Chapter 1: Birth Within the Coffin

When Ji Tianxin's consciousness returned, all she saw was darkness.

Her entire body felt submerged in water; every breath was a struggle, as if she had swelled and become immobile, her limbs leaden and unresponsive. From nearby, a woman's desperate cries for help echoed ceaselessly.

"Let me out! Let... me out! My child... let me give birth to my child!"

"I beg you, please... please spare my child..." The woman's voice, hoarse and broken, grew weaker with every plea.

"Still dreaming of escape? Someone, nail the coffin shut!" a sharp, malicious voice of another woman rang out. "You think you can bring your little bastard into this world? Ha! Keep dreaming! Now, you and your child will descend into hell together. Dying together is the only mercy our lady will show you. Shameless vixen, did you think carrying the general's child would win you his favor? Bah!"

"No... no... I beg you, let me give birth to my child..."

The woman's anguished screams resounded right beside Ji Tianxin. She could even hear the steady thumping from within her own chest—an all-too-familiar sound.

A heartbeat.

Am I... inside this woman's womb?

The realization sent a jolt of terror through Ji Tianxin.

She remembered she had been in seclusion, cultivating in her cave dwelling, on the verge of breaking through, when a sudden surge of overwhelming power shattered her progress, destroying her soul and scattering her spiritual consciousness.

So why was she now inside this woman's body?

What in the world was happening?

"Hurry and bury them. Such bad luck!" the other woman snapped impatiently.

"Yes, ma'am!"

A moment later, the scraping sound of shovels tossing dirt filled the air.

The heartbeat by Ji Tianxin's ear grew fainter and fainter.

"Remember this well—concubine Li of the general's manor died in childbirth," the mistress's scathing voice commanded. "Fearing the general would be distressed upon his return, I have arranged for her and her unborn child to be buried early. Do you all understand?"

"Yes, madam!"

"Help... save my child... my child... child..."

The woman's cries faded into nothing, and Ji Tianxin felt herself begin to move, her body sliding downward rapidly. The air grew thin and cold around her, the heavy stench of blood and death wrinkling her brow.

In a desolate mass grave at the edge of the woods, the freshly turned earth atop a newly dug grave began to stir.

"What's this..." A young man passing by sensed something amiss. In a flash, his figure turned into a streak of light, landing atop the unmarked grave within the trees.

What he saw left him stunned, disbelief written across his handsome face.

The soil had been upheaved by an unseen force, the coffin lid flung aside, lying cold on the disturbed earth. Scattered nails, clearly wrenched free by some mysterious power, glinted in the dirt.

Exposed before him was a coffin, within which lay a lifeless, ghastly pale and contorted woman—and a blood-drenched newborn girl, her eyes wide open.

"My god..." he couldn't help but gasp. When his gaze met the infant girl's, a chill ran down his spine.

She was but a newborn, yet her eyes held none of the confusion of a child newly seeing the world.

Calm and indifferent, her gaze was nothing like a human's—let alone a baby's.

A motherless infant, born in a coffin amidst the mass graves—such sorrow and tragedy would move even the hardest heart. The sky above was leaden and gray, not a hint of sunlight breaking through.

A biting, desolate wind swept the area. On the withered trees perched several crows, their black, bead-like eyes fixed on the coffin. At the sight of the infant girl, however, they scattered in alarm.

His brocaded boots sank into the mud as he reached into the coffin and gently lifted the blood-smeared child into his embrace.

"Well, it seems fate has brought us together. Since your mother has passed and Heaven has allowed you to survive, from now on, you shall come with me," he said softly, a slight smile tugging at his lips.

Yet, as he surveyed the unmarked grave, he remained perplexed. What was this force? Could it be... the child?

As he pondered, he failed to notice the infant girl's gaze fixed on her mother's distorted, lifeless form within the coffin.

From those eyes, devoid of sorrow or joy, a single clear tear slid down her cheek.