"Great Demoness Li, your struggle is meaningless. The blood in your hands is incalculable. It is about time you pay for your sins." A voice thundered through the communication link of the largest spaceship.
Li An hovered in the vast expanse of space, her black nanosuit shimmering with the reflections of distant stars and nearby explosions. The high-energy projectiles from the surrounding warships had begun to disintegrate her suit, and the advanced fabric was toiling to repair itself against the never-ending assault.
Hundreds of thousands of wrecked spaceship pieces drifted around her, remnants of the foolish enemies who dared to attack her. The debris floated like a macabre halo, lit by the sporadic bursts of plasma cannons that still fired intermittently.
Her long, dark hair rippled in the space vacuum like delicate fronds swaying in the deep sea of stars.
Her legs, scorched and damaged, barely held her weight as she maneuvered in the zero gravity. Although numerous wounds marred her body, there were no bloodstains on her suit. Instead, her skin cracked and dissolved, much like the outer shell of an egg being peeled away.
They stopped shooting.
Li An's shoulders relaxed as she scanned the vast array of enemy ships, soldiers in nanosuits and massive mecha suits surrounding her. Some were yelling, some were sneering; there were eyes glittering with light, and some were clutching their severed limbs while staring on fearfully.
Li An knew she did not have much time.
She was bound to draw her final breath at this very spot. But even in the face of death, her expression was impassive.
There was no anger, sadness or guilt. She almost seemed peaceful.
Her gaze was indifferent, her eyes plunged into depths unmeasured, like the dark, serene waters of an ancient well.
It wasn't just the military and royalty of the ten galaxies near her Empire that surrounded her; it was also the loyal subordinates she once trusted and the common people from countless planets who now cried out for justice.
However, regardless of who they were, no one dared to move a single step, each heart pounding in anticipation of Li An's last attack.
The warship commanders, wary of further losses, continued to issue orders of surrender via radio for hours on end.
Li An's gaze lingered in the swirling fissure of the white-azure nebula, a mere flicker of light against the infinite darkness. No trace of awe could be seen on her face.
Slowly, she began to turn, breaking her statue-like stillness.
Startled into action, the soldiers scrambled backward, their panic palpable as they refused to be sacrificial lambs for a woman on the brink of death.
By now, the wreckage of the ships had formed an asteroid belt around Li An, drawn in by the gravity of her body.
The pain of her consciousness falling apart was unimaginable for an ordinary human, yet Li An did not scream or frown. Her face had become deathly pale, yet it only made her more dazzling under the afterglow of the nebula.
Looking at the colossal factory of new stars, Li An laughed softly. "To mortals, I'm like the white nebula—strong, everlasting, a light in the darkness. But in the vast universe, I'm just a tiny speck, a fleeting whisper. Now, as the nebula fades into its final hours, so too does my journey approach its end."
As she said this, memories of her childhood on Earth flashed before her eyes.
The scent of salty ocean air from her childhood home in Shipu mingled with the sterile, metallic tang of the cold vacuum around her. She could almost feel the rough texture of the wooden docks under her feet, hear the distant cries of seagulls blending with the rhythmic lapping of waves against the shore.
Born into a humble family of sailors, Li An had spent countless hours by the sea, her young eyes filled with dreams as vast as the horizon. Yet, those cherished memories had been buried beneath the passing of centuries.
The faces and voices of her friends and parents had faded into the mists of time, almost unreachable now.
For 600 years, Li An fought with an unwavering resolve, clawing her way to the position of Galactic Ruler. The air around her had long since lost the warmth of her village, replaced by the cold, impersonal atmosphere of space. She could not remember how it felt to have her skin kissed by the sun.
For another 500 years, she pushed forward, driven by an insatiable hunger to conquer all galaxies. Li An had abandoned everything and left behind a trail of memories like stars in her wake, all for the sake of standing alone at the pinnacle of the universe.
More than one thousand years had passed in the blink of an eye.
These memories, once tucked away in the recesses of her heart, suddenly bloomed to life, vividly unfurling before her very eyes.
She stared down at the disintegrating palm of her hand.
"I could not reach it." Li An sighed in her heart without regrets.
If she had to abandon her kinship and do it all again, she would not even have a moment of hesitation.
