I. Residual Memories Awaken
After Lăng Tiêu awoke from a long dream—a past life of the Emperor Lord filled with blood and betrayal—the atmosphere within the Lưu Niệm Clan grew strangely still. No one said a word, yet everyone felt it: something had changed forever.
Since that day, Diệp Vân Sơ grew quieter. Her eyes often wandered toward the horizon, where faint mists obscured memories yet undefined. She began to show strange symptoms: pounding headaches, as though something were tapping against her soul; fragmented dreams filled with blood, fire, and nameless cries.
At times, she seemed to lose herself—unable to distinguish between who she was and someone else sharing her body. Some nights, she awoke suddenly, illusionary blood on her hands, gasping for breath as if returning from a battlefield.
One cold moonlit night, while the rest of the clan slumbered, Diệp Vân Sơ wandered into the ancient tombs—where relics from the Primordial Era were kept. In a deep, forgotten corner, she was drawn to a wall of jet-black stone, inscribed with ancient characters. Cracks along its surface, like unhealed wounds, seemed to bleed spiritual power.
She did not know why—but she reached out and touched the wall.
BOOM!
An invisible force exploded in her mind. A blinding white light flashed—then dissolved into a sea of blood. Her body collapsed to the cold stone floor, eyes wide, as if being dragged into a bottomless abyss.
In her spiraling consciousness, ancient fragments surged forward.
She "saw" a white-clad figure standing in a blood-soaked battlefield, long hair flowing like clouds, eyes blazing crimson. Corpses of mortals, immortals, and demons lay everywhere. Her hand—no, not hers, but that of the Demoness Bạch Vân—was stained with the blood of enemies and loved ones alike.
That woman's eyes held no emotion. She danced with her blade, blood spraying like crimson petals in the wind. No laughter, no sorrow—only slaughter.
Then, a voice echoed in her mind—slow, mocking, laced with bitterness:
"You think yourself pure?The sins you sowed still burn red within your blood..."
Diệp Vân Sơ screamed and fell unconscious. The wall behind her continued to glow faintly, as if something buried for millennia had just been awakened.
II. Bạch Vân – Traitor of the Heavenly Realm
In that deep slumber, Diệp Vân Sơ found herself standing amidst a sea of white clouds. But she was no longer herself. The body she wore was that of a peerless beauty—face proud and cold, eyes holding all the heavens, white robes fluttering like a dream.
Demoness Bạch Vân.
That name thundered in her mind like lightning across a clear sky, shattering long-buried seals.
Once, Bạch Vân had been a high celestial general, revered above all celestial maidens, favored by the Heavenly Emperor, and the personal disciple of Saint Sovereign Trì Viễn—one of the Five Grand Saints. She was known as "Heaven's Tear General," a white lotus above the clouds, untouched by worldly dust.
But all that light crumbled… for one forbidden love.
She fell—deeply and hopelessly—for one born in darkness: a demon from the Demon Realm. His name was Vong Dạ, a fugitive of the Heavenly Realm, branded with rebel blood. For him, she concealed, disobeyed the laws of heaven, and harbored demonic energy. For him, she lied to her master, betrayed her comrades, and dimmed her own light.
The pinnacle of her fall came the night the Heavenly Gate was breached.
In her white robes, cold as frost, Bạch Vân led an army of demons into the Ninth Heaven. On her back was a sword once gifted by the Heavenly Emperor—now soaked in the blood of her own master, Trì Viễn, who had raised and protected her as his own child.
With a swing of her sword, the heavens trembled. A portion of the Celestial Realm shattered, divine realms fell into chaos, and all races were shaken.
For love, she became a traitor.
Yet the tragedy did not end there.
Just as she thought they would rule the Three Realms together, he—Vong Dạ—stabbed her through the heart. No explanation. No anger. Just cold, ashen eyes:
"You are too powerful… I can't control you."
She was sealed within the Dream Soul Prison, her name erased from all records, cursed to be "a sinner never to be reborn."
In her final memory, Bạch Vân—half-covered in blood, vision fading—looked toward the collapsing Heavenly Gate. The walls that once sheltered her were now crumbling.
She whispered, as if to the heavens, or perhaps to herself:
"If I could choose again…I would rather never have known love."
