bai Shuo turned to him, and something flickered in her expression—was it pity? Mockery? The ghost of a smile that shouldn't exist on a child's face?
"Normally, no one would." Her voice dropped to something eerily calm, each syllable measured and cold. "But today, Bai Xi and I are missing. An ox cart carrying slop leaves different tracks than one carrying two people. Even if no one noticed at the time, they might now."
The Qian Brothers' faces drained of color.
"You came from the southern city, circled the outer walls heading north, and took rugged mountain paths all the way. With no rain tonight, the cart tracks won't fade." She glanced upward at the full moon, its pale light painting her features in silver and shadow. When her gaze returned to the black-robed figure, her eyes held the weight of certainty.
"It's already noon now. By the latest, by the hour of the Goat, my father will surely arrive here with imperial troops. You're hiding here, injured—you don't want to be discovered. Even if you devour both of us and slaughter the troops my father brings, you'll still be exposed to the world." Her voice hardened to steel. "You'll never be able to hide beneath the imperial mausoleum again!"
Her fists clenched beneath her sleeves, knuckles white with determination. "If you let Bai Xi go and have these two return my sister to the capital before my father reaches the mausoleum, she will never reveal your existence to anyone."
Silence fell like a shroud.
Bai Xi stood motionless, staring at her younger sister as if seeing a stranger—or perhaps seeing her truly for the first time. The world had always whispered that the Bai family had two daughters: one virtuous and refined, the other unruly and troublesome. Everyone praised the Crown Prince for choosing wisely, selecting the cleverest of the Bai sisters.
But now...
Bai Xi's heart twisted, caught between sorrow and heartache, pride and grief. Had it not been for this moment—this terrible, crystalline moment balanced on the knife's edge between life and death—would A-Shuo have willingly played the role of a foolish, mischievous child her whole life? All to preserve her elder sister's flawless reputation as the Crown Princess in the eyes of the world?
What kind of love was that? What kind of sacrifice?
The Qian Brothers stood slack-jawed, rendered speechless by the revelation. They'd snatched two girls from the streets on a whim, expecting nothing more than frightened lambs. Instead, they'd captured a wolf in sheep's clothing—one who dared to negotiate with a demon while most children would have fainted from terror alone.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
The black-robed figure's applause echoed through the clearing, slow and deliberate, each strike of palm against palm heavy with dark amusement.
"Well spoken, truly worthy of the Grand General's daughter." His voice carried genuine appreciation—and that made it all the more terrible. "Little girl, your courage is as vast as the heavens!"
He studied her with the intensity of a predator examining unexpected prey. Then, with disturbing interest, he leaned down, bringing his hooded face close to Bai Shuo's.
She shuddered. Those blood-red eyes burned into hers, ancient and hungry, and goosebumps erupted across every inch of her skin. Her body screamed to run, but she held her ground, jaw clenched against the instinct to flee.
After a long moment of scrutiny, something shifted in those crimson depths—disappointment, sharp and unmistakable.
"This lord finds it truly strange that the emperor didn't choose you as the crown princess." His tone turned contemplative, almost philosophical. "But fate is fate—no matter how clever you are, you're not Bai Xi."
Bai Shuo's heart seized. Panic clawed at her chest. "I clearly am..."
"Little girl." The black-robed man's sneer cut through her protest like a blade through silk. "Those chosen by heaven's mandate all bear destined fates with Spiritual Qi surrounding them. Your body contains neither fate nor even a trace of Spiritual Qi." He straightened, already dismissing her. "Did you think you could deceive this venerable one?"
When he rose to his full height, he couldn't spare her another glance. His bloodthirsty gaze locked onto Bai Xi in the distance, hunger blazing in those terrible red eyes.
"This venerable one loves spiritual treasures, not clever people. I didn't want my presence discovered, but once I devour this girl, the four seas will be mine to roam!" His voice rose with dark triumph. "Why should I continue hiding in this mortal emperor's mausoleum, buried from the light of day?"
His hand rose, fingers curling toward Bai Xi's direction.
Bai Shuo moved. Courage—or perhaps desperation—flooded through her like wildfire. She launched herself at the black-robed man's leg, arms wrapping around it with all the strength her small body possessed.
"A-Xi, run!" The scream tore from her throat, ragged and desperate.
Bai Xi stood frozen, tears welling in her eyes.
