Nine Lifetimes of Ashes: Tracing the Source

The green lamp in Kunlun Ruins burned for three hundred years, while the winds of the Ten Thousand Demons Cliff swept across the sands for nine lifetimes. Li Yan's cycle of reincarnation was never a gift from the Heavenly Dao, but a cage laid by Xuanjizi. In her first life, her pursuit of the Dao was shackled. In her second, she died with regrets on the battlefield. In her third, her zither strings snapped and her confidant left… Through nine lifetimes, she went from a seeker of the Dao in Kunlun to a demoness of the Demon Realm. Every awakening brought betrayal, and every struggle was trapped by fate. It was not until her tenth life, when five fragments of a key grew hot in her palm, that the warmth of the breath of life and the fierce heat of the Flame of Annihilation finally let her glimpse the truth of reincarnation: the so-called “order of the Heavenly Dao” was nothing but a lie spun by Xuanjizi in an attempt to control the Origin. To repair the damaged nodes in the laws, she joined forces with Gu Yun's protection of life, Zhiwei's cleansing zither music, Yin Lie's demonic energy to break the array, and Jiang Chen's baleful aura to clear the way. Together they stormed Mount Guixu to block the rift in the Origin, entered the space gate to battle the Void Beasts, and explored the Spring of Death to break the curse of the rotting soul. Along the way, those who had betrayed her in the past became her protectors in the present, and her ancient enemies across lifetimes became the keys to breaking the deadlock. She, too, gradually understood that the Origin was never something to be controlled, but the core of balance; the meaning of nine lifetimes of reincarnation was never to defy fate and change her destiny, but to protect those she loved. When the light screen in the Hall of the Origin illuminated, the fragments of Xuanjizi's desire dissipated in a pearly white glow, and Lin Yan finally broke free of the shackles of reincarnation. This time, she was no longer a lonely seeker of the Dao in Kunlun Ruins, but a guardian standing shoulder to shoulder with her companions. From then on, the balance of heaven and earth would be determined by the heart. The hardships of nine lifetimes became a thing of the past, and a new journey began, accompanied by the peach blossoms of Bianjing and the starry skies above the Magic Tower.