The city slept under a heavy veil of darkness, yet Xi Youran's steps were silent, her black hood concealing the fire that had long been buried in her heart.
She had long since stopped being human. Her emotions were locked deep within, her soul no longer entirely her own. As the Blood Clan successor, she carried a burden that no ordinary being could comprehend. Her gaze, however, remained sharp—focused on her next target: the Shadow Clan.
Yet, there were other truths she could not ignore. The disappearance of her mother's corpse still haunted her. Master Mu Fei's soul remained scattered. The threads of the world itself trembled under forces she had yet to confront.
A figure awaited her at the edge of a mountain cliff, framed by the twilight. Master Zen, serene and unreadable, stood alongside Lu Han.
"Master," Xi Youran said, bowing slightly. Her voice was calm, but beneath it lay the weight of a lifetime of battles, losses, and betrayal. "I have recorded the current Emperor of the Yuan Kingdom, as instructed."
Zen inclined his head. "Then the first step is complete. You must now decide what you will carry forward—and what you will leave behind."
Xi Youran's hands clenched. "I have promised to forget… all the rage, all the revenge. But there is one thing I will never give up—the Shadow Clan. My master's soul and my mother's remains… they are mine to reclaim."
She lifted her head, her gaze piercing the horizon. "For now, my duty is to protect my family and to record the truth of Returners like me. That is the path I choose."
A faint smile curved her lips, devilish and cold. "I am no longer merely human. I am the one and only who can stand against the Shadow Clan."
Zen's eyes softened slightly. "You understand the stakes. Once you step fully into your role, the world will see you not as a mortal, but as a force of destiny itself."
Xi Youran nodded. Her cloak billowed behind her as she vanished into the night, leaving only whispers of her presence in the wind.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, Yuan Fei's mind had completely fractured. The delusions of her reincarnated story consumed her entirely. She no longer distinguishes reality from fiction, tearing open a rift in the world. Pages of history vanished, rewritten by her obsessive belief that she was the author of all things.
The world quaked as written records and memories of countless Returners flickered and disappeared. Time and fate began to unravel.
Yet, amidst the chaos, Xi Youran felt the disturbance. She had been summoned to the Writers' Pagoda by Master Zen, a place beyond mortal understanding, where reality and narrative intertwined.
She stood at the precipice of Yuan Fei's collapsing world, the pulse of destiny thrumming beneath her feet. "Then it begins," she murmured. "The truth will not die… not while I still breathe."
The storm of reality and fiction converged, and Xi Youran walked forward, hooded and resolute, the first light of her immortal purpose breaking through the darkness.