As the original Ji'an grew older, the cracks in her soul began to manifest as a restlessness.
The estate felt suffocating.
She felt absolutely nothing for the political marriages her father proposed. She felt nothing for the silks or the jewelry.
She sought stimulation to pierce the numb void in her chest.
At eighteen, she left the Lin Estate.
She took a sword, a bag of spirit stones, and walked out into the world as a wandering cultivator, seeking the thrill of life-and-death combat just to feel her own pulse.
The vision shifted, tracking her journey into the treacherous, rain-slicked mountains of the Southern Basin.
The original Ji'an was walking along a narrow, muddy mountain pass during a torrential downpour. Her face was completely impassive, rain plastering her dark hair to her cheeks.
Suddenly, the mountain above her groaned.
A landslide was triggered.
