Chapter 1
Mount Luo in the East Sea is the tallest peak in Qingyang Kingdom.
Mount Luo rises from the sea, standing twenty thousand zhang tall. To reach its summit, one must pass through mirages and climb ten thousand zhang of sheer cliffs. It is said: Only those of Saint Realm can ascend Mount Luo.
From the mountainside up, clouds and mist swirl day and night. Atop the peak, among vast stretches of exotic flowers and herbs, red walls and black tiles can be faintly seen.
Beneath the black tiles, the room is filled with candlelight. Pale white candles are arranged in small circles on the floor. The candles near the desk are taller, illuminating an old painting hanging on the desk.
The edges of the painting paper have yellowed, as if soaked in water, causing the pigments and the framework holding the lines to dissolve, leaving only brilliant colors without recognizable scenery.
Scattered moonlight falls through the roof at night, landing in the cradle to the left of the desk, where a swaddled infant opens innocent eyes to greet the moonlight.
One month.
A full month passed before Yu Sui slowly accepted the fact that she had become an infant.
Yu Sui's energy as an infant was extremely limited. She was either sleeping or sleeping, with very few waking moments.
She had just awakened, her dark pupils slowly turning, discovering she was still in this gloomy and eerie room.
A maid had been guarding outside, occasionally opening the door to check on Yu Sui's condition. Seeing Yu Sui open her eyes, the maid went to inform Lady Su.
Lady Su was her mother, only coming to see her when Yu Sui was awake.
Lady Su, who pushed open the door and entered, had a willow-like figure. Her long hair fell like a waterfall over her white silk brocade clothing. She had extremely dark pupils that appeared bewitching against her pale complexion and fragile appearance.
Lady Su only watched Yu Sui quietly, rarely speaking.
Yu Sui tried hard to act like a real infant, playing dumb and silly to try to amuse Lady Su, including but not limited to foolish smiling, drooling, and lying with all four limbs in the air.
She wanted to see some expression of maternal comfort on that exquisite face.
But Lady Su maintained her calm indifference throughout. Today she left even more hastily after just a glance.
Yu Sui regretfully squeezed her little fist.
Whenever this happened, she had to wonder whether she was truly Lady Su's child.
Fortunately, though her mother's thoughts were unfathomable, she still had a three-year-old elder sister.
Elder Sister Qing Kui also liked to visit Yu Sui when she was awake, often chattering to her, taking flowers she had picked outside to touch her little sister's cheeks. Seeing Yu Sui giggle, Elder Sister would also laugh happily along with her.
Not long after Lady Su left, a little girl dressed in a red jacket and long skirt, adorned like a precious jade sculpture, entered the room. Qing Kui carefully avoided the candle circles on the floor, coming to the cradle. She had to stand on a footstool and tiptoe to see Yu Sui in the cradle.
"Flower."
Qing Kui gently touched Yu Sui's cheek with a plum blossom still covered in dewdrops.
Yu Sui responded with laughter, and Qing Kui smiled back at her.
Though she couldn't tell whether she was playing with a child or the child was playing with her, Yu Sui soon felt tired again, closing her eyes to sleep.
……
Normally Yu Sui wouldn't wake again in the latter half of the night, but she felt unbearably hot, as if being roasted over a fire. She couldn't help but twist in her swaddling, raising both hands to dissipate heat, but it was useless. Exhausted and helpless, she opened her eyes.
The moonlight remained. In the gloomy darkness of the room, this beam of moonlight seemed to come for her. Yu Sui's extremely dark pupils reflected the light, suddenly feeling something strange.
Dust particles dancing in the light beam wasn't unusual.
But now these dust particles were tinged with color, moving much faster than usual, gradually transforming in Yu Sui's eyes into burning scattered sparks.
Strangely, she felt no fear at all.
The sparks fell on her within the light beam, bringing no burning pain. Yet in Yu Sui's mind appeared a scene of shattered stars:
Countless meteors fell from the sky, eternal flames burning everything between heaven and earth to ashes.
All things collapsed and screamed, towers fell, the earth cracked, everywhere the eye could see was a scene of earthly purgatory.
Black ash danced among the sparks, thousands upon thousands of ash particles connecting into countless long chains, pursuing five twisted figures in the sea of fire.
Intermittent, twisted, and fierce ghostly voices reached Yu Sui's ears:
"World Destroyer."
"Strange Fire."
"You."
"Exterminate completely."
