She is the "Calamity-Brewing Phoenix" nailed to the top of the Demon-Suppressing Tower.
Imprisoned for ten thousand years and scorned by all, she awaits the day of sacrifice, when the flames will consume her in exchange for the so-called peace of all under heaven.
He is the last guardian of the tower, born without spiritual roots.
He is ordered to watch her and record every change in her "demonic aura." In three years, he can leave after completing his duty, if he survives that long.
But Xie Wuxi gradually discovers:
She tends the withered flowers and moves a candle out of the way for a firefly that has wandered into the tower.
The blood-red golden markings around her wrist are not a seal. They are a pact that turns divine power into a gentle stream, nourishing three thousand miles beyond the tower.
The ancient lullaby she hums soothes the tower's demonic aura, which the immortal sect considers "highly toxic."
And that prison tower is no cage at all. It is the pillar of her divine body, the backbone she alone uses to hold up a world on the verge of collapse.
Then, on the eve of the "Ceremony of Ten Thousand Immortals' Soul Cleansing":
The Demon Abyss runs rampant, disasters strike one after another, and the predicted apocalypse arrives right on schedule.
The immortal sect's elders kneel outside the tower, their voices trembling: "Please, Your Excellency Phoenix... sacrifice yourself to save the world!"
Yun Zhao lowers her gaze to the Night Orchid finally blooming on the windowsill and softly asks the tower's guardian behind her:
"Xie Wuxi, if all under heaven can survive only by sacrificing its guardian god..."
"Tell me, is all under heaven still worth saving?"
He stands before the tower with his sword raised, its tip aimed at the sect he once revered as divine:
"I will protect her life."
"This world..."
"Will be saved another way."
