Facing The Abyss
Original Title: 渡亡經／臨淵
"If you walk alone for too long, loneliness will consume you. I need someone spotless to keep me company."
Camel bells echo across the desert, swaying through Jiayuguan toward the dazzling capital of Chang’an.
There, amidst radiant beauties and passionate poetry, stands a legendary figure—Dali’s National Master, Linyuan.
Since the founding of the dynasty, he has been its pillar: when rebels besieged the city and Taizu was trapped, it was Linyuan who ascended the tower and single‑handedly repelled thirty thousand troops. Yet once peace was restored, he withdrew into the Supreme Shrine, shunning the world and forbidding any mention of his age.
In Lotus Lantern’s imagination, the national teacher should have been an austere elder with white hair and beard. But when she trespassed into the shrine, fate twisted unexpectedly—her intrusion into his solitude set events spiraling.
From that moment, his words bound her:
“From now on, you must put this seat first in all things. If I command east, you cannot go west. If I command you to stand and die, you cannot sit and die. You must obey me for life—and most of all, you cannot hold anyone else in your heart.”
“Do you think your back holds any flesh worth looking at? How can there be such a brazen person in the world!”
“What did you say? Do you dare call me old?”
“Do you like me? Are you tempted by me?”
In the Central Plains, there is a word for one who lived innocently all their life yet faltered in integrity at the end: the evening festival.
He as walked alone for centuries, waiting only for the moment he would meet her.
Tags: rebirth, desert journey, dunhuang, chang’an, taoist priest, lotus lantern, vengeance, national master, linyuan, palace intrigue, destiny, romance, historical fantasy, immortality, obsession
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