Chapter 1: Coffin

In the northernmost reaches of the Yan territory, where the border met the lands of the Xiang people, stretched a desolate expanse of perennial wind and sand. Life here had always been difficult—harsh and unforgiving. Now, the vast and desolate world was dyed red, transformed completely into a hell on earth.

Ordinary herdsmen who raised their scythes in desperate resistance were slashed down by invaders riding massive warhorses, their bodies crumpling like discarded rags.

Children held in their mothers' arms were trampled by iron hooves together with those who tried to shield them.

Crying and roaring echoed one after another, voices shouting despair into an uncaring sky.

They bled. The blood flowed to Ah Ran's feet and disappeared against her black boots, as if absorbed by the darkness itself.

The Xiang people had not caused chaos on the border for many years, but now that chaos had erupted, they had completely broken through Dayan's northernmost border city.

This was not the first time they had rebelled.

But since the Jiang family had taken up the mantle of guarding the border decades ago, the Xiang people had been held outside the pass, rarely breaching the defences to enter the Central Plains from the border.

Fourteen years ago, the Jiang family was wiped out in a single night.

And now, who else could resist this Xiang clan? Who would protect these mountains and rivers?

The Xiang warriors laughed wildly and charged toward the city gate, their voices carrying triumph and cruelty.

The people of Bianliang fled in all directions like scattered ants. Screams and roars resounded through the bright red world painted across the ground.

Ah Ran stared at the red spreading beneath her feet.

She had once said that she wanted to be the most dashing swordsman, living wantonly and treasuring every day of her life. She wanted to be like a blade—tenacious and sharp. She would live only for herself in this life, doing whatever she wanted each day, without scruples or restraint.

No one could make her carry burdens. Nothing was worth protecting.

The red continued spreading like spilled wine. The jet-black boots bore a different kind of luxury from the border's desolation. The red touched the black and seemed to disappear, yet it remained so terribly real.

Ah Ran's blood seemed to surge in response, and something deep in her bones began clamoring and raging with fury.

The Xiang warriors rushed forward on their massive horses. They laughed fiercely, arrogant and wanton, acting with complete abandon because they knew—there was no force here capable of stopping them.

When the Jiang family still lived, these invaders had been driven back countless times, their ambitions crushed repeatedly.

This was the first time since the Jiang family's destruction that they'd entered the border so easily.

"A woman!" The wind caught Ah Ran's veiled hat and tore it away. When the rider saw Ah Ran's face, his smile grew even more arrogant. "Hahaha, and a young and beautiful one at that!"

Someone quickly broke from the formation, charging toward Ah Ran past the fleeing crowd.

As he approached, he stretched out his hand to seize her and drag her onto his horse—just like the women already tied behind them, all ragged and torn, treated like trophies or rags.

In their eyes, these weren't people. They were spoils of war.

Ah Ran was simply another trophy they'd set their sights on.

The rough and dirty hand reached toward Ah Ran with a fierce, predatory smile.

The sound of hooves clattered closer and closer, stirring up clouds of dust and sand.

Ah Ran slowly raised her head.

The wind blew away her veiled hat completely, revealing her face—emotionless, her eyes dark and quiet, as if she were indifferent to everything unfolding before her.

She didn't move even half a step.

But the contents of her blood were completely released now, and could no longer be controlled.

Just before that hand could grab her hair, her own hand closed around the handle of her blade. The long knife was pulled free in a flash of steel. Red light glinted. Warm blood splattered, and a few drops landed on Ah Ran's face.

The person before her, along with his horse, was killed with a single stroke—cut down mid-scream, simply and neatly, as if they were made of paper!

The faces of the warriors behind him changed drastically, and they suddenly reined in their horses, pulling them to abrupt, rearing stops.

However, Ah Ran had already drawn her sword.

Everything else was now beyond their control.

She raised her hand to wipe the blood from her face with deliberate slowness. The long knife shining with cold light still quivered in the sun, vibrating with lethal energy. Then her body launched upward like an arrow, and she swung the blade forward with devastating force.

The swordsman's knife was fully unsheathed.

The blade light flashed cold fire in the sun. The wind brought by the long knife was like a massive scimitar, covering heaven and earth, rolling up yellow sand and smoke in a whirlwind. Then, with the force of a falling mountain, it destroyed and slashed downward!

BOOM—

Like a great change in heaven and earth itself.

This single knife killed half the lives in the vanguard team.