Yu Sui instantly snapped back to reality. The moonlight remained, no sparks in the beam, as if what just happened was merely an illusion. But the cluster of flames burning deep in her mind told her it was real.
...No, no way?
Yu Sui slowly turned her eyeballs, trying to find something in her surroundings, her heart somewhat dazed.
Starting from zero in another world was already hard to accept, and suddenly being told that her identity was actually that of a great demon who would destroy the world and was being hunted by the entire world, but she was still just a one-month-old child!
Yu Sui squeezed her little fist. What was she supposed to use to destroy the world, these infant-sized fists?
Not very promising.
Yu Sui was pondering when she suddenly heard a loud bang, frightening her so much that her hair stood on end as she tried to look toward the door.
There were two bloodstains on the door, blood flowing through the door crack into the room. The guarding maid was covered in blood, silently sliding down against the door to the floor.
Yu Sui heard the pleasant sound of a long blade being drawn.
The infant in the room dared not breathe or move.
Just after learning about her World Destroyer identity, the hunters had already arrived at her doorstep?
Yu Sui was considering whether to call for Lady Su to save her when she heard Lady Su's cold voice from outside the door:
"Not a Saint, forcibly breaking into the summit of Mount Luo with Thirteenth Realm cultivation. Count yourself lucky to have made it this far without dying."
Yu Sui couldn't see what was happening outside, so she pricked up her ears to listen carefully.
The man outside coughed twice, saying hoarsely: "You're also Thirteenth Realm, aren't you also on this Mount Luo summit?"
Lady Su said: "I can live, you cannot."
The black-robed elder chuckled, raising his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, holding a sword in one hand, his shadow on the ground somewhat swaying. He stood in the moonlight of the courtyard, staring at Lady Su before the door: "Hard to say. I could make it here, do you think others can't? As long as your children don't die, people will keep coming."
"Throughout the realm, there are only more, not fewer, Thirteenth Realm practitioners among the Nine Schools."
Yu Sui in the room turned her eyes. It sounded like it wasn't her World Destroyer identity being exposed that brought deadly disaster, the problem was with Lady Su.
Lady Su's extremely dark pupils were particularly bright and brilliant in the night, like burning sparks. Gone was the calm detachment of daytime, replaced by cold killing intent.
She said: "What a pity. At your age, if you hadn't taken this path, you might have entered Sainthood."
Yu Sui heard the sound of blades being drawn again, collision sounds, each one crisp, carrying tremendous force, as if splitting heaven and earth.
Though Lady Su spoke of pity, her killing moves showed no mercy for others whatsoever. Candles flickered in the room, shadows of the fighting figures outside reflected on doors and windows, changing rapidly and dazzlingly.
Yu Sui also wanted to see something, but unfortunately, her heart was willing but her strength insufficient. Right now she could barely even turn over.
Her ears could only hear wind sounds, fierce wind sounds and loud banging on the door. The black-robed elder tried to bypass Lady Su to break through the door but was blocked outside, unable to advance a single step.
This Thirteenth Realm practitioner of the Nine Schools had passed through mirages, climbed ten thousand zhang cliffs, and by reaching the summit had already been severely injured by Mount Luo's cold clouds and frost. Yet he still risked his life, using his last breath to complete his mission.
Two figures had reached the door. The door remained unopened, but large patches of candlelight in the room were pressed down, flames bent over, suddenly extinguished.
The crisp sound of blades seemed right beside Yu Sui's ear. The door was broken, someone fell heavily to the ground, vomiting blood continuously.
A slender white-clothed figure stood in the doorway, looking down.
The black-robed elder's eyes gradually lost their light. When he opened his mouth, blood flowed endlessly. He seemed to want to say something at the end but couldn't say anything.
Yu Sui in her swaddling remained quiet, not daring to move.
It seemed to be over.
As an infant who had just turned one month old, how should she react to this situation?
Yu Sui hesitantly wailed a couple of times, indicating that as an infant, she had been frightened.
Hearing the child's cries, Lady Su's gaze shifted from the black-robed elder to Yu Sui. When she entered the room, she raised her hand, and all the candles on the floor reignited.
Light returned to the room. Yu Sui saw Lady Su approaching and grinned at her, attempting for the umpteenth time to get close to this mother.
Lady Su stared at her for a while. As Yu Sui smiled foolishly, she slowly extended her hand toward her.
Yu Sui thought Lady Su was going to pick her up.
She maintained her smile, watching those pale jade fingers approach, falling toward her neck.
Huh?
Lady Su's extended hand gripped Yu Sui's neck.
