"Sir, want your fortune told?"

The sharply dressed young man had just come around the corner when a petite girl suddenly blocked his way.

Wearing a sleek suit and frameless glasses, Ethan Marshall had only his phone in hand. Caught off guard by the sudden question, he stopped.

He glanced down at the girl’s overly youthful face, frowning as he said, “This is a commercial district. Promoting superstitions out here? I could call the cops on you.”

The girl’s eyes went wide as she took a quick step back, mumbling, “Young people these days…”

These days what? Ethan didn’t catch the rest. He moved to sidestep her.

“Wait!” she said quickly, brows furrowed as she studied his face. “Just hear me out. I won’t charge anything.”

The corners of Ethan’s mouth twitched as he chuckled lightly. “Seriously? You can’t be more than sixteen. Out here trying to scam people already?”

“I’m not a scammer! And for the record, I’m definitely of age.”

More like old enough to be your ancestor’s ancestor.

Suddenly puffing up a bit in frustration, Luna Dawson let out a sigh. “I just wanted to warn you… things don’t look good for you today.”

Ethan’s expression darkened as he replied coldly, “Move aside.”

She noticed the deep shadow between his brows—it was almost like ink pooling there. On a normally handsome and composed face, it now made him look grim and unlucky.

“This is for you.” Luna reached into her pocket, pulled out a yellow charm folded into a triangle, and firmly shoved it into his hand, not letting him refuse. “Your face says if you can get through today, your future’ll be peaceful, healthy, and long.”

“This talisman could literally save your life. Whether you keep it or not is up to you.” Despite her baby face, her tone was full of authority.

What confused Ethan the most wasn’t her words—but that he couldn’t shake her off.

Her hands were small and slender, and she looked tiny overall, but her grip was so strong it actually startled him. When she grabbed his wrist, it felt like being restrained for real.

As soon as the talisman was stuffed into his palm, Luna turned and walked away without another word.

Young people these days, huh. No respect for real Daoist teachings.

Still standing there, Ethan looked down at the small charm in his hand. His first instinct was to toss it into the nearby trash bin—but out of some strange impulse, he slid it into the back of his phone case instead.

When he turned around to look again, the girl in the cloth robe and topknot was already gone.

Ethan shook his head, glanced at his watch, and hurried off toward the office tower.

After swiping his badge to enter, he’d just gotten to the elevator when his phone rang.

It was his boss, Victor Bennett.

The elevator dinged—it had reached the ground floor. He hesitated for a moment, then stepped aside to take the call, mentally complaining about missing yet another elevator.

As the elevator doors slowly shut, Ethan focused on what Victor was saying.

Then a loud “BOOM!” echoed through the building, making him jump and glance around instinctively.

Victor heard it too and asked through the phone, “Ethan, what was that?”

“No idea. I think… something happened to the elevator.” Ethan’s grip on the phone tightened as he started jabbing the button repeatedly.

A security guard who’d also heard the sound came running over.

“Call the fire department and get an ambulance! The elevator’s crashed!”

Ethan’s mind was a blur. He followed the guard down the stairs to the basement, but the elevator doors wouldn’t open no matter what.

It wasn’t until the firefighters arrived and forced the doors open that Ethan froze in place, his back drenched in cold sweat.

Everyone inside… was dead.

Given the severity of the accident, the police arrived in no time.

Outside the building, as people gathered and whispered anxiously about what’d just happened, Ethan stood off to the side, shaken to his core.He hadn’t even noticed when the call had ended. His palm felt hot from gripping the phone too tightly. Then it hit him—he quickly pried off the phone case. That yellow talisman burst into flames the second it was exposed, crumbling to ash in seconds.

Ethan Marshall’s heart pounded wildly. When the screen lit up with another call coming in, his eyes went sour with relief.

"Mr. Bennett," he said quickly, clutching the phone like it was made of gold.

Victor Bennett, hearing his assistant’s shaky voice, frowned slightly on the other end. "You okay?"

"I’m fine, I’m fine! Thank God you called; if you hadn’t, I would've gotten in that elevator." Ethan stepped away from the crowd, his voice full of gratitude. "Everyone who went in… they're gone."

"Dead?" Victor’s tone dropped fast, dark and heavy. "How the hell did it get that bad?"

"No clue. The cops are still figuring it out," Ethan said, voice low. "That elevator was just serviced three days ago."

It had been a Sunday, so most offices in the building were closed. Maintenance had picked a good day.

Then that young girl’s face flashed across his mind. After a short pause, he decided to tell Victor the story.

Victor was silent for only a few beats before asking, "What's her name? Which temple is she from?"

Ethan stammered. Yeah, he hadn’t asked.

"Then you’d better go find her yourself," Victor said matter-of-factly. "She saved your life. You owe her at least an apology—and give her something proper in return."

Ethan agreed without hesitation.

Apologizing and thanking her were the least he could do.

She had literally saved his life. No other way to put it—his lifesaver, no less than a second set of parents.

If he’d been in that elevator, he’d be dead. His family—they would be wrecked.

...

Meanwhile, Luna Dawson stood at a corner of the pedestrian street, staring longingly at the sizzling flatbreads cooking in a little roadside oven. Hunger stirred in her out of nowhere.

She hadn’t eaten in years. Fasting was part of her path, and worldly cravings like this were supposed to be behind her.

Not because she didn’t want to eat—just never got the chance.

She was born over three hundred years ago, back in the days when this country was still under a feudal dynasty. Her hometown, Longshan County, suffered severe droughts three years straight. Every household was starving. The government kept promising to send food and aid, but none of it reached the common folk. In the end, the people grew so desperate they started trading children to survive.

Her own parents had done it—swapped her with a little girl from the next village.

The family that got her planned to butcher her. Turn her body into dinner.

But before they got the chance, they ended up dead—caught in a local gang raid.

She was dragged off to a bandit hideout; the plan was to cook her up as a feast for the outlaws.

Lucky for her, a wandering Taoist happened to pass through.

The gang never even got to touch the loot from their robberies—the military swooped in and wiped out the whole lot.

Of course, the stolen treasures and food were immediately "confiscated" by corrupt officials. As for the locals, they still didn’t get even a few bites.

That three-year drought killed tens of thousands in just that one little patch of land.

And Longshan wasn't the worst—rumors said the northern provinces had it even harder. There were locusts too. Nothing grew for two years straight.

After the old Taoist took her in, life wasn’t exactly sunshine and roses. Every region was suffering. Still, she survived—barely, thanks to scraping together tree roots and weeds as food.

She was only five or six back then.

The temple that took her in was called Guiyuan Temple. It had been around since the Jiajing Emperor’s reign during the Ming Dynasty—400 or 500 years old by now.

In the later years of Jiajing’s rule, Taoism thrived, with the emperor secluded away, chasing immortality. Guiyuan Temple was built during that wave, supported by both local officials and villagers.

But Luna never saw a change of dynasty. At the age of eight, she snuck into the forest to play, misstepped, and fell into a ravine.

When she opened her eyes again, she was already in the cultivation world.