"Yes, at last. I am back."
A girl stood alone beneath the pale moonlight, her figure reflected on the surface of a quiet pond.
Her red eyes gleamed like rubies. Her crimson hair spilled over her shoulders like threads of fire. She raised her slender hand, pale fingers trembling slightly in excitement as they traced her face.
A crooked smile curved her lips.
"Hmm. Not a bad face," she mused, voice like velvet laced with steel. "But certainly not what I expected."
Her fingers paused at her lips, then dropped.
"Never in my life did I think I would transmigrate into the body of a girl."
She was Dōngfāng Zūnguì de Bōluó, once a prodigious cultivator of the Eastern Celestial Continent.
At the age of 120, having failed to break through the final bottleneck of the Wu Realm, he had gambled everything, his soul, and his flesh on a forbidden transmigration spell.
And it worked. He had successfully transmigrated.
"With this new body," she murmured, voice filled with wonder and ambition, "my talents will soar. I will finally cross the peak of Wu… and ascend to the Realm of Shen."
A soft breeze stirred her robes. The night was still, yet the world around her felt strangely vibrant, as if her very presence disturbed the flow of fate.
"The Bōluó name shall rise with me…"
"MISS HU NOLA! WHERE ARE YOU? YOUR FATHER IS REQUESTING YOUR PRESENCE IN HIS STUDY!"
A servant's voice shattered the moment.
'Hu Nola?'
She blinked. The name struck something old, something buried.
"Hu… Nola…" she repeated softly. Then her eyes widened. "Shit."
She clenched her fists, crimson energy pulsing faintly beneath her skin.
"This is the Fox Demon Clan, Hu which had perished when he was still a child in his previous life...." she muttered. "That means the Monkey-Orc Massacre is close."
The blood drained from her face but she was delighted at the power of her transmigration art.
'So the potency of it is this far. No wonder it took me so much to get it.'
'I wonder how a simple beast tide led to the fall of the three Xi Peak tribes.'
A slow, twisted grin spread across her lips.
'Maybe now I can finally find out.'
She turned and made her way toward the clan hall.
The study was dimly lit. A man with fiery red hair and a beard with sharp, beast-like eyes sat behind a scroll-covered table. His presence was overbearing, his look alone enough to make most cultivators tremble.
He looked up.
"Ah, there you are, Nola-er. Have a seat."
She bowed with grace. "Father, I am here upon your request."
"You're aware of the monkey-orc horde, aren't you?"
"Yes, father."
"We must face them this year alongside the Xiong and Gou tribes. There will be a contribution competition among our youths. I want you to win it."
'Uppity old coot,' she thought, forcing a smile. 'Wants me to win his little contest instead of finding me a safe place.'
Later that night, alone in her room, she sat cross-legged and focused on her core.
'Greater Wu…'
Her frown deepened.
'I was at peak Wu before. The soul takeover damaged my cultivation. No matter. Boluo never falls.'
The Hu Clan wasn't how she remembered it.
From the outside, it still looked the part—elegant courtyards draped in silk, elders meditating beside jade-carved fountains, the warm scent of Foxwood incense curling through the air like memory.
But beneath the surface, everything felt… off. Hollow. Like a lacquered vase hiding a crack too deep to mend.
Nola understood in just three days why the clan was in decline.
The elders muttered behind closed doors about succession battles. The outer branches glared at the inner like stray dogs fighting for bread. And the treasury was half-empty and mismanaged.
She wandered the sacred archives, pretending to study formations. In truth, she was hunting for answers.
'The massacre wasn't some accident. That horde can't have just shown up out of nowhere.'
As she slipped past a pillar, a sharp whisper brought her to a halt.
She pressed into the stone, barely breathing.
"Elder Xiong confirmed it. When the Monkey-Orcs show up, we open the east gate with minimal resistance. Then Gou's spear division strikes from behind. Clean sweep."
"And the girl?"
"The little fox? Just bait. Her father's proud now, but she'll die with the rest."
Nola's expression didn't change.
Instead, she smiled at the godsend opportunity.
'So both the other tribes have forsaken Hu.'
She melted back into the shadows, unseen.
That night, she sat alone in her courtyard. The moonlight painted silver across her red hair as she turned the pieces over in her mind.
She could warn her father and maybe save the clan.
But she wouldn't.
The Hu Clan was already crumbling from within. It didn't need help falling apart.
And she can only reap the profits now. From every single one of the tribes, Hu, Xiong, and Gou.
No exceptions.
But first, she had to earn their trust.