"Run! A-Xi, go find Father, hurry!" Every word was a plea, a prayer, a command forged from love and terror.
The black-robed man's cold snort was her only answer. "Run? None of you will escape!"
A single kick. That's all it took. Bai Shuo flew through the air like a discarded doll, her small body weightless against his demonic power. The sickening crack of breaking ribs echoed through the clearing. Blood erupted from her lips as she hit the ground, vision exploding into stars and darkness.
The Qian Brothers descended on her immediately, pinning her broken body to the earth, ensuring she couldn't disrupt the Divine Lord's feast.
"A-Shuo!" Bai Xi's scream shattered the night. Instead of fleeing, she ran—toward her sister, toward death itself.
"You may lack any spiritual power, but your flesh is tender enough." The black-robed man's laughter was thunder and poison combined. "This venerable one will reluctantly devour you too, sparing you sisters the pain of separation! Hahaha!"
His hand rose again. Black light shot from his palm, a tendril of pure darkness that seized Bai Xi and lifted her into the air. The dark energy coiled around her like hungry serpents, binding her tightly, inch by excruciating inch pulling her toward his waiting maw.
His eyes gleamed with bloodlust and greed. He inhaled her scent, savoring it, as terrifying fangs emerged from beneath his hood.
"A-Xi!" Bai Shuo's voice came out hoarse, strangled. The Qian Brothers' hands pressed her harder against the ground, keeping her from her sister, keeping her from the only thing that mattered.
"Monster!" Bai Xi's voice rang clear despite the darkness crushing her. "You want spiritual treasures? I'd rather die than let you succeed!"
She saw Bai Shuo below—blood-covered, broken, dying—and made her choice.
The jade hairpin slid free from her hair with a whisper of silk. As the black light delivered her into the monster's grasp, she raised the pin and plunged it into her own neck without hesitation, without regret.
"A-Xi!"
The scream that tore from Bai Shuo's throat wasn't human. It was something primal, animal, a sound of such raw agony that even the night itself seemed to flinch. Heart-wrenching didn't begin to describe it. This was the sound of a soul shattering.
Blood erupted from Bai Xi's pale neck in a crimson torrent, splashing across the distance, painting Bai Shuo's face in warmth and horror.
Her vision turned red. The entire world drowned in blood.
Time stuttered. The black-robed man froze. The Qian Brothers stood paralyzed. None of them had seen it coming—this final, terrible act of defiance.
Not far away, Bai Xun heard his daughter's agonized cry and felt his heart stop. He urged his horse faster, guards thundering behind him toward the mausoleum's rear mountains.
Bai Xi's body went limp in midair. The green hairpin slipped from her fingers, falling, falling, shattering into two pieces upon the ground with a sound like breaking glass.
Tears welled in Bai Shuo's blood-streaked eyes and fell in heavy drops. She owned an identical hairpin—a gift from their mother on their seventh birthday. She'd always preferred tying her hair with cloth, never wearing the pin.
Now, she couldn't even die alongside A-Xi.
The sound of jade breaking snapped the black-robed man from his stupor. He stared at Bai Xi's lifeless form, and uncontrollable fury blazed in his eyes like twin infernos.
When a person dies, it's like a lamp being extinguished—everything enters the cycle of reincarnation. Even fate dissipates, let alone spiritual Qi. All that power, all that precious energy, gone in an instant of mortal defiance.
A dignified demon lord like him, thwarted by a mere mortal child!
The fury of being deceived burned away what little rationality remained. With a roar that shook the earth, he lashed out. Tendrils of dark Qi coiled around Bai Xi's body like writhing snakes, and he hurled her toward Bai Shuo on the ground.
"Wretched fools! How dare you mock this lord? I shall annihilate your divine souls, reduce you to ashes, and cast you into eternal damnation!"
Bai Shuo lay sprawled on the ground, her vision swimming with blood and tears. She saw Bai Xi's body flying toward her, propelled by dark Qi and darker fury. Summoning strength from some impossible well within her broken body, she tore free from the Qian Brothers' grasp and knelt, arms outstretched.
Her eyes closed.
Even in death, she wouldn't let A-Xi walk that lonely path alone.
In that moment of utter despair, in that boundless darkness where hope went to die, something impossible happened.
Light.
A beam of radiance descended upon the earth, and the world—the entire world—froze.