For Li An, the ocean depths are too shallow to explore, the light of stars too dim to illuminate, the lands too mundane, and the skies too cramped.
In the beginning of her life, Li An had been shackled by fear, constrained by morality, and limited by the frailty of human existence. Each step forward was weighed down by doubt, each breath tainted with hesitation. But she had come to realize that to truly transcend these mortal weaknesses, she must embrace a nature more formidable, more relentless.
She must become a demon.
To be free, truly free, she relinquished her hold on these mortal frailties.
The demon does not falter; she does not yield to the crippling doubts that plague the human heart.
She is unencumbered by the weight of right and wrong as defined by others. Her actions are powered by a singular drive, a fierce ambition that knows no bounds and recognizes no law but her own.
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"As my final day fades, my first night begins. It is a shame, but at the same time I am excited to see where the stars will lead me next." With this thought, Li An couldn't help but let out a boisterous laugh.
"How dare you laugh in front of us, sinner?"
"The Great Demoness is preparing her final stand before death. Do not approach her carelessly, soldiers!"
"Don't do anything that you will regret, Conqueror Li. Don't you think you have committed enough sins?"
The soldiers and commanders glared at her with trembling hands, not feeling safe despite the trillions on their side.
Li An had not looked at them once since the battle started. However, at this moment, her azure eyes met the army in front of her as she smiled coldly.
"Sins? They are merely the currency of the ambitious. You ask if I have committed enough, and I tell you that it is not the meek who will inherit the cosmos, but those like me, who seize it by the throat and command it to obey. So no, I have not sinned enough—not until my vision becomes reality."
The overwhelming killing intent froze the soldiers in their spots, their faces pale as if they had seen the Grim Reaper herself.
"Lunatic!"
"Great Demoness Li, it seems like you are a stain of humanity that must be cleansed for the sake of everyone."
Li An did not bother replying. She stretched her arms wide open and... boom!
With a loud explosion, Li An's body detonated and half the army was engulfed in a blinding surge of supernovae energy.
· · ────── ·𖥸· ────── · ·
The winter rain plummeted from the skies in Yi Jian Valley, accompanied by the thunderous roars of an approaching storm.
Blood-red petals clung to the blades of the frost-covered grass, and ethereal mists danced around the jade green tendrils of the bamboo fields.
It was already late at night, but the tall houses of the valley seemed to have their lights on.
Not only one or two, but thousands of tiny lights emerged from the village below, like a swarm of glowing embers rising from the funeral pyre of a forgotten entity. To a certain extent, their valley was also one lost in the annals of history*.
Situated in the middle of the valley was the Gentle Sword Sect, a very old organization with a relatively high status in their region. Within a radius of one thousand li around them, there wasn't even a single touch of human civilization, which meant Gentle Sword Sect disciples were often considered ascetics, unbothered by fame and wealth.
Right in the center of the sect village was an imposing pavilion. Two old men sat in silence around a small tea table, staring solemnly at the weather outside. Both of them carried the upright posture and keen gaze of those at the top of the hierarchy.
"May the Old Ancestor bless us with great talents this year again. In the past few years, we have found a lot of talented young disciples like Jian Feng, Ye Hua and Wen He. I cannot help but keep my hopes up." The Gentle Sword Sect leader sported a flowing white beard and hair neatly tied in a high bun.
Although he seemed harmless, his gaze seemed to emit swordlight whenever one stared at him in the eyes, showing his high realm of cultivation.
He closed his eyes and took a sip of the tea. He might be old, but his back was straight like a sword.
The old man next to him glanced at the brown case in the center of the room; there were twenty five layers to this case, containing all the memorial tablets and teachings of the sect ancestors. He was the Grand Elder of the sect, so he naturally knew that they would decide on the next young leader by the end of the following year.
The sect leader finished his tea and bent his waist with his two hands pressing against the floor. It was a kowtow towards their ancestors, praying for a glorious future.
As his forehead knocked against the dark brown timber floor, light thuds could be heard.
The Grand Elder had also fallen to his knees, kowtowing just like the sect leader. The furious rustle of bamboo outside was the only sound inside the room.
After a few minutes, both old men slowly rose from the ground and returned to their seats. The Grand Elder gave a sigh of relief and the atmosphere suddenly loosened up.
