Snowflakes danced like silver spirits across the pale sky, falling gently over the blood-soaked earth.
The war had ended.
But the girl still stood.
Barefoot and trembling in the dying light, her once-elegant robes were now torn and scorched, clinging to her bruised form like whispers of defeat. Her hair, raven-black and matted with dirt, spilled across her shoulders like spilled ink. In her hand, she still clutched the broken hilt of her sword.
"Yue Wuxian," a voice called, smooth and venomous. "The prodigy of the Azure Frost Sect, brought to her knees."
From across the battlefield, a figure in crimson descended the wind like a falling star. Crowned in flame, his presence twisted the air, and every footstep turned the snow to ash. The heir of the Crimson Sovereign Palace.
Lu Sheng.
Her former betrothed.
Her executioner.
"I told them you weren't worth saving," he said, lifting her chin with two gloved fingers. "You couldn't even protect your master."
Yue Wuxian didn't respond. Her breath fogged in the air, shallow and fast. A shard of shattered qi pulsed erratically in her chest, like a dying ember refusing to fade. Her meridians were torn. Her dantian cracked. She had no spirit energy left.
She was a cripple now. A broken vessel.
But her eyes burned.
"You'll regret this," she rasped.
Lu Sheng smirked. "Bold words for a cripple. No sect will take you now. You're finished, Wuxian."
She smiled. Not sweetly. Not sadly. But like a girl who had swallowed poison and made peace with its taste.
"I don't need a sect," she said. "And I'm not finished."
He raised his hand to strike—then stopped.
A pulse of crimson light erupted from her chest, flaring into the sky like a dying star's last cry. It painted the battlefield red, and for a moment, time froze. Snowflakes hovered midair. Wind silenced. Even the world seemed to hold its breath.
Then it spoke.
[System Awakening… Initiating Host Binding Protocol.]
[Welcome, Host: Yue Wuxian. You have unlocked: The Crimson Lotus Rebirth System.]
[Target status: Mortal. Condition: Critical. Initiating emergency repair…]
[Rebuilding Dantian… Establishing Crimson Lotus Core…]
[You have died once. You will not die again.]
Yue Wuxian's body arched as crimson fire exploded from her chest, curling around her limbs like a blooming lotus. Her torn robes dissolved into threads of light, replaced by a robe of black and red silk, embroidered with lotus petals and burning stars.
Lu Sheng stumbled back. "Impossible! That's… that's—"
"A forbidden system," she whispered, rising to her feet.
Her wounds closed. Her qi surged. A new core pulsed beneath her ribs—a crimson lotus, thundering with life.
"You tried to bury me," she said, stepping forward as the snow parted around her feet. "But I wasn't soil."
Her palm lit with fire. "I was a seed."