ABANDONED TEMPLE – MOUNTAIN BORDERLINE, 9:32 AM
Snow danced across the chimed stone statues lining the cliffside. The air was thin, cold, unforgiving.
A man in dark robes knelt before a silent altar, fingers coated in ash. At his feet, a glowing sigil pulsed — flickering between red and black.
"Open the gate," the voice echoed from behind him.
The man didn't turn. "The Blood Child is not stable yet. He needs more time."
"He doesn't need time," the voice corrected. "He needs pain."
A pair of shoes stopped beside him. A tall, lean figure with ink-black hair and gold rimmed glasses walked in— threw a photo on the stone.
Yueying.
"She remembers."
The robed man's breath hitched.
"The First Flame awakens. The two must meet. One will burn. One will rise."
---
LU VILLA – TRAINING ROOM
Yueying stood at the center of the circular arena, surrounded by candles. Her eyes were closed. Her heartbeat steady. She looked like she was the goddess of peace, an extreme beauty far more beautiful than the person people called goddess of beauty ( her mother).
Gu Ni watched her from the side, wrapped in a jacket. "She's adapting faster than we thought."
Lu Quing crossed his arms. "That's not always a good thing."
Yueying suddenly opened her eyes — crimson glowing faintly.
"I can hear your heartbeat" she said quietly.
Gu Ni blinked. "Whose?"
"Both of yours." She paused. "Even mine."
Lu Quing stepped forward. "Do you know what you are now?"
Yueying frowned. "No. But I know who I'm not."
She raised a hand. The candle flames bent toward her fingertips, dancing to her finger tip.
"I'm not afraid anymore." She said.
Lu Quing didn't know if he should be happy for her controlling it. What if power gets the best of her.
---
FLASHBACK – HAN LIUHUA'S LAST DAYS
The great fortress of the Han Clan stood amidst smoke. Fires raged through its outer walls.
Han Liuhua stood at the front gate, blood down her temple. She carried a swaddled infant in her arms, the pendant pressed to the baby's chest.
"They'll never stop hunting you," she whispered. "Even if I give my life."
A man in armor stood before her, his eyes cold. "You've chosen love over power. A mistake."
Liuhua laughed softly. "Love is power, that's what you guys don't understand. That's why you're afraid of it."
She handed the baby to her closest guard, tears in her eyes.
"Run. Hide her. Even from me if you must."
The flames swallowed her words as his footsteps could be heard running like his life depended on it.
Yueying woke up from the dream. Her hair clinged to her face due to intense sweating.
---
GU NI'S ROOM – NIGHT
Gu Ni stared at the cracked ultrasound photo again. Her hands trembled.
She had never named the child.
She didn't know the gender.
But she remembered the pain.
And she remembered Ren — her boss, her tormentor — and what he did.
She pressed her fingers to her temple. The manipulated memories were unraveling.
Suddenly, she saw herself screaming on a metal table. Needles. A red room. Her voice breaking as they said over and over:
"You'll give us the next heir. Whether you live or not is irrelevant."
Gu Ni collapsed onto the floor, breath ragged.
They didn't just erase her memories.
They rewrote her life and she had lived to their expectations. It was a good thing she met Lu Quing.
----
YUEYING'S NIGHTMARE — UNKNOWN DIMENSION
She ran through a battlefield.
Smoke and ash filled the sky. Soldiers bowed before her. Statues of her mother towered in every direction. People screamed her name — not in praise, but in fear.
Then she saw him.
A boy — right years old. Crimson eyes. Black tattoos winding up his arms.
He stood in front of her with a burning blade and a question.
"Will you kill me first, or save me first?"
The dream shattered before she could answer.
This time when she woke up she couldn't breathe properly. She ran for a glass of water, his voice kept playing in her mind.
Would you kill me first or save me ?
---
NEXT MORNING – LU QUING'S OFFICE
"We don't have long," Lu Quing said, tossing a map on the table. "Black String activity detected in the mountain borders near Xiwu. Old temples. Magic-rich soil. They're preparing a summoning gate."
