The chief Elder, whose gaze could not help but slide over the sculptural silhouette of the Templar, took the floor.
"Zhi Mei, the Dao Executor has manifested. The Devourer has returned to consume our world. Your mission is to travel through the realms, find the chosen one and bring him back here so that we can prepare him for the final confrontation. The fate of creation rests on your shoulders."
Zhi Mei raised her azure eyes toward the Elders, a gleam of religious fervor burning in them.
"I swear on my Dao heart that I will carry out the mission."
She knew that the path would be strewn with dangers, Rakshasas and perhaps even the oppressive presence of the Devourer himself. But she was the Holy Templar, and her devotion to the Dao Executor was absolute.
'I will find you, my lord...' she thought as she left the hall, her mind already turned toward the Lower Realms where the Yin-Yang sign had shone with the most intensity.
' And together, we will purge this world of the stain of Devouring.'
***
The political landscape of the Upper Realms is dominated by two colossi whose influence extends over thousands of secondary domains. On one side, the Northern Jade Empire ruled by the Lin family which carries the blood of the Qilin, a race of origins endowed with mythical wisdom.
On the other side, the Nether Dynasty represents the apex of shadow arts. It is a territory where the sun rarely pierces the thick purple-tinted clouds, and where the architecture is composed of dark obsidian.
The Xue family, which reigns over this dynasty, is respected for its mastery of the Laws of Shadows and its ability to maintain order through terror.
*Upper Realms... Nether Dynasty: Palace of Shadows*
In the center of this dynasty's capital, protected by countless Divine Rank formations, stands the Palace of Shadows. Inside one of its most luxurious and most isolated chambers, a woman was practicing cultivation. The room was vast, adorned with purple silks and mirrors from floor to ceiling that reflected the faint glow of candles.
A woman was seated in meditative lotus position on an ice jade pedestal.
She was twenty-five years old, but her beauty possessed a timeless and lethal quality. Her long dark purple hair fell in heavy waves over her shoulders, framing a face with skin as pale as alabaster. Her eyelids were closed, revealing long black lashes. She wore a black silk robe that left little to the imagination.
The fabric was stretched over her generous curves, highlighting her voluminous and firm breasts that rose and fell with the rhythm of her breathing. Her hips were wide and her thighs, slightly spread, were smooth. Around her, several crows with shining purple eyes were perched on obsidian statues, observing her in deathly silence.
Suddenly, her eyes opened abruptly. Her irises were a deep and piercing purple, and they vibrated with a sudden and violent clarity.
She looked around the room, observing the familiar yet foreign luxury. A slight cold smile slowly spread across her magnificent lips.
'So I am really Xue Ming ?'
The memories of her previous life on Earth flooded her mind.
...
Before this transmigration, she had been a nurse in a high-security prison. Her daily life consisted of treating the wounds of the worst criminals the human world had to offer: murderers, rapists and terrorists. At first, she performed her tasks with professional detachment. However, by listening to their boasts and feeling their lack of remorse, a dark part of her soul had awakened.
She began to prefer killing them slowly. Instead of administering the correct dosage of medication, she slightly modified the compositions to provoke atrocious internal pains that resembled natural complications.
She watched them waste away, day after day, savoring their suffering while she smiled and told them that everything would be fine. Before she realized it, she had become a sort of serial killer operating under the nose of the law, using her medical knowledge to purge the world of those she deemed unworthy.
Eventually, the pressure and the desire for a new environment had pushed her to quit her job. She found an outlet for her dark impulses in a popular xianxia game named Dual Cultivation.
...
" I am really in the world of Dual Cultivation !? "She was a little excited to find herself in this Xianxia world, but the excitement was quickly tempered... Thinking about her identity and, more importantly, about her fiancé.
' Xuan BaiShe... The final antagonist of Dual Cultivation.'
'" Unfortunately, I had not finished the game and do not know if he had finally lost. But one thing was certain, this bastard was someone cold and cruel and no one could rival him in intelligence, manipulation and power. Many sons of fortune had perished at his hand, including me."
She sighed, stood up from the ice jade pedestal with grace, her silk robe sliding over her thighs.
She headed toward the large window of her palace. Outside, the dark landscape of the Nether Dynasty stretched as far as the eye could see. At that moment, her purple eyes caught something unusual in the distance.
A beam of black and white light pierced the sky, emanating from the direction of the Temple of the Dao. A huge Yin-Yang symbol appeared among the clouds, pulsing with immortal energy. A celestial melody began to resonate in the air, even here, in the dark heart of the dynasty.
"The Dao Executor !? He appeared faster than expected..."
Xue Ming adjusted the purple silk of her sleeve.
" In the game, the Dao Executor was the ultimate weapon of the heavens, a person chosen to find and kill the Devourer. The fact that the Executor was manifesting meant that BaiShe had already begun his path of destruction, or at least that the Dao had sensed his presence."
"BaiShe... Hmmm~ The final antagonist, it seems we are really made for each other, darling."
She smiled as she gently caressed the head of one of her crows that had flown to her shoulder. Her mind, already warped by her past life as a prison executioner, felt no fear.
On the contrary, she felt a deep sense of kinship with the man she was supposed to marry. She was a transmigrator who knew the secrets of this world, and she intended to use this knowledge to play a game with her fiancé.
However, Ming'er did not know that this timeline was already different from the game she had played.
The final boss had regressed in this one...