"Do I look like someone who blurts out lies?"Grandfather's sharp voice sliced through the tension before Father could say anything. I couldn't help smiling—his confidence was oddly comforting.
"I want to learn martial arts—"
But before I could finish, Father's next words struck harder than any sword.
"Then it's good timing. The Emperor has summoned me… He wishes for Xi Youran to become the bride of the Crown Prince."
My breath froze. The world tilted.
"I don't want to!"
The words tore out of me before I could think. They weren't just mine—they came from somewhere deeper, from her, the other "me."
Father blinked, startled, then frowned. "Why? It's an honor! You and the Crown Prince would make the perfect pair."
"I said I don't want to!" My voice trembled. "I already have someone in my heart!"
The room fell into stunned silence. Their smiles vanished; Father's expression hardened.
"Don't lie to us," he said darkly. "You were obsessed with Tian Zi!"
Tian Zi.
The name crashed against my skull like a bell. Pain pulsed behind my eyes. Flashes—laughter, betrayal, fire—overlapped until everything blurred into darkness.
"Xi Youran!"
Mother's frantic voice echoed as I sank into the void. I could faintly hear Father, then feel his hands turn me over.
"Why does her body look bruised? And this—what's this mark on her back?"
He tugged at my robe before Mother slapped his hand away.
"WHAT do you think you're doing undressing your daughter, you idiot!?"
Father froze, paling instantly. "I–It's not what it looks like! I was just—"
"Stupid!" Grandfather's bellow made him jump.
Father crouched in the corner, sulking. "Why does everyone bully me…"
Xi Yue's small voice piped up from beside the bed, "Don't grow mushrooms in the corner, Father."
Mother sighed. "Ignore your father, Yue'er. Is your sister still not awake?"
Xi Yue's face crumpled. "Is it my fault Uncle Jiang Yun hurt her?"
Father's mood flipped instantly. "What? Jiang Yun did what?"
"Don't scare your daughter!" Grandfather whacked him again before Xi Yue hiccuped through her tears. "We were playing in the Lotus Garden… Uncle Jiang Yun came and called Sister a cripple. I slapped his hand when he tried to touch her… Then he got mad, and… and…"
Her voice broke.
Grandfather finished for her, his tone cold as steel. "Jiang Yun laid a hand on your daughter."
Father's fury erupted. "Where is he?!"
Mother grabbed his sleeve before he could storm out. "Calm down. Father already took him to the Yishi chamber."
"The what?"
"I'm merely disciplining him," Grandfather said flatly, turning toward the door. "A shameful man deserves a shameful punishment."
And then he was gone.
That night, I dreamed again.
The same old man from before stood beneath a tree of shimmering fireflies."You've come again," I whispered.He smiled. His lips moved, but his words were swallowed by wind.
And then—
Every Dou Sheng across the continent felt it.A surge. A rebirth. A storm of Dou Qi bursting from nowhere.
"What is this power?" Father woke in a cold sweat. Grandfather, far away in his cultivation cave, opened one eye and frowned. "A new star is born… or a calamity," he muttered, turning back to his Flaming Cloud Water Flame.
Across the Zhang Empire, powerful cultivators rose into the night sky, seeking the source.
At that same moment, the Emperor's Noble Consort Yipian gave birth to a prince—one marked by a faint phoenix sigil glowing on his back.
No one knew that in another part of the empire, I, Xi Youran, woke with a burning pulse of energy deep inside my chest.
The household was chaos when I stepped out of my room. Servants ran everywhere, shouting over one another.
"What's going on?" I stopped one of the maids.
"Lady Youran! The Noble Consort Yipian has given birth to a prince!"
A prince?
I froze. That wasn't supposed to happen.
In my past life, Yipian had been barren—ignored, pitied, forgotten. And yet now… she'd borne a son?
"No…" I whispered. "Today should have been Tian Zi's birthday. Not this…"
My thoughts spiraled. One by one, the events I remembered were unraveling.
Ever since I woke up, the timeline itself had changed.
"It should be Tian Zi's birthday," I murmured, "but now it's the birth of a new prince. Yipian shouldn't even be able to conceive… unless—"
My eyes widened.
"Unless someone else like me has come back."