Ten-Thousand-Foot Red Walls

I have served in the palace for many years. I don't believe in many things, but I believe in one sentence above all:

"You are the one who writes the history books."

"You will never write better than history itself."

[Reader's Guide]

Short story, GL, BE. The highlighter marks GL and BE.

(I posted it by mistake when I published the book. Since it isn't going to be paywalled, I'm not changing it.)

The original song is "Zhu Yan Jue," produced by the April First Traditional Chinese Music Society and performed by Qingji IK. You can listen to it on NetEase Cloud Music~

I wrote the lyrics. Back then, I came up with a story to help me write them well, but once the lyrics were done, I no longer felt like writing the story... It didn't feel right to leave it unfinished, so I gave it a little tending and filled in the blanks.

Please add my next book, "No Mercy Under the Blade," to your reading list

[I stand atop the mountain and cry out, ready to greet the first crack of thunder.]

They are a people cursed by the gods.

To cleanse their sins and escape heavenly tribulations, generation after generation of their people worshiped the gods devoutly, yet the gods never cast their eyes down upon them.

Until a hundred years ago, Si Yan, revered as the "Goddess," opened her eyes and saw a future in which the gods would be reduced to ashes.

What, exactly, are the gods?

To find the answer, she led her people in defying Heaven. Before the tribulation struck, she and three gods perished together. On the snowy plain where the gods fell, people found the bloodstained blade that had followed her all her life.

A hundred years later, beneath the Changzheng Blade.

Yang Qiyan, who had been scraping by, never imagined she would stumble into this affair.

She has no lofty ambitions, is lazy and loves to play, yet she is a rare martial arts prodigy. When the powerful leaders, exasperated, drag her off to train, she shakes them off and cheerfully grabs her sullen junior brother by the hand. "I don't want to practice anymore. Let's elope."

Her junior brother's eyes blaze. "Are you serious? Just with me?"

Of course, the young ones couldn't see it:

In their homeland a thousand miles away, the heavenly tribulation was drawing near. Everything was dyed crimson, and fate had already trapped them in its cocoon.

She held out her little finger, eyes full of hope, and hooked it with her junior brother's.

"I've made a wish to the gods. We'll be together forever, and never be apart for the rest of our lives."

*

"What is the jianghu?"

"The paths each person takes in their quest for the Dao, crisscrossing one another, make up the jianghu."

Theme: People long for freedom even while bound by shackles