A Promise Carried on Bleeding Hands"She's the only bloodline of Uncle Sylvan's family… I must let her grow up healthy so that she can have… a peaceful life."
Soren Ravyn's voice was barely more than a breath — a promise spilled into the dim air of memory. His words, in the projection of the Crystal Lotus Mirror, drifted outward like smoke, reaching the crowd that circled it in the present day.
Faces hardened. Eyes darkened. Even the cultivators who once scoffed at his name went still.
They had heard this vow before.
When Soren's father had shattered like a dying star, bleeding out on the threshold of their home, these were the last words he whispered. Protect Sylvan's child. Carry her into the future. Live together.
No one expected a six-year-old to take that command and chain it to his bones.
But Soren did.
He chose bruises over abandonment. Hunger over betrayal. He bled so she wouldn't. He carved a childhood out of nightmares just so that little Yara could sleep well — and grow round, soft, and safe.
From the crowd, someone exhaled shakily."When he was a child… the Supreme Lotus Emperor was actually… affectionate. Righteous."
Their hope broke like fragile glass a heartbeat later.
"What does that matter now? Affection doesn't erase evil."
"He was kind to Yara once — and later he almost killed her."
"Pretend virtue. Real cruelty. He just hid his fangs until the right moment to bite."
The crowd's bitterness slithered like smoke.
Yara stood before the Crystal Lotus Mirror, her reflection gilded by lotus-shaped light. The glass showed her past self — a fragile baby — and Soren beside her, painfully small, painfully determined.
Her gaze softened, just for a heartbeat.
Silver-white hair brushed her back like moonlit silk. The faintest tremble flickered in her icy blue eyes, like cracks forming at the edges of a glacier.
But the voices around her — vicious, insistent — refroze her heart. Ice sluiced through her veins. Emotion retreated like a tide.
What use was kindness long buried in the past?
He grew into the Supreme Lotus Emperor, ruler of the Seven Blue Lotus World, sovereign of the lotus-shaped palace that pierced the heavens like a blooming paradox. And as he rose, he shed compassion like falling petals.
She had once been born with the Golden Bone, a divine treasure unmatched — the foundation of her future. And when Soren discovered it… he tore it from her body with his own hands. Ripped her destiny out like it was nothing.
She nearly lost her cultivation, her Divine Golden physics crippled.
As if that weren't enough, he had thrown her into a prison of cold stone and colder nights.
From that moment on, hope rotted. And love died.
Thinking of those days — the chains, the humiliation — Yara's heart iced over until even breathing felt like frostbite.
Inside the Crystal Lotus Mirror, Soren paused mid-write, quill in hand.
"…Huh."His brow furrowed as the reflections of the crowd's reactions flickered around him.
He had grown skilled with Fate Editing. It was no longer a divine miracle — more like journaling. He plucked memories from the past and rewrote them. Thread by thread, he reshaped reality.
But even miracles bowed to rules.
He couldn't just write nonsense into being; the system rejected delusion. If he scribbled Soren becomes a Scared Realm GrandMaster overnight or Soren reaches the Transcendent Realm by breakfast, the system snapped back:
INVALID. CONTRADICTION.
Power couldn't be forced. Fate had to be… coaxed.
And truthfully — he didn't need strength. His predecessor, the Supreme Lotus Emperor, had been unbeatable. Yet the Crystal Lotus Mirror still dragged him into this purgatory.
He didn't need power. He needed a way out.
Only those outside — the ten female leads orbiting Fin Ravyn, the so-called male protagonist — could shatter this prison.
His gaze slid to them like a blade.
"Should I just rewrite everything into a pretty lie?" Soren whispered, voice a dark hum. "Hell no. I've read too many tragic stories. You think I won't make you cry first?"
The Crystal Lotus Mirror shimmered, almost eager. The scenes he penned bled into being — videos of his past, pain and promise replayed like a theater of ghosts.
This was his stage now.
And he wrote.
Day by day, under Soren's protection, baby Yara flourished.His clumsy hands became deft with practice.The fear in his eyes softened into habit, then routine, then purpose.
And one day — she spoke.
"Father… fa-ther…"
Soren froze.
"No, no… say 'brother.' It's brother. Bro-ther."
"Father… father."
"Brother," he insisted, voice cracking. "Call me brother."
But children are stubborn creatures — and so was she.
"Fa-ther."
He ran a hand through his black hair, defeated, cheeks flushing."...Brother."
Outside the Crystal Lotus Mirror, the audience didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or break. Their hearts twisted in directions they weren't prepared for.
It was too much like watching a father and daughter.
Even Fin Ravyn — all stoic black hair and sharp eyes — stepped closer to Yara. His voice dropped to a whisper.
"Yara… don't let this sway you. You've paid him back. We killed him for the sake of the Seven Blue Lotus World."
Yara said nothing.
She only stared at the mirror, her gaze deep and cold — but somewhere, a tremor of something unspoken flickered like a flame smothered beneath ice.