Author: Pineappleblooded

  Our Discord: https://discord[dot]gg/WfKqjeXN {repce [dot] with '.'}

  "Yes, at st. 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 ced 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 No?'

  She blinked. The name struck something old, something buried.

  "Hu… No…" she repeated softly. Then her eyes widened. "Shit."She clenched her fists, crimson energy pulsing faintly beneath her skin.

  "This is the Fox Demon Cn, 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 cn 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, No-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 pce.'

  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 Cn 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 cquered vase hiding a crack too deep to mend.

  No understood in just three days why the cn was in decline.

  The elders muttered behind closed doors about succession battles. The outer branches gred 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 pilr, 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."

  No'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 cn.

  But she wouldn't.

  The Hu Cn 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 calcuting. 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 No.

  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 pnning 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 the Hu tribe was not this cunning. Something must have happened.'

  "I was merely meditating in the sacred archives," No said, still smiling. "It's pitiful that people bbber 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 No.

  She held the cup to her lips, her voice steady.

  "Let this be the end of the Hu Cn."

  The Gou tribe envoy was chilled to the bone looking at her emotionless face.

  Later, alone in her quarters, she stood silently looking at the 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 manipution.

  Hu No 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 dispyed 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 No, the daughter of the cn head, destined for greatness.

  But that was the pn.

  Her manipution was calcuted and deliberate. She spoke with the Xiong and Gou envoys in secret, giving them valuable pieces of information about the Hu Cn'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 No, 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, No slipped into the vaults beneath the Hu Cn'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 cn's inner sanctum.

  "I've made sure the southern gate will colpse 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 bde at his side. "You're clever, girl. Maybe too clever."

  No'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 No moved quickly.

  She dragged his corpse behind one of the sealed compartments, concealed it behind a wall illusion, and pced 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, No's web of lies thickened. Each move was carefully calcuted, 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 cn'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.

  No feigned exhaustion, retreating to her chambers to "rest," but inside, she was far from idle. She had already pnned 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 No 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 Cn'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 Cn shattered.

  The barriers, weakened exactly as No had pnned, crumbled beneath the first assault of the Monkey-Orc horde.

  The battle had begun.

  From her balcony, No 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 ughed.

  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 cn head, a revered cultivator and unshakable leader was standing tall among the defenders.

  His voice barked commands as his bde sang through the air.Then he looked up and saw her.

  "No!" 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 calcution, wanted to obey.

  It wanted to run to him and save him.

  But that part had no pce 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 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.

  No turned from the balcony.

  There was no need to watch the rest.

  The sanctum at the heart of the compound was deathly quiet.

  No's footsteps echoed in the polished hall as she approached the ancestral vault, the final prize in a game she'd pyed 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, bzing 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.

  "No, 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 cn," he said, voice cracking. "Your family. Me."

  No 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 cn rotted from the inside. You chose pride over truth. This? This is just the consequence."

  She raised her hand.

  Crimson light fred.

  The bst struck him in the chest, and he colpsed 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 mented deep inside.

  Then she stood, gathered the rest of the treasures, and walked out.

  Outside, the st screams were fading. Xiong and Gou were already celebrating.They had no idea they were next.

  As she left the sanctum, the fmes of the Hu compound glinted in her eyes.

  "I will be the one to rise," she said softly. "And I will bury every st 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 fmes consuming what remained of the Hu Cn 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 No stood alone, surrounded by treasures her cn had guarded for centuries.

  The manuals y 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 cwed at their throats as the toxin stole their lives, gasping for air that refused to reach their lungs.

  She had ced 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, bdes 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 colpsed 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 cim the Hu Cn's vaults first. No had designed it that way.

  She had whispered carefully selected lies to both sides, feeding their mistrust. They never realized until too te that they were dancing to her tune.

  And above it all, hidden in a high outcrop of bck stone, No watched.

  She didn't flinch when the first head rolled. She didn't look away when an 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.

  No 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 yer of distortion 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 canvas 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, No rose from the carnage, cloaked in blood-red shen qi, eyes bzing 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 sin. 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.

  No 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 gssy, 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. No vanished into it.

  BOOM!!!

  Red and golden auras bsted 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.

  No 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 an 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 ecstasy.

  The ground behind them ruptured.

  Bloody aberrants rose from the soil in varieties.

  Fanged serpents made of intestines, multi-armed giants molded from flesh and armored bone.

  No 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.

  No 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 colour.

  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.

  Ssh!

  No's head sailed through the air, spinning once in the air as her body colpsed.

  The blood constructs shrieked as they crumbled

  The undead let out groans of peace as they rested again.

  The halberd struck the ground st. The pce was bsted 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 y 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.

  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 the gods with a crimson handBut fell unheard upon her nd."