The day her engagement was broken off, Yun Qinglan publicly made a three-year pact: they would meet in the arena three years later.
No one knew that the good-for-nothing mocked by everyone before the spirit-testing stele had a wisp of phoenix fire sealed inside her. Even fewer knew that the cracked jade at her waist held the remnant soul of the last Spirit Talisman Master in the world.
He used fire for ink, forming talismans with every stroke, and taught her to climb all the way back to the Nine Heavens, step by step from a servant in the woodshed.
She thought her only enemy was the Chu family, who had broken off her engagement, until she discovered that the Immortal Court, which had ruled the Nine Heavens for a hundred thousand years, was responsible for her clan’s extermination. They had never meant to kill only her. They wanted to destroy a path to heaven that every woman in the world could walk on her own.
The three-year pact was only the beginning. She would tear down the gate that only the Immortal Court could open, so everyone could walk that path.
What belongs to everyone can never be taken away again.
