Jun Wuya POV
Pain exploded in my chest, and I gasped.
For the first time in three thousand years, I felt something.
My eyes snapped open in the ice cave where I'd been meditating. The cold didn't bother me—it never had. I'd transcended physical discomfort millennia ago when I severed my seven emotional ties and became an Immortal Venerable.
No family. No friends. No love. No hate. No fear. No desire. No compassion.
Just perfect, empty immortality.
Except now something was wrong. Very wrong.
I pressed my hand against my chest, feeling for the source of the pain. My heart—which hadn't truly beaten in centuries, just went through the motions—was hammering like I'd run a thousand miles.
"Impossible," I whispered. My voice echoed in the ice cave, rusty from disuse. "I severed all ties. This can't be happening."
But it was happening. In my inner vision, I saw it clearly: a golden thread, glowing like fire, connecting my heart to something far away. Something that shouldn't exist.
The thread pulsed, and another wave of pain hit me. Not physical pain—I could handle that easily. This was different. This was emotional pain. The kind I'd cut out of myself when I was thirty years old and desperate to become immortal.
I tried to sever the thread using my spiritual energy. It should've been easy. I was an Immortal Venerable—one of the most powerful beings in the cultivation world. A simple thread shouldn't resist me.
The thread didn't even flicker.
"What are you?" I demanded, as if it could answer.
Instead of answering, the thread pulled. Hard. Like someone had hooked it through my heart and yanked.
Images flooded my mind—not my memories, but someone else's. A girl with silver-gold hair and eyes that burned with golden fire. She was screaming, dying, being reborn in flames over and over. Pain that should've broken any mortal, but she kept surviving. Kept fighting. Kept refusing to give up.
And every time she died and came back, the golden thread connecting us grew stronger.
"No," I said firmly, pushing the images away. "No, no, NO."
This was my worst nightmare. The one thing I'd feared for ten thousand years. A fated partner.
When I was young and still human, I'd been told every immortal had a fated partner—someone whose soul resonated with theirs, whose cultivation would complement and strengthen their own. Together, fated partners could achieve things impossible alone.
But fated bonds were also chains. Emotional chains that could drag you down, make you weak, make you care about someone more than your own advancement. That's why I'd severed my emotional ties before the bond could form.
My fated partner should've died centuries ago, never having met me. That was the plan. That was how I'd guaranteed my immortality would be eternal and undisturbed.
So who was this girl? And why was our bond forming NOW, after ten thousand years?
I stood up, my body moving smoothly despite not having moved in three years. Outside the ice cave, I could hear my disciples going about their daily tasks. They'd probably faint if they saw me emerge early. I never broke meditation unless there was a catastrophic emergency.
This qualified as catastrophic.
I walked to the cave entrance, and the guards stationed outside immediately dropped to their knees, pressing their foreheads to the ground.
"Immortal Venerable!" one gasped. "You've emerged! Is something wrong?"
"Yes." I looked toward the horizon, following the pull of the golden thread. Southeast. Thousands of miles away. "Something has awakened that threatens my cultivation. I need information."
"Of course, Venerable! Anything you require!"
"Recent unusual events. Phoenix sightings. Demonic emergencies. Unsealed ancient prisons. Tell me everything from the past week."
The guards exchanged worried looks. Finally, one spoke: "Venerable, there have been reports of a disturbance near the Lin Clan estate. They say a phoenix awakened in Desolate Peak. And something else—something dark—was released from an ancient seal. Several nearby villages felt the spiritual shockwave."
The Lin Clan. Desolate Peak. A phoenix awakening.
The pieces clicked together in my mind. The girl in my vision had phoenix flames. She'd undergone the rebirth ritual—seventeen deaths and resurrections. That kind of transformation would create massive spiritual resonance. Enough to trigger a dormant fated bond.
"Prepare my sword," I ordered. "I'm going to the Lin Clan territory immediately."
"Should we send advance notice to—"
"No." I started walking toward where my spiritual sword was stored. "This is a personal matter. I'll handle it alone."
The guard looked confused. "Personal? Venerable, you've never had personal matters before."
He was right. In ten thousand years, I'd never done anything for personal reasons. Everything was calculated, logical, for the advancement of my cultivation.
