Chronicles of the Blood Vault

Qingtang and Su Mu both have names taken from herbs.

Perhaps their fate was already written from the moment they were named. They came from different elementary schools, yet entered the same elite middle school in the same year. From their first day there, the fight for the top spot in the rankings became a deadlock, a tug-of-war: neither would yield, and neither ever admitted defeat. Like two vines with intertwined roots, from their very first inch of soil they were destined to grow together, never to be parted.

Until the explosion. Flames tore through the night sky above the small city, unleashing twenty years of bloody enmity and burning their herbal names into twin blazes.

One uses loyalty as a shield, holding fast to a faith teetering on the ruins; the other wields a genius's mind like a blade, weaving a web of schemes in the shadows, intricate as a spider's web.

Plants and vines burn into blazing fire; resilience is forged into a keen edge. Together, they step into the final reckoning of their revenge, and the roots that have twined around each other for half a lifetime put forth new life, twin blossoms rising from the ashes.