Prologue: Demise of a White Lotus

Weak slivers of moonlight trickled into a solitary prison cell, revealing a young woman huddled in the corner. A thin, dirty quilt was wrapped around her shoulders, contrasting almost painfully against the exquisite water-blue dress she was wearing.

The stark disparity only served to remind her of how far she had fallen.

She shoved the quilt off her, glaring as it pooled on the cold stone floor.

From now on, the name Zhao Shuang would no longer be the name of Tianshen¹'s most honorable crown princess. Instead, it would be recorded in history as the name of the evil demoness who sacrificed her own family for power and dared to deceive the imperial clan.

Zhao Shuang let out a sharp laugh at that thought. The sound echoed in the darkness, distorted like the snap of an instrument's string.

How ironic was it that after years of sharpening her skills and enduring her family's neglect, after she had finally achieved her revenge, it was all easily destroyed by Zhao Luan in the end.

Even the man she had married had heartlessly thrown her aside for Zhao Luan, despite all she had accomplished and sacrificed for him in these last five years. If she was being honest, Zhao Shuang didn't know if she truly loved Feng Hao, didn't know what love was supposed to look or feel like.

But it still hurt, like a knife scraping her heart into a raw and bloody mess, that her own husband had chosen Zhao Luan over her, just like everyone else in her life.

Her wretched life, that tomorrow would finally end.

At this moment, the cell door screeched open, yanking her from her dark thoughts. She looked up to see a woman saunter into the cell, as if this were her own home and not the imperial dungeons.

She was dressed in jewel-toned robes embroidered with golden peonies. The priceless tiara inserted in her intricate hairstyle shone in the moonlit dark. But what was most eye-catching was the lotus drawn between her brows, rendering that peerless face to become even more enchanting.

If anyone was worthy of the phrase "capable of causing the downfall of a country", it was her.

"Hello, dear sister," Zhao Luan greeted with a dazzling smile. Even her voice was perfect: soft and mellow, tugging at the listener's heartstrings.

She only stared as Zhao Luan made a show of examining the horrid conditions of the cell.

This was the earth-shattering beauty that always overshadowed her, that always reminded her of her father's abandonment of her and her mother.

No wonder she had lost to her. Even if Zhao Luan wasn't prodigiously talented in all four arts nor possessed divine medical skills, her beauty was more than enough to make Feng Hao, or anyone really, choose her.

Now her struggles to surpass her sister only seemed laughable, even pitiful.

Having finished surveying the area, Zhao Luan's exquisite eyes raised to meet hers. The gleeful scorn concealed in them didn't match the innocent smile on her pretty lips.

"What are you doing here?" Zhao Shuang asked, her voice cold enough to freeze blood. She was in no mood to play along with her ridiculous acting.

Laughing, Zhao Luan walked deeper into the cell and bent over slightly to peer into her face. Her eyes gleamed. "Isn't it natural for an elder sister to visit her dear little sister when she's about to die?"

The smile on her face was no longer as innocent.

Zhao Shuang clenched her fists inside her sleeves, slightly trembling as she fought the urge to claw that infuriating smirk off her face. Only when she'd coiled her fury into a tighter knot did she allow herself to speak.

"Again, why are you really here?" She glared up at her sister. "I don't think someone as esteemed as Princess Yongjia² has that much free time."

Zhao Luan merely rolled her eyes as she grasped something from within her sleeves.

"I came here to send you off."

As the poisonous words fell, a small glass vial was extended towards her, full of a dark liquid that shimmered under the dim moonlight.

"What do you mean? Tomorrow, I'll be..." Zhao Shuang trailed off, her eyes fixed on the vial.

Zhao Luan's lips curled into a malicious smirk, resembling a horribly beautiful demon as shadows played and shifted on her face.

"You framed your own family for power, and deceived the commoners and the officials, but most importantly, the imperial family. Wouldn't a public execution just further emphasize this shameful fact?"

A bloodthirsty tinge leaked into Zhao Luan's voice as she continued.

"His Highness wants me to execute you." She dug the vial into Zhao Shuang's cheek. "And then announce that you committed suicide, resolving this matter as quickly as possible."

Zhao Shuang smacked the offending vial away. "I'm not ignorant of the truth: the mastermind wasn't Feng Hao nor the emperor, it's you."

"Of course it was me." Zhao Luan bared her teeth in another grin. "Did you think I wouldn't pay you back for poisoning me all those years ago?"

Zhao Shuang let out a laugh then, a heavy sound weighed down by the stones of bitterness and resentment.

"If there is one thing that I will never regret, it's poisoning you," she shot back. The fire usually hidden behind a mask of icy aloofness burned in her eyes. "No matter what you do to me, Zhao Luan, I won't regret any of it."

In a heartbeat, her sister's face darkened. Her eyes resembled bottomless pits as she gripped Zhao Shuang's shoulders, her long, sharp nails sinking into her skin.

"Your sister was killed by your own hands, and you don't feel any remorse?!"

Her face half in shadow, Zhao Luan looked...murderous. It was the first word that came to her amidst the pain. But had her sister gone crazy? She was still alive, wasn't she? And in a much better position than her, clearly.

As if sensing her thoughts, Zhao Luan's eyes curved into smiling crescents.

