Extra 1: After Meeting With Her

Xie Yingying stood before the jade pendant, fingers idly tracing the curves of a carved lotus. The faint hum of spiritual energy pulsed beneath her fingertips, but her thoughts had long since wandered from the artifact—to the woman who had, against all odds, become her current companion.

She hadn't planned on digging into Su Min's past. At first, it was meant to be a simple, transactional alliance. Temporary.

After all, their first encounter hadn't been a meeting of kindred spirits.

After her forced awakening—her crystal sealing shattered open by the Demon Crown Prince in a crude attempt to 'free herself' as he mistaken self sealing with sealed by enemies—Xie Yingying had shown no mercy. The trespassers who mistook her sect's sealed sanctuary for a mere secret realm were expelled like insects. As for the Demon Crown Prince… she had killed him herself, barehanded and cold-eyed, before stepping out into a world that no longer remembered her name.

Outside the shattered seals of her mansion, she saw her.

Su Min.

There was no killing intent in their first clash—only tension, curiosity, and an unspoken probing of one another's depths. Fire and wind collided in bursts of crimson and green. Su Min's fire-wood dual-element sword arts had been unmistakable—disciplined, deadly, refined not in a sect's lecture halls, but honed blade by blade in the wild.

Then there was the pill—an untouched Foundation Establishment Pill, gleaming faintly amid the the mansion. Su Min had glanced at it, then turned away without a word.

Only an alchemist would treat such a treasure with indifference.

It was a small gesture. But for Xie Yingying, it said more than any boast ever could.

So she had tested the waters. A request for a pill—nothing elaborate, nothing personal. Su Min had agreed, but in return asked her to lend a hand against a demon beast Golden Core.

A fair trade. Clear terms. No promises beyond that.

Three months passed in quiet cooperation. No oaths sworn. No trust declared.

But curiosity took root all the same.

Xie Yingying wasn't someone prone to idle fascination. Her past as the Holy Maiden of the Heavenly Yin Sect had taught her to see beyond masks, to listen not to words, but to what was left unsaid.

And something about Su Min didn't line up.

She had strength, yes. Control. But not the arrogance that usually came with it. She didn't posture. She didn't preach. Even when she held the advantage, she didn't press it. She offered terms instead of dominance.

That, in and of itself, was suspicious.

So Xie Yingying began to dig. Not openly. Not even deliberately at first.

Fragments came slowly—from the jade slips looted from dead cultivators who had trespassed into her mansion. Names, half-burned records, incident reports, rumors whispered in backwater villages.

One thread stood out: the southern frontier.

A land not of dust and drought, but of dense, miasma-choked forests and venom-laced undergrowth. The mountains were steep, the rivers muddy and fast, and venomous insects made every step outside a risk. Yet people endured. The Great Wei's reach barely brushed these lands—too far, too wild, too inconvenient to govern. Instead, local Tusi chieftains ruled like petty kings, their power absolute within their scattered territories.

It was perfect for someone who didn't want to be found.

And somewhere in those mist-veiled ranges, Su Min had built a life. Not among the villages, but deep in the mountains, where the trails thinned and spirit beasts roamed. Her name was known in whispers, carried from hut to hut along foot-worn paths. As a healer.

Not the kind who asked for jade or gold. Currency was scarce in the frontier. Barter was the norm in here. She set her own rules: no house calls, no exceptions. Bring the patient to her. No token, no treatment… unless she happened to be in a generous mood.

Those tokens were bamboo slats, marked only with subtle grain patterns—until held under moonlight, when her spiritual seal shimmered faintly into view.

A lone, young woman who bore no sect name, no family crest. Doing all of that for almost ten years.

Xie Yingying didn't want to believe it. Cultivators didn't act out of pure benevolence. Every kindness had a cost, every act of mercy, an angle. But the stories were consistent—and the people remembered her not with devotion, but awe.

Then came Yongzhou.

The records were scattered, vague. A monster had risen in the desert—a Qi-devouring beast on the brink of Foundation Establishment. Entire militias had been swallowed by the sand, and when the wave of demons reached the city gates, hope had begun to falter.

But someone held the line.

Not an army. Just two person Su Min and Radiant Monk, Hui Ming. Then she began to focus on her family name, "Su"

Xie Yingying dug deeper on the "Su" clan.

Once a noble family, the Su clan had risen to prominence under Su Bosheng, its patriarch, who served as the Minister of Rites. Because of his high rank, the clan's seat was established in Yu City—a place of influence near the heart of the dynasty. Yet their fortunes crumbled during Prince Yong's rebellion years ago. Branded as traitors by the Emperor, they were purged—every branch, every bloodline erased.

But one girl had survived. Hunted across provinces. Chased to the edge of the empire, into the southern wilds.

Su Min.

The pieces fell into place like frost settling on a mirror. Her flight. Her years in obscurity. Her strength hidden behind silence.

Xie Yingying exhaled, quiet and slow.

She should've felt nothing. Sympathy was dangerous. It made your blade hesitate. And yet—

"Even a beast fights back when cornered," she murmured, fingers tightening on her sleeve.

Su Min hadn't become a vengeful ghost. She hadn't chased power to burn her enemies. She had become a healer.

That was the part Xie Yingying couldn't reconcile.

Why?

Why not demand offerings and favors like the rest of them?

And then she understood.

The Nanming Lihuo had accepted her—not for power, but for resolve. A true heavenly flame didn't choose the strongest host. It chose the one whose intent wouldn't falter when tested.

Su Min's intent was steady. Not righteous. Not pure.

Just enduring.

And it burned.

The room around her was quiet again, save for the low bubbling of alchemical flames echoing from the pill furnace in the next chamber. The scent of refined herbs drifted through the open doorway—bitter, sharp, tinged with fire essence.

Xie Yingying stirred, her feet moving before she thought. She stepped into the threshold, leaning against the frame.

Su Min was seated before the furnace, sleeves rolled to the elbows, manipulated the flames with unexpectedly leisurely precision, one hand slowly rotating to direct the qi threads swirling inside the cauldron.

Crimson-gold flames licked beneath the basin. Controlled. Perfectly stable.

A memory stirred—an old lesson from her master, long before the seal, long before the her self sealing.

"You'll know someone's heart best when they believe no one is watching."

Xie Yingying's gaze softened, almost against her will.

Not much. Just enough that her next words weren't calculated.

Just enough that—for the first time since she'd woken up in this chaotic world—she let something unguarded slip through.