The road wound through a valley of ancient cedars, their trunks thick as towers, their branches woven like a cathedral roof. Moonlight filtered through the leaves in silver ribbons, bathing the path in pale glow. For the first time in weeks, there was no pursuit. No battle. Only the whisper of wind in the trees.
Feng Xieyun walked in silence, hands folded behind his back, crimson aura suppressed deep within. Beside him, Lian Zhi moved with the grace of a shadow, silver hair shimmering, violet eyes distant as always.
Yet tonight felt different.
She was quieter. Not with her usual cold restraint, but with a heaviness, as though her thoughts weighed more than her steps.
Xieyun finally broke the silence. "You've been staring at the moon for the past hour."
Her lips curved faintly. "And you've been staring at me for the past half."
He coughed lightly, glancing away. "I was making sure you weren't wounded."
"Liar," she said softly, though her tone held no malice.
---
They stopped at a clearing where a spring bubbled between moss-covered stones. Lian Zhi knelt, cupping water in her hands. The moonlight caught her face, softening the sharpness of her features. For once, she seemed less like a mysterious immortal and more… human.
Xieyun watched her quietly. The fire in his chest ached—not with rage, but something he barely remembered from his first life. Something fragile.
"Back there," he said suddenly, "when Mei Lin died… you didn't flinch. You didn't even curse the assassins. You just… accepted it."
She froze for a moment, then lowered her gaze. "Because I've seen it before."
His brow furrowed.
She lifted her eyes to meet his, and for the first time, he saw not just distance in her gaze, but sorrow.
---
"I wasn't born here," she said softly. "Not in this realm. My true home lies beyond the veil, in the Immortal Plane."
Xieyun stiffened. He had suspected—her aura was too refined, her techniques too ancient—but hearing it aloud struck like thunder.
She continued, her voice barely above the whisper of the spring. "I was the youngest daughter of the Lian Clan. My bloodline carried the Chains of Starlight—a divine inheritance said to bind even Heaven's decree. I was raised in a palace where the sky was carved of jade and the rivers ran with qi. I should have lived a life of ease."
Her lips twisted bitterly. "But bloodlines are chains, not blessings. The Clan saw me as a vessel. A pawn in the struggle between Immortal Houses. When I refused an arranged bond, they cast me down."
Her hand brushed her collarbone where faint scars glimmered under moonlight. "My cultivation crippled. My name erased. My wings broken."
---
Silence stretched.
Xieyun's fists clenched. "So they threw you away… for choosing freedom?"
She smiled faintly, a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "In the Immortal Plane, freedom is the one luxury no one can afford. To them, I was better off buried than disobedient."
For a long moment, only the sound of the spring filled the clearing.
Then Xieyun stepped closer. His voice was low, rough. "Then you and I… are the same."
She looked up, startled.
"I was betrayed," he said, eyes burning with memory. "On Earth, I was heir to power, wealth, respect. But I trusted the wrong people. My lover, my brother in all but name. They cut me down with smiles on their lips. I died with fire in my lungs and knives in my back."
He exhaled slowly. "When I woke in this world, I swore never again. Never again to kneel. Never again to let another's hand write my fate."
Their eyes met—his blazing with defiance, hers glimmering with a sorrow that finally cracked.
---
For the first time, her hand trembled as she reached out, brushing her fingers against his. A tentative touch, fleeting, as though she feared it might burn.
"Then perhaps," she whispered, "we are bound by more than circumstance."
He turned his hand, clasping hers firmly. "Not bound," he said. "Chained together by choice. That's the only chain I'll accept."
Her breath caught. The silver starlight around her flickered, soft and warm, wrapping faintly around both of them. Not a prison, but a promise.
---
The System stirred, its voice cold but undeniable.
> [Bond Detected: Chain of Starlight.]
[Effect: When Host fights alongside Lian Zhi, strength and qi resonance increase by 20%.]
[Warning: Emotional entanglement increases risk of Heavenly Tribulation.]
Xieyun ignored it. For once, he let the fire quiet.
For once, he let himself feel.
---
Hours later, when the moon hung highest, Lian Zhi rested against a cedar trunk, her eyes closed, her breathing steady. Xieyun sat nearby, watching her.
She was still a mystery. A fallen immortal with scars deeper than her words admitted. A woman who hid her pain behind starlight and chains.
But tonight, she had given him a piece of her truth. And that was more than the entire Pavilion, the clans, or even Heaven had ever offered him.
He swore silently: he would protect that truth. Not as a debt. Not as a burden. But as his own choice.
Because in this crimson path of blood and fire, she was the first light that had not betrayed him.
---
Far above, in the Immortal Plane, a ripple stirred.
High within a palace of jade, the elders of the Lian Clan looked toward the mortal realm. One of them whispered:
"The outcast child's starlight has awakened."
Another's eyes glinted coldly. "Then she has not forgotten us. Good. When the time comes, she will serve her purpose—whether she wills it or not."
And in the shadows, Heaven's scar pulsed brighter, as if amused by mortal vows of love.
---
✨ End of Chapter Twenty-One ✨