But this girl—this phoenix-demon hybrid with the fated bond I couldn't sever—she was threatening everything I'd built. My isolation. My immortality. My perfect emptiness.
She had to be eliminated.
For the good of my cultivation, I told myself. Nothing personal.
But as I summoned my sword—a blade forged from frozen starlight that hadn't been used in millennia—I felt something else stirring in my chest alongside the pain.
Curiosity.
What kind of person survived seventeen deaths and came back stronger? What kind of will did it take to refuse to die, over and over? And why did seeing her memories make something in my dead heart want to... what? Help her? Protect her?
"Ridiculous," I muttered, mounting my sword. "I'm going to destroy her, not protect her."
The sword lifted into the air, and I shot toward the southeast like a falling star. The disciples below scrambled out of the way, shouting in alarm. I ignored them. My spiritual sense reached out, following the golden thread toward its source.
As I flew faster, the pull got stronger. And more images flooded my mind—the girl standing in a collapsing cave, golden and black flames swirling around her. Her face twisted with rage and grief. Her voice echoing: "I'm your biggest mistake."
And something else. Something that made me push my sword even faster.
A darkness rising from beneath the earth. Ancient. Hungry. Malevolent.
The thing she'd accidentally freed wasn't just dangerous. It was apocalyptic.
"Foolish child," I said, though she couldn't hear me. "What have you done?"
But even as I said it, I felt a strange emotion—one I hadn't felt in so long I barely recognized it.
Concern.
I was concerned about her. About whether she'd survive what was coming.
"No," I said firmly. "I don't care if she lives or dies. I just need to sever this bond before it consumes me."
The golden thread pulsed again, and this time, I felt her fear. Real, raw terror. She was in immediate danger.
My sword moved faster on its own, responding to my subconscious will.
Three hours later, I arrived at Desolate Peak. Or what was left of it. Half the mountain had collapsed. Spiritual energy—corrupted and dark—leaked from a massive crater in the ground. And standing at the edge of that crater were several people: an older woman with powerful cultivation, four frightened cultivators, and—
Her.
The girl from my visions.
She was more beautiful than the images had shown. Silver-gold hair floating around her as if underwater. Eyes that burned with golden fire. Skin that glowed faintly from within. She stood tall despite obvious exhaustion, protecting the others behind her from something in the crater.
Our eyes met across the distance, and the golden thread between us blazed like the sun.
She gasped, taking a step back. "Who—"
Then the thing in the crater attacked.
A massive claw made of shadow and ancient malice shot up, reaching for her. She raised her hands, golden flames erupting to meet it. But she was tired from the seventeen deaths. Her flames flickered and weakened.
The claw was going to kill her.
My body moved before my mind could stop it.
I appeared between her and the claw in an instant, my frozen sword slashing down. The blade met shadow, and there was a sound like reality breaking. The claw shattered, and the thing in the crater screamed in pain and fury.
I stood there, sword raised, protecting the girl who was supposed to be my enemy.
Protecting my fated partner.
She stared at me with those burning eyes, shocked. "You... saved me. Why?"
I didn't have an answer. I should've let the claw kill her. It would've solved all my problems.
But instead, I'd saved her.
The thing in the crater spoke, its voice shaking the earth: "IMMORTAL VENERABLE. YOU DARE INTERFERE? THIS GIRL FREED ME. HER BLOOD IS MY BLOOD. HER LIFE IS MY FEAST."
"I don't care what she freed," I heard myself say. The words came from somewhere deep inside—somewhere I thought I'd killed long ago. "She's mine. Touch her again, and I'll freeze you back into that hole for another twelve thousand years."
The girl behind me made a sound—half laugh, half sob. "Yours? I'm not anyone's—"
"Be quiet," I said. "You've caused enough problems for one day."
The ancient thing in the crater laughed. "FOOL. YOU'VE CLAIMED HER AS YOURS? THEN YOU'VE SEALED YOUR FATE. THE BOND WILL CONSUME YOU. YOUR IMMORTALITY WILL CRUMBLE. ALL BECAUSE OF A BROKEN MORTAL GIRL."
And looking at her—exhausted, terrified, but still standing, still fighting—I realized something terrifying.
The ancient thing was right.
I'd just thrown away ten thousand years of careful isolation to save a stranger.
And I'd do it again.