"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 Huolian! WHERE ARE YOU? YOUR FATHER IS REQUESTING YOUR PRESENCE IN HIS STUDY!"
A servant's voice shattered the moment.
'Hu Huolian?'
She blinked. The name struck something old, something buried.
"Hu… Huolian…" 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, Huolian-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.
Huolian 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."
Huolian'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 Huolian.
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," Huolian 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 Huolian.
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.