The thunder drew closer and closer.
Gu Changyuan lay on his hard wooden bed, but sleep completely eluded him.
Outside the window, the wind howled fiercely, making the dilapidated wooden door creak and groan. Dark clouds pressed down heavily, shrouding the entire Servant Quarters in pitch blackness.
He rolled over, his gaze landing on the cloth bundle hidden beneath the bed boards.
The Heaven-Burning Art.
For three years, he had tried countless times to comprehend its profound mysteries, yet he had never been able to grasp even the slightest clue. His master had said this incomplete scroll might save him, but his meridians were already shattered. Even if he somehow understood it, what could he possibly do?
Rumble—!
A deafening clap of thunder exploded, shaking the very foundation of the wooden cabin.
Gu Changyuan abruptly sat up.
Something was wrong.
That thunder... it was too close.
He pushed open the wooden door, and a cold wind mixed with freezing rain smashed into his face. Lightning flashed and thunder roared in the sky above. Streaks of purple lightning violently tore through the night, illuminating the earth in jagged flashes of blinding light.
But what truly made his heart skip a beat was the direction of the back mountain.
The sky over there seemed to be... tearing apart.
Gu Changyuan narrowed his eyes, peering through the heavy curtain of rain.
Above the back mountain, a golden-red light was forcefully ripping through the dark clouds. The light was dazzlingly brilliant, yet it carried an indescribable sense of desolation—as if something was plummeting down from an entirely different world.
"This is..."
His heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
The back mountain was the sect's Forbidden Ground, strictly off-limits to ordinary disciples. But as a servant disciple living in the outermost cabin of the Servant Quarters, he was only a few hundred yards away from its boundary.
That golden-red light grew brighter, and closer.
Then, he saw it.
A figure.
A figure plummeting straight out of the rift in the sky.
Wrapped in that golden-red light, the figure streaked across the night sky like a falling meteor, crashing rapidly toward the back mountain.
BOOM—!
A massive impact echoed from the back mountain, causing the ground beneath his feet to violently tremble. The golden-red light abruptly dissipated, and the rift in the sky seamlessly healed itself, as if nothing had ever happened.
But Gu Changyuan knew something had fallen.
He stood frozen at the doorway, completely oblivious to the freezing rain soaking his clothes.
To go, or not to go?
The back mountain was a Forbidden Ground; if discovered, the punishment would be severe. Moreover, with his meridians ruined and barely maintaining the first level of Qi Condensation, he had absolutely no ability to protect himself if he encountered danger.
But that figure...
He didn't know why, but a blazing intuition in his heart told him he had to go look.
"Forget it."
Gu Changyuan muttered under his breath. He turned back into the cabin, grabbed a woven rain cape, threw it over his shoulders, and walked into the storm toward the back mountain.
He was already considered a piece of trash. What more did he have to lose?
The entrance to the back mountain was a rocky wasteland, littered with massive boulders and treacherous terrain.
Gu Changyuan stumbled along the muddy mountain path, the heavy rain blurring his vision. Lightning flashed intermittently, illuminating the treacherous way forward.
Relying on his memory of where the light had crashed, he pushed deeper into the mountain.
The spiritual energy in the back mountain was far denser than in the Servant Quarters, but to a cripple with shattered meridians like him, the densest spiritual energy in the world was meaningless.
After walking for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he finally saw it.
In the dead center of the rocky wasteland was a massive crater.
The giant boulders surrounding the crater had been smashed to pieces. The churned earth was still emitting faint streams of white steam. And lying right in the center of the crater... was a person.
A woman.
Gu Changyuan quickly approached. By the flash of lightning, he saw her face clearly.
And then, he froze.
It was a face of peerless, breathtaking beauty.
Her skin was as white as snow, and her features were as exquisite as a painting. Even though she was currently covered in blood, it couldn't hide her innate, otherworldly nobility. Her long, ink-black hair was scattered in the mud, soaked by the rain, yet it still gave off an indescribable luster.
She wore a plain white dress that was now largely dyed crimson with her own blood. A Phoenix Feather Hairpin was secured at her waist, glinting with a faint golden light under the lightning.
But what truly alarmed Gu Changyuan was the strange marking on her collarbone.
It was a dark red pattern, resembling some eerie, forbidden rune, and it was slowly spreading. With every fraction of an inch it crept forward, the woman's brows knitted tighter, and her lips grew paler.
"She's still alive..."
Gu Changyuan crouched down and reached out to check her breathing.
