The morning mist clung to Mount Yunyuan's terraces as Lian followed a silent disciple through winding stone paths. The celestial sect was beautiful, but every corner held whispers. Every glance lingered too long.
The Lotus Flame…? That legend?
Why would Shengzhi bring her?
Lian didn't know what they meant. She only knew she was being watched.
"Here," the girl said, gesturing to a raised pavilion overlooking the clouds. "Master Yu will see you alone."
Before Lian could ask anything more, the girl vanished with practiced grace.
She stepped inside.
Master Yu sat cross-legged before a jade table, his silver robes trimmed with cloud-shaped embroidery. His eyes were deep-set, unreadable. Shengzhi stood behind him, arms folded. His gaze flicked to Lian, unreadable but protective.
"You're the girl," Master Yu said. "The mortal."
"I… I guess so," Lian said awkwardly.
He studied her. "You know why you're here?"
She shook her head. "Shengzhi said I had a power. That I'm in danger. That something is… coming."
Master Yu poured tea. "You were not chosen by accident. You came here because fate returns what was stolen."
Lian frowned. "Stolen?"
Shengzhi spoke softly, "You don't have to understand everything yet. Only that you're safe now. And you'll be trained."
"To do what?"
Master Yu leaned forward. "To survive."
---
Lian's training began at sunrise.
The sect's training fields floated on platforms tethered by glowing runes. Spirit beasts with feathers of fire and scales of ice circled the peaks below. Lian felt dizzy just walking across the narrow bridges.
Her teacher, a young woman with long hair and cold eyes, said nothing at first. Just handed her a wooden staff and pointed to the open ring.
"Balance. Breathe. Begin."
Lian was terrible.
She slipped. Stumbled. Fell on her face more than once.
By the fifth day, her body ached in places she didn't know existed. But something inside her refused to break. Maybe it was the voice she heard in dreams. Maybe it was the name.
Yue Lian…
She hadn't told anyone.
---
That night, she sat alone beneath the peach tree in her courtyard, the petals glowing faintly around her.
"You're working hard."
She turned. It was the boy in midnight blue again
—Li Fang.
"What do you want?" she asked warily.
"To understand," he said, sitting across from her uninvited. "Why Shengzhi would risk breaking the laws of the sect… for you."
"I didn't ask him to."
"No," Li Fang said, smiling thinly. "But he did. And that means you're important. Dangerous, even."
She glared. "I'm just a girl."
"No one in this world is just anything." He plucked a blossom and twirled it between his fingers. "Be careful, Lotus Flame. People kill for power less than what you hide."
Before she could respond, he vanished into the shadows.
---
Far beneath the mountain, in a cave sealed with cursed stone, a man knelt before a hooded figure.
"She's in the sect now," he said.
The figure's voice was like ice. "Let her believe she is safe. Let the memories sleep."
"And when she remembers?"
There was a pause. Then:
"Then we finish what was started three thousand years ago."
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To be continued...