Lotus Born of Nine Colors

At the summit of Kunlun, a piece of jade took human form after a hundred thousand years and became a god in a single day.

Her name was Jiu Yao. Her lotus had nine petals, each a different color, each color a tribulation. Wherever her radiance reached, dead wood bloomed anew and dead stars reignited. She could give life to all things, yet with a single thought, she could overturn the heavens, extinguish the galaxies, and destroy all life.

She was never short of people by her side

One kept watch over the stars on cold nights for tens of thousands of years, until time itself became an obsession: "I've watched over you for ten thousand years, not to see your nine-colored lotus wither and all creation perish with it."

A phoenix came to her through fire, reborn nine times, all for the chance to perch on her shoulder: "I burned the eight wildernesses to ash just to be the brightest light in your lotus pond."

One was silent as a mountain, never once saying he loved her, yet shielding her from tens of thousands of years of wind and frost: He never said, "I'm here," but whenever she looked back, he was there in her shadow.

One shamelessly clung to her side, impossible to chase away or scold off: "When you told me to leave, I took half a step, then came right back. Kunlun is too cold. I need to bask in your light."

One fell for her with a single fleeting glance, and from then on was willing to endure any calamity: "Love at first sight is too small a thing. What I want is this: even after your nine colors fade, I will still be the last ray of light you have."

They should have been the most carefree gods in the world, shattering the stars beneath their feet, roaming the Great Void, and watching the long night of eternity pass like a procession.

But the approach of some people is a tribulation written into fate, impossible to escape.

Petal by petal, the nine-colored lotus was stained with blood. Memories shattered, reincarnation turned, and they were exiled across three thousand worlds, becoming strangers who knew each other best.

But it was all right.

Even if we forgot our names, our faces, and the starry sky we once watched side by side, the curse in our blood would remember for us.

Kunlun jade shattered, and the nine-colored lotus withered.

When that faint