It had been two years since the collapse — not of the mall, but of her world.
Ming Yue often stood at the edge of the cliff behind her sect, where the wind howled and the skies stretched endlessly, hoping the same gusts would carry her voice across space and time.
"Fan Zhi..."
That name still echoed in her soul like an unanswered prayer.
She was no longer the powerless girl huddled beneath broken concrete. No longer the trembling girl who had cried silently into the arms of a boy she barely knew — a boy who had hugged her, warmed her, comforted her as if her life mattered in that moment more than the world itself.
But by the time she emerged from the wreckage, he was gone.
He didn't vanish that day. No, they simply parted ways — quietly, unknowingly — as if the universe itself had planned a longer separation.
She didn't even know his name back then.
It took her nearly a year to find it.
And by then, he had vanished… again.
---
🔥 The Ritual of Awakening
Now, in the sanctum of the Moonshade Sect, the stars aligned for the ritual that would awaken her dormant power. Her bloodline, said to be noble yet incomplete, began to boil under the silver eclipse moon — a celestial event that only happened once every thousand years.
Incense smoke swirled like dragons.
Chants echoed.
The air rippled with ethereal light.
Then, boom — the ground cracked beneath her knees.
The energy exploded within her dantian like a supernova. A scream tore from her throat — not of pain, but of release.
And from her shadow… emerged three forms.
Each one identical to her face, yet wildly different in expression and aura:
Liuyue, with eyes calm like a frozen lake.
Xueyue, whose gaze could slice through lies and bone alike.
Huoyue, hair blazing like flame, emotions unshackled and wild.
Clones, yet not mere copies.
They were her soul, divided — echoes of a love, of a memory, of a single boy who mattered more than anything.
---
⚔️ The Truth of Fan Zhi's Disappearance
What she didn't know — what no one knew — was that Fan Zhi's path had ended two years ago in a battlefield soaked in betrayal and blood.
He had grown powerful — terrifyingly so. The kind of strength that didn't earn titles, only fear.
On a critical mission, his team — people who once called him "brother" — turned on him. Not out of hate. Out of necessity.
Because Fan Zhi's power had lost control. He was tearing through dimensions with a single pulse. The sky above warped, the land below cracked, and every breath he took threatened the fabric of existence.
They tried to kill him.
He didn't resist.
He wanted to die.
Not because he was broken, but because he refused to become a catastrophe.
But death never came.
Instead, the space around him shattered like glass — and an ancient, unknowable force reached through the void, yanked him into another dimension, and closed the rift like nothing had happened.
Even the ten thousand strongest cultivators who witnessed it… couldn't speak of it. Some say they went mad. Others say they sealed the memory in fear.
Only one truth remained:
> Fan Zhi was no longer in this world.
---
🌒 Ming Yue's Resolve
Back on the cliffs, Ming Yue opened her eyes.
A soft breeze lifted her hair.
Her clones stood beside her — silent sentinels.
"He's alive," she whispered. "I would feel it if he died. I would know."
Her hand reached toward the horizon as if she could tear open the sky with sheer will.
"I don't care what realm he's in. I'll tear through the heavens to reach him."
The light of her three clones pulsed.
For now, she didn't know about the ancient force that took him.
She didn't know about the dimensional war Fan Zhi was trapped in.
She didn't know that he… didn't remember her warmth at all.
But she would find him.
Even if the world itself tried to stop her.
---
📝 End of Chapter 2