The rain fell like shards of cold glass over the ruins of the Azure Flow Sect. Smoke and the scent of burnt incense filled the air, twisting together with the faint hum of spiritual energy that had once nourished the mountain. Now it was silent — a silence that swallowed screams, prayers, and the whispers of the dying.
Among the broken pillars and collapsed training halls, a faint light flickered beneath a shattered pavilion. The blue sigil of the Azure Flow still glowed weakly on the ground, protecting a single figure — a young girl, barely fifteen, her robes torn and stained with ash.
Her name was Lian Yue.
The warding light faltered. The sect's protective formation, fueled by the last breaths of its elders, was fading. She lifted her trembling hand, watching the sigil dissolve into mist.
> "Mother… Father…" she whispered, her voice trembling. "You told me… the flow never ends."
But it had ended. The Azure Flow Sect, once proud and revered for its mastery of spirit control and healing arts, had been destroyed overnight by a coalition of rival sects and demon beasts.
Lian Yue's tears traced clean lines through the soot on her face. She pressed her hand to her chest, feeling the faint throb of something unnatural within — a pulse that didn't belong only to humans.
The mountain wind howled through the ruins, carrying echoes of distant roars. Far below, the forest stirred — demon beasts hunting the remnants of her sect. Their eyes glowed crimson through the mist, drawn by the fading scent of blood and qi.
Lian Yue clenched her jaw. She wanted to scream. To fight. To curse the heavens.
But her meridians were shattered, her spiritual energy scattered like dust.
And yet… something deep inside her still pulsed. A heartbeat not entirely her own.
---
Hours passed. Night thickened. The rain turned to mist.
Lian Yue crawled toward what remained of the Spirit Pool, a once-sacred place where disciples of the Azure Flow purified their cores. The pool was nearly dry now, filled with ashes and blood — but its heart still shimmered faintly with azure light.
She collapsed beside it, her body shaking uncontrollably.
> "If… if my spirit fades here," she murmured, "let my ashes return to the Flow."
Her consciousness dimmed — but just before darkness claimed her, she heard another heartbeat. Deep, resonant, ancient.
It wasn't hers.
From the depths of the cracked pool, a faint growl echoed. A streak of crimson light darted toward her chest, merging with her body before she could even cry out.
Her vision went white.
The sensation tore through her veins like fire and ice. She screamed, clawing at her chest, feeling two pulses — two cores — colliding, struggling for dominance. One pure and human, the other fierce, wild, filled with the aura of demon beasts.
She saw flashes — an enormous black wolf devouring the moon, its eyes filled with rage and loneliness. Then the vision shattered.
When she awoke, dawn had broken.
The ruins were cold. But inside her chest, two energies now flowed — one azure and calm, one crimson and primal. They intertwined, clashing and blending, until they settled into an uneasy rhythm.
Lian Yue opened her eyes. The blue of her irises now shimmered with streaks of red.
---
Down in the Abyssal Forest, far from the human mountains, a cub stirred from its den. A young wolf beast, barely larger than a pup, opened his eyes for the first time — eyes glowing faintly with the same crimson hue that now marked Lian Yue.
The cub's name was Raviel, though he did not yet know it.
He only felt a strange warmth within — as though something in the distance was calling him.
Above the forest, the clouds parted for a moment. Two faint lights — one blue, one red — rose into the sky and intertwined before vanishing.
The heavens had marked their bond.
---
Lian Yue sat quietly on the edge of the ruins. Her breathing had steadied, though her heart throbbed with two distinct rhythms. When she pressed her palm to the ground, she could feel the flow of spiritual energy once more — faint, but alive.
> "If Heaven still grants me breath," she whispered, "then I will rebuild what was lost."
Her mother's words echoed in her memory:
> "The Flow is eternal, Yue'er. Even if shattered, it seeks its path again."
She rose to her feet, pulling from the ashes a broken jade pendant — her sect's emblem.
In that moment, she made her first vow.
> "From the ashes of Azure Flow, I will forge a new path…
Even if that path defies Heaven itself."
The wind stirred her hair as the rising sun painted the ruins in gold and crimson. Far to the south, deep within the beast territories, a wolf cub howled — the sound carried faintly to her ears.
She didn't understand it yet.
But their fates had already begun to intertwine.