"To bring the Blood Child here?" Yueying asked.
"No," he said darkly. "To send you there."
Gu Ni entered, her voice hoarse.
"Let me go first. I'll find him. I'll try to… talk to him. Reach him."
"No," Yueying said. "If they messed with your memories, they could've messed with his more."
"Exactly," Gu Ni said. "That's why he needs to see me. Not as a threat. Not as a soldier. But as… his mother."
Yueying nodded slowly.
"If you go," Lu Quing warned, "You may not come back."
Gu Ni looked up, eyes fierce.
"I already died once. This time I choose why."
---
BLACK STRING TRAINING CHAMBER – SAME TIME
The boy knelt, breathing steadily as dark runes circled him.
The woman in blue eyes approached. "Your name is irrelevant. Your destiny is clear and written."
He didn't look up.
"What is your mission?"
His voice was cold. Steady.
"Find the First Flame."
"And then?"
He opened his eyes.
"Subdue her and bring her over to master."
---
NIGHTFALL – EDGE OF THE MOUNTAIN FOREST, XIWU REGION
The wind howled through the old woods. Snow gathered thick on the uneven ground, blurring the path Gu Ni now took alone.
She pulled her hood tighter.
Somewhere ahead, behind mist and rock, her child waited — not as a memory, not as a whisper — but as something real. Something weaponized for his own father's selfishness for power.
And she would walk through fire if that's what it took to see their face again.
---
LU VILLA – ROOFTOP TRAINING PLATFORM
Yueying stood barefoot at the edge of the rooftop, her hair tied up in a messy knot. The pendant around her neck now glowed with a gentle, steady warmth — but the glow behind her eyes wasn't gentle at all.
She could feel her mother's memories rising — not like a flood, but like sparks in dry leaves, catching fire slowly.
Across the rooftop, Lu Quing approached with two warm cups in his hands.
"You didn't sleep again," he said, offering one to her.
"I can't," she murmured, accepting the drink without looking at him. Lu Quing didn't like this distancing at all, though he asked for it "Every time I close my eyes, I see places I've never been… and people I've never met who still knows my name." she continued.
Lu Quing leaned against the railing beside her. "They're imprinted."
"And who imprinted mine?" Yueying asked quietly.
He said nothing.
Then: "Your mother. And… the pendant. It's like a memory bank, but only for fire-bloods. It binds trauma to power. That's how the Han line survives."
Yueying let out a bitter chuckle. "Nice. A bloodline that survives by suffering."
He turned to face her more directly.
"Yueying…"
She looked up, startled by the way he said her name.
"I know this is selfish, but… when I look at you, I don't just see her legacy." His voice softened. "I see something she never got. A chance to live. To love without a battlefield."
His eyes searched hers. Something flickered there — guilt, affection, need.
"I want to be the reason you survive this," he whispered.
Then he leaned in.
Yueying's breath caught — not because she was afraid…
But because she wanted to kiss him back.
And that terrified her.
She turned her head just as his lips brushed her cheek.
Lu Quing blinked — stunned. Her hand was now flat on his chest, keeping him from coming any closer.
"You shouldn't do that," she said, voice low.
"Why?" he asked, not hurt, but genuinely confused. "You trust me."
"I trusted you," she replied. "But every time I get close to you, I learn something new. Something you should've told me before."
Lu Quing swallowed hard. "Yueying…"
"I don't know if I'm falling in love with you," she interrupted, "or being led by a version of me that remembers someone else."
His lips parted.
And in that moment, he understood what she feared.
That her feelings for him might not even be hers.
---
XIWU – BLACK STRING OUTPOST GATE
Gu Ni crouched beside a frozen ridge, staring at the stone gateway barely visible through falling snow.
Two guards. Runes above the arch. And behind it… the unmistakable pull of blood.
She was close.
She reached into her boot and pulled out a small vial of sleeping mist — only one shot. Her hands trembled. Not from cold. But from the question that had haunted her for eight years.
Would her child even recognize her?
And if they did… would they kill her anyway?
She pressed forward like she has no other option.
