The shame hit before anything else.
Yes, Shame before pain.
It coated me like a film I couldn't peel off. No one shouted. No one hit me. But I could feel it in the pause after a laugh, in the way servants looked anywhere but my face. Even my own mother couldn't meet my eyes.
Fifteen years old — and I was already considered worthless.
They'd just finished testing my cultivation in the Grand Courtyard — a tradition for every Lin heir. Everyone else treated it like a festival. I felt like I was being laid open.
A public shaming.
"Qi Condensation Stage… Level 2," Elder Mo said, like he was bored.I heard someone snicker. A few others didn't bother to hide their amusement.
Level 2. Out of nine. pathetic.
Lin Rui, the one everyone loved to brag about, was already Level Six a year ago. And even my younger brother — two years behind me in age, taller in everything else — had already passed Level Four.
As for me, I was just the mistake they didn't bother to throw out.
"The body is weak," Elder Mo sighed again. "Perhaps some talent in alchemy? Or other scholarly arts?"
My hands shook inside my sleeves — not from fear or humiliation, but because I was furious.
I could still see it: a sect master melting into pale sludge because of one drop I brewed. The Treatise on Silent Death — my book — passed around secretly in forbidden vaults.
And most of all, Prince Wei… kissing me like a promise before driving a blade into my spine.
And suddenly, I was here again — trapped in this fragile body, in this house that reeked of peonies and control. Ten years before the wedding. Ten years before they put a blade in my back.But I wasn't that timid girl anymore — the one who ruined pills and lowered her head for scraps. That version of me was gone.This time, I was truly myself.
So I would draw the first blood this time.
They didn't yell at me or strike me. They simply sent me back to my room, as if I wasn't worth the effort of a scolding.
The room was small — plain walls, cold tatami, a single window overlooking peonies that looked almost proud of themselves. My mother once claimed they were my favorite.
I felt nothing.
I sat on the edge of the bed. My body might have been fragile, yes. But my mind? Still sharp enough to gut every one of them.
I closed my eyes — not to meditate, but to remember.
The poisons surfaced one by one, as familiar as breath:Hollow Moon Venom, the one that freezes you stiff in seven breaths.Black Lotus Dew, the kind that drives you mad without leaving a trace.Ash That Whispers — slow death, so gentle they thank you for it.
Then came the rest: pressure points, alchemy circles, and finally, the faces.Prince Wei.Su Lian.My father — the man who sold me off like livestock.
All of them still breathing. Still unsuspecting.
And then came a knock at the door.
Lian'er stepped inside carrying a tray — rice, pickles, watered-down tea. A meal for someone who had already been written off. Her eyes were red.
"They say you'll never cultivate, miss," she whispered. "That you'll be married off to some small-town clerk."
I stared at her until she looked away.Good.
"Lian'er," I said quietly. "Do you know what happens if you feed a dog nothing but scraps?"
She faltered. "It… follows you?"
I let a smile slip — thin, cold."No. It forgets what real food even is."
I lifted the teacup.The scent hit immediately — Jade Dew Root. Innocent enough for most, but for someone with a weak Qi core? It softens the mind, slows the tongue.
So that's how they kept me quiet.Mother. The elders. Maybe habit. Maybe I'd never been worth more.
I wasn't angry about it. Not anymore.
I tipped the tea out the window.
The petals beneath began to wilt almost immediately — slow, sick, shrinking in on themselves.
Lian'er inhaled sharply but said nothing.
"Tell the kitchen," I said, "that from now on I drink nothing but boiled water. And if anything touches my bowl without me watching — I'll burn their precious stove to the ground."
She didn't move. I'd made my point.
I sat back down and waited.
This wasn't just a warning.It was my first move.