The first thing she noticed was that the fox-fire energy wasn't coursing through her anymore. The second was that the weight of her tails had disappeared. The third was that her face was wet.

Ai Mingxa… crying?

With more effort than she should've needed, she forced her eyelids open.

This… was this the Yellow Peaks?

Lurid and distant sunlight, a splendid silent filtered through bamboo branches, washed over her face. It was peaceful. Unbroken and still pristine.

There was something wrong, then.

Pulling herself up, she noted that the world was strangely quiet. Though she could hear distant birdsong, it was dim and muted. Reaching a hand up to her hair, it was as she expected: her fox ears were gone, replaced by normal, rounded, human ears.

Running a hand through her tresses of hair, she noted: it was smooth, straight and cropped beneath her shoulders. Black like a drop of shadow. Nothing like her own.

Ai Mingxia's first thought was to find something sharp and kill herself again. If this was fate giving her second chances, she didn't want it.

… Didn't she?

She took a deep breath in. She had to get a grasp on her situation. Who was this? Where was she? Since when would she stoop so low to take control of another's body?

This wasn't her own body in the past, that was for sure. She hadn't left the snowy drifts of Zhidong until she was fourteen, and even then there was only searing heat, not this quiet warmth within her. Flexing her muscles, she also noted that though she was not quite as strong, there was still a reassuring strength to her movements. These hands were calloused and slightly marred. Her skin was also far darker and refreshingly warm-tinted: though many had praised the beauty of White Snow Seeking Scarlet's lily-pale skin, it was only because of the lack of red blood that ran underneath.

The robes she now wore were light blue, loose, layered, and cut at the bottom half for easy movement. The sleeves were not the standard sort, coming to an end early down her arm in favour of showing the white, puffed sleeves underneath. The boots were of a high quality, but that wasn't what interested her most. A delicate embroidery of clouds and stylized wind currents, dare she hope, signified a certain sect she'd come into contact with before. When she squinted, she could notice incantations sewn into the outer layer.

Was this person she now possessed… a cultivator? That would explain the faint, but ever-constant, strange energy pulsing within her. But … that would be too good to be true.

All her life, Ai Mingxia had wished for nothing more than to be able to cultivate like her siblings and father could. Fate had never loved her. If destiny had wanted to make time a paper moon and allow her to try to rewrite her stars... It would've stuck her right inside her own body, where despite all the choices she could make differently…

At twenty-three, her fox spirit blood would still completely awaken. And then everything would be over. No matter what she tried to change in the feew years before that, it was an absolute. She'd stumble around her stage trying so hard to change her fate again only for destiny to flick a gilded hand and laugh.

This… to be allowed to have a new life… fate had never favoured her, so this meant … A smile came unbidden to her lips.

Looking down, she finally noticed the residue of a crooked array on the ground. It looked vaguely familiar, still emitting an unpleasing and sour scent. Cautiously, she grabbed a nearby stick and poked at it. The rest of the array burst into red ashes scintillating with energy, flying off into the flower-scented wind. Something so powerful that it would leave a likely long-lasting trace, made up with so much blood that even the ashes stayed red, combined with her existence now…

It must've been a forbidden spell to summon her in exchange for the summoner's soul, one of possibly the most vengeful spirits in all time.

Such juvenile methods to conclude what array it was would make her father groan in disappointment, but he had been dead for many years now.

… How long had it been? To her, it had been but a split second between her death and this body, but it could've been years. Decades. Centuries.

No matter. If the host had been willing to sacrfice their soul, then there was definitely something she had wanted in return. Else, why would somebody summon White Snow Seeking Scarlet?

Ai Mingxia saw no letter left on the ground, so it had likely been left in the robes. As she began to pat down herself in search of it, she realised: there was now a rot that was surely unnatural, beginning to spread from her left wrist. Where the wound that had killed her was before. As she had expected, there was a time limit to fulfil her summoner's wishes.

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The letter had been conveniently tucked into the gaily embroidered sash. Ai Mingxia carefully unfolded it, making sure to not rip it, and began to read.

White Snow Seeking Scarlet, I seek thee for as you might have already figured out, vengeance. I offer my soul in exchange for you to perform six acts.

My name is Lin Xiuying. It has been seven years since your death. I am a disciple of the Tengjin Kao sect, but hail from Guanghai. I was born to a once-successful merchant family, but lost my family to the Fox-Fire Disease and was initiated into a gang alongside my brother, Lin Zhiqiang.

I rose to power within the gang, and became well known due to my impeccable instincts for danger, particularly ghosts and ghouls. Looking back, perhaps I should have realised sooner. Zhiqiang figured it out before I did. He did not flourish anywhere near as much as I, and must have been jealous. He sold me to human traffickers who wished to sell me for my core, and for that, I wish for you to kill him and whatever remaining people he holds affection for, if any.