"Making an old man kneel at this age. Aren't you ashamed, sect leader?"
"You speak as if you have one foot in the grave, Grand Elder. Last time I checked on you, I saw two Essence Condensation beasts receiving the beating of their lives. How come you are a decrepit old man now?" The sect leader curled up his lips slowly in a smile.
The Grand Elder scratched his bald head while letting out a chuckle.
"Time flies too quickly. Tomorrow is already the new assessment of the outer sect disciples. Let's hope that some of them have Grade 2 or even Grade 1 talent, so that we can introduce new blood to the inner sect."
"I trust you are not serious. Grade 1 talent is not that easy to come across." The sect leader shook his head with a wry smile. "I heard very good things about You Rou and Ning Jing, so I hope they do not disappoint."
"They still cannot compare with Tong Zi from the Hidden Valley Sect, though. That monster has already reached the Spirit realm at the age of sixteen. The next generation will always surpass the previous one."
The sect leader frowned when he heard the name Tong Zi. He was one of his greatest worries in the last year.
The boy's talent was honestly terrifying, since in one year of training he was able to increase an entire large realm. The best inner sect disciples were also in the Spirit realm, but they were in their twenties. There was no comparison.
Considering the rivalry between the Gentle Sword Sect and the other sects around them, it would be hard to keep their status with the rise of the Hidden Valley Sect.
Although the people living in the Yi Jian Valley were said to be ascetics, both of the old men understood that no one was immune to power and wealth.
Once this Tong Zi grew up, he would become the pillar of the Hidden Valley Sect and even the older generation would find it hard to defeat him. No one questioned this fact.
"I heard that You Rou has an extreme aptitude for swordsmanship. If we nurture that seed well, he might become one of the top contenders for young leader together with the other three personal disciples." The Grand Elder said with narrowed eyes.
The sect leader coughed and did not say anything. However, deep in his eyes there was a hint of caution; You Rou was someone associated with this Grand Elder, and although they were friends and united against outsiders, the political matters of the sect were not that simple.
The Grand Elder's gaze also shone with a strange light. "As expected from this crafty old fox. His silence is sending a clear message: becoming a contender for young leader won't be easy. But he's not outright opposing it either. In other words, show his ability and prove that he has the qualifications."
"It is getting late. I will see you tomorrow at the assessment, sect leader." The Grand Elder cupped his fists and vanished like smoke.
Not long after that, the large room became quiet. The wind from the winter rain crashed against the open window, so the sect leader walked towards the bench next to it.
He immediately felt refreshed by the moist, clean air of nature. He could not imagine how it felt to live in a big city.
Since it was the tenth and last floor of the pavilion, the sect leader could see almost the entire west side of the village outside the window.
The darkness of the night and the roars of the storm were not enough to make the disciples go to sleep before the assessment. At least more than ninety percent of the houses had their lights on, like weak fireflies fluttering in the foggy valley.
The exciting and tense atmosphere looked to be suppressed during the night, ready to spring to life the next morning.
"These are the droplets that will converge into the mighty river that is our sect." With the myriad of flickering lights dancing in his eyes, the old man sighed.
...
At the very same moment, a pair of hollow black eyes snapped open in the room of an unknown outer sect disciple of the Gentle Sword Sect.
"Ugh!"
The slender body of the disciple was drenched in sweat, but that was the least of her worries. She wiped her forehead with her palm and got up from bed, walking towards the mirror on the wall.
"I am... alive?"
That girl was Li An, or at least part of her. The reflection in the mirror was different from what she expected. She was shorter and younger than her previous self, and her eyes resembled two black holes devoid of emotions.
Li An had never seen a person with a skin as pale as this girl. It felt like she was staring at a walking corpse.
"But so what?" Her thin lips curled upwards in a delicate arc. It was a smile that, while strikingly lovely, sent a shiver down the spine.
"Interesting. I appear to have been reincarnated in the body of someone else." She stretched out her hand, her sight fixated on her own young, soft palms, then slowly clenched them, embracing the truth of this reality with all her might.
" A millennium of memories, it feels like an illusion crafted by time."
But in her heart, she understood: this was no illusion.
· · ────── ·𖥸· ────── · ·
*Yi Jian means Forgotten Sword, so the expert who made the valley was already forgotten.