The morning began like any other.
A-Yan meditated near the old well, trying to phase an apple through a rock. Bai Xueyin glided across the frost-covered stones behind the hut, conjuring frozen petals with each step. Luo Feng stood by the cliff, adjusting the spiritual markers along Dawnmist Peak's border—ever since the Mirror Domain incident, he checked them twice daily.
Everything seemed… still.
Until the black-robed courier arrived.
He bore no aura. No emotion. Not even a name.
Just a scroll.
It was wrapped in violet silk and sealed with a wax crest shaped like a lotus in bloom—its petals ringed by demonic flames.
The mark of the Exiled Demon Princess.
Luo Feng didn't speak at first.
He took the scroll gently, fingers brushing the seal.
It didn't burn him.
But it remembered him.
Ding! Foreign energy signature detected: Demonic Royalty – Sealed Communication.Sender Identity: [Xuanyin of the Crimson Sky], blood-ranked Heiress of the Ninefold Nether Court.Relationship with Host: Disciplinary bond fragment identified. Timeline – Pre-Transmigration.Memory Link: "Variant Timeline Imprint." Would you like to access context?
Luo Feng paused.
"Show me."
A flash.
A broken moon. A battlefield soaked in red snow.
A younger version of himself—not Luo Feng the fallen elder, but Luo Feng the martial instructor—stood with one arm around a girl whose body radiated unrefined demonic qi.
She had tears in her eyes.
Chains around her wrists.
And blood on her lips.
"You're not a monster," he had said. "You're just angry."
She had laughed, even through her pain.
"I'll burn the world for you, Teacher."
The vision vanished.
Luo Feng exhaled slowly, scroll in hand.
"I taught her."
Bai stepped forward, frowning. "Who is she?"
"Someone I once pulled out of a pit so deep even she didn't know how far it went."
"She's a demon."
"She was a child."
A-Yan glanced up. "You think she's here to hurt us?"
Luo Feng shook his head. "No. If she wanted that… she'd come herself."
He unsealed the scroll.
The parchment within pulsed faintly with heat—like a living flame wrapped in words.
But the language was meant to be read.
The message was short.
To the one who made me kneel without a chain,You once saved me from myself. I watched you fall and disappear, and I burned cities trying to find you. Now I hear rumors. Whispers. Of a Peak that grows too bright to ignore.I do not come with armies. Not yet. I come with a gift.A disciple. My disciple.She will not bow easily. But if you can teach her… you may yet tame what I could not.Let the heavens remember what it means to be forged in fire.—Xuanyin
Below that was a blood-sealed signature in the language of demons:Tianya. Crimson-Blood Disciple. Cursed Class. Soulbound.
Ding! Potential Disciple: Tianya.Status: Arriving within 48 hours.Affinities: Blood, Flame, Curse.Mental State: Hostile. Traumatized. Extremely high growth potential.System Projection: If successfully mentored, she may trigger "Legacy Inheritance Cascade."
Luo Feng reread the scroll twice.
Then sat down.
"Great," he muttered. "Another disaster child."
Later that evening, Bai approached him near the training circle.
"She's sending you a disciple," she said carefully. "That's a powerful symbol."
"I know."
"She wants you involved again."
"I know that too."
Bai studied him. "Do you still care about her?"
"I cared about saving her," he said after a pause. "And I failed."
"You think taking her disciple is redemption?"
"No," Luo Feng said. "I think it's a warning."
Bai's gaze sharpened. "You think this girl is dangerous."
"I think she's a storm."
He looked at her.
"But so were you. And look how that turned out."
She didn't smile.
But her eyes softened.
A-Yan, ever the curious one, asked the more obvious question.
"If she's cursed… how cursed are we talking?"
Luo Feng sighed. "Best-case? Bloodline backlash. Mood swings. Probably sets things on fire when she gets emotional."
"And worst-case?"
"She kills us in our sleep."
"…Cool."
That night, Luo Feng stood at the edge of the Peak, scroll in hand, wind in his robes.
The fire in the parchment hadn't dimmed. Even sealed, it felt… watchful.
He looked up at the stars.
Once, he had dreamed of peace.
A quiet home.
A few students.
But fate never allowed him simplicity.
It gave him broken things.
Discarded souls.
And asked if he could make them whole again.
At the heart of the Crimson Sky Netherlands, Demon Princess Xuanyin sat alone on a throne of obsidian bones.
A single candle flickered beside her.
She whispered to herself.
"To forge a true weapon… you must first break the forge."
Her hand tightened on a mirror showing Dawnmist Peak.
"Teach her, Luo Feng. Or bury her."