The Xiong Tribe lived up to their name. Bears through and through. They were broad-shouldered warriors with heavy footsteps and heavier pride, their arrogance only surpassed by their gluttony.
They arrived draped in dark robes, speaking in low, graveled tones as if every word carried weight.
The Gou were different. They were sleek and calculating. Their envoys were slim, fox-eyed men with soft voices that slithered like silk. Every word they spoke felt careful and rehearsed.
And in front of them both stood Hu Nola.
She had no guards, not even any elders supporting her.
Just a girl in red, barely 16, wearing a calm smile and carrying an offer that made her more powerful than the entirety of Hu.
"You're planning to let the Monkey-Orcs tear through the east gate," she said. "Then, once the Hu is weakened, you'll strike and divide the spoils among yourselves."
The Gou envoy tilted his head, curious. "You speak boldly for a child."
'The young miss of Hu tribe was not this cunning. Something must have happened.'
"I was merely meditating in the sacred archives," Nola said, still smiling. "It's pitiful that people blabber if they think they will go unheard."
A Xiong warrior stepped forward, hand drifting toward his axe.
"Then maybe," he growled, "I should kill you and bury the secret right here."
For a heartbeat, the air changed.
A red aura surged in her body as a sharp, invisible weight pressed down on the room. The warrior froze. His instincts screamed death.
"You could try," she said softly. "But who said that I am working alone?
It made sense to them. A mere girl can't scheme such a thing
"You want Hu gone while I want to survive." Her smile sharpened. "I want wealth. Give me my cut, and I'll make sure everything goes exactly the way you want."
The Xiong envoy crossed his arms while asking foolishly, "And what stops us from killing you and taking what we want anyway?"
'Fool. She has someone backing her.' The Gou envoy thought.
There wasn't a sliver of fear in her as she answered.
"You can't fake the command tokens I have. You don't know the vault scripts and the Hu formation of light.
She leaned in with a tempting whisper.
"So what do you say, are you in or not?"
That night, the deal was made.
In a crumbling hall where a forgotten ancestor's skeleton still sat in silent meditation, three cups of blood were passed. One from each tribe. One from Nola.
She held the cup to her lips, her voice steady.
"Let this be the end of the Hu Clan."
The Gou tribe envoy was chilled to the bone looking at her emotionless face.
Later, alone in her quarters, she stood silently looking at pale moon.
"Idiots," she whispered to the night.
'The Hu will fall. Then the Gou. Then the Xiong. I'll strip every treasure ever hoarded by them. And with that power, I will finally break past the Realm of Wu.'
Her gaze turned to the stars.
'This time, I won't allow anyone. No heaven, no sect, no righteous path will stop me.
The days that followed were a chaos of preparation, deception, and subtle manipulation.
Hu Nola was the obedient daughter, the model of filial piety. She trained for the competition with fervor, pushing her cultivation beyond its current limits.
She even attended mock battles, where she displayed a startling brilliance in tactics, greatly impressing her father.
But beneath the surface, she wove a far darker tapestry.
No one questioned her. After all, she was Hu Nola, the daughter of the clan head, destined for greatness.
But that was the plan.
Her manipulation was calculated and deliberate. She spoke with the Xiong and Gou envoys in secret, giving them valuable pieces of information about the Hu Clan's defenses.
She knew the exact patrol patterns, the vulnerable points in the eastern gates, the blind spots in their array formations.
The contribution competition was useless to her but it gave her a ruse to all her shady work.
On the surface, it was a battle of wit and skill, a showcase of young talent. But to Nola, it was a test of who could be broken first.
Her new allies, the Xiong and Gou, were the first to make their move. A week before the tide, Nola slipped into the vaults beneath the Hu Clan's estate, her fingers brushing the cold stone walls.
She activated the wards that sealed the treasures, then whispered the incantation. The vault door opened with a soft, unwilling groan.
Inside, priceless artifacts gleamed in the dim light—spirit stones, cultivation manuals, and soul jade, all ready to be plundered.
But she wasn't alone.
The Gou envoy had arrived earlier than expected. He stepped out from the shadows with a look of smugness on his face.
"I knew you were not to be trusted, bitch. It's no matter. All of it belongs to us now."
"You misunderstand," she said calmly. "This treasure is mine. But we can share."
She reached into the air and pulled a formation scroll from her sleeve—a map to the hidden passageways beneath the clan's inner sanctum.
"I've made sure the southern gate will collapse in two days. The defenders will fall back, unaware. I'll lead them straight into your ambush."
The envoy smirked, but his fingers flexed slightly toward the blade at his side. "You're clever, girl. Maybe too clever."
