When Xie Xuan was seven, his village was gone. He waited all night among the ruins, until a woman in a moon-white robe came. She said, "Come with me." He followed her, leaving the name "Ping'an" behind in the collapsed watchtower.
When Lu Mingshuo was seven, his mother was gone. Locked underground, he counted his heartbeats to pass the days, until someone opened the door and said, "Then let's go." He didn't know that person was his mother's best friend, or that he actually had a father.
Eventually, they settled on a mountain. It wasn't big, just a small courtyard, a jujube tree, and a taciturn master. Life was plain and simple, but they had enough to eat and a warm place to sleep. Someone practiced swordsmanship with them, and someone waited for them at mealtimes.
Later, they came down from the mountain. They met a girl with a saber and a boy with a short blade. There were duels, secret realms, ambushes, betrayals, forced breakthroughs, and cultivation utterly destroyed... Everyone carried a flame in their heart. Some burned with hatred, some with resentment, and some with the desire to protect someone.
But the mountain was still there. The jujube tree was still there. Their master was still there.
They would come back.