III. A Humiliating Awakening
Diệp Vân Sơ jolted awake, tears streaming down her cold cheeks.
The stone chamber of the Lưu Niệm Clan seemed to shrink, every brick and etched rune staring at her, revealing every terrifying memory just relived.
Her whole body trembled. Her fingers clutched at her robes, as if trying to rip out the memory within. Blood still lingered on her lips from biting too hard—but it did not hurt as much as the truth: she was once the traitor of the Heavenly Realm. The Demoness Bạch Vân.
A name despised by all realms, cursed by generations of divine kin.
Staggering to her feet, she tried to conceal the lingering demonic aura now coursing beneath her skin. But the elders of the Lưu Niệm Clan had begun to sense something amiss—their eyes sharp, suspicion brewing.
Only Lăng Tiêu stood still in the misty hall.
His gaze lingered on her for a long moment, deep as an abyss. He did not interrogate, did not accuse. He simply asked:
"Is there something… you're afraid to remember?"
That question pierced her heart like a blade.
Diệp Vân Sơ turned away, hiding the turmoil and shame in her eyes. Within her, waves of emotions surged—shame, fear, self-loathing.
She once believed she had been reborn, changed, worthy of a new life.
But the truth was crueler than any illusion. Her bloodline never forgave. Her memories never forgot. Within her still flowed the blood of one who shattered the Heavenly Gate, murdered her master, and brought the heavens to ruin.
She could not look at Lăng Tiêu. Could not face those clear, unwavering eyes that had always protected her.
Inside, a bitter voice whispered:
"I am unworthy to stand by his side.If he knew… that I was once the traitor of the Heavens,Would he still want to protect me?"
IV. A Conversation with Clan Chief Lưu Tịch
Rain fell softly on the top of the Memory Tower—the highest point of the Lưu Niệm Clan, where only the most forbidden memories were kept. The air was still.
Diệp Vân Sơ knelt before Clan Chief Lưu Tịch, her posture worn with fatigue and despair after endless nights of struggling with dreams.
He stared at her for a long time. His gaze no longer that of a kindly elder, but of one who had witnessed thousands of lifetimes, able to distinguish good from evil, loyalty from betrayal.
His voice rang out—slow, yet sharp as a blade:
"You know your true identity now, don't you?"
There was no point denying it.
Diệp Vân Sơ bowed her head, lips pressed tightly. No excuses, no explanations. Just the silence of someone finally facing the truth they had long feared.
Lưu Tịch did not rage, did not condemn. He simply walked to the ancient stone window, eyes quietly watching the rain fall upon the forest of memories. His voice, soft yet heavy, spoke:
"The sin of Bạch Vân… is unforgivable.A traitor who plunged the Heavenly Realm into chaos, slew her master, and ignited a war that echoes to this day.But…"
He turned back, his gaze no longer that of a clan leader, but more like a father watching a lost child return.
"But… you are Diệp Vân Sơ.You are no longer the Demoness. No longer the one who shattered the Heavenly Gate.From this moment on… every choice is yours."
His words opened two paths before her—one of fleeing, forever hidden behind a false identity; the other, to face it all, even if it meant pain and blood.
He stepped forward, stopping in front of her:
"Will you run…or rise,and reclaim what was lost?"
V. The Journey of Redemption Begins
The wind howled atop Vọng Vân Cliff, where jagged rocks scraped the skies. Beneath lay an endless abyss; before her, a sea of clouds veiled in silver mist.
Diệp Vân Sơ stood alone, white robes fluttering, her silhouette blending into the night fog. Her eyes no longer dazed—only silent resolve remained.
In her mind, the voice of Bạch Vân echoed—not full of hate this time, but like a distant resonance from the past:
"The sins were real.But you have a chance I never had…"
Another voice—her own—answered from the depths of her heart:
"If this life is a second chance…I will use it to make everything right."
Her footsteps moved forward.
Not hurried, not trembling—each step firm, as if treading upon the sins of the past and turning them into the stones paving her path to the future.
Under the pale moonlight, her figure gradually disappeared behind the mountains.
No longer the fragile girl once paralyzed by horrific memories,
But a new Diệp Vân Sơ—one ready to confront the darkest shadows of herself…
And rewrite her fate.