Nola's smile didn't waver. "Clever enough."
In one fluid motion, her palm ignited with pale, corrosive qi. Before he could blink, she struck, driving her hand into his chest with a muffled crack.
His body convulsed as she flooded his core with poisoned essence.
"You almost caught me too," she whispered, as his lips parted in shock.
"Too bad, so sad." She grinned.
He fell without a sound. Blood pooled briefly, but Nola moved quickly.
She dragged his corpse behind one of the sealed compartments, concealed it behind a wall illusion, and placed a stasis charm over the site.
His body would not rot, not bleed further, and would not be found by anyone.
No one was adept enough in the three tribes to look through an illusion created by a Greater Wu master.
"Now no one tells the Gou," she said quietly, brushing dust from her robe. "And the Xiong are too stupid to notice the plot."
She stepped back into the center of the vault, the formation scroll still in her hand.
To anyone else, it was a gesture of trust but to her, it was a leash.
As the days passed, Nola's web of lies thickened. Each move was carefully calculated, each word a lie, each promise a betrayal.
She knew the precise moment the Monkey-Orc horde would arrive, and she knew how to lead them right into the clan's heart.
The elders were oblivious to her true intentions and celebrated her success in the competition, blind to the storm brewing at the gates.
Nola feigned exhaustion, retreating to her chambers to "rest," but inside, she was far from idle. She had already planned the final stroke and set the stage for the massacre.
The first betrayal came when the Xiong tribe's warriors took the field in the early morning hours, their battle drums echoing through the mountains. The Gou tribe's forces positioned themselves, waiting in the shadows to strike.
But it was Nola who had arranged for the Monkey-Orcs to attack right then.
Her smile deepened as she sat by the window, watching the smoke rise on the horizon.
She had already sent a message to the Gou and Xiong leaders, saying that the Hu Clan's resistance was weaker than anticipated. The gates would open soon, and the horde would pour in.
The first scream ripped through the air as the beast tide approached like a wave of pestilence.
Then came the shouts and the rumbling of stones. It was followed by one deep final hollow rumble as the eastern gate of the Hu Clan shattered.
The barriers, weakened exactly as Nola had planned, crumbled beneath the first assault of the Monkey-Orc horde.
The battle had begun.
From her balcony, Nola stood motionless, watching as the chaos unfolded below her.
Screams echoed through the stone walls her former self had once wandered as a child. The scent of blood crept upward on the wind.
Her eyes were dark, but her hands trembled slightly at her sides. Just for a moment.
'Her original soul's remnant plea of guilt, I see.' She thought and laughed.
Then she exhaled and the tremble vanished.
The Hu warriors fought with the desperation of those who still believed they could win.
They didn't know the battle had already been lost, not at the gate, but weeks ago, when their fate was sealed in the secret blood promise beneath the mountain.
The Monkey-Orcs swarmed through the breach, roaring and howling. They weren't the real threat. They were weapons, nothing more. Blunt, vicious tools.
And tools always had a purpose.
In the courtyard below, her father, the clan head, a revered cultivator and unshakable leader was standing tall among the defenders.
His voice barked commands, as his blade sang through the air.
Then he looked up and saw her.
"Nola!" he shouted. "Stay back! Go inside, it's not safe!"
His voice was firm and familiar. For a moment, it stirred something deep in her chest. A younger part of her, buried beneath ambition and calculation, wanted to obey.
It wanted to run to him and save him.
But that part had no place here anymore.
"Father…" she whispered, the word uncomfortable on her lips.
Then she smiled.
"You've already lost. But fret not, your daughter will stand tall among all the three tribes as you wanted."
Down below, just as the defenders began to rally, the trap sprang shut.
The hidden forces of the Gou and Xiong surged from the shadows, cutting down Hu warriors like crops in harvest. The courtyard exploded into blood and screams.
Nola turned from the balcony.
There was no need to watch the rest.
The sanctum at the heart of the compound was deathly quiet.
Nola's footsteps echoed in the polished hall as she approached the ancestral vault, the final prize in a game she'd played with perfect cruelty.
Outside, the battle still raged. Inside, all that remained was her goal.
She knelt before the ancient seals. Her fingers traced the symbols with reverence due to her habit, not sentiment.
She let out a whisper of qi.
The door creaked open.
Light from inside spilled across her face, blazing from the glint of spirit stones, the shimmer of soul jade, the soft glow of tomes imbued with centuries of power.
For a moment, she just stood there. Not moving. Not smiling. Just breathing.
"It's finally mine," she said quietly, stepping into the vault.
