Jian Dan retrieved a white porcelain vial from her waist pouch and, with a flick of her fingers, gathered the bone ashes from the ground into it. She sealed it carefully—"This might be useful later."
But as the floor cleared, a small, exquisitely crafted black crescent earring glinted under her gaze, its surface flashing with a sinister dark light.
"Hmm?"
Sensing this was no ordinary trinket, Jian Dan channeled demonic energy into her left hand and cautiously picked it up. The earring seemed to stir as her demonic energy enveloped it, subtly absorbing traces of her power like a cautious predator testing its prey.
"Interesting."
She retrieved a white jade box from her Magnolia space, placed the earring inside, and sealed it with restrictive talismans. Only then did she exhale deeply.
Settling onto a meditation cushion, she steadied her mind and withdrew into her sea of consciousness. At its center, the magnolia flower had begun releasing fragmented memories—purified remnants of Mei Ji's devoured soul. This was why Jian Dan hadn't rushed to inspect the storage ring yet.
Her spiritual sense carefully enveloped the fragments, absorbing them piece by piece to unravel Mei Ji's past—and secrets of the cultivation world she'd never known in her previous life.
The Mortal Princess Turned Demoness
The story was tragically familiar.
Born Wang Yueying, she was the pampered youngest daughter of a wealthy mortal family. Her eldest brother inherited the merchant empire, amassing obscene riches, while the second climbed the bureaucratic ladder to become Minister of Rites—all funded by his sibling's gold.
As the belle of the family, Yueying was groomed as a political pawn. At fifteen, she was sent to the imperial harem, where her beauty and wit carved a bloody path to the emperor's favor.
Her goal? Bear a son. Secure her position. Elevate her brothers.
But the emperor was no fool. He used her to dismantle the empress's faction—then sterilized her to prevent a rival heir.
Betrayed and barren, Yueying's love curdled into vengeance. She schemed, poisoned, and slaughtered until the harem ran red. Yet when the dust settled, she stood alone—discarded as the emperor moved on to fresher prey. Her family, now thriving, no longer needed her.
Then came the final insult: her own niece, sent to replace her, framed her for treason.
As icy lake water filled her lungs, Yueying's fury ignited the black crescent earring hidden in the depths—a demonic artifact that drank her hatred and offered a pact.
It slit her palm, binding her soul.
Why her? Because Wang Yueying possessed a Dark Spiritual Root—a once-in-ten-millennium gift for demonic cultivation.
The artifact saved her, but before she could slaughter the palace, Mo Yan Zhēnjūn, lord of the Heavenly Demon Palace, intervened.
"You've transcended mortality. Why waste power on ants? A century hence, they'll be dust. Come. Cultivate with us."
Yet Yueying demanded one last kill: her traitorous niece. The emperor, shielded by celestial mandate, escaped her wrath—for now.
Under Zhēnjūn's tutelage, her talent exploded. The very emotions that doomed her as a mortal—lust, rage, ambition—became her cultivation's foundation. In fifty years, she reached Foundation Establishment and returned to the mortal realm.
With beauty as her weapon, she toppled the empire that betrayed her, earning the title "Nation-Destroying Siren." When enemy soldiers stormed the palace to execute her, she merely laughed, mounted her demonic artifact, and vanished into the sky.
Thus died Wang Yueying. Thus rose Mei Ji—a demoness renowned for her ruthlessness, cunning, and terrifying power.
But history repeats.
Her downfall came when she crossed paths with Feng Yunyi, the genius swordsman of the righteous Heavenly Sword Sect. The love, hatred and vengeance between the two is another story.
In the end, Mei Ji was seriously injured in the siege of Heavenly Sword Sect. She fled to the place where the cultivation world and the mortal world intersected, hid there, and prepared to heal her wounds before settling accounts with them.
However, the injuries she suffered during the breakout were too severe, and her physical body could not be repaired, so Mei Ji had no choice but to give up her physical body and preserve her Nascent Soul. She attached her Nascent Soul to the magic weapon Mo Yue Zhan, allowing her to survive until Jian Dan arrived.