With the traffickers, in a moment of desperation, I was able to awaken my golden core. I was able to escape. As you would have expected, my second wish is for you to kill the traffickers. I do not know of their real names and current occupations, but there were four. The one I remember most vividly was a woman tall and willowy, with a unique shade of ashen dark green hair. The second was shorter, with darker skin, short black hair, and a scar over his right eye. The third was of average height, with no discernable features, and was often referred to as 'Xiao Bai'. The fourth was very tall, though not as tall as the green-clad woman, and had brown, sun-bleached hair. I heard the green-clad woman call him 'Shixiong' once.

After my escape, I spent a few weeks wandering before I was recruited into a brothel. At this point, I was only fourteen years old, but looked older. When I told the brothel ladies this, they understood and allowed me to work there as a servant. I am incredibly grateful towards them for this.

However, one particularly rich merchant man entered and refused to accept that I was not a courtesan, and insisted on hiring me even after learning of my age. He broke Lai Hong- jiejie's arm in his fury, and dragged me into his room. I am sure you can guess what happened next. I wish for you to destroy this man, Liang Xiaojian: kill him, his business, and his children. However, my next wish may be a bit unexpected: I wish for you to travel to the brothel, the Layflower, and help the brothel ladies be able to rest and retire.

Afterwards, I ran screaming and crying to the nearby cultivators, who did not believe my claims, as Liang Xiaojian was an esteemed businessman known for his fairness. However, they still took me to Ning Yue Peak and accepted me as a disciple. After a few years, I will have to serve sixteen years in the military to pay debt.

My sixth wish may be unexpected. I wish for you to wipe out the main branches of the Changying Si Ma Sect, including my roommate, Si Ma Zhilian, for reasons I shan't disclose.

Time is short, and I am untalented, my mental state ever-deteriorating; I am commonly regarded as a lunatic, and as Si Ma Zhilian's maid in all but name. After you fulfil my six wishes, you may live out your life in my body however you please: as of now, I have not made much of myself. There is nobody who is close to me that you will have to be wary of.

Thank you, White Snow Seeking Scarlet. You are one of the most wrathful spirits to have ever graced history, and I entrust this to you.

The handwriting, Ai Mingxia had to admit, was exquisite. The grammar and prose was also impeccable and unhurried. Liu Xiuying must have thought about her decision for a long time. Ai Mingxia almost scoffed at the tone she took, though: as if White Snow Seeking Scarlet had a choice!

Despite herself, Ai Mingxia was proud that she had made her mark and established herself as one of the most vengeful, villainous ghouls in history. Wiping out one of the most prominent sects was no small feat, not to mention the centuries before that.

The reasons Liu Xiuying had listed for her wishes were already painful, but Ai Mingxia suspected the reasons for her desire to wipe out the entire Si Ma Sect were far worse. After all, though Liu Xiuying's life before the Peak had already been far more than unpleasant, only something truly beyond imagination would drive her to summon White Snow Seeking Scarlet.

Ai Mingxia looked at her wrist again. The rot was still small and barely noticeable as of now, but it would grow with time. Liu Xiuying had cited her cultivational prowess as being lacking. Without her fox blood, Ai Mingxia did not have her powers to her name, and even though she had her technique finely carved into every echo of her mind, a weak body would still interfere. Despite this, Liu Xiuying was still a cultivational disciple. Disposing of Liu Zhiqiang would be easy, especially since he was presumably still a street rat nobody, or a normal lower-class citizen at best. Killing Liang Xiaojian and recompensing the courtesans of the Layflower would be harder, but still quite easy.

Tracking down the traffickers would be harder still, especially as the green-clad woman seemed to be wealthy; a lower-level cultivator, perhaps? It would explain why these traffickers were trusted in matters around selling them. Now wiping out the main branches of the Si Ma Sect... That would be difficult. Very much so.

Ai Mingxia almost sighed. She assumed this was some secluded area in Ning Yue Peak. The wind whistled softly around her. It really was Ning Yue Peak… She almost smiled in reminiscence. The times of soft landings, safety nets and outstretched arms. Fistfuls of flowers and creaking wind honey-sweet. The taste of grass and tumbles on her tongue.

She had been just a child cavorting in clover, bathing in a sea of weeds before she relearnt civility. Like a piece of glass, or some strange sort of stone: seconds away from shattering, yet smooth to the touch. A small thing then, ribs aching.

All times past. More than a millennia ago. Who knew what Ning Yue Peak would be like now?

...Ai Mingxia stood alone in a bamboo forest with a mission. Her skin was tanned and calloused, hair black like ink, body thrumming with golden energy. There was no snow. There was no blood.

She closed her eyes and let the world sing.