The Weaver Girl of Yunmeng Marsh

Yunmeng Jiang was once the gentlest weaver in Yunmeng Marsh, making a living from clothmaking. But war shattered her peaceful life: the demon tribe razed her settlement, and Jiang Zihuan fled alone with an ancient remnant soul. To protect her children, she drew the pursuers away, only to be captured and thrown into prison, where she endured three years of hell.

In the prison, cries of agony and torn flesh were part of everyday life. Mo Chen, a human rogue cultivator, quietly admired and protected her, bringing her food, shielding her from abuse, and secretly helping her gather information on the demon tribe’s forces. He became the only light in her darkest hour. When the demon chieftain forced her to choose between her mother and her young daughter, she watched helplessly as her mother was torn apart. The last trace of softness in her eyes went out. Then she saw Jiang Zihuan endure humiliation and bow his head before the demons to save himself. Her heart turned to ash, and night after night she sharpened bone needles in secret, their tips growing ever colder.

When the allied forces counterattacked, Mo Chen risked his life to draw away the guards, helping her escape with the children. But after she returned, an even more brutal betrayal awaited her: Jiang Zihuan took a fox demon enchantress as a second wife, bargained with the remnant soul to practice an evil art that fed on human blood, and set his sights on her eldest son, Jiang Ying, whose constitution was unusual. He also suspected her of having an affair with Mo Chen and kept her under constant surveillance.

She appeared to endure it all, but secretly gathered allies and summoned the Four Sages of Qingshan to protect her legitimate son. When Jiang Zihuan captured Mo Chen and prepared to refine his blood to feed on, Yunmeng Jiang could bear it no longer. With the bone needle she had sharpened for three years, she poisoned her husband and seized his demon core. Then she killed Peng Yue and Han Xuan, and turned the enchantress into a human pig.

Her eldest son died young after being consumed by the horror of her cruelty. She made her young grandson a puppet ruler and took sole control, founding the State of Yunmeng. Mo Chen stayed by her side until the end. Before she died, she entrusted her granddaughter with the Heart Sutra of Mother-Devouring and said, “A mother wolf who can’t protect her cubs might as well be dead.” She lived a merciless life for one reason only: to protect her children. She was the most resolute mother in a chaotic age.