The eerie, swirling ghostly Qi vanished like smoke. The furious roars cut off mid-breath. Even the shattered ribs within Bai Shuo's body began to mend, piece by impossible piece, knitting together within her flesh.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
Bai Shuo's eyes flew open. Gentle radiance swept across her vision, and the blood obscuring her sight gradually cleared like morning mist burning away.
She saw Bai Xi's body cradled by violet light, descending as gently as a falling petal to rest before her.
Bai Shuo crawled forward, every movement agony, and grasped Bai Xi's icy hand. Then she looked up—
—and witnessed a sight she would carry with her until the end of time itself.
Beneath a vast purple moon stood a figure, tall and impossibly elegant.
His hair fell like black ink down his back. Ancient robes billowed around him, catching moonlight and shadow in equal measure. A single glance from him could overturn the world, could reshape reality with nothing but will and presence.
A violet throne materialized in the void as if summoned from dreams. He settled upon it with effortless grace, movements liquid and unhurried, before lazily turning his gaze toward the black-robed man in the imperial tomb below.
The once-arrogant creature had already collapsed the moment he saw the violet moon. Now, under that gaze—that terrible, beautiful gaze—he was utterly dumbstruck, trembling like a leaf in a hurricane.
How could this be? How could he appear in this world? Not even when the great Yuan Qi perished into ashes had he shown himself—so why would he emerge now, in this insignificant mortal tomb, for two worthless girls?
"Annihilate divine souls? Eternal damnation?" The voice that emerged was silk and steel, amusement and death. "Such words—aside from this lord, who else in the Three Realms dares speak them?"
The corners of his lips curled in something that might have been a smile on anyone else. His black boot tapped against the throne, producing a sound so crisp and icy it seemed to freeze the very air. Though the gesture was light, casual even, it sent the black-robed man trembling uncontrollably.
Hearing those words, witnessing that demeanor, Bai Shuo finally understood what true, unrestrained arrogance looked like. This wasn't pride. This was something beyond mortal understanding—the absolute certainty of one who stood at the apex of existence.
A violet whip descended from the heavens like divine judgment. Whether intentional or not, the black-robed man was seized just as Bai Xi had been, forced to kneel mid-air like a puppet on invisible strings.
"T-Tian…" The black-robed man's voice cracked, stuttering in pure terror. But before he could complete the name, those eyes turned cold, fixing upon him with the weight of eternity.
"This lord's name—do you dare speak it?"
The black-robed man immediately kowtowed, forehead striking air in desperate supplication. "Divine Lord, spare me! Divine Lord, spare me! This lowly demon, Cangmu of the South Sea, pays homage to the Divine Lord!"
Divine Lord?
Bai Shuo froze, staring blankly at the figure beneath the violet moon. Was this... a true deity? Had the heavens themselves descended to answer her desperate prayer?
The newcomer was none other than Tian Qi. He'd shattered the void from the Divine Realm, descending directly into the ghost realm, intending to search for Yue Mi's soul within Ao Ge's River of Life and Death. Yet at the entrance to the ghost realm, he'd witnessed this scene—this small, terrible tragedy unfolding in a forgotten corner of the mortal world.
By nature, he cared little for the life and death of beings across the Three Realms. Mortals lived and died like mayflies, their existences barely registering in the span of eternity. Had it not been for that heart-wrenching cry of despair—that raw, primal scream that had somehow pierced the barriers between realms—he might not have spared even a glance at the tragedy unfolding in the imperial tomb.
But he had heard. And so he had come.
The Qian Brothers cowered in the shadows, not daring to breathe, not daring to exist. They'd been forced by the black-robed man to hunt down children for sacrifice, believing him invincible—who would have thought that this usually domineering "Divine Lord" was nothing but a coward before true power?
This was their misunderstanding. The black-robed monster was actually a Vicious Beast from the South Sea's Nine-Headed Serpent clan, named Cang Mu. In the Immortal Realm, even ordinary high-ranking immortals were no match for it. Had it not encountered the reclusive True God of the ancient Shang Gu Realm, it would never have been reduced to such a pitiful state.
A decade ago, Cang Mu wreaked havoc in the South Sea and was besieged by immortals from Daze Mountain. In its desperate escape, it fled to the mortal world. Beneath the imperial mausoleum lay the entrance to the ghost realm, where only the ghostly Qi could conceal its Yao Beast scent, shielding it from the immortals of Daze Mountain. It hid there for ten years, draining the flesh and blood of the Qian Brothers to heal its wounds, infusing them with demonic power and coercing them with promises of immortality to deliver spiritual beings for it to devour each month.
