“From this day on, this is your home.”
“Ling’er, from now on, we are your father and mother. If there’s anything you want, just tell us.”
A man and a woman, dressed in splendid brocade garments, the dark gold cloud patterns on their clothes shimmering in the sunlight, resplendent and dazzling.
They bent slightly, holding Yin Luoling’s hand as they slowly stepped over the threshold of the Ling Residence.
What greeted her eyes was a front courtyard filled with exquisite silks and satins, dazzling jewelry and precious ornaments, enough to make any girl’s eyes shine.
All these treasures were hers to choose from.
Yet the young girl’s gaze slid past every jewel and beautiful bolt of silk, locking firmly onto the center of it all—a youth whose warm smile glowed like the spring sun.
His eyes were clear and bright, his smile gentle, dressed in plain white like a scholar, refined and gentle.
The boy before her was a little taller than herself; though only ten years old, he already exuded a calm grace, as gentle as jade. Yin Luoling’s heart gave a faint tremble at the sight.
Yin Luoling could give up everything else; she wanted only this boy.
She wanted him—
Dead!
“Ling’er, that is your elder brother, Lin Huan. Huan’er, this is your younger sister, Yin Luoling.”
Her foster mother gently introduced the boy standing in the courtyard.
“Luoling, you’re finally here!” The boy’s eyes lit up, and he approached with a beaming smile.
“Mother often mentioned you in her letters, praising you endlessly, saying you are both adorable and clever. Now that I see you, you’re even cuter than I imagined! It makes these things I prepared seem rather tacky, not worthy of you at all.”
He turned to his mother with a playful smile.
“Mother, you really should work on your writing. You barely described even a tenth of how adorable Luoling is! I’ve prepared all these gaudy things for nothing.
But it’s fine—Mother mentioned in her letters you like winter jasmine, so I had the servants plant plenty for you.”
In the flowerbeds of the front yard, bright winter jasmine bloomed in abundance.
“You little rascal!”
Lin Madam feigned anger and pretended to hit him.
“Not even a year apart and you’ve gotten bold enough to mock your own mother? Come here!”
“Mother, spare me!”
Lin Huan laughed as he dodged.
“After not seeing you for a year, is beating your son the only thing on your mind?”
For a moment, the tranquil courtyard of the Ling Residence was filled with the lively chase of mother and son, adding warmth and merriment to this early spring afternoon.
What a heartwarming scene, what a harmonious family, with a gentle and understanding older brother.
A year ago, bandits were rampant, and Yin Luoling lost her family to them.
Her father died a brutal death; her mother’s head was severed and left where she hid.
She had to bite down on her own hand, gnawing out a chunk of flesh and letting blood flow freely, just to stop herself from making a single sound.
Only after the bandits left did she crawl out trembling, still not daring to cry, only hugging her mother’s head tightly, curling up and shaking, whispering apology after apology.
She blamed her own willfulness, insisting on attending the summer night festival.
She blamed herself for not playing longer, for urging her parents to go home early, leading them to run into the bandits.
She didn’t know where she could go in the future; all she knew was that she no longer had a home.
Until she met them—her foster parents.
They seemed to be old friends of her parents from before their deaths.
Upon hearing the tragic news, they dropped everything and traveled day and night to reach her.
With no relatives left, she followed them from place to place, making a living as traveling merchants.
They treated her with the utmost gentleness and patience.
Her every need—food, clothing, shelter, and travel—was meticulously cared for, even better than when she was with her birth parents.
When she woke up crying at midnight, they would light a lamp and stay by her side, soothing her with gentle words; when she was frightened and cried about the past, they never grew impatient, only holding her quietly, whispering again and again, “Ling’er, don’t be afraid. We’re here.”
Gradually, Yin Luoling felt as if she had family again.
At this time in her previous life, that’s what Yin Luoling believed.
Until—
Her foster parents left on urgent business, telling Lin Huan to take care of his sister.
The carriage rumbled away, and as the gates of the Ling Residence closed,
Yin Luoling’s scalp suddenly erupted in pain—Lin Huan’s hand was viciously yanking her hair, yet his face still bore that warm, gentle smile as he whispered, “Does it hurt?”