"I'm not your real sister, Ah Shuang." She wrapped her hands around Zhao Shuang's throat, tightening ever so slowly. "I'm a reincarnated soul, fulfilling your sister's dying wish: revenge."

Zhao Shuang's eyes widened as her heart thundered in her ears, too shocked to even struggle.

Memories of the past year flashed through her mind. Things she couldn't explain before suddenly made perfect sense, if this outrageous story was to be believed.

Her astounding prowess in all the four arts...even if she'd originally been a prodigy, Zhao Luan's health should've been too weak for her to maintain that same level of expertise.

There was also the matter of her medical skills.

She had given a rather flimsy story that a mysterious divine master had passed down all his skills to her. And with Feng Hao using his position as the crown prince to back her up, no one dared to question how a young woman in her early twenties was even better than all the imperial physicians combined.

But then, if this Zhao Luan wasn't her sister....

"Do you mean I actually killed my sister?"

The words left her lips in a soft whisper, her body falling limp against the wall as her 'sister' finally released her.

The fake Zhao Luan sneered, but there was a hint of pain in her voice. "You should have thought of that before you sacrificed your sister for your ambitions."

She barely heard due to the roaring in her ears. An invisible fist was tightly gripping her throat, making it hard to breathe as her eyes burned with tears.

All along, Zhao Shuang had justified her selfish actions to herself, believing herself to be in the right due to her mother's early death and her family's neglect.

Unlike her, Zhao Luan was the favored legitimate daughter, blessed with the love and pampering of everyone around her since young.

Meanwhile, she was the daughter of a mere mistress, kept outside the manor and never even officially recognized as a concubine. Only when her mother died was she formally brought into the family. But even then, her identity was that of an adopted daughter-all so her cheap father could show off his benevolence.

To the rejected and abandoned her, it was more than justified to take everything away from Zhao Luan. To take revenge against the very family that caused her mother to die with countless grievances.

But the sheer truth was that Zhao Luan was innocent.

It was her cheap father that had abandoned her mother and her, and that wasn't Zhao Luan nor her brother or even their mother's fault.

She could see it now so clearly: her life, most of it spent plotting and scheming to satisfy her own hatred and resentment, was meaningless. She had nothing to call her own, nothing without the things she had stolen from Zhao Luan.

And all the people that had loved and cared for her, she had pushed away or taken for granted until there was no one left but her in this perpetual darkness.

Even her own mother had never cared for her.

"Drink this, it will ease all your suffering."

Through her tears, Zhao Shuang saw the vial being offered once more, open this time. A familiar acidic scent assaulted her senses.

If she recalled correctly, it smelled just like the poison she had used to weaken the real Zhao Luan's health.

She stared at the glistening black liquid sloshing in the vial. Something in her screamed at her not to drink it, to continue fighting, to keep living.

But those unsettling words echoed in her mind: "I'm a reincarnated soul, fulfilling your sister's dying wish: revenge."

Since her sister was already dead, the only thing she could still do for her was fulfill her last wish.

Zhao Shuang's gaze became focused once more. With steely determination, she snatched the vial and drank it all without a moment's hesitation.

What she didn't notice, however, was the satisfied tilt to Zhao Luan's lips.

Almost instantly, the poison blazed a trail through her body as it went down. It felt as if a million ants were chewing her from the inside out, the pain so intense she crashed to the floor. The vial, just like her heart, shattered into countless pieces.

As if from far away, Zhao Luan's bright laugh rang in the prison cell.

"This is a fitting ending for you. Death by the very poison you used against your sister."

With those final words, the fake Zhao Luan twirled around and exited the prison cell. Once the door clanged shut, she was alone in the darkness once again.

But this time, she was dying.

Zhao Shuang tore at her skin, the itch now spreading all throughout her body, deep down to her bones. All she could focus on was on stopping the itching, but the more she scratched, the more it itched.

The night stretched on unbearably long, hair-raising screams she didn't even realize were her own echoing throughout the cell. By the end of it, all of her skin was torn into pieces; the criss-crossing gashes resembled tiny wailing mouths, crying out her agony.

It was only when the first hints of sunlight peeked through that same small window that Zhao Shuang finally closed her eyes, seemingly forever.

Screech....

As if appearing from thin air, a man glided into the cell this time, his steps soundless.

Long hair spilled over his shoulders, just as silvery white as the robes he was wearing. A glowing lantern swayed in one hand while the other carried a bowl filled to the brim with a silver liquid. White, nearly transparent dragonflies fluttered all around him.

His face was that of a young man, but the look in his eyes told a much different story.

He cast a careless glance at the mutilated corpse sprawled on the stone floor. Pouring the bowl's contents all over it, the man parted his lips but no sound could be heard.

At least not without divine intervention.

'You were given a chance to rewrite this story...don't disappoint me.'

Then, a blue sphere of light rose from the body, winking out of existence.

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¹Tianshen (Country): Heavenly Saint (Country).

²Princess Yongjia (永嘉): Yong means 'perpetual / eternal' while jia means 'excellent / joyful / auspicious'.

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Important Names:

Zhao Shuang: Zhao is a surname (the 'Zh' is pronounced as 'J' sound), Shuang (霜) means frost.

Zhao Luan: Luan (鸾) is a mythical bird related to a phoenix.

Feng Hao: Feng is a surname, Hao (昊) means vast and limitless.