She gathered everything. This was why she had betrayed them.
This was why she let the gate fall and let her tribe's blood spill. To reach the pinnacle. To become supreme.
But then a shadow fell across the door.
She turned, slowly.
Her father stood in the frame.
His robes were torn and soaked in blood. His breath was hoarse as his hands shook around the hilt of his sword.
"You," he said. Not a roar. Not a demand. Just one word, full of disbelief.
"Nola, You led them here?"
Her mouth opened. For a second, she had no answer.
He looked smaller than she remembered. Older and fatigued as well.
"You betrayed your clan," he said, voice cracking. "Your family. Me."
Nola swallowed.
"I had to reach the top however possible," she said. Her voice was calm. Too calm. Even she heard it.
"The world isn't what you taught me, Father. The righteous path doesn't protect the weak. It buries them."
He took a step forward. "You were my daughter."
"I never was," she said, the mask slipping just a little. "And you never saw me for who I was."
She cackled at her father's stupidity.
He raised his sword.
"You'll pay for this," he said. "I swear it."
"You don't get to talk about justice anymore," she snapped. "You sat on your throne while the clan rotted from the inside. You chose pride over truth. This? This is just the consequence."
She raised her hand.
Crimson light flared.
The blast struck him in the chest, and he collapsed with a gasp that tore through her more deeply than she expected.
"Such power, who are you? You are not my daughter. He fell."
No triumphant music. No rush for victory.
Just the quiet hum of power in her veins and the slow, unbearable pounding of her heart.
She knelt for a moment.
Just staring as her previous soul lamented deep inside.
Then she stood, gathered the rest of the treasures, and walked out.
Outside, the last screams were fading. Xiong and Gou were already celebrating.
They had no idea they were next.
As she left the sanctum, the flames of the Hu compound glinted in her eyes.
"I will be the one to rise," she said softly. "And I will bury every last one of you."
But even then, a whisper of her father's voice echoed in her mind.
And for the first time that night, she looked back.
Only once as her former soul begged her.
The night sky bled crimson and violet, painted by the flames consuming what remained of the Hu Clan estate.
Smoke curled like dying spirits into the heavens, and for the first time in days, there was silence, a very raw, uneasy silence.
In the heart of the ruined sanctum, Hu Nola stood alone, surrounded by treasures her clan had guarded for centuries.
The manuals lay open before her, glowing faintly with ancient power. Spirit stones pulsed like captured hearts.
Soul jade flickered with the memories of those who once lived. She had dreamed of this moment, she had schemed for it and killed for it.
But standing there, her hands trembling over the sacred scripts, she didn't feel as triumphant as she thought she would.
The ache in her chest had grown since the moment her father fell.
She had walked this path knowingly. The girl who once feared the world had become something else entirely. The strongest. The sharpest.
But now, in the stillness, with the screams behind her and the future before her, she realized her loneliness.
Still, she couldn't stop. She wouldn't. This was the only way to reach her goal.
With slow breath and steady hands, she began the incantation.
Energy surged through her, wild and electric. Her bones ached, and her veins burned. The spirit stones cracked, and the soul jade screamed in silence.
Her body quaked as it absorbed the impossible.
She was close. So close.
Beyond the burning horizon, Xiong and Gou were dying.
The Xiong tribe had fallen into her trap.
Their proud warriors clawed at their throats as the toxin stole their lives, gasping for air that refused to reach their lungs.
She had laced the talismans she had 'gifted' them with trace amounts of Silent Ember Dust, activated by proximity to the very formation they had chosen to use to maximize their profits.
The Gou were no different. Eager for power and too arrogant to question her guidance, they followed the map she gave them straight into the ambush site.
What neither tribe knew was that their paths would cross.
And when they met, blades were drawn before words. Old grudges rose. Suspicion, greed, and pride ignited the spark.
Their leaders accused each other of betrayal. Words became threats and then threats became blood.
The alliance collapsed in minutes.
What followed was chaos as shouts and accusations twisted into carnage.
The Xiong and Gou tore into each other like rabid animals, convinced the other had tried to claim the Hu Clan's vaults first. Nola had designed it that way.
She had whispered carefully selected lies into both sides, feeding their mistrust. They never realized until too late that they were dancing to her tune.
And above it all, hidden in a high outcrop of black stone, Nola watched.
She didn't flinch when the first head rolled. She didn't look away when a Xiong commander's guts spilled across the ground. The Gou screamed for aid, but none came.
They had walked into this with eyes and hearts full of suspicion. And now, they reaped what she had sown.
She didn't smile but did not mourn for their deaths either.
