Chapter 1

“I, the mortal Bai Zhi, accuse Spirit Sword Sect disciple Cui Fuling of slaughtering my entire family. I beg the elders to give us justice.”

Only the dull thud of my forehead striking the floor echoed through the vast Hall of Justice. My knees had gone numb, and the skin on my brow was a bloody ruin.

A young woman in pink finally drifted in, her sleeves fluttering. I knew her: Cui Fuling, the heroine of this world.

“Third Elder, I didn’t mean to do it that day,” she said in her sweet, melodious voice.

“Kneel!”

At the elder’s thunderous command, Cui Fuling went pale and bent her knees. With almond eyes, rosy cheeks, and a face as luminous as an autumn moon, she was beautiful enough to unsettle any heart. Too bad she was rotten to the core.

Several days earlier, I had gone up the mountain to gather herbs for sick villagers. When I came home, the house was a wasteland and all five members of my family had perished in the flames. Cui Fuling alone remained, staring at the destruction as if she had been bewitched.

Then the immortal who had followed her gathered her into his arms and said with pity, “They were only mortal insects, Fuling. Do not let their deaths disturb your Dao heart.”

Together, they unleashed an even fiercer Ninefold True Flame to erase the evidence and left hand in hand. I was left to gather the few scraps of charred flesh that remained of my family in an old cloth.

Only moments before, my swaddled youngest sister had been babbling and laughing in my arms. Now she had been burned alive like some worthless animal. No one showed remorse, because they were cultivators and we were merely mortals.

I kept kowtowing in the center of the hall. Blood ran from my forehead and stained the hem of Cui Fuling’s dress.

“After deliberation, the elders have decided that Cui Fuling will be expelled from Spirit Sword Sect as of today. Are you satisfied?” Third Elder announced, stroking his long beard.

Spirit Sword Sect prized its reputation. If it ignored a disciple’s massacre of mortals, other sects would use the scandal against it.

I froze and raised my head, my mind blank. Five lives—in exchange for expulsion?

Before I could answer, Cui Fuling burst into tears. She struck her head against the floor and sobbed, “Third Elder, I grew up in Spirit Sword Sect. If I must leave, you might as well execute me here today.”

Strength surged back into my failing body. Execution? Wonderful. The rusty dagger hidden in my sleeve seemed to tremble with anticipation.

I had barely lifted my hand when a violent force knocked the dagger away. Agony shot through my wrist. Blood poured out; the bones and tendons were shattered.

Third Elder calmly withdrew his hand and looked at Cui Fuling with pity. He had watched her grow up and could not bear to punish her, though the sect’s reputation still came first.

“There is nothing more to discuss. Fuling, leave.”

Under the hall’s supervision, she stumbled outside, hair disheveled and eyes wet, as lovely as a flower bowed over water. Clutching my bleeding wrist, I followed like a walking corpse and calculated how I might kill her once she descended the mountain.

At the sect’s great formation, a crowd came rushing toward us. I knew them too—the heroine’s admirers, Spirit Sword Sect’s celebrated young geniuses.

The sight of Cui Fuling weeping alone melted their hearts. When they saw me, disgust entered their eyes. Her eldest senior brother, cold and ethereally handsome, stepped protectively in front of her. He swept aside his robe and knelt.

“This disciple is willing to accept Junior Sister’s punishment and be expelled in her place.”

“So am I.”

One after another, the geniuses knelt, openly shielding her. They were treasures the sect had nurtured with infinite care. Everyone knew the Hall of Justice would never expel them.

Coldness filled me. I clenched my uninjured hand until my nails cut into my palm. The old cloth slipped from my chest, scattering blackened pieces of flesh that gave off a foul smell. No one cared.

Seeing her senior brothers kneeling, Cui Fuling finally seemed to recover. She bit her lip, dropped down, and kowtowed hard.

“Fuling knows she was wrong. I truly know it. I will leave the sect—please do not punish my senior brothers.”

After several blows, her forehead reddened. Everyone watching grew misty-eyed. I watched in silence, finding it grotesquely absurd. Cui Fuling owed a blood debt to my family. Why was she apologizing to a sect elder?

“Bai Zhi, are you satisfied now?” her unruly second senior brother demanded, as if all of this were my fault.

I shook my head, my eyes dead. “No. I only want her life.”

Gasps rose all around me. Even Third Elder, who boasted of his integrity, scowled.

“A common mortal indeed. Such a vicious heart. One should forgive where one can—why insist on driving her to death?”

I said nothing. My trembling body stayed upright, and I refused to yield. Many sects already despised Spirit Sword Sect. If this was not settled properly, its rivals would seize on it, leaving us at an impasse.

Then a disciple stared into the void and cried, “Immortal Junhua has returned!”