It was incredibly faint, but she was indeed still breathing.
He quickly assessed her injuries. Her external wounds were horrific; there was barely a single patch of uninjured skin on her body. But the truly fatal threat seemed to be some terrifying power within her, continuously devouring her lifeforce.
That dark red rune was the culprit.
"What is this..."
Gu Changyuan frowned deeply. Although his meridians were ruined, he was the former number one genius of the Profound Heaven Sect and possessed extraordinary knowledge. Yet, he had never seen such a bizarre, terrifying curse mark.
The rune emanated an aura that made his soul palpitate, as if it belonged to a completely different realm.
"Cough..."
The woman suddenly coughed, a trail of fresh blood spilling from the corner of her mouth.
Her eyelashes fluttered. It seemed she was about to wake up.
Without any hesitation, Gu Changyuan carefully lifted her from the crater.
She was light. Unbelievably light. Despite her tall, slender figure, she felt almost weightless in his arms.
"We need to get out of here first," he whispered, carrying her deeper into the back mountain.
The rocky wasteland was too exposed. If anyone from the sect found them, both he and this mysterious woman would be in massive trouble.
He remembered a hidden cave halfway up the mountain. The entrance was completely obscured by thick vines, making it nearly impossible to spot. Three years ago, back when he was still a genius, he had used it as a secret cultivation spot.
The rain fell harder; the thunder roared louder.
Holding the woman tight, Gu Changyuan trudged heavily up the muddy mountain path. With his ruined meridians, his stamina was a shadow of its former self. He was panting heavily before they had even gone far.
But he didn't stop.
He had no idea who this woman was, where she came from, or why she had fallen from the sky. But he knew one thing with absolute certainty: if he left her there, she would die.
And he refused to watch someone die right in front of him again.
Three years ago, his master had died to save him.
The agonizing despair of watching a loved one breathe their last breath right before his eyes—he never wanted to experience that a second time.
The entrance to the cave was entirely veiled by hanging vines. If Gu Changyuan hadn't memorized the exact location, he would have never found it in the dark.
He brushed the vines aside and squeezed in sideways.
The interior of the cave was about twenty square meters, dry and well-ventilated, with a small pool of spring water in the corner. When he cultivated here three years ago, he had set up some basic amenities, leaving behind a stone bed and a stone table that were still intact.
Gu Changyuan gently laid the woman down on the stone bed. He then gathered some dry firewood from a corner and started a small campfire.
The flames danced, casting a warm glow over the woman's pale, bloodstained face.
Her brows were tightly locked together, and her lips trembled slightly, as if she was enduring unimaginable agony. The dark red rune on her collarbone was still slowly creeping, having already reached her neck.
"What exactly is this thing..."
Gu Changyuan crouched beside her, his frown deepening.
He tried using the pitiful scrap of spiritual energy he still possessed to examine her body, but his energy was instantly repelled by a terrifying, overwhelming force.
That power... was too absolute.
Even sealed, even heavily injured and on the brink of death, the power lingering within her was enough to make his soul shudder in fear.
"Who in the world is she?" Gu Changyuan muttered to himself.
To fall from the heavens and bear such a terrifying curse—she was absolutely not an ordinary person.
But regardless of who she was, the most important thing right now was keeping her alive.
He pulled a small porcelain bottle from his robes. It contained a healing pill he had scrimped and saved for three years to buy, meant for a life-or-death emergency. But now...
"Forget it."
He gently fed the pill into the woman's mouth, then used clean water from the spring to carefully wash her wounds.
Once all of this was done, he leaned against the cold stone wall, staring blankly into the campfire.
Outside the cave, the thunderstorm raged on.
Inside the cave, the firelight flickered and swayed.
He didn't know why he went to such lengths to save this stranger. Perhaps it was because she reminded him of himself three years ago—equally broken, dying, and utterly alone.
Or perhaps, he just simply couldn't bear to watch another life fade away in front of him.
"I hope you survive," he said softly, his gaze resting on her tightly knitted brows.
Her eyelashes were incredibly long, casting faint, beautiful shadows in the firelight. Even covered in mud and blood, her pale face couldn't hide her world-toppling beauty.
But Gu Changyuan didn't let his thoughts wander.
He simply sat quietly by the fire, guarding her, waiting for the violent storm to pass.
Waiting for this woman who fell from the heavens to finally open her eyes.
What he didn't know was that this chance encounter in the stormy night would completely rewrite his destiny.
And the woman lying before him... would become the single most important person in his entire life.