Eh!
Lady Su's clear eyes revealed her determination. Her five fingers applied force, about to snap Yu Sui's neck. Just then, both heard Qing Kui's voice from outside: "Mother!"
"Flower!"
"The flower I gave to little sister!"
When Qing Kui appeared at the door, Lady Su instantly withdrew her hand, momentarily dazed by the reflection of the delicately carved little girl in the doorway.
"Another, dead person?" Qing Kui dared not enter at the door.
Lady Su walked toward her, her tone holding a gentleness toward Yu Sui that had never existed: "Kui'er, come, don't stay here."
Qing Kui, confused, took Lady Su's hand and left.
Neither looked back.
Lady Su heard her daughter beside her curiously asking who had died this time, her expression somewhat dazed, her mind flashing back to the earlier scene:
When she had gripped that child's neck, those dark eyes were still smiling, completely unaware that her life hung by a thread.
New maids took away the dead maid and closed the door, leaving Yu Sui alone in the room again.
When the reignited candlelight flickered, fire circles appeared on the floor, invading the dead black-robed elder's bloodline, turning him to ash.
Yu Sui looked at the moonlight and slowly blinked, no one able to read any emotion or thought from those eyes.
She thought:
My neck hurts.
……
Lady Su didn't come to see Yu Sui for an entire month. There were no more assassination attempts, and even Qing Kui's visits became intermittent.
During her waking hours, Yu Sui tried to understand the current situation:
From that night's assassination, she learned that she lived at a place called Mount Luo Summit. The assassin was a Thirteenth Realm practitioner of the Nine Schools, whose target was to kill Lady Su's children.
Meaning they didn't need to kill Lady Su.
But why did Lady Su want to kill me?
If she hadn't seen Lady Su from the day of her birth, confirming their parent-child relationship, given Lady Su's differential treatment of her and Qing Kui, Yu Sui would have suspected she wasn't Lady Su's biological child.
If she weren't biological, that would be understandable.
But what reason could there be for being so ruthless toward her own daughter?
Yu Sui couldn't figure it out. Right now she was a small infant with zero self-defense capability. Even if Lady Su wanted to kill her, there was nothing she could do but lie flat and accept being strangled.
Thinking about it, she found it somewhat amusing, muttering to herself: Someone like me who could die with just a little squeeze, without any golden finger or protagonist aura, and I'm a World Destroyer?
Ridiculous!
Forget the protagonist aura, my character setup is clearly the final boss that the righteous protagonist has to defeat to win the game.
Yu Sui closed her eyes, calming her mind and concentrating, separating her consciousness to view from outside in, seeing the cluster of flames about the size of a fingernail in the deepest part of her mind that had never extinguished.
Though this thing looked like a golden finger, besides being able to see it, she couldn't touch, summon, or communicate with it, so she couldn't know what use it had for now.
Yu Sui couldn't even confirm whether it was the World-Destroying "Strange Fire."
Compared to a golden finger, it was more like a mark.
If it was Strange Fire, then how should she summon it to trigger world destruction?
Thinking carefully, there were five World Destroyers total, meaning besides her, there were four other unlucky souls. So would the World Destroyers have a special way of contacting each other?
Maybe fighting alone wouldn't work, they'd need to gather all five to trigger world destruction.
Yu Sui yawned. Just as she was falling asleep, she suddenly saw the flame flicker, a slowly rotating small black dot appearing in the fire.
Voices sounded in her mind:
"Yo, which unlucky bastard is about to die now?"
"Why can't you be more careful."
"Cough cough..."
Yu Sui instantly perked up, forcing herself not to fall asleep.
The coughing, hoarse male voice didn't sound to be in good condition. He coughed for a long while before saying hoarsely: "Who... are you?"
The first, devil-may-care male voice said: "World Destroyers, obviously."
The second, gentle elderly voice also said: "When a World Destroyer dies, they resonate through the Spirit Fire Ball."
The fourth, androgynous voice said: "How did you die?"
The hoarse male voice chuckled lowly: "...Burned to death."
"Shit!" the first male voice said, "I don't have water here!"
Before Yu Sui could ask what connection these two things had, the burning agony descended without warning. After the initial mental blank, the infant's screams and wails nearly lifted the roof.
The maid guarding outside the door rushed in to check.
Yu Sui's bones, blood, and flesh were all being steamed by fierce fire. Unable to suppress this pain, she could only scream and wail wildly.
Pain!
Pain pain pain!
Pain pain pain pain pain pain!