The Legend

14. The Oath and the Journey

Poison masters were infamous across the continent — and the catastrophe of three hundred years ago was still etched in everyone's memory. Back then, a one-of-a-kind Poison King had emerged, terrifyingly powerful. He had fought the Samsara Clan Patriarch to a standstill with his lethal arts. Enraged, the Patriarch had unleashed the clan's ultimate technique — only to accidentally strike his own wife, killing her instantly.

 

Mad with grief, the Poison King had unleashed a black mist that blotted out half the continent. The Samsara Clan was nearly wiped from existence. Alone, he had laid waste to their lands, his poison leaving nothing but barren earth in his wake. It had taken all ten clan elders, wielding the Samsara Sword Formation, to finally bring him down — and three of those ten had perished from his venom. The cost had been unimaginable.

 

Now, three hundred years later, poison masters had returned. And the poison used on Lao Yun was the very same — the legendary, dreaded Seven-Colored Soul-Chasing Powder.

 

Inside the Samsara Branch, Lao Kun fell to his knees beside his daughter. Her face burned with a feverish heat, flushed a deep crimson. He recognized the poison instantly — and the color drained from his face.

 

"Seven-Colored Soul-Chasing Powder..." he whispered in horror. "There is no known cure. Within three months, her body will shift through seven hues — red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, violet — and then her soul will simply... fade away."

 

A tear rolled down the Patriarch's face. The onlookers fell silent — this was a death sentence.

 

Lin Fen stepped forward, his voice steady despite the terror gripping his chest. "Then I'll go where no one has dared to go. There must be a cure somewhere."

 

Lao Kun looked at him, eyes red and weary. "Legend speaks of the Soul-Returning Grass, said to grow only within the Soul-Refining Cave — one of the Five Caves and Four Grottoes. But that place doesn't care how strong you are. It tests your very soul. The torment there can shatter a person's mind. No one who has entered has ever returned. You have three months — or it's too late."

 

Lin Fen's heart clenched. The Soul-Refining Cave — Gai You had warned him about it more than once, strictly forbidding him from ever stepping foot near it. But then he looked at Lao Yun — pale, breathing shallowly, the girl who had saved his life when no one else cared — and his resolve hardened like iron.

 

"I'm going," he said firmly. "She saved my life. If I die trying to save hers, then that is simply the debt repaid."

 

Lao Kun stared at him, truly seeing him for the first time. "After all I've done... you'd still do this for my daughter?"

 

"Because it's the right thing to do."

 

The old Patriarch seemed to see his own younger self in the boy — the same fire, the same fearless devotion. He nodded slowly, giving him directions.

 

As Lin Fen turned to leave, small fingers tugged at his sleeve. Lao Chen stood there, chin raised, eyes bright but determined.

 

"I'm coming too, Brother Lin Fen."

 

"No — it's far too dangerous," he said gently but firmly.

 

"I'm not staying behind just waiting," she said, though her voice trembled.

 

"Lao Chen, listen to him," Lao Kun said sternly. "You would only be a burden to him."

 

She flinched, then looked up at Lin Fen with glistening eyes. "Then come back safely. Promise me you'll come back."

 

"I promise," he said, patting her head. "Wait for me."

 

With one last look, he turned and set off toward the horizon.

 

After he had gone, Lao Kun turned to Yun Yao, his expression hardening. "Lord Yun Yao — would you send word to the main clan? Ask if anyone there knows of a cure? My daughter's life hangs in the balance."

 

Yun Yao wore that same cold, amused smirk. "I'll go. On one condition. Your daughter and I are of age. Betroth her to me. In three years, she becomes mine."

 

Lao Kun froze. "That's... sudden. And she's only fourteen!"

 

"Then let her die," Yun Yao shrugged dismissively, turning as if to walk away. "Your choice."

 

Sweat beaded on Lao Kun's forehead. Between the uncertain return of a lowly guard and a powerful alliance with the main clan genius... his choice was made.

 

"Fine," he gritted out. "If she survives this... she's yours."

 

Alone in the courtyard afterward, Lao Kun looked suddenly frail and ancient. The weight of his choices pressed heavily upon him — his estranged son seeking vengeance, his daughter dying, and now this bargain struck in desperation. He carried her inside, his shoulders bowed under a burden no one else could see.

 

***

 

Meanwhile, Lin Fen pushed onward, racing against time. Three months. No guarantee of success. And a deadly cave waiting at journey's end. But every step brought him closer to saving the person who believed in him when no one else would.

 

As the sun dipped toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of burning gold and deep purple, he crested a hill — and stopped short. Ahead, smoke rose in thick, dark columns. The faint but unmistakable clashing of steel and shouting carried on the wind.

 

His eyes narrowed. Trouble was already waiting — and he hadn't even reached the edge of the danger zone yet.