Before she could react, she was thrown to the ground, her elbows scraped bloody on the stone slabs as she was dragged like a wild dog across the courtyard.
The servants hurried by with heads bowed; no one dared look up.
Her screams shattered in the corridors, leaving not even an echo behind.
The woodshed door banged open.
Yin Luoling was tossed into the darkness, with only a thin ray of light filtering in from a small window, illuminating her tear-streaked face.
For days after, moldy slop cakes were her only food.
Lin Huan squatted at the door, sneering coldly, “Your parents died because you’re a jinx. Now you want to ruin my family too?”
He threw down a stack of letters—letters her foster parents had never mentioned—filled with troubles: how they’d abandoned business and offended partners just to care for her, all the hardships between the lines.
Yin Luoling’s hands trembled as she read, guilt flooding over her like a tide.
Lin Huan’s slap landed on her face, and she actually felt it was deserved.
Had she harmed her foster parents again?
There was no more light in her eyes, only guilt and self-blame—it was… all her fault…
Afterwards, Lin Huan raised his hand and slapped Yin Luoling again, but she didn’t cry out in pain or protest.
She simply endured it, believing she deserved it.
“The system didn’t lie to me!”
Suddenly, Lin Huan burst out with a cheer.
Yin Luoling didn’t understand what he meant, nor did she care.
She only blamed herself.
From then on, her life was nothing but beatings and curses.
New wounds appeared on her body every day.
She believed she deserved it and never said a word.
After a long while, her foster parents finally noticed her injuries.
Lin Huan hurried to explain, “Luoling’s obsessed with cultivation now. I think she heard some storyteller talk about immortals and now longs for it. She pesters the guards every day to teach her. But it’s a hard path, and the guards wouldn’t let her suffer, so they didn’t really teach her. Luoling refused to give up and trained on her own, see—she got herself hurt like this.”
But her foster parents didn’t answer him, only looked at Luoling with concern.
“Ling’er, is that true?”
Lin Madam asked softly, calling servants for help.
“You little rascal! Why didn’t you stop her?! Look how badly your sister’s hurt!”
“Ling’er,” Lin Master added, “is Huan’er treating you badly?”
“No… I… wanted to cultivate. I… want to avenge my parents.”
Yin Luoling didn’t tell the truth, nor did she dare.
If she did, wouldn’t she destroy this family again?
It was only beatings… only scolding…
She just wanted a family.
As long as she could have one, she was willing to endure anything.
“Then let’s send Ling’er to cultivate. Training alone isn’t the way.”
Lin Master made a decision.
Lin Master quickly contacted an immortal sect, spending a fortune to invite someone to test her spiritual roots.
Yin Luoling turned out to have the supreme Thunder Spiritual Root!
The sect was shaken; the Grand Elder personally took her as his final disciple and poured resources into her cultivation.
Her progress soared, making her the most dazzling new star in the sect.
The sect soon sent gifts to the Ling Residence—chests of sparkling spirit stones, rare treasures piled high in the storeroom, and even a special envoy who delivered a contract stamped with the sect’s seal, naming the Lin family the sole supplier of spiritual herbs in the eastern three counties.
This contract’s value would guarantee the Lin family’s prosperity for generations.
Yin Luoling was delighted—not because she’d become a disciple of the immortal sect, but because… she was no longer a jinx…
She could finally repay her foster parents!
Five years later, in her early twenties, Yin Luoling’s ninth-level Qi Refining cultivation shocked her peers.
She returned home to surprise her foster parents, only to hear terrible news in Qingmu City: her foster parents had died of illness.
She didn’t believe it—how could the sect’s elixirs fail to save lives?
That night, she quietly snuck into the Ling Residence, only to find the main hall brightly lit for a banquet.
Lin Huan was pouring wine for a fat feudal prince, flattering him: “Father and Mother were too stubborn, blocking Your Highness’s path. They deserved to die.”
The prince’s smile was greasy: “And what about Yin Luoling?”
A cold gleam flashed in Lin Huan’s eyes.
“I’ve forged our parents’ dying wish, saying they betrothed her to you as a concubine.She cares about their last wishes—she’ll surely return, and then she’ll be yours.”
