The wind howled like a banshee, mirroring the storm raging within Zhang Li. He gripped the worn hilt of his sword, the metal cold against his palm, a stark contrast to the fire that burned in his chest. He had spent weeks tracking his mother, following whispers and rumors, each lead a fresh wound on his already tattered heart. His mother, the woman he had mourned for years, was alive. And not just alive, but a key player in the very chaos that had stolen Yinou and Hua Lin from him.
He was a mixture of emotions- anger that threatened to consume him, a desperate need for answers, and a traitorous flicker of the old, ingrained love for the woman who had raised him. It warred within him, tearing at the edges of his sanity.
He reached the edge of the clearing, a hidden grove where she had made her lair. Through the dense foliage, he could see the glow of lanterns, the air thick with an unnatural stillness. This wasn't a home; it was a fortress. He wasn't here for tea and reconciliation. He was here for answers. Or maybe... revenge. He honestly didn't know anymore.
He couldn't just march in. He was no fool. He circled, taking care to not make a sound, until he found a weak point, a shadowed corner where he could slip through the perimeter. This wasn't confrontation, it was infiltration. He moved swiftly, his body a practiced dance of stealth, until he found himself inside the clearing, hidden behind a stack of lumber. His heart hammered in his chest, but he kept his face down, the shadows his protector.
A voice, cold and sharp as splintered ice, cut through the air. It was her voice. He hadn't heard it in years, but it was as familiar to him as his own heartbeat.
"Come out, boy. I know you're there."
He froze. How could she know? He slowly lifted his head. She stood in the center of the clearing, her back to him, gazing at the small bonfire burning in front of her. Her robes were black, embroidered with silver serpents. It was the uniform of the Serpent Clan. A clan that worshipped darkness.
"My dear Li'er," she began, her voice a silken whisper that belied the years she should have been dead, "you've been so… exploited." He had thought the world had done its worst to him. He had been a pawn, a tool, a man driven by a desperate promise. Now, his own mother, a ghost resurrected by forbidden arts, was telling him he had been blind. He felt a bitter laugh rise in his throat.
"Wang Long," she continued, naming the woman Zhang Li had once trusted, "and her wretched daughter, Wang Kong Shu, they used you. They manipulated you into revealing the secrets of Bai Huiling's Book. They knew your desperation to save Yinou." Zhang Li's head throbbed. "How? How do you know all this? How are you even alive?"
She chuckled, a sound that sent shivers down his spine. "Before my last breath escaped, I cleaved a fragment of my spirit. Bai Huiling's forbidden techniques, my dear Li'er, allowed me to slowly mold this fragment into a semblance of a corporeal form. A weak one, yes, but alive." Her eyes, too bright, gleamed in the dim light. "But such technique comes at a cost – powerlessness, and ultimately, heavenly wrath. I will need another body, one that could house my spirit." She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial tone. "And before I found this… vessel," she gestured vaguely at the fragile form she inhabited, "I saw them. I saw Wang Long promise you a life force, an essence for that is sure to bring Yinou back. How pathetic you were, so easily swayed by their lies!" Her words were laced with mockery, each syllable a venomous sting.
"You toiled for the Dongying Kingdom, for their gain, and your heart yearned for Yinou. Poor, simple Li'er." He clenched his fists, his knuckles white. It was true. He had become a weapon, a tool, driven by the illusion of hope. He had met Wang Kong Shu then. She had pursued him with a fierce, unwavering love he could not reciprocate, his heart belonged to his obsession. He had taught the Dongying's their secrets, used Bai Huiling's forbidden knowledge to propel their war machine, until they no longer needed him. They tried to kill him, but he had escaped and planned to take what he was promised, only to realize the supposed life force promise to him was Wang Kong Shu.
He could not harm her, so he ran, seeking any other way to save his sister. He offered his life force, the life force of others, anything. She had even offered her own, but he had refused, afraid of dragging her into his cursed existence.
