Chapter 1

<The Beginning>

Yi Liu Yue's lungs burned as she ran, her mouth gaped desperate for air. Her legs felt heavy although she knew that she couldn't stop.

The effortless swishes of clothes tightly followed her, jumping from tree to tree, ground to leaf. No matter where she'd run, where she'd go, they'd follow her. They'd never stop until she dropped dead.

"Please, please, don't kill me. I don't have what you want!" She cried out, her running starting to become lousy, forceful, and tiring.

But no one answered her.

How did she get here? She was reeling in bathwater from the lake. That's not a crime, is it?

Why her? Why her? Tears blurred her view of the darkening hills before her, the shrubs and plants she touched merrily this morning. The rosehips that were by her right were ripe today, and yet she most likely would never see the light of day again.

Why her?

A shade of black dashed before her sight, faster than her eyes yet slow like a fluttering dress. And, with a premonition that can't be explained, she felt that if she moved further, she'd die: So she stopped in her tracks, neck stiff like a stork. Her feet were planted in the ground, her heel trembling.

She sighed a sharp breath. Though, not out of relief.

Someone was finally upon her, blade millimeters away from her neck (thank god she thought), a breath by her ear. The murderer who stood before her was tall, dreadful. His cool black eyes stared down to her like she was an insect.

Instinctively, her legs backtracked in fear. She'd die, she knew it. She was going to die today.

"Give me the Maiden's Tongue." The man held out his rough, calloused hands, expecting Liu Yue to pass over whatever he wanted. His eyes still kept a rigid stare, a hue of blue passing through them like frozen fire.

"I don't have Maiden's Tongue. I don't know what that is!"

"Pass it, or you die now."

"I don't know what that is! I'm the daughter of a wordsmith!"

The man said nothing, simply looking. Although his face was still, he seemed to narrow his eyes in suspicion.

"I really don't know."

And those were her last words before Yi Liu Yue was murdered that night, a clean slash to her artery. She didn't die peacefully; she died in slow pain, bleeding out alone until an unfortunate villager the next day discovered her already-cold body, covered in shameful flies.

Once the burial service arrived, the members covered her corpse with a blanket, the nearby citizens gathered round, gossiping within themselves. Most of them spoke of the tragedy of her death, whispering about the potential suspects, unable to believe that such a sweet girl like her had any mortal enemies. Some of them who knew her conversed about yesterday, when she had gone to the town to do some errands. The minority spoke of her death like a bad omen, knowing her passing was the end of her family's direct line.

All of them didn't stick around for long, going home like normal. There, they'd eat peacefully, telling their family nonchalantly about the Yi Family's sudden demise.

At night, however, that very body that was now placed deep within the earth, began to breath life. Or... Was it life?

Li Liu Yue arose from her coffin, her nails and hands digging herself out of the cold ground, taking half a day until her torso rose above to the surface; Her fair face covered in dirt, her already shabby cloths stained with humid soil. She pulled one leg after the other out.

She was alive.

[Rebirth of Heavenly Maiden]

[Welcome Member 342, Yi Liu Yue]