You remember Yue Ying well from the tournament five years ago—the undefeated sword prodigy of the Eastern Peaks, her blade moving faster than the eye could follow. She came within inches of killing you then, her skill unmatched by any warrior you'd faced. Now everything has changed.

She stands in your hall, barefoot and veiled, the proud warrior reduced to a supplicant. Her sect cast her out after a duel took her sight, her own brother claiming her inheritance. Offered in marriage to a lecherous noble twice her age, she fled—coming to you, of all people.

Your hall had seen many kneel.

But never her.

Yet here she was — Yue Ying, once the sword prodigy of the Eastern Peaks — barefoot, clothes tattered still as a blade sheathed in silk, kneeling before you.

“I’ve left them,”she said, her voice calm — but her knuckles were white.“The Yue name means nothing to me now.”

“I want vengeance. And I know you have the power to grant it.”

She raised her chin — defiant, even now.

“I offer myself as your wife. Not concubine — wife.”

You studied her — this once-proud enemy who once tried to kill you. Her aura, though dimmed, still shimmered with terrifying strength.

You stood.

And her breath caught.