This knife brought forth the roaring panic of horses and the horrified screams of the Xiang warriors.

This knife carved a long, deep scar into the ground itself.

With this line as boundary, a border was drawn between the Xiang tribe and the city.

This was a knife struck for the Jiang family.

The black clothes on Ah Ran's body whipped in the wind. In the yellow sand filling the sky, this black was as deep as if it had been invaded by blood itself. Her veiled hat had fallen away. Her face was cold as winter frost, her cheeks stained with enemy blood, and she gripped a blood-red horizontal knife in her hand.

She stood in the long boundary line like a deity descended to earth.

Her knife had nearly cut through the moat itself.

One knife to seal the border!

The sky and earth seemed to separate at this moment. Yellow sand flew through the air. The long boundary line was stark and clear. Everything in the world seemed to fade to insignificance, and between the foggy sky and the yellow sand earth, only one black shadow remained sharp and clear.

"Use a knife as a boundary, and those who cross the boundary will die." Ah Ran held her long knife steady and looked at the Xiang warriors, speaking each word with icy precision.

The Xiang warriors cut off outside the boundary found her voice particularly familiar. Bamu, the dying leader of the Xiang tribe, squinted his eyes against the sun—he couldn't see the woman's features clearly through the glare.

"Who are you?" This was his doubt before death.

And before Bamu's fading eyes, he heard the answer.

"My name is Ah Ran." She said each word slowly, letting them land like stones. "Jiang, Ah Ran."

Bamu's pupils shrank to pinpoints. His eyes filled with horror and primal fear. He stretched out his hand and opened his mouth, but could only make a strangled "Jie Jie" sound before the breath left him completely.

Jiang Ah Ran still held the knife and stood in place.

She was alone. Just one woman. Just one knife.

But she could kill every single Xiang warrior who tried to cross her line.

The blood dyed the yellow sand beneath her feet red, turning the knife boundary into deep crimson, like flowing blood, becoming clearer and more vivid.

Until—

No one dared come closer.

She still stood quietly at the boundary with her knife in hand, unmoving as a mountain.

Behind her was a city shrouded in yellow sand, filled with ragged people crawling on the ground, staring at the figure before them—a mountain blocking everything that threatened them.

In front of her lay the fallen Xiang invaders, whose advance had been stopped by her blade. Their blood covered the ground before this boundary line, and they could move forward no more.

They retreated again and again, backing away from this insurmountable death border.

A knife as border. A blade marking the line.

Her name was Ah Ran. Jiang family's Ah Ran.

Famous as the number one under heaven. One knife, one person, capable of pressing the entire Xiang clan outside Bianliang City. She was like the most magnificently blooming flower, the tallest tree, in precisely the right years of her life.

The Xiang warriors who couldn't advance even one step were furious, their faces twisted with rage and humiliation. "Jiang Ah Ran, aren't you afraid of death?!"

Ah Ran smiled—a small, cold curve of her lips.

Afraid of death?

"Do you know what the first thing I did when I went down the mountain was?"

---

One Year Ago

If someone suddenly told you that you only had one year left to live, what would you do first?

Jiang Ah Ran said: "I want to make a coffin for myself first, the best coffin."

So she descended the mountain with a knife on her back and appeared at the Bai family coffin shop.

This was the best coffin shop in the city. No matter what kind of coffin a customer wanted, the Bai family could craft it.

—As long as you were willing to pay.

The coffin shop was an unlucky establishment. No matter how well decorated, it remained a place of death. If you didn't need a coffin, no one wanted to step inside. The shop stood empty most of the time, silent as a tomb.

At this particular moment, a woman wearing a veiled hat suddenly appeared.

Her footsteps were incredibly light. Before shopkeeper Bai Lao Er became aware of her presence, she had already materialized in front of him. She knocked on the counter to announce herself.

Bai Lao Er jumped, startled.

He hurriedly looked up and asked with a practiced smile, "Guest, what do you need?"

Ah Ran said simply, "I want the best coffin."

Bai Lao Er narrowed his eyes, rolling iron walnuts in his hands, amusement coloring his voice. "As long as the guest provides money, we will make a satisfactory coffin for the guest."

He looked Ah Ran up and down with an appraising eye. The woman was thin, no more than eighteen years old, with a straight back and callouses on her hands that spoke of years practicing with blades. Her clothes were the simplest black garments, her boots ordinary—the leather was good quality, but the craftsmanship was poor.

