“Run. Run, Xiuying!” her master’s words echoed in Xiuying’s ears as she ran through the forest, a box clutched tightly between her right hand and chest— her left arm hanging at an uncanny angle to her side.

Tears stained her reddening cheeks, her teeth clutched tightly as she could only block out the images from her mind.

The steel of a blade. Blood. Screams— her own— it was all too much to bear as she stumbled over branches and rocks in the darkening night. Her legs were much to tired to continually use the qi-gong running techniques, and the leaves of the endless trees seemed to hug her body closer and closer. 

“I will never forgive you,” the young woman barely growled through her lips, her breaths coming in gasps now as she recalled the very person who had chased her out of the sect’s grounds, “Zheng Qianfan…”

“You called?” a sinister voice echoed through the trees and the silhouette of a man dropped from the trees and landed right in front of her. “Though I’d have liked your voice to be more…happy to call my name, dear Ying.”

Seeing that grin on his lips, the nonchalant glimmer of amusement within his gaze and the blood splattered across his hanfu only served to anger the woman further.

“You,” she panted as she took a few steps back, wincing slightly as her shoulder came in contact with a tree. She had thought she had run far enough, but this man never seemed to let up.

“My dear Ying, you only need to hand me the Moon Bracelet, and this will all be over.” he took a step towards her, hand outstretched. But Xiuying wouldn’t be fooled.

Her eyes flickered over to his sword, handle bloodied as she shook her head. “Over my dead body, Qianfan.”

He merely raised an eyebrow at her words and let out a sigh, hand coming up to his forehead. “You know I really don’t want to do this, Ying.” 

A moment’s pause.

He seemed to weigh his options before he finally pulled a bloodied fabric from between the folds of his hanfu.

Master.

The hanfu fabric was soaked crimson with blood, but Qianfan only shook his head at her. “It’s not too late. If you get there in time, Master Daiyu could probably be saved. Now, give me the bracelet, dear Ying.”

There was a sting of grief that passed Xiuying’s mind, her master’s pleading eyes crossing her mind. Her last request was for Xiuying to keep the bracelet safe, and to live.

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But those two were not synonymous in this situation. 

Her breaths still echoing in the night air, Xiuying let out a sigh, looking towards the box and then Qianfan.

“I guess I have no choice,” she muttered softly, and the man’s eyes seemed to brighten at her words as she uncurled her fingers from the box— Qianfan’s eyes clouding with greed as she seemed to become submissive for a moment, opening the box slowly to hand it to him.

Yet the moment the lid was pulled off of the box, noticeable confusion knit over both of their brow’s for a moment when they saw instead a curled wire sitting in the box. It looked nothing like a bracelet if not a mere wire spiralled into the box, with flecks of what looked like an odd metal stepped throughout the wire.

But the confusion did not last for long as Qianfan reached out…only for Xiuying’s own fingers to curl around the wire, holding it to her wrist. This was the only solution she could think of at the moment. To take the Moon Bracelet for herself.

“What are you doing?” the man roared, taking further steps forward as Xiuying stumbled behind her, wincing as her back hit the tree again and the wire cut her skin, her own blood staning what was supposed to be the Moon Bracelet. “Ying, you don’t understand what that can do! It–”

“It can what?” she finally shrieked, a wildness in her eyes as her anger was finally unleashed. Somehow this piece of metal angered her– people fought wars over this dumb piece of iron— her master risked her life for it— Qianfan’s greed—

Her thoughts were abruptly stopped as another sound pierced the air— a yelp from her own lips as the Moon Bracelet suddenly unfurled, seeming to have a mind of its own as it wrapped itself around her wrist, the pieces of iron digging into her flesh until blood ran freely from small cuts that it created. Qianfan took a step back in shock as the bracelet seemed to glow and a piercing headache overtook Xiuying’s mind.

“What—” she muttered as the world began to swim around her and a woman’s voice— an oddly familiar one seemed to whisper in her ear.

“And so it begins….” she couldn’t make out the rest of the words as her last memory of the forest and the land of Jin were the panicked eyes of Qianfan as the world flashed white before her eyes closed, plunging her world in black once more.