The beat of her own heart pulled Ling Yue out of the blackness.
When her eyes opened, the endless skies of the Heavenly Realm were nowhere to be found. No jade palace glimmered, no immortal clouds wafted ceaselessly across the nine heavens. Instead, a roof of thatched grass with holes yawned above her head, allowing cold wind to seep through and caress her skin.
Ache pounded through each bone. Her frame was frail, weak—nothing like the heavenly vessel she once ruled. The stale smell of medicine and mold filled her nostrils.
Ling Yue took a cautious breath. Memories, as sharp as swords, pierced her mind.
Her student's eyes—ones that had been full of loyalty—had been filled with greed when he drove his fist through her chest, ripped out her divine essence. Betrayal had broken her, and the heavens had turned away. She had fallen, losing her immortality, cast into endless circles of reincarnation.
But this. this body was not a new circle. It was broken, but alive.
A whisper, soft but certain, arose in her heart: You have returned.
Ling Yue sat up, disregarding the rending pain in her arms. In the distorted bronze mirror beside the bed, a sixteen-year-old girl looked back—wastethin, pale, her beauty shrouded under fatigue. Dust-covered garments clung to her body.
She knew this persona.
The ignored daughter of the downcased Ling clan, a once noble family, now abandoned by court and relatives as well. A girl left to grow stale in anonymity.
How fitting. From Immortal Lord of the Heavenly Realm to a forgettable mortal nobody wanted.
And yet Ling Yue's lips twitched into a faint smile.
The heavens had not killed her—they had provided her with another battleground.
"Since I tread once again upon the earth," she whispered, voice low and unshakable, "this time, I will shape my own destiny with my own hand."
As if to respond to her oath, the door creaked open.
A young servant stumbled inside, eyes wide in disbelief. "M-Miss Ling? You… you're awake?"
Ling Yue's gaze flicked to the girl. Fear and pity mingled in the servant's eyes. Clearly, this body's previous owner had been abandoned even by those meant to serve her.
The servant bit her lip uncertainly, then burst out, "Young Miss, you cannot go out. The court has called all of us nobles to welcome the Regent today. They say… they say he takes pleasure in cruelty. If he sees you…"
Her words trailed off into stillness.
Regent Yan Xi.
The mortal realm feared him as a wolf in man's clothing—ruthless, insatiable, uncatchable. Mothers shushed children with his name, nobles curtsied lower than they curtsied to the Emperor himself.
But Ling Yue's eyes of immortality had seen through his disguise even before her fall. He wasn't an ordinary man. His aura was keen, old, deadly—like an animal that had slept through the ages, waiting for its prey.
A ideal mate… or a ideal opponent.
Ling Yue's smile grew wider, serene and inscrutable.
"Do not be afraid," she said, dusting her sleeve. Her tone was low and commanding and made the servant falter into silence. "After today, no one will ever step on me again.
She crept up slowly, her mortal flesh weak, but her immortal heart ablaze. Outside the ruined walls of the Ling estate, the court shook in awe of the Regent's darkness.
And within that darkness, she would reclaim her place.