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: a demon prince awakens after a fateful rescue
The world was hushed beneath a sky inked with storm clouds, and the mountains groaned as though the heavens themselves remembered the name Sima Jiao.
Five centuries ago, he had stood alone against the armies of gods and men, his crimson eyes reflecting fire and blood. When the battle ended, it took the combined strength of the Three Saints to bind him in chains of spirit and lock him deep within a cavern on the mountain that now bore their name. Since then, he had waited—silent, sealed, a storm bottled in darkness.
But storms were never meant to sleep forever.
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The Girl Who Didn't Belong
Liao Tingyan blinked against the sharp sunlight and groaned.
One moment she had been in her cluttered bedroom in the twenty-first century, scrolling through her phone with chips in hand, and the next—this. Mountains stretched endlessly around her, ancient pine trees sighed in the wind, and somewhere far off a bell tolled.
"This… isn't my neighborhood," she muttered, brushing dirt from her jeans. Her sneakers looked ridiculously out of place against the mossy stones.
The air was rich, almost alive, and before long she stumbled upon a sprawling sect compound. Disciples in flowing white robes strode past with swords at their waists, talking solemnly about cultivation, demonic energy, and destiny.
Destiny? She wanted Wi-Fi.
But before she could flee, a robed elder stopped her. "New recruit? You're late to assembly."
And so, without the chance to object, Liao Tingyan found herself lumped together with a group of new disciples, a wooden identity tag pressed into her palm. Just like that, she became part of Three Saints Mountain.
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Whispers of the Demon Lord
Life in the sect was nothing like school back home. There were no phones, no snacks, and worst of all—morning drills at sunrise. Tingyan learned two things quickly:
1. She had no talent for swordplay.
2. She had even less talent for waking up early.
While others strained to circulate spiritual energy, she yawned, her dantian as silent as a stone.
At night in the dorms, the other disciples traded ghost stories.
"They say the Demon Lord is still sealed under this very mountain."
"His eyes can kill with a single glance."
"Five hundred years, and still the earth trembles at his breath."
Tingyan, hugging her knees in her corner, whispered, "Sounds like a pain in the neck. Let's just… not go near him?"
The others shivered. None dared even approach the sealed cavern.
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A Voice in the Dark
But curiosity had always been Tingyan's worst habit.
One sleepless night, guided by the glow of strange runes carved into rock, she wandered into a cavern lit by shifting red light. The air was heavy, every breath trembling with suppressed power.
There, behind a wall of shimmering seals, sat a man bound in chains of spirit-fire. His hair spilled like ink over his shoulders, his eyes closed as if in meditation. Even motionless, his presence filled the cavern like thunder waiting to fall.
For a moment, Tingyan forgot to breathe.
Then his eyes opened.
Scarlet irises locked onto her, sharp enough to pierce bone. Power pressed down on her shoulders like a mountain. Every tale she had heard suddenly made sense—he was terrifying. He was magnificent.
And yet, her mouth betrayed her.
"Uh… hi? Don't mind me. Just, uh, sightseeing."
For a heartbeat the cavern was silent. Then, to her shock, the corner of his mouth curved—a smile, cold and amused. His voice seeped directly into her mind, deep and velvet-dark.
"A little rabbit," he murmured. "Bold enough to step into the wolf's den."
Tingyan's pulse hammered. Rabbit? Excuse me, I'm at least a cat. But she didn't dare speak it aloud.
He leaned forward, chains rattling, and the seals shivered as if barely containing him. "Tell me your name."
Something inside her stirred, as though fate itself had taken notice.
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The Seal Trembles
Above the cavern, the disciples slept uneasily as the ground gave a faint rumble. None knew that the slacker girl who yawned through lessons had just met the nightmare of the Three Realms.
As Tingyan stumbled backward, trying not to trip, the red glow of the seal flared, then dimmed—like a heartbeat syncing to hers.
And in that moment, with only the echo of his laughter chasing her out of the cavern, she realized something dreadful.
The stories had been wrong. The Demon Lord was not sleeping.
He was waiting.
And now, he was waiting for her.
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✨ End of Chapter 1