The smile on Ling Shan's past self still lingered.
In that instant….The ground split open beneath his feet. Something tore through the air, like silk being violently ripped apart.
The formation Li Xuanwu had been constructing trembled. The gathered forces of Heaven and Earth twisted violently, as if seized by an invisible hand.
"Fall back!" Li shouted.
But it was too late.
A gust slammed into Ling Shan's chest. It was not an ordinary wind. It was heavy. Viscous. Like living black ink.
The world flipped upside down. Li's voice vanished. Sunlight blinked out. When Ling Shan opened his eyes again…He stood in the middle of an ashen wasteland.
The sky burned in shades of gray and red. The sun hung above like a watching eye.
The shrine was still there. But this time, it had truly burned.
The flames did not blaze fiercely. They only smoldered,, as if they had never gone out in ten long years.
And around him…Shadows…..So many shadows….They had no faces….Yet every one of them was staring at him…..Whispers rose from all directions.
"General…"
"The victor…"
"The one who chose the mission…"
The overlapping murmurs fused into a single voice…..
"The one who chose for us to die."
Ling Shan's heart tightened painfully.
(This is not an illusion… This is memory torn away from the living world.)
Here, within the Dimension of Sin. The ground beneath his feet grew thick and sticky. Blood began seeping through the cracks.
Then a cry pierced the air. High. Long. Not human. Ling Shan spun around. A shadow separated itself from the darkness.
A woman stood there, holding a child.
Her long hair hung in tangled strands. Her eyes burned crimson. Her lips parted just enough to reveal faint, sharp fangs.
The child in her arms did not cry. It laughed. The sound rang like shattered bells.
"Do you remember me… General?"
Ling Shan froze.
A memory flashed through his mind…The night the village was surrounded. A village woman running through flames, clutching her child.
He had not turned back.
"I… did not order…."
"But you chose."
Her voice changed.White fur slowly crept along her arms.Nine fox tails unfurled behind her. The child in her embrace bared tiny fangs.
The two figures lunged at him at the same time.The scent of blood slammed into his lungs.
Ling Shan raised his sword….But the instant his fingers tightened around the hilt, his heart jerked violently, as if seized by an unseen hand.
Something answered from deep within his chest. Warm… and dark.
(Don't use the sword…)
Akin's voice trembled inside his mind, like a wave about to break.
Too late.
The mother-and-child fox demons were already upon him. Claws sliced across his cheek. Warm blood trailed slowly down his chin.
Sharp pain tore through his shoulder as the fox child sank its fangs into him. A cry escaped Akin within Ling Shan's body.
Cold spread into his bones. Slow. Deep. Like venom seeping through marrow.
"Your heart… smells so sweet…"
A whisper brushed against his ear.
And in the instant the claw was about to pierce his chest. A red wind cut through the darkness. The gray-red sky split open like fabric slashed by a blade.
A young woman in crimson stepped out from the tear.
Her long black hair streamed behind her like silent flames. Her eyes were still. Cold. Bottomless.
"Bai Jing!"
The fox demons turned, fury flashing across their distorted faces at her sudden appearance.
She merely lifted one hand.
Several white fox tails were severed midair. A piercing scream shook the entire dimension as their forms shattered into drifting fragments of light.
"How dare you touch what belongs to me."
Her voice was not loud. Yet the dimension trembled with each word. The fox mother staggered backward, terror filling her crimson eyes.
"You… thousand-year demon…"
Bai Jing did not respond.
She stepped forward and stood before Ling Shan. Her slender hand pressed gently against his chest, ,over his heart.
Ling Shan flinched.
The violently twisting heartbeat gradually calmed. But the heat remained, like embers that refused to die.
"This is not where you are meant to die," she said evenly. "Not yet."
The fox mother and child dissolved into the wind, fear of Bai Jing overwhelming them.
The Dimension of Sin began to fracture. Ling Shan looked at her. Their gazes met, one human, one demon.
"You saved me… why?"
Bai Jing held his eyes. There was no tenderness there….. No anger. Only something strangely weary. She let out a soft breath.
"I did not save you," she whispered.
"I am merely preserving my sacrifice."
The ground split open once more. Red light swallowed everything. Consciousness faded as the fox child's venom spread through his veins.
And just before darkness claimed him… He saw his past self standing on the other side of the rift.
Smiling.
