Su Xiyue, sect leader of Qingyun Sect, made only two miscalculations in her life.
First, she went down the mountain and returned to the State of Zhoufu, where she became some sort of princess.
Second, in the Golden Throne Hall, she encountered her senior brother Li Jingchen, who had fallen a hundred years ago in the Ten Thousand Void Grotto.
Her senior brother, once aloof and proud, was now a prince of a different surname who wielded power over the entire court. Demonic energy swirled beneath his sleeves, visible only to her.
Before the assembled ministers, he bowed and greeted her respectfully. "Your servant, Li Jingchen, welcomes Your Highness the Princess back to the palace."
His voice was gentle, but beneath his eyes churned an ink-darkness she couldn't understand.
No one knew that the night before, beneath the moon, this very man had trapped her in the shadow of the palace walls, winding a strand of her hair around his fingers as he breathed against her, hot and close:
"Junior sister, after a hundred years, have you enjoyed hiding from me?"
Immortal power gathered in her palm, only to scatter at his quiet sigh:
"That sword strike back then... Why didn't you drive it home?"
The shifts in imperial power and the disturbance in the demon cave were all shrouded in mystery.
And when the truth finally came to light, she realized at last:
This century of solitude had been the protective trap he laid for her;
This vast mortal world was the careful snare with which he had drawn her in.
At the summit of Qingyun, he was the unspoken longing she dared not confess.
In the depths of the mortal world, she was the mortal bond he would defy fate itself to keep.
