Cold.
A cold that pierced marrow.
Not the chill of the abyssal waters below, but the cold that seeped from the seams of bone and the depths of blood—the emptiness left after something essential had been torn from her being.
Lin Wan opened her eyes.
Grey-white mist churned endlessly before her. Beneath her lay jagged stone, sharp and unforgiving. She was alive—if this state, where every breath tasted of blood and every limb hung like torn cloth, could still be called living.
A hoarse sound scraped from her throat.
Gu Xuan had not killed her outright.
Was it the last fragment of guilt? Or simply confidence that a cripple thrown from Burial Immortal Cliff would surely die without dirtying his hands?
Perhaps both.
Good.
Alive was enough.
She tried to move. Pain flooded her vision black.
Where the Immortal Bone had once rested along her spine, there was now only a hollow—a freezing void. From that void, warmth and vitality seeped away without end.
So that was the Primordial Immortal Bone.
Without it, she could not even draw the faintest strand of qi. Worse—her body was now more fragile than that of an ordinary mortal.
The wind at the cliff bottom carried dampness and a faint metallic scent. Somewhere in the distance, a beast growled low.
Burial Immortal Cliff.
Few who fell survived. Those who did rarely lasted long.
She could not lie here and wait.
Did she hate them?
Yes.
She hated Gu Xuan's calculated cruelty.
Lin Qingyao's venomous deceit.
The sect's righteous indifference.
Her own ignorance and weakness most of all.
But hatred required strength.
And she could barely crawl.
Inch by inch, pressing her forehead against coarse rock, she dragged herself toward a shallow depression in the cliff wall. Stones tore through silk and skin alike. Each movement felt like rolling across blades.
She fainted.
Woke.
Fainted again.
Refused to die.
At last, she collapsed against the stone hollow.
Her breathing came ragged. Consciousness frayed.
Don't sleep.
If she slept, she might never wake.
Her parents' faces surfaced in memory. "Wanwan… live well."
Live?
How? As a cripple? As carrion for beasts?
No.
No.
Why should she die quietly while those who stole her life basked in glory?
Why should they ascend upon her bones while she rotted nameless in shadow?
A thread of will—fragile, stubborn—rose from somewhere deep.
And something answered.
From the hollow along her spine—
A tremor.
Not sound.
Vibration.
From blood. From soul. From something buried beneath ruin.
A faint glimmer ignited in the void.
Chaotic. Ancient.
So small it seemed a dying ember—yet vast beyond measure.
As it rotated, the edges of the hollowed wound ceased bleeding so violently. The hemorrhaging slowed.
And then—
Visions.
A celestial palace floating above seas of cloud.
A monumental stele engraved with three ancient characters she instinctively understood:
Tianyan Sect.
Within, a towering figure taught before kneeling disciples. His voice carried the weight of heavens, speaking of sect fate, of rising and falling fortunes, of belief condensed into power.
"...A sect is not one man's dominion, but the convergence of countless faiths… Gather its destiny into the Diagram…"
A scroll of starlight unfurled, threads linking palace, mountains, disciples—an immense web of fate.
"...Those who strengthen the sect shall receive its return… Those who betray—"
The vision shattered.
The figure turned.
His gaze pierced ages.
Met hers.
Thunder detonated within her soul.
Memories—ancient, fragmented—poured into her collapsing consciousness.
I am Lin Wan…
I am also… Xuanji Zi.
Founder of Tianyan Sect.
Betrayed ten thousand years ago by trusted friend Xiao Chen.
A sliver of indestructible spirit bound to the Sect Fate Diagram, reincarnating through cycles of death.
The Primordial Immortal Bone—
It was never meant for cultivation.
It was a seal. A coordinate. A key.
Formed from her previous life's origin essence and the core of the Fate Diagram, designed to awaken her when death loomed.
Gu Xuan and the others had removed not treasure—
But the lock.
And the act of ripping it free—
Triggered the awakening.
A hoarse laugh tore from her.
They had stripped the wrapping—
And forced the treasure to surface.
The chaotic light flared.
Within her sea of consciousness, an immense, star-threaded diagram slowly unfolded.
Ancient. Boundless.
It merged with her soul.
Cold, ethereal information streamed through her mind.
[Sect Supreme Treasure · Fate Diagram (Fragment) Bound]
Host: Lin Wan (Reincarnation of Xuanji Zi)
Status: Critical. Origin Severely Damaged. Memory Awakening: 1%.
Affiliated Sect Detected: Tianyan Sect (Inheritance Integrity: 71%, Status: Prosperous).
Establishing Base Connection… Success.
Current Return: 0.01% of Sect's Natural Fate Growth (Minimal).
Malicious Units Detected Within Sect: Gu Xuan, Lin Qingyao…
Additional Rule Activated:
When malicious units cultivate, 1% of dissipated spiritual energy will be passively absorbed and converted into Host's origin restoration.
A thread of warmth—barely perceptible yet pure—manifested within her ruined body.
It flowed along unseen pathways.
Where it passed, bleeding slowed. The worst tears stabilized. A thin strand of life was forcibly tethered.
It was almost nothing.
Yet it was real.
She raised her trembling hand.
Upon her palm, a near-invisible spark of chaotic light flickered—connected to something vast and distant.
Tianyan Sect.
Its fate.
Gu Xuan.
Lin Qingyao.
You tore out my bone.
Destroyed my body.
Cast me into death.
But from this moment—
Every breath you take.
Every breakthrough you achieve.
Every merit you earn for the sect—
Will become my nourishment.
The wind still howled across the abyss.
But the emptiness in her eyes was gone.
In its place burned two stars—cold and merciless.
Severed ties?
No.
This was not an ending.
Lin Wan's life had ended.
But the return of Xuanji Zi—
Had just begun.
She closed her eyes, surrendering to the slow repair and the surging fragments of memory.
Mist swallowed her form.
And deep within her heart, a vow crystallized like poisoned steel:
Gu Xuan. Lin Qingyao. Tianyan Sect.
Wait for me.
I will return.
In the way you least expect.
What you stole—
Will be repaid a hundredfold.
Blood debts—
Will be paid in blood.