Their corpses, broken and forgotten, would feed the earth they once swore to conquer.
Nola rose, her robes whispering in the wind, and turned away from the massacre.
The power surged within her like a tidal wave, threatening to consume her. She gritted her teeth and pressed on her vision doubling.
She was at the breakthrough.
The Shen Realm called to her.
"You dare ascend to the Shen Realm, child of chaos?"
Child of Chaos was the title bestowed upon her in her previous life. Fear crept into her for the first time.
She turned, eyes narrowed. The figure before her radiated pure divinity. His face was hidden by a layer of distortment but she knew who it belonged to.
She staggered back.
From fear and recognition.
"You! I earned this," she growled. "I paid the price. I built this brick by brick!"
The peak on the other hand groaned as it was filled with death qi.
Blood soaked every inch of earth, painting it like a canva of blood. Limbs jutted from shattered armor. Numerous spears, broken tusks, and torn banners littered the ground like quills of a porcupine.
Above it all, Nola rose from the carnage, cloaked in blood-red shen qi, eyes blazing like two dying stars.
Her halberd made from the blood of the dead dragged a line through the mud, singing with the screams of those it had slain. Her face was no longer human, it was demonic and twisted.
The air split open as The Hidden Man descended like divine judgment into the mortal realm.
He hovered, untouched by the rot below, his skin shimmering with Greater Shen Qi. A golden glow so pure that it distorted reality surrounded him. His golden staff spun silently at his side, casting halos of blinding light with each slow rotation.
Nola stabbed her halberd into the ground.
The earth responded.
A tsunami of flesh and bone erupted behind her as Monkey-Orc corpses, reanimated and snarling, their arms fused with jagged weapons and dripping entrails.
Fallen warriors from all three tribes screamed as they were pulled from death by her will, their eyes glassy, their wounds unhealed.
They charged, shrieking.
The Hidden Man moved.
A single sweep of his staff vaporized dozens, their bodies exploding like overripe fruits. But the swarm kept coming. Nola vanished into it.
BOOM!!!
Red and golden aura blasted around the battlefield.
The halberd and staff collided in the center of the battlefield with such force that the earth cratered, swallowing the undead and catapulting debris like arrows.
Her halberd danced like a serpent, with beastly wide arcs, brutal thrusts, unpredictable feints. All wrapped in a storm of shrieking blood qi like a demon.
The Hidden Man blocked, parried and countered each of the monstrous blows elegantly.
Nola ducked under his swing, carving a deep gash through his side, golden blood spilling like molten sunlight.
She followed through, not giving him a moment of rest as she continued spinning, cleaving, lunging. Her halberd dancing like a veil of red.
He caught her next strike and twisted mid-air in a inhuman manner.
Snapped her shoulder with a burst of force that sent bone shards tearing through her flesh.
She howled but not in pain. Instead, it was in ecstasy.
The ground behind them ruptured.
Bloody aberrants rised from the soil in varieties.
Fanged serpents made of intestines, multi-armed giants molded from flesh and armored bone.
Nola disappeared within the horde again, reemerging atop a mountain of corpses. Her halberd pulsed like a dying red sun.
The Hidden Man surged forward. He spun like a drill leaving five undead split in half.
He ascended into the skies.
She followed him up in bloodlust.
Midair, they collided again, staff crashing into halberd, shattering qi formations and creating shockwaves that leveled the entire peak.
Nola twisted around his guard, dug her halberd into his chest.
He spat blood but he didn't stop.
Golden Qi exploded, flinging her back. Her ribs shattered on impact, her bones puncturing her lung. She coughed blood, her eyes wide and her face drained of all colours.
But still, she rose back up
She screamed, no words, just pure rage as she rushed at him for a final strike.
Her halberd descended breaking apart the sound barrier.
But the staff was already there.
It spun around the halberd, the next moment.
Slash!
Nola's head sailed through the air, spinning once in the air as her body collapsed.
The blood constructs shrieked as they crumbled
The undead let groans of peace as they rested again.
The halberd struck the ground last. The place blasted with her blood qi.
And as her blood pooled into the earth she ruled, the sky darkened as the clouds turned crimson.
An explosion followed as her shen qi dissipated.
Red hibiscus covered the broken peak leaving behind a scene of serene beauty over the horror which lay beneath
The Hidden Man did not descend. He said a final prayer and turned away.
The sky cracked again as he ascended into the upper realms again.
And behind him, the battlefield began to rot.
"From betrayal and blood she rose,
On broken oaths and graves of the close.
She reached for gods with a crimson hand
But fell unheard upon her land."