Bai Lao Er quickly reached his conclusion:

Poor wretch.

However, his eyes swept over Ah Ran's long horizontal knife, and he kept the contempt from showing on his face. He calculated silently—most of these jianghu wanderers were poor but desperately wanted to save face, even when they couldn't produce two taels of silver.

Still, such people couldn't be easily offended.

"As much as you pay, we will make as good a coffin as possible." Bai Lao Er reminded her carefully.

Ah Ran looked into his eyes through the veil of her hat, her voice perfectly calm:

"I will give you one hundred taels of gold and you will give me a coffin worth one hundred taels of gold."

"Bang!"

"Hiss!"

The walnut fell to the ground and struck the top of Bai Lao Er's foot. He grimaced in pain, but didn't care about the injury at all. Hugging his foot, he stared with eyes wide as dinner plates. "One hundred taels of gold?! You, you, do you really intend to pay so much?!"

Many weapons used gold in their forging, making gold extraordinarily valuable nowadays. One hundred taels of gold could be exchanged for a thousand taels of silver—a sum few were willing to part with.

This woman was so wealthy?!

Ah Ran nodded.

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she took out a silk cloth from inside her robes and muttered, "It's one hundred taels of gold, right? Let me check again."

Bai Lao Er couldn't help but glance at what she held.

—A bounty notice.

—The reward was indeed one hundred taels of gold.

He knew this bounty.

Actually, everyone in the capital knew it. It had just been posted outside the yamen today, but it had already attracted the attention of countless people. The whole capital was discussing it with varying opinions and wild theories.

Ah Ran verified the amount and smiled beneath her veil. "Good, it's one hundred taels of gold. I read it correctly."

After saying this, she left a parting statement:

"You prepare first, and I will deliver the money in three days."

Before Bai Lao Er could recover his senses, Ah Ran had already turned and left with casual grace.

Bai Lao Er stood frozen. "???"

His apprentice emerged from the corner, eyes wide with excitement. "Shopkeeper, did she really say she'd pay one hundred taels of gold to buy a coffin? This is huge business! She must be incredibly rich!"

Bai Lao Er muttered, shaking his head, "No, it's not that she's rich. She's sick in the head."

The apprentice looked confused. "Huh?"

"What she wants to spend is the money that the imperial court has offered as reward for Zhao Quan of the Knight Villa." Bai Lao Er's smile was knowing and bitter.

The apprentice's jaw dropped. "?!!"

He raised his voice in disbelief. "Where did this master come from? Or is she just a sick fool with a death wish?"

Since the bounty order was posted, everyone had known the truth of it.

Zhao Quan of the Knight Villa had rebelled, murdered several people within the villa, stolen the villa's treasures and fled. The imperial court was offering a reward of one hundred taels of gold for his head.

Who was Zhao Quan?

One of the top thirty masters of the Knight Villa—and notorious throughout the jianghu!

Moreover, the entire Knight Villa, the imperial court, and other powerful forces were all hunting for Zhao Quan. To claim Zhao Quan's head, one would not only need to defeat Zhao Quan himself, but also move faster than the Knight Villa, the imperial court, and all other competitors.

How arrogant must someone be to dare accept this bounty?

Bai Lao Er shook his head with resignation. "I thought there was really business worth one hundred taels of gold, but it turned out she was just lying to me, causing me to waste time and injure my..."

Speaking of his foot, his distracted attention suddenly returned. The severe pain became crystal clear. His face changed dramatically and he howled, "Ahhh—it hurts so much!"

The apprentice supported the shopkeeper, but remained somewhat distracted, muttering:

"Who in the world is this madwoman buying a coffin for? Is she really willing to risk her life?"

He shook his head grimly. Once this woman left, she probably truly wouldn't be able to come back alive.

The departing Ah Ran didn't know she was being regarded as a "madwoman," but even if she had known, she wouldn't have cared.

She was studying the bounty notice, muttering to herself: "Zhao Quan, Knight Villa, the imperial court is offering a bounty..."

She had just descended from the mountain. She didn't know these people, didn't understand the forces behind them, didn't comprehend the undercurrents flowing through the capital's politics.

But that was fine.

Get involved first, and she'd figure it all out soon enough.

This was her coffin money. She had to claim this reward.

Ah Ran smiled lightly, tucked away the bounty, pressed down the brim of her hat, and walked into a darkening alley. Her thin back was resolute and determined, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

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