That was a mother's love.
---
YUEYING'S ROOM – LATER THAT NIGHT
She stared at herself in the mirror.
"I was supposed to be normal," she said aloud. "Just a girl."
But the pendant pulsed once — no. That life was never hers.
Her mother had given her fire. Her mother's blood runs in her veins .
Her enemies had given her reason to stay that way.
And Lu Quing… he'd given her confusion.
Then she felt the pulsing of the pendant beating more rapidly.
FLASHBACK – HAN LIUHUA'S FINAL MESSAGE (PENDANT MEMORY)
A young Han Liuhua stood in a candlelit cave, blood running from her mouth.
She held the infant Yueying to her chest.
"If this message reaches you, my daughter… it means you've awakened. It means they've come for you."
She kissed the baby's head.
" I knew they will"
"You were not born to be a weapon. You were born to end the weapons."
---
BLACK STRING CHAMBER – LATER THAT NIGHT
The Blood Child sat at the center of a rune circle, meditating.
A shadow moved silently across the floor.
Then a whisper:
"Don't move."
The child opened his eyes — glowing red.
And stared directly at Gu Ni.
She stepped out of the dark. No weapon. No defense. Just her face, wet with tears.
"I don't want to fight," she whispered. "I just want to see you. Just once."
His fingers flexed. Power buzzed around him like bees.
"You're not real," he said.
"I am."
"You're not my mother."
"I am."
His eyes flickered.
"I don't know you."
"I know," she whispered. "But I carried you. I loved you. Before they erased everything."
The child's breath faltered.
Gu Ni stepped closer. Her hand trembled as she reached for his cheek.
"You don't have to be their weapon darling. You can still choose."
For a moment, he didn't flinch.
But then—
"INTRUDER!" A voice rang out.
The chamber exploded into chaos.
Gu Ni turned in shock as soldiers flooded in.
The Blood Child stood frozen — torn between two orders.
"Run!" she screamed at him. "Please—"
He stared at her, confused, torn—
Then a voice rang out " let her go, she's here to see her child."
Gu Ni eyes dilated when she saw him. The man she secretly had a crush for, the one that she didn't know her they became intimate the father of her child.
She rushed forward at him, the guards raised their weapons to shoot her but was stopped by their masteray one glance.
Gu Ni striked the sword at his side but he readily dodged with ease.
" You have gotten better NiNi but you still lack in speed " he said. There was gust of wind as they battled, everyone would say she was a good swordmaster for battling so long with their master . The only person that has left a deep woound on Ren was _Lu Quing.
" Let's end this " Ren said. With that she was knocked out but before her eyes closed he said " But you would have to spend more time with our son and feel more pain".
MIDNIGHT — YUEYING'S BATHROOM
Steam curled around the bathroom. Yueying stood motionless, wrapped in a towel, her fingers clutched tightly around the pendant on her chest.
Her reflection stared back — eyes rimmed with red, jaw tense, lips slightly parted as if caught in a silent argument with herself.
She turned the tap off and whispered, "Why did I stop him?"
The pendant pulsed faintly.
"You want to trust him," the voice in her head murmured. "But you don't even trust yourself."
She looked away, ashamed.
The memory of his face — startled, hurt, confused — replayed in her mind over and over. The way his breath had brushed her cheek. The way he didn't force it. The way he waited.
But still… she pulled away.
"I didn't stop the kiss because I didn't want it," she whispered to the room. "I stopped it because I did. But I thought he was still in love with his ex-girlfriend"
The truth cracked something in her chest.
She looked back into the mirror, eyes locked on her reflection.
"What if the feelings aren't mine?" she asked. "What if I'm just living out mother's story because she always wanted love?"
The pendant didn't answer.
Her fists clenched.
"I want my own story. My own ending. Not hers. Not his. Mine."
She touched her lips, then her heart.
And as her reflection shimmered slightly — just for a second — she didn't see herself.
She saw Han Liuhua staring back, smiling faintly, eyes filled with love of a mother.
But when she blinked, it was gone.
And Yueying, once again, was alone.