The biting wind of Star Luo City seemed to slip through every crack in the buildings and bore straight into one's bones. But to Zhu Zhuqing, hiding in the shadow of a massive pillar in the council hall, that cold was nothing compared to the chill in her heart.
She curled up on the icy floor, her petite body trembling uncontrollably. It wasn't fear of anyone that made her shake. It was because the world she had relied on for survival—the world she called "home"—had completely crumbled at that moment.
Before this, Zhu Zhuqing had only sensed that something was wrong.
Zhu Zhuqing's childhood had been unhappy. Because of the peculiar nature of the family's Martial Soul, any daughter born into the Zhu Family's direct line had to be betrothed to a boy from the Dai Family. That meant the Zhu girls were forced into the imperial family's power struggles. Only one heir of the Dai Family could survive, and the same was true of the Zhu Family.
From the moment Zhu Zhuqing was born a girl, her fate had already been sealed: she would become a sacrifice for her elder sister.
Zhu Zhuyun was five years older than Zhu Zhuqing and more mature in temperament. With her sweet tongue, she had been beloved by the family elders since childhood.
But the solitary Zhu Zhuqing was the opposite. Her family's repeated neglect had dealt blow after blow to her once-warm heart, leaving her to live meekly in the Zhu Family. She had thought that quietly spending her life this way wouldn't be so bad.
But then, just these past few days, everything changed. Her father, who had once treated her with a measure of kindness, suddenly wouldn't even look at her. There was even a trace of disgust in his eyes that she couldn't understand.
Her sister Zhu Zhuyun, who always wore a false smile, now looked at her with icy eyes and avoided her as if she were contagious.
Even the maids who usually bowed and scraped around her hurriedly lowered their heads and dodged away as if they had seen a plague deity.
She didn't know what had happened, and no one would tell her why.
She wanted to know what she had done wrong!
Today, she couldn't stand it any longer. The loneliness of being abandoned by the whole world was threatening to drown her. Almost as if bewitched, she had passed through the countless concentric corridors, evaded every guard, and hidden herself in the council hall, the symbol of the Zhu Family's highest authority.
She had hoped to hear an explanation from her father, even if all he did was scold her. Instead, what she heard was a death sentence that could cost her her life.
Betrothal, Dai Mubai, deserter, burial sacrifice...
Those words fell like a series of heavy hammers, pounding her already shattered heart to dust.
She didn't even know when she had been promised to the Third Prince, a man she had never met. Even less could she understand why the coward's escape had to be repaid with her life, to make up for that so-called bloodline's dignity.
"A burial sacrifice..."
Zhu Zhuqing bit down hard on her lower lip, so hard that beads of blood welled up. She didn't dare make a sound. She knew that if she were discovered now, the torment awaiting her might not be the ancient ritual three months from now, but an end brought forward to this very night.
Zhu Ganglie's footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
They were the heavy, merciless steps of military boots, devoid of the slightest trace of attachment. As the boots crossed the floor, one of the accompanying soldiers extinguished the candles that had been flickering throughout the council hall.
Bang!
The heavy doors slammed shut.
The entire hall sank into absolute darkness, so deep she couldn't see her hand before her face.
At that moment, every disguise and every bit of resolve crumbled. Zhu Zhuqing finally let down her guard. She buried her face in her knees, her delicate shoulders shaking violently as her stifled, forlorn sobs echoed through the vast hall.
Her sobs brimmed with desperate helplessness. She was only six years old. She hadn't even had the chance to see the world's splendor, yet already she had glimpsed its ugliest fangs.
"Can anyone... save me..."
She cried out soundlessly in her heart, but she knew no one would come. This was the Zhu Family, the iron-blooded heart of the Star Luo Empire. No one dared challenge the Dai Family's authority, and no one would offend the imperial family for a tool fated to die.
Just then, in the suffocating silence, an almost imperceptible sound came from above.
Whoosh—
Two figures drifted soundlessly down from the crossbeams more than ten meters overhead.
Zhu Zhuqing's sobs stopped abruptly.
She looked up in terror. Though she couldn't see, her keen instincts as a Hell Spirit Cat told her that someone was approaching.
"D-don't kill me..." she stammered, shuffling backward until her back hit a cold stone pillar. There was nowhere left to retreat.
Just then, a gentle, warm, yet bright light suddenly shone in the darkness.
It was Na'er.
She was walking backward behind the other figure, holding aloft a Soul Guidance Lamp that cast a faint, warm-yellow glow. Its light wasn't dazzling, yet it instantly drove away most of the unsettling shadows around them.
And at the heart of that light, Zhu Zhuqing saw a scene she would never forget.
A young boy walked slowly toward her.
The light behind him outlined his figure in gold and crimson, making him seem less like a mortal being and more like a god of salvation who had stepped out of an ancient myth.
Gu Tian lowered his head and looked at the little girl huddled in the corner, her eyes swollen and her face streaked with tears. He showed no lofty pity, only a tenderness that was almost overbearingly protective.
"No matter how thick the walls of the Zhu Residence are, they can't imprison someone who wants to leave."
Gu Tian's voice was deep and resonant. It rang especially clearly through the empty hall, as if it held some magic that could soothe the soul.
Zhu Zhuqing froze.
She gazed blankly up at the boy standing before her. His eyes were so deep, as though they held a vast starry sky. His composure and strength, so out of place for someone his age, miraculously calmed her heart, which had been pounding wildly.
Gu Tian bent down and slowly extended his right hand toward the despairing little cat.
His fingers were long and strong, their tips seeming warm and luminous in the lamplight.
"Come with me."
Gu Tian smiled gently at her. Unlike her sister's smiles, which hid a knife, his carried a promise she couldn't refuse.
"The Dai Family can't give you a life. I can."
"The Zhu Family can't give you a home. I can."
Zhu Zhuqing stood frozen in place.
Her whole view of the world was shaken. On this night, when everyone avoided her—even her own father, who had decided she should die—two strangers had risked their lives to sneak into this stronghold, all just to hold out a hand to her?
She looked at that hand, then at Gu Tian's sunny smile, and hesitated for a long time.
It was her last flicker of wariness toward the outside world, and her final struggle against fate.
Gu Tian didn't urge her. He simply held out his hand and waited patiently. Behind him, Na'er held the lamp, her eyes full of sympathy.
At last, Zhu Zhuqing's little hands, stiff from long-held tension, tentatively reached forward.
She sensed the faint aura of the Dragon God around Gu Tian. To anyone bearing a bloodline connected to Soul Beasts, that aura was an irresistible homecoming.
Tap.
A soft sound rang out.
Zhu Zhuqing's cold, trembling little hand, stained with dust and tears, landed firmly in Gu Tian's broad, warm palm.
The moment their palms touched, an unprecedented warmth spread from her fingertips through her entire body. It was like a traveler who had trudged through a blizzard for ages finally finding a harbor warmed by a blazing hearth.
"Hold on tight."
Gu Tian turned his hand and caught her around the waist, then gave a slight tug.
Zhu Zhuqing felt an irresistible pull lift her out of the shadowy corner. She fell forward and collided with Gu Tian's arms.
She had never known such solidity or such a feeling of safety.
At that moment, the rules of the Star Luo Empire shattered, and the Zhu Family's shackles broke. The Second Young Lady who had once belonged to the Zhu Family died in the merciless competition between the families,
and in her place stood Zhu Zhuqing, reborn.