For ten long years, it cowered in darkness, on the verge of fully recovering and returning to the South Sea to reign supreme. Yet, because of two mortal girls—two insignificant children—it had unwittingly drawn the attention of the True God Tian Qi.
"Spare me?" Tian Qi's voice was ice itself. "A mere nine-headed serpent dares to wreak havoc in the mortal realm and slaughter mortals. If I spare your life, to whom shall the countless wronged souls in the Book of Life and Death demand justice?"
His eyes held no mercy, no hesitation. With a casual flick of his wrist, the violet whip sent Cang Mu soaring into the air. Divine Power—vast, overwhelming, absolute—radiated from that single gesture. The whip lashed once, and Cang Mu howled in agony, blood spewing from its mouth as its serpent horns emerged on its forehead, scarred and battered from years of hiding.
Seeing Tian Qi show no mercy, Cang Mu roared and reverted to its true form.
A towering nine-headed serpent erupted above the imperial mausoleum, massive beyond comprehension. Its deafening cries shook the heavens, and a foul stench blotted out the sky like a physical presence. Each head writhed independently, eighteen blood-red eyes blazing with hatred and terror.
Yet no matter how it dodged or fled, no matter which direction it turned or how desperately it struggled, the violet whip remained tightly coiled around its tail, lashing it relentlessly. Each strike drew blood. Each crack of the whip carved away another piece of its defiance.
Black blood gushed from the serpent's mouths, streaming down its scales. Its body became drenched in crimson, clearly at the end of its strength.
"Tian Qi!" The serpent spat human words from one of its heads, the name a curse and a plea. "I am of the Yao Race! If you won't spare me, you disgrace your title as the God of Demons!"
Tian Qi couldn't even be bothered to look at it. His tone was bored, dismissive, as if discussing the weather. "If you're a Yao, then die like one. All this whining is embarrassing to listen to."
The nine-headed serpent finally fell silent, struck dumb by such absolute disdain. With a furious roar to the heavens—a sound of rage and desperation combined—its eighteen blood-red eyes glowed ominously. Suddenly, one of its heads transformed into a human hand, conjuring a Sword to slash at its own tail.
"Rooooar!"
A cry of agony echoed across the land as black blood rained from the sky. The violet whip instantly lost its grip. In that fleeting moment of freedom, the now-halved serpent condensed all its remaining power into a single massive head. Its maw gaped wide, revealing rows of fangs like daggers, and it lunged—straight toward Bai Shuo.
It couldn't harm Tian Qi in the slightest. But it would drag someone down with it in death. If Tian Qi wanted to save this mortal, then it would devour her first and die together with prey in its belly!
Bai Shuo had no time to escape, no time to even think. She could only watch as the serpent's head loomed closer, filling her entire field of vision. The stench nearly suffocated her, hot breath washing over her like a furnace.
Clutching Bai Xi tightly against her chest, she suddenly lifted her gaze—not to the serpent, but upward, to Tian Qi upon his throne.
Her eyes were filled with hope. With longing. With a trust so absolute she didn't even realize it herself—the kind of faith that only comes in moments between heartbeats, when logic falls away and instinct takes over.
That single glance made Tian Qi see her.
Truly see her.
Not just another mortal. Not just another brief spark of life destined to flicker and fade. But her—this girl who'd sacrificed everything for her sister, who'd negotiated with demons while broken and bleeding, who looked at him now with eyes that held no demand, only hope.
Violet light split the heavens.
The power of a True God surged forth—pure, absolute, undeniable. The massive serpent's head turned to ashes before it could even utter a plea for mercy, before it could comprehend what was happening. One moment it existed. The next, only dust remained, scattering on the wind like a bad dream dissolving in morning light.
Silence fell over the land like a blanket. The violet moon cast its glow upon the earth, painting everything in shades of purple and silver.
By the time Tian Qi regained his senses, he'd already left his throne. He stood before Bai Shuo, close enough to touch, though he made no move to do so.
He looked down at this mortal girl—bloodied, broken, clutching her dead sister—and felt something stir in his chest that he couldn't quite name.
Curiosity, perhaps.
Or perhaps something more dangerous than that.
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