Red.
Red everywhere.
Lin Wan stood rigid in the center of Tianyan Sect's grand hall. The phoenix-embroidered wedding robe weighed upon her shoulders like a set of gilded shackles. Congratulations swelled through the chamber in a suffocating hum, yet none of it could drown out the sound beating in her ears.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Each pulse felt like a countdown.
Upon the high dais, the Sect Master and elders sat smiling. At her side stood her fiancé, Gu Xuan—clad in crimson, tall and straight as a pine. Sword brows, star-bright eyes—the undisputed prodigy of the cultivation world.
He leaned slightly toward the woman beside him, speaking softly.
Lin Qingyao.
Her younger sister.
Qingyao, too, wore red—though not the bridal scarlet. Her flowing sleeves shimmered like drifting sunset clouds, brighter under the pearl-lit hall than Lin Wan's own ceremonial robe. She gazed up at Gu Xuan with tearful eyes, delicate and moving.
But at the corner of her lips was a faint curve only Lin Wan could see.
Poisoned.
"The auspicious hour has arrived—"
The officiating elder's voice rang out.
Inside her sleeve, Lin Wan's fingers curled. Deep within her spine, the place that had always carried a faint warmth since birth suddenly felt… cold. Quiet. Wrong.
"First bow—to Heaven and Earth."
She turned with Gu Xuan to face the vast sky beyond the hall. As she bent, the collar tightened around her throat.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of something—Gu Xuan's fingers brushing the phoenix jade pendant at his waist.
Her mother's keepsake.
He had asked for it before the wedding, smiling gently. "So that when I see it, I may think of you."
She had given it.
Now it rested against his red robes, cutting at her vision like a blade.
"Second bow—to the elders."
The Sect Master's smile lingered, though his gaze rested mostly upon Gu Xuan. Lin Wan knew well: a girl with shattered spiritual roots and no cultivation prospects marrying the sect's foremost disciple—such fortune existed only because her parents had once died saving the sect.
That lingering grace was nearly spent.
"Third bow—husband and wife—"
They turned to face each other.
Behind the curtain of pearl tassels, Gu Xuan's face held no joy. Only a stillness like deep water.
No.
Beneath that stillness—
Impatience.
She bowed.
Just as their foreheads were about to touch—
"Wait."
A clear, icy voice cut through the hall.
Lin Wan straightened.
Gu Xuan slowly raised his hand.
The same hand that had once held hers with warmth now faced her palm upward, fingers drawing slightly inward.
A cold, irresistible force seized her instantly.
"Gu Xuan…?" she tried to speak.
Her wedding robe whipped in invisible wind. The dormant place within her spine suddenly exploded with agony.
But the first scream that tore through the hall was not hers.
It was Lin Qingyao's.
Qingyao staggered, clutching her chest, pale and trembling. "Brother Xuan… my heart… it hurts… something feels like it's breaking out…"
The hall erupted.
"Yao'er!" Gu Xuan's expression shifted. The force crushing Lin Wan intensified, yet his other hand supported Qingyao gently. "Don't be afraid. I'm here."
Then he looked at Lin Wan.
The last trace of warmth vanished from his eyes.
"Lin Wan," he said evenly, voice carrying to every corner of the hall, "there is no need to conceal this any longer."
Her blood seemed to freeze.
The force within her burrowed deeper—straight toward the cold place along her spine.
"You know Qingyao was born with a damaged heart meridian. No medicine can cure it." His tone was calm. Detached. "Only the transplantation of a blood relative's Primordial Immortal Bone can rebuild her foundation."
Primordial Immortal Bone?
Her mind rang blank.
"You possess it without knowing. You sit upon a treasure mountain with shattered roots, wasting heaven's gift for eighteen years."
"No…" she whispered.
"The sect's secret art has verified it," the Sect Master intoned. "Your parents died for the sect. We raised you, granted you marriage. Now Qingyao's life hangs by a thread. This bone is useless to you—but to her, it is salvation."
Every word was reasonable.
Every word was a knife.
"So this wedding…" Lin Wan's lips trembled. "A performance? So you may take my bone in righteousness?"
"To save Qingyao," Gu Xuan corrected. "And to put things to proper use."
He did not hesitate.
The formation beneath the hall flared crimson.
Chains of blood-light wrapped around her body, suspending her in midair. Gu Xuan formed a sword with his fingers. Golden light burst forward—
And pierced into her back.
Pain detonated.
Not flesh.
Not blood.
But something deeper.
Something torn from the root of her being.
She saw it—felt it—
A swirl of chaotic light being dragged from her spine, meridians shattering, vitality draining like floodwater.
So she truly had it.
So this was what they wanted.
Gu Xuan received the light carefully.
Tenderly.
And pressed it into Lin Qingyao's chest.
Qingyao shuddered. A flush surged across her pale face. Her aura rose visibly.
"It's done!"
"Such miraculous foundation—her future is limitless!"
Praise filled the hall.
No one looked at Lin Wan.
The formation released.
She fell like a torn red leaf to the cold stone floor, blood soaking into her bridal robe.
Through blurred vision she saw—
Gu Xuan holding Qingyao, voice soft again.
Qingyao looked down at her, that smile no longer hidden.
"Thank you, Sister," she whispered, barely audible. "For your bone. I'll cherish it. Along with your fiancé. And your life."
Lin Wan could not speak.
Gu Xuan finally glanced at her.
Not hatred.
Not anger.
Just indifference.
"Take her away," he ordered. "Cast her to Burial Immortal Cliff."
As she passed him, he added quietly:
"Don't hate me. Hate yourself… for being weak."
Weak.
Yes.
Too weak to know what she carried.
Too weak to resist betrayal.
Too weak even to hate properly.
The final image before darkness swallowed her—
The hall drenched in red.
The two figures leaning into each other.
Then wind.
Falling.
Below, Burial Immortal Cliff swallowed her into endless cloud and void—
Like a mouth devouring blood, betrayal, and a life never given the chance to bloom.