A smile that did not belong to the innocent. Not to the remorseful. But to someone who knew..The karma was not over.It had only just begun.
The Dimension of Sin slowly crumbled into red dust. Ash drifted upward like inverted snow.
Ling Shan's body gave way.
Just before his head struck the ground… a pair of slender arms caught him.
Bai Jing.
She looked at him in silence. The coldness that once filled her eyes trembled….for the briefest breath.
"Akin…"
Her voice was softer than ever before. Not a general. Not a master guarding her sacrifice.
She called his name. A name that did not belong in this lifetime.
Bai Jing cupped Ling Shan's face. Her palm pressed gently against the wound on his shoulder. A faint crimson glow blossomed from her fingertips.
The bite mark left by the fox child slowly closed. The bleeding ceased. Torn flesh smoothed as though time itself had reversed.
The power of a thousand-year demon was not violent. It was deep. Subtle. Like an underground river flowing unseen beneath the earth.
When she was certain he was safe, she lowered herself slowly. Her head came to rest against his chest. Her arms encircled his waist, lightly.
Not the posture of a demon. But of a woman holding the one she loved…..afraid he might slip away once more.
"This time… I will not let you go again."
Her voice trembled…only slightly. At the same time, Akin….within Ling Shan's body….was dreaming. Not a hazy dream.
But something vivid. As if it were memory. A night. An abandoned shrine.
Two red lanterns hung at the entrance. Candlelight flickered, casting long shadows against aged wooden walls.
He wore a deep crimson groom's robe, embroidered with twin phoenixes and a golden dragon.
Before him stood Bai Jing in a red bridal gown. A sheer veil softened her features. Her eyes were not cold. Not distant.
There was only gentleness there, a gentleness he had never seen. Wind passed softly through the shrine. There were no witnesses. No blessings.Only two vows exchanged beneath the moonlight.
"No matter how many lifetimes…"
"I will find you."
After that, the image dissolved into closeness. Fingers intertwined. Breath overlapping. Foreheads touching in quiet stillness. One by one, the candles dimmed. Two shadows merged beneath flowing red silk. There was no urgency. No harsh hunger.
Only longing,stretched across a thousand years. Only yearning, never once spoken aloud. Though it might have been a dream… or memory… Akin felt that night with startling clarity. It settled into him instantly.
Every sensation…..Every warmth.Since the moment he entered Ling Shan's body, he had felt displaced, unanchored.
But this…..This was the first time he felt whole.The happiness was so real it ached.
In the waking world, Ling Shan's heartbeat slowed. Steady. Firm. Bai Jing lifted her gaze to him, as though she could sense his soul touching something beyond this moment.
"Do you remember now…?"
she whispered.
A faint red wind circled around them. The Dimension of Sin shattered completely, dissolving into drifting light.
When Ling Shan slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Bai Jing's face…Close. Near enough to share a single breath.
Her eyes were no longer cold. They held something deeper than karma. Heavier than fate.
"Were we… married?"
The question slipped from his lips before he could stop it. Bai Jing gave a faint smile.She did not answer. Instead, she lifted a finger and touched the place over his heart once more.
"When you truly remember… I will ask you that question in return."
The wind stilled. But something between them had awakened.
Then….
Ling Shan moved. He caught her by the wrist and pulled her toward him. Bai Jing's eyes widened in surprise. She tried to step back….tried to free herself…. But the strength in his grip was not the same as before. Something within him had shifted.
A dormant power had stirred.
And Bai Jing, who had just expended her strength, found herself unable to resist him completely.
For a brief second, their gazes locked.There was confusion in hers.Recognition in his.
As though the Ling Shan buried deep within his subconscious was struggling to reclaim something that had once belonged to him.
He drew her closer…And their lips met.Not gently.Not violently. But with a force born of memory breaking through sealed doors. Bai Jing stiffened at first.Her fingers pressed lightly against his chest, as though to push him away. Yet she did not. Because in that contact, she felt it too. The echo of vows beneath moonlight. The warmth of a night wrapped in red silk. Ling Shan pulled back only long enough to look at her again.
As if confirming she was real. As if afraid she would vanish. Then he leaned in once more. Again. And again. Not out of hunger….But out of a desperate need to anchor himself to the truth of what he had seen. Around them, the last fragments of the broken dimension faded into silence.
And in that silence…Old karma, once buried for a thousand years,began to breathe again.