Fearing her love and care would be his undoing, he cursed her, knowing it caused her pain, but it was a shield. She found comfort with the Crown Prince, yet her heart always found its way back to him.
He had been captured, all he had worked for had turned to nothing, she saved him, she saw his devastation, and she did the unthinkable. She extracted her life force, all her divine power, with a dagger and gifted it to Yinou. All to save him, all to save his sister. The young Wang Su Ning had seen the act, and believed he had killed her.
"After all that, I found a suitable host in Yu Zhao. Oh, dear Li'er," she laughed again, the sound like glass shattering, "You see, Yu Zhao is the Crown Prince's cousin but more importantly, she's a descendant of Bai, blessed with that lineage's gifts - knowledge of healing, herbs, and, most vitally, divination and martial arts. She holds the key to Bai Huiling's most coveted secret: a sealed shadow serpent, a creature born from the late Emperor of Dongying's depraved experiments, with Wang Long as his willing accomplice."
She continued, "And you, my son, unknowingly, held the key to unlock this monster. The book you possessed, that dark magic you used to save Yinou, it was all from Bai Huiling. She wrote that to unlock the seal, a dual nature is needed, which is why Yinou is the key." She took a breath, her eyes gleaming with a cold satisfaction. "Everything I did, every pain I endured, has led to this moment." He felt a cold dread grip him. "What are you saying? What are you planning to do?"
Her gaze sharpened. "I found Yinou… dying, on the verge of oblivion in the cave. I had to act fast. That book of dark magic, it saved her again. To save her, I had to make her walk Samsara, to unite the clashing forces within her. I needed to ensure she lives. Yinou is essential to my plan."
Zhang Li stared at her, speechless, his heart a leaden weight in his chest. She was going to use Yinou, his daughter, the person he had sacrificed everything for, to unleash this monster. She was willing to condemn her own child to death for her own twisted ambitions. "She is your daughter!" he roared, his voice breaking. "Yinou! That is Yinou! I thought you… I thought you loved her! You always did!"
Her face twisted into a mask of disdain. "Love? She was an immortal experiment you created, a creature that should not exist, driven by your insatiable desire. You did all of this...I should have killed you at birth."
He recoiled. "Why?" Her face contorted with rage, and suddenly she launched into a story, revealing a truth that had eluded him for years. She had been raped by her cousin, the head of the household. When she sought help from the servant, who even as a fool she treated like a son, Ren Aiguo, he had done nothing. She was thrown out of their household while her cowardly father had done nothing.
"He was a man with the brain of a child, but even he could have helped!" The name echoed in Zhang Li's mind. Ren Aiguo. He had heard that name before, whispered by Wang Long. It was their creation, their experiment, a being of dual nature. A terrifying realization dawned on him. Ren Aiguo wasn't just some abandoned servant; he was the shadow serpent sealed by Bai Huiling. And his mother, the woman he thought he knew, planned to unleash it.
He slapped her, the sound echoing in the silent temple. She retaliated with a glare that promised unspeakable pain. "I should have let you die; you were always a disappointment." His heart ached with a pain that transcended any he had experienced before before he left.
She stood at the center of the room, the cool jade floor a stark contrast to the fire blazing in her chest. She watched the empty space where he had stood, his silhouette burned into her vision.
"You are still as naive," she muttered, the words tasting like ash on her tongue. She allowed a bitter smile to twist her lips. "You don't even know that your comrade..." He would never guess. He was too wrapped up in his obsession . He'd never see the bigger picture, the cosmic dance of fate that had ensnared them all.
"...is the last reincarnation of Wang Kong Shu."
In this life, just as in the last, she had been drawn to him, a moth to a devastating flame. She had known the risks, the curse that clung to his soul like a second skin, and yet she had still fallen.
"She loved you again this life," she continued, her voice barely above a whisper, the words laced with a bitter regret, "and ended up cursed, again." The flickering candlelight cast dancing shadows on the aged pages of the diary, its parchment brittle and yellowed with time.