Outside the window, Yin Luoling felt her whole body go cold.
Violet arcs of lightning crackled around her as her ninth-level Qi Refining power surged.
“Lin Huan!” Her shriek tore through the night sky as she burst into the feast like a thunderbolt, cutting down the feudal prince.
Yet Lin Huan also had ninth-level Qi Refining—though without any real combat skill, and she killed him in a single blow.
But this act brought the dynasty’s wrath.
She was expelled from the sect, hunted by the dynasty for all eternity, forced into a life on the run.
She never regretted her vengeance—only that she hadn’t returned sooner, that she hadn’t killed Lin Huan, that jackal, earlier!
Overwhelming hatred corroded her Dao heart, and with a single thought, she fell into her heart demon, the seed planted deep.
In endless flight, she caught wind of a sliver of hope: if she attained the Emperor’s realm, she could reverse fate and bring the dead back to life.
From then on, her only purpose was “to reverse fate and revive her foster parents.”
In less than a thousand years, a peerless Sword Immortal who proved her Dao through slaughter shook the world!
She had no Emperor’s title, yet was honored as the “Empress,” a legend feared even by true Emperors—the only one in history able to force a “one-for-one trade above the Emperor’s realm” without being an Emperor!
With her Cold Spring Sword, she roamed the immortal world alone.
Wherever she went, thousands of immortals bowed their heads in silence!
Yet, even at her peak, she still fell short at the final step of ascending to the Emperor’s realm.
Her heart demon flared, her breakthrough failed, and she suffered mortal wounds.
As if that wasn’t enough, her closest disciple betrayed her, and countless factions joined forces to hunt her down, slandering her as a bloodthirsty, evil ‘demonic cultivator.’
In the end, the peerless Sword Immortal’s soul was utterly destroyed, perishing forever.
They all thought they had won.
But how could they know—what she sought was never simply to become an Emperor!
What she wanted was for the blast of those fools’ combined assault, for their unleashed power to clash with the Heavenly Dao, tear through time, and reverse fate!
To use her life’s cultivation as the guide, and her very existence as the stake!
She had long since known her disciple was a planted pawn, and saw through what those old monsters feared most.
So, she deliberately confessed her supposed obsession to her “beloved disciple,” telling all her secret wishes.
Just waiting—for the moment she charged the Emperor’s realm—those old monsters would “happen” to come!
Help her fight the Heavenly Dao!
And the result—
She returned to this familiar place.
Sunlight shone on her, the scent of winter jasmine drifted past her nose.
Her foster parents were instructing Lin Huan to look after her, the carriage slowly departing—she had actually been reborn to the Ling Residence’s front yard, back to the beginning of all her suffering.
Killing intent surged within her, hatred billowed to the sky.
Her obsession was true; proving her Dao had always just been an excuse.
She would kill Lin Huan!
Never would it be as swift and easy as in her last life.
She would make Lin Huan writhe in agony!
Make him regret ever being born!
Make him truly regret ever being human!
Now, her plan for revenge was already set.
When she was reborn, she was still on the road home with her foster parents, not yet at the Ling Residence.
In her previous life, she wanted for nothing—only to stay by her foster parents’ side.
But in this life, she acted spoiled and asked for a Recording Stone.
She also secretly trained along the way, now having reached the first level of Qi Refining.
Now, she only needed to wait for the right moment.
Suddenly, she felt a hand land on her head.
It’s here!
Yin Luoling was thrilled! The Recording Stone had begun to record!
Waiting for Lin Huan to reveal his fangs!
But the hand on her head didn’t, as in her previous life, viciously yank her hair.
Instead, it gently caressed her head.
?
That’s not right… why would he…
Could it be because her foster parents were still here…?
She jerked her head around, but saw that the carriage had already gone.
Then why hadn’t he shown his true colors yet…?
Wasn’t he… Lin Huan?
“Come on, Luoling.” Lin Huan smiled.
“Let’s go see the room I prepared for you. If you don’t like it, you can put up with it for now, and I’ll design another just for you later.”
Lin Huan took Yin Luoling’s hand—so light, as if afraid she might shatter.
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