Beast Mountain.

Deep in the giant forest where the trees blotted out the sky, several corpses lay sprawled on the ground.

Under one ancient tree hung a blood-soaked figure.

It was a girl dressed as a young man.

Her bones and tendons had been shattered by spiritual force. Her flesh was split open all over, strips of skin and blood clinging to her like torn rags. Worst of all, a dagger had pierced straight through her chest and pinned her hard against the trunk. She was barely breathing, one foot already in the grave.

A richly dressed youth stood before her, his face twisted in a savage grin.

“Well, well. Look what I found. The current princess’s betrothed, the grand young heir of the Zhenbei Marquis Manor, Ember Stormwind… is actually a woman?”

As he spoke, he yanked the dagger out of her chest.

Blood splashed.

He grabbed her by the hair and hauled her up into the air, then pressed in close, his whole body reeking of greed and filth.

The girl let out a muffled groan. The light in her eyes, which had nearly gone out, flickered back for a moment.

“Why… why…” Her voice was weak, broken, like wind leaking through torn paper. “Aren’t we… family…”

Felix Stormwind gave a cold laugh, as if he had just heard the stupidest thing in the world.

“Family? Hah. You really are just as stupid as your mother. Still asking why, even now?” He narrowed his eyes, the corners of his mouth curling up with malice. “For the Zhenbei Marquis Manor, of course. Your mother’s been missing for years. Once you die, everything in the manor belongs to my father and me.”

He leaned closer and spoke slow, enjoying every word.

“Since you’re about to die, I don’t mind telling you the truth. Back then, your mother left because my father and I set the whole thing up.”

The girl’s eyes snapped wide open.

Shock, rage, disbelief—everything froze on her blood-caked face.

Felix sneered.

“We deliberately spread word that there was a spiritual medicine at the border of Xuan Kingdom that could cure you. And that fool actually believed it.” He clicked his tongue. “Pity we didn’t manage to kill her there and then. But she’s never come back after all these years, so she’s probably died somewhere outside already.”

His voice turned colder.

“And now, it’s your turn.”

His gaze dropped to her face.

Though it was smeared with blood and dirt, it still could not hide how stunning she was. Even hanging there half-dead, she was enough to stir rotten thoughts in a beast.

Lust rose openly in Felix Stormwind’s eyes.

“Don’t worry,” he said, licking his lips, “before you die, your dear cousin will make sure you have a good time. You’ve spent all these years pretending to be a man. I’d wager you’ve never tasted what it truly means to be a woman.”

“No— let go of me…”

The girl struggled with all she had left.

But her limbs were ruined. Her strength was gone. No matter how hard she fought, she could only watch as Felix used the dagger to flick open the buttons on her clothing one by one.

No.

No!

Even if she died, she would never suffer this.

A fierce, desperate light flashed through her eyes.

Using the very last shred of strength in her body, she bit down hard and tore through her own tongue.

Blood burst from her mouth.

Her scarlet eyes bulged wide, staring straight at the man in front of her with hatred that cut to the bone.

Even in death, she refused to close them.

Felix paused, then let out a cold, mocking laugh.

“Dead?” he said darkly. “You think dying lets you escape? Even if you’re a corpse, I’ll still have you.”

His hand clamped onto the girl’s belt, fingers already yanking, ready to tear it open.

But the one who should have been dead suddenly moved.

Cold.

A cold so sharp it was almost cruel.

It felt as if every drop of blood in her body had been drained clean. Bone-deep frost wrapped around pain and slammed straight into her soul, jolting Celeste Stormwind awake.

Wasn’t she dead?

She had taken twelve bolts of heavenly lightning head-on. She had been one step from breaking into the Divine Realm. Then that sudden, terrifying force had struck from the dark and shattered her divine soul on the spot.

So why... was she here now?

Her mind shook. In that brief daze, broken scenes surged up like a flood.

She had died.

And yet she had lived again, reborn in the body of a girl named Ember Stormwind.

The body’s original owner had been the sole heir of the Zhenbei Marquis Manor. Her father was unknown. She had dressed as a man since childhood. Her talent in cultivation had once been monstrous, enough for her to be called the number one genius of the Stormwind family, her name ringing through the Imperial Capital.

But at thirteen, she suffered a sudden grave injury.

From then on, the genius fell. A crippled waste in one night.

Her mother had once been the famed Zhenbei Marquis. To restore her daughter’s talent, she fell into the trap laid by the second branch of her maternal uncle’s line, lured away to the borderlands. After that, no word ever came back.

And today, the original owner had received news that her mother had appeared in Beast Mountain. She rushed here without a second thought.

She never knew it was a snare Felix Stormwind had laid for her from the start.

The personal guards who came with her had all died.

She herself had been beaten half to death by Felix Stormwind, crippled, humiliated, trampled into the dirt.

Even after her identity as a girl was exposed, even after she had been forced into suicide, he still would not leave even her corpse in peace.

That fierce hatred, that unwillingness, still seemed lodged in this body, like a blade left buried in flesh.

Celeste’s lashes trembled.

Then her eyes snapped open.

Those black eyes were deep, dark, and cold enough to freeze a man’s marrow. Felix Stormwind met them for one instant, and fear rose in him before he could stop it.

“You’re not dead?!” he blurted out.

But the shock passed, and rage came right after.

“Damned bitch! What kind of look is that?” he roared.

His face twisted. In a flash, he lunged again, fingers hooked like claws, aiming to gouge out those eyes that had made him lose face.

Celeste’s dark gaze narrowed.

A blood-colored Dharma Wheel silently appeared in the depths of her eyes.

An invisible force stood before Felix Stormwind like a wall. His finger stopped there, unable to push forward even half an inch.

“What?!”

Felix’s face changed on the spot. Shock flashed through his eyes.

The Dharma Wheel gave a slow turn.

At once, the sky and earth seemed to shift. Wind howled up from nowhere, fierce and wild, whipping sand and dead leaves into the air.

The blood beneath Celeste Stormwind seemed to answer some dark command. In a blink, it gathered together and formed a scarlet star sigil.

Blood-red light burst out.

“Ah—!”

Felix screamed. The force slammed into him hard and sent him flying.

A pillar of crimson light shot straight into the heavens, staining a whole stretch of sky red.

At that same moment—

The terrifying beings entrenched across the various continents all sensed it.

That power had come from an impossibly distant place.

Mysterious. Overbearing. Like an unseen hand reaching across the void, trying to drag them away by force.

“Summoning Art! It’s Summoning Art!”

“That damned evil art should’ve vanished long ago!”

“How can there still be a living summoner in this world?!”

“Does he mean to summon us by force?”

“Heh. Fool’s dreaming.”

Some sneered.

Some felt killing intent rise at once.

Some stayed cold and dismissive.

And some could not hide the stir in their hearts.

Then, in the very next instant, that tremor from the depths of the soul vanished without warning.

But the top horrors scattered through every land were no longer calm. This sudden power had shaken them. Some had already begun to move.

On the other side—

The bloodlight faded. The sky slowly returned to normal.

The bone-deep cold gave way to warmth.

The pain disappeared.

All across Celeste’s body, her wounds were healing at a shocking speed.