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.