The bedroom was dangerously quiet. Seven-year-old Lian sat on the cold floorboards, wrapping her small arms tightly around an old photograph. It was a picture of her dead mother. A soft cry escaped her lips as she pressed the paper against her chest, wishing for a warmth that was gone forever.

Suddenly, the door crashed open. Her stepsister ran inside, holding a toy car. Seeing her sister, Lian’s heart jumped with fear. She tried to hide the photograph under her knees quickly."Lian! Look what you made me do!" the stepsister screamed loudly. With an evil smile, the younger girl slammed her own toy car onto the floor, breaking it into pieces. Then, she started crying falsely.Heavy, angry footsteps echoed from the hallway. Their stepmother walked into the room, her eyes burning with anger. "What is going on here?!""Lian broke my favorite toy!" the stepsister lied, pointing a shaking finger.

Before Lian could even say a word to defend herself, a sharp slap rang through the room. The stepmother’s hand hit Lian’s cheek with brutal force. The power of the blow sent Lian flying sideways. Her head slammed hard against the wooden edge of the bed. A warm line of red blood started to flow down her face, but she forced herself to stay silent, biting her teeth to hide the pain.The stepmother noticed the old photograph. She snatched it from the floor with cold eyes. With a cruel laugh, she tore the picture in half and threw the pieces into the dirt. "This trash is what makes you stupid. You should have died and joined your worthless mother a long time ago!"

Without showing any mercy, the woman grabbed Lian by her long hair, dragging her small body down the dark hallway. She threw her into the pitch-black storage room, slammed the heavy wooden door, and locked it from the outside.Lian tried to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth. Absolute terror locked her throat. Her whole body started shaking violently, and tears soaked her bruised face. But as she curled into a ball in the dark, the strange, old bracelet on her wrist suddenly became burning hot.

Lian gasped as a bright, magic light shot out from the metal, spinning in circles through the darkness and pulling her mind into a deep, swirling black hole.

Thousands of miles away, in a completely different world.Inside the grand Imperial Palace, a young princess lay dying on a silk bed. Royal doctors stood around her, shaking their heads in sadness. "Her Highness's soul is fading away. There is no medicine in the world that can save her," the chief doctor whispered.

Suddenly, the heavy palace doors were kicked open. A guard covered in fresh blood ran into the room. "The palace has fallen! The King is dead! The rebels are breaking into the inner rooms!"Before anyone could move, a noble royal woman stumbled into the room. A rebel sword and a poisoned arrow were stuck deep inside her chest. Red blood stained her beautiful royal clothes. Ignoring her painful wounds, she grabbed the dying princess from the bed and pushed her into the arms of a trusted maid."Protect her with your life," the dying woman gasped, spitting up blood. "She is the last of our bloodline. She must live to get revenge for our kingdom." From her robes, she pulled out an old, glowing martial arts book. "Keep this hidden. The enemy must never touch it!"The woman ordered a loyal soldier to carry the princess on his back.

Together with the maid, they broke through the back window and ran out into the shadows of a hidden cave behind the palace.They ran as fast as they could, but the heavy sounds of rebel boots echoed right behind them. "They are catching up!" the soldier whispered. He quickly handed the weak princess to the maid. "Keep moving through the forest. I will stop them here!" With a loud battle cry, the soldier turned around to face the big army alone.As the maid ran through the thick, dark woods, the princess slipped from her shaking arms. The child fell hard against a sharp rock, knocking her completely unconscious. Panicking, the maid picked her back up, running until her lungs burned from the cold air.

The shouting of the enemy guards grew louder. They wanted the royal child and the magic book.Realizing she could not outrun them, the maid made a desperate choice. She hid the unconscious princess behind a giant, hollow tree, stuffing the old martial arts book safely into the child’s robes. "Forgive me, Your Highness," she whispered, before running in the opposite direction to lead the guards away.A moment later, the princess’s eyes snapped open.But these were not the eyes of a dying royal child. They were sharp, cold, and full of the terrible pain of a girl who had just been locked in a dark room on Earth.

Lian looked at her small hands, confused by the strange ancient clothes. She felt the back of her head, touching the fresh blood from the sharp rock.She stood up on shaking legs and walked toward the maid’s path. When the maid saw the child following her, she panicked, screaming, "Run away! Do not come near here!"Before the princess could take another step, a flying arrow pierced the maid’s chest. She fell to her knees, gasping for air.Looking at the dying maid, and seeing the armed rebel soldiers surrounding them in a circle, something snapped inside Lian’s mind. The memories of her abusive stepmother and the terror of the dark room mixed with a giant, sleeping monster inside this new body.

A wave of pure, absolute fury took over her soul. Lian turned to face the soldiers. Her eyes started glowing with a scary, dangerous light. She opened her mouth wide to scream, but what came out was not a child’s voice.It was an explosive blast of forbidden, ancient energy.A giant shockwave of dark, terrifying power ripped through the forest like an invisible ocean wave. The earth shattered beneath their feet, and the air crackled with a deadly pressure. The rebel soldiers did not even have time to scream. The massive force blasted them backward for miles through the air. Their heavy iron armor broke like cheap glass, and they vomited black blood, dying before their bodies crashed into the crushed trees.

The entire forest became dead silent, completely destroyed by an impossible magic.The maid, who was miraculously saved from the giant blast, dragged herself to her feet in total shock and fear. She walked up to the breathing princess, noticing a strange, godly light coming from her skin. And there, shining softly on the young girl’s wrist, was the exact same ancient bracelet from Earth, pulsing with dark energy."Are you... alright, Your Highness?" the maid whispered, shaking from head to toe.The princess slowly nodded her head. Her look was distant, old, and freezing cold.Supporting each other, they crossed the borders of the fallen kingdom under the dark cover of night. By the banks of a fast river, they finally found safety, ready to hide in a remote, quiet village where no one would ever suspect the monstrous bear sleeping inside the little princess.

long years drifted by like a fleeting shadow since the catastrophic night the sky bled into a horrific crimson, and the ancient, proud kingdom of Northern Crest fell into ash and ruin.Deep within the misty, forgotten valleys of the Lotus Kingdom, a quiet village lay completely hidden from the rest of the world. The local villagers were simple, superstitious people, but they all shared one unbreakable rule: they knew to completely avoid the small, dilapidated wooden cabin built at the isolated edge of the dark bamboo forest.

An old, fiercely loyal maid named Mei lived there, sharing the solitude with a strange teenage girl who had not uttered a single spoken word in ten long years.The girl’s name was Lian. She was now seventeen years old, but her existence was starkly different from any other human drawing breath in the mortal realm. Her face was permanently concealed beneath a thick, dark cloth mask, leaving only her sharp, piercing eyes visible to the world. The fearful villagers constantly whispered ugly rumors behind her back, claiming she was a cursed child, an omen of bad luck, or the "Demon of Wrath" incarnate.

But they did not possess the capacity to comprehend the terrifying truth.Lian did not wear the heavy black mask to hide a deformed or ugly face. She wore it to protect the innocent world from the primordial, cataclysmic monster sleeping deep inside her throat.Her inner power—the very foundation of her soul's core energy—was a monstrous, sentient entity known as the Dark Abyss Bear. It was a savage beast born of pure, unbridled fury, forged from the agonizing trauma of her past life on Earth and mixed with the volatile royal blood of her slaughtered ancestors.

Whenever her emotions flared, the dark bear inside her soul would roar in madness, sending a crushing, destructive pressure straight into her vocal cords.A single, unguarded whisper without her mask could shatter iron war shields. A loud, unrestricted scream could annihilate entire imperial armies and flatten mountain ranges. To keep this catastrophic power permanently locked away, Mei had woven her a special, talisman-infused magic mask. Lian had learned to adapt to absolute silence, becoming a quiet, deadly ghost in a loud and chaotic world. But she was no longer a helpless victim.

Inside the sanctuary of her locked bedroom, the heavy morning fog rolled lazily past the wooden window frame. Lian sat in the center of the floor with her legs crossed in a meditative stance. She slowly rolled up her silken sleeve. On her pale wrist, the mysterious crimson-jade bracelet pulsed with a soft, warm light, beating in perfect, synchronized rhythm with her own heart.Resting gently in her lap was the ancient, weathered martial arts manual that her dying royal mother had ordered her to protect with her final breath. For ten years, while the rest of the village slept under the blanket of night, Lian had studied its forbidden, secret pages in total darkness.

While the celebrated genius cultivators of great sects spent entire lifetimes attempting to master a single, rudimentary technique from this divine text, Lian’s mind was terrifyingly sharp and advanced. She carried the cognitive weight of two distinct souls. And today was the final, culminating day of her brutal training.She slowly closed the heavy book. It was done. Every single complex fighting form, hidden spiritual chant, and mystical meridians pathway was flawlessly memorized and etched into her mind.

The forbidden knowledge of her ancestors now belonged entirely to her.To ensure that the corrupt, usurper king’s bloodthirsty shadow guards could never steal this sacred relic, Lian calmly began to tear the old pages out, one by one. Her face remained a mask of absolute, freezing emotionlessness as her slender fingers shredded the sacred paper into tiny fragments. She tossed the paper pieces into a hot iron pot of boiling water already mixed with dark tea leaves.She watched in silence as the enchanted ink began to melt and bleed, swirling into the dark, steaming liquid. Once the paper had completely dissolved into nothingness, Lian lifted the scalding iron cup to her lips and drank every single drