The night sky was vast, an endless ocean of ink where the stars flickered like dying embers. Beneath the heavens, within the towering walls of the White Cloud Sect, a fragile figure knelt on the cold stone courtyard, her forehead pressed against the earth. Blood dripped from a wound on her lip, staining the pale white fabric of her tattered robe.
Lian Yu did not tremble. Even as the dozens of disciples sneered at her, even as the Sect Elder's voice rang out like a hammer of judgment, she remained still.
"A lowly servant daring to steal from the sect! How bold you are, Lian Yu!"
The onlookers whispered amongst themselves, their eyes filled with contempt.
"She's just a cripple, why would she even try to steal a cultivation pill?"
"A deluded fool. Even if she swallowed a hundred, she wouldn't be able to cultivate."
"No talent, no background, no future. Just throw her out already."
Lian Yu had long grown used to the cruelty of the White Cloud Sect. She had been raised within these walls, yet she was not a disciple, merely an orphan taken in to serve as a servant. Unlike the other young cultivators, she had never been given a chance to cultivate—because her meridians were broken.
Born with a Heaven-Sealed Meridian, she could not absorb qi like others. No matter how much she trained, she would remain powerless, no different from an ordinary mortal.
So why would she steal a cultivation pill?
The answer was simple. She didn't.
Yet in a world where the strong dictated truth, her innocence did not matter.
"Sect Elder," a young man in luxurious robes stepped forward, his expression a mix of arrogance and amusement. Bai Liang was the one who had framed her. "She's a disgrace to the sect. I suggest we deal with her swiftly, before she embarrasses us further."
A murmur of agreement swept through the crowd.
Lian Yu slowly raised her head. Her dark eyes, though bruised and swollen, still held a quiet defiance.
"What proof do you have?" she asked.
Bai Liang smirked. "The pill was found in your quarters. Isn't that proof enough?"
She clenched her fists. She had nothing to argue with—because she had no power.
The Sect Elder sighed, as if pitying her. "Lian Yu, you have been given shelter in this sect, yet you repay kindness with deceit. You will be cast out. From this moment forward, you are no longer under the White Cloud Sect's protection."
The words fell like a death sentence.
Lian Yu lowered her gaze, hiding the storm in her heart.
"So be it."
If she was not welcome here, she would find her own path elsewhere.
Yet as she turned to leave, Bai Liang's voice rang out once more, taunting.
"Since you're no longer part of the sect, you won't mind if I take care of you myself."
Before she could react, a palm wreathed in golden qi slammed toward her chest.
A surge of pain erupted through her body. Lian Yu coughed violently, tasting iron in her throat. The impact sent her flying backward, crashing through the wooden railing and plummeting down the mountain's steep cliffside.
The last thing she saw before darkness consumed her was Bai Liang's smug smile—and the endless abyss below.
—x—
Pain.
It was the first thing Lian Yu felt as she tried to move. Agony flared in her limbs like molten iron, her breath ragged and shallow. She was barely clinging to consciousness, her body battered from the fall. The cavern around her was deathly silent, except for the faint howling of wind through unseen cracks.
She should be dead.
Yet something had kept her alive.
Her fingers twitched against the cold stone floor, brushing against something smooth. A bone. No, not just one—hundreds of them.
This was no ordinary cavern. It was a tomb.
The remains of countless fallen cultivators lay scattered around her, some still clutching rusted weapons, others twisted in their final moments of despair. Some had died in battle. Others had died from something far worse.
The air was thick with the remnants of qi, ancient and lingering, as if the wills of the dead had yet to fully fade.
And amidst it all, something pulsed.
A deep, resonating hum filled the chamber, as if the very air was alive. It was not sound, but something more primal—a presence.
Lian Yu forced her eyes open, and before her, buried half within the bones, lay a glowing ember of crimson and gold. It flickered like a dying flame, yet its heat reached deep into her very soul.
A voice, ancient and weary, echoed in the vast emptiness.
"You are unworthy."
The ember's light flared, revealing a ghostly figure within it—a phoenix, its once-proud wings tattered, its divine radiance dimmed by time. It watched her with burning golden eyes, not with kindness, but with judgment.
"A broken vessel cannot hold power. You will die here, like the rest."
Lian Yu's breath shuddered, but her lips curled into a weak, defiant smile.
"…Then let me die trying."
She reached out, fingers trembling, and grasped the ember.
Fire erupted through her veins.
Pain unlike anything she had ever known tore through her, as if her very soul was being burned away and reforged anew. Her broken meridians—useless, shattered things—felt as if they were being torn apart thread by thread, remade into something entirely different.
This was not a gift.
It was a trial.
The voice of the phoenix rumbled, its tone now filled with something almost resembling amusement.
"Then burn."
And so, Lian Yu burned.
—x—
Hours passed. Or days. Time had lost all meaning.
When she finally opened her eyes, she was no longer the same.
The cavern was silent. The golden embers flickered around Lian Yu, their light casting elongated shadows over the sea of bones. She pressed a hand against her chest, feeling the faint, thrumming warmth left behind by the ember's power.
It was different from the qi she had always envied in others. It was not something she had drawn from the heavens or the earth—it was something entirely her own. Something that had ignited from the depths of her very soul.
She flexed her fingers. A slow, unfamiliar energy stirred within her. It wasn't vast or overwhelming, but it was there. For the first time in her life, she wasn't empty.
She could finally cultivate!!!
Her heart pounded.
A sharp, cracking sound broke through the silence.
Lian Yu turned her head, her body instinctively tensing. Across the cavern, something was moving. A skeletal hand, half-buried in the rubble, twitched violently before dragging itself free from the remains.
Then another.
And another.
The tomb was waking.
Lian Yu forced herself to her feet, her breath unsteady as figures began to rise from the bones. These were no ordinary corpses. Their flesh had long since decayed, but their broken weapons still glowed faintly with the lingering traces of their past power.
They had been cultivators once. And even in death, they were not at peace.
The first corpse lunged at her.
Lian Yu barely had time to react before instinct took over. She moved, her body far lighter than before, and twisted away from the attack.
Another came from the left. She raised her arm in defense—only for something unnatural to happen.
A flicker of golden fire erupted around her, deflecting the strike.
She gasped.
This is… the ember's power?
She had no time to marvel at it. More corpses surged toward her, their empty sockets glowing faintly with the remnants of their past will. The weak would be devoured here. She had to fight.
But she had never fought before.
She had watched, had listened, had memorized the movements of the disciples from the shadows, but she had never once held a weapon, never once been allowed to learn.
And yet—
Her body moved on its own.
The golden embers swirled around her fingertips as she wove between the undead warriors. Their attacks, though swift, felt slower now. She ducked beneath a rusted blade, pivoted on her heel, and lashed out.
Her palm connected with the nearest corpse.
BOOM!
A pulse of golden flame erupted from her hand, consuming the undead in an instant. The bones crumbled to ash.
Lian Yu's eyes widened.
This power… I can use it.
A rush of exhilaration filled her. This was hers. No one had given it to her. No one could take it away.
A skeletal warrior raised its blade high, preparing to bring it down upon her.
She didn't hesitate.
Lian Yu twisted her body and struck forward, fire blooming at her fingertips as she delivered a precise, burning palm strike.
The force of the blow shattered the warrior in an instant.
More came, but now, she knew.
She could fight.
She would survive.
—x—
By the time the last corpse crumbled into dust, Lian Yu was gasping for breath, her limbs trembling with exhaustion. She had fought. She had won.
The cavern was silent once more, save for the faint embers that still danced around her.
She straightened, staring at the ruins. These warriors had died in battle, their wills lingering even in death. And yet, she had survived their trial.
She turned toward the far end of the cavern, where a stone doorway, previously sealed, now stood open. A path forward.
Lian Yu clenched her fists, her golden flames flickering at her fingertips once more.
She had been cast into the abyss.
But she would not remain in the darkness.
She was Phoenix-Born now.
And the heavens would tremble when she returned.