A broken curse and a forgotten legacy

  Leaving the Yingtian Clan behind, GuZong walked alone on the desolate path. Even now, he found it hard to believe he had been resurrected...not by his own will, but by someone else's.

  He thought to himself,

  “Why… why am I here? There is nothing left for me in this world. Nothing.”

  Looking around, he spotted a large stone by the roadside. He sat cross-legged upon it, attempting to calm his mind and meditate, but his thoughts refused to settle.

  The words of Master Suo Jing and Hei Shu Yi echoed endlessly within him.

  Memories of everything that transpired in Gufung Mansion surged through him like a storm.

  He could not ignore them, no matter how hard he tried.

  ---

  Yesterday

  When Gu Zong first opened his eyes inside Xiao Tang's body, he saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

  A faint, confused voice escaped his lips, barely audible.

  “...A room?”

  He attempted to sit up, but his foot slipped off the bed, sending him tumbling to the floor. His hand struck a nearby vase, crashing down with him and shattering loudly on the wooden floor.

  Wrapped entirely in a white sheet, Gu Zong lay motionless for a moment.

  Then his gaze fell upon his hands.

  He froze.They were different. Soft.Delicate.

  Not the hardened, stone-like hands he once possessed.

  The more he examined this unfamiliar body, the more shock filled his eyes.And then, the realization struck him like lightning:

  This was not his body. But how?

  Before he could process it further, footsteps approached from outside.

  Instantly, Gu Zong summoned his spiritual power....

  Only to be shaken once more.His spiritual essence, which had always been white, had turned a deep crimson... like dried blood.

  He looked around in disbelief, and sensing someone at the door, he surged forward and struck with his energy...

  Only to find a girl standing there.

  The moment he moved to attack, a sword sliced through the sheet wrapped around him, cutting it apart.The fabric fell away...

  And Gu Zong saw Hei Shu Yi floating lightly in the air, sword in hand.

  Seeing her, he immediately assumed the wors

  —

  Either he had been captured, or they intended to extract answers from him.He was unaware that forty-five years had passed. To him, it felt like only yesterday that he had sacrificed himself in the flames.

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  His voice turned razor-sharp, laced with venom:

  “Deceit.”

  He tried to summon his sword... But even its form had changed.

  Everything, every single detail, seemed twisted and unfamiliar.Yet he betrayed none of his bewilderment on his expression.

  A deadly battle was about to erupt between them when...

  A voice called from below.A voice Gu Zong recognized instantly.

  Suo Jing.

  One of the presiding elders of the Han Qiantian Clan.A royal-ranked advisor.His appearance ignited an inferno in Gu Zong's chest.

  He lunged at him with murderous intent, his blade aimed directly at Suo Jing's throat.

  But just before the strike landed, Gu Zong's body failed.

  Blood surged up his throat, and he collapsed, coughing violently.

  His limbs trembled, his strength abandoning him entirely.

  Suo Jing, however, remained still.Had Gu Zong's blade pierced his neck, he still would not have stepped back.

  Because he too carried pain.Hes Shu Yi hurried to support Gu Zong, and together they carried him back to the room.

  ---

  Some time passed.

  Both Suo Jing and Hei Shu Yi sat quietly, awaiting the inevitable storm when Gu Zong would awaken.

  Suo Jing trembled under the weight of his sorrow.

  Hes Shu Yi gently steadied him.

  “Master, please compose yourself.This is not the time for grief.You should rejoice.Master Gu Zong has returned.”

  Suo Jing nodded weakly.

  Then..

  Gu Zong stirred.His eyes snapped open...

  And without hesitation, he tried once more to summon his sword. But his body was too weak.

  Even his spiritual energy refused to obey.

  Hes Shu Yi stepped forward gently...

  “Master Gu Zong, please calm yourself. We are here to help you.”

  But there was no softness within him. Only the roaring darkness of grief and fury.

  “Stay away from me,” he snarled like a wounded demon.

  “Keep your sweet, poison-coated words to yourself. I need nothing from either of you.

  And who are you.. to call me Master?”

  Suo Jing attempted to approach..

  But Gu Zong seized a jagged shard of the broken vase and pointed it at him.

  “You. You come now?

  After burning my clan to the ground and destroying everything...

  Was all of that not enough?

  Is your satisfaction still incomplete, that you dragged me back as well?”

  Hes Shu Yi did not react. Nor did Suo Jing.

  They simply listened to his pain.

  Finally, softly... Hei Shu Yi spoke:

  “Master, please let us explain. Master Suo Jing has something he must tell you. Just listen, and afterward, you may do whatever you choose.”

  Before Gu Zong could lash out again, Suo Jing finally spoke.

  “Gu Zong, neither you nor your clan were ever at fault.

  All the rumors were lies.

  Fabricated to destroy the Lianxiao Clan.”

  “We still don't know who orchestrated it.

  But I was forced to place a curse upon you.

  I realized too late that Master Han huan Hao had intentionally spread that very rumor.

  I altered the curse at the last possible moment.”

  “The original curse would have destroyed your spiritual essence and prevented your soul from reincarnating for eternity.”

  “I could not break it.

  But I could change one fragment.”

  “So I ensured, that if you were ever to return,

  you would be reborn into the body of someone whose death was already destined.”

  “And we searched. For forty-five long years.

  We searched for such a body.”

  “And then, we found Xiao Tang.”

  Flashback

  The markets of the Yingtian Clan bustled with life. Hes Shu Yi wandered through the crowds, searching... until she saw him.

  Xiao Tang, asleep in a small boat. Her bells chimed softly... A sign. A soul close to death.

  She infused a shred of her spiritual power into his body, ensuring that when his soul departed, his body would survive long enough for another to take its place. Later, when Xiao Tang fainted into the river, she wrapped invisible threads of spiritual force around him, holding him beneath the water... until her bells signaled that Gu Zong's soul had arrived.

  The moment Xiao Tang's soul departed, Gu Zong's soul entered. Her task complete, she exhaled slowly and sat beside a noodle stall,

  calmly waiting for Xiao Tang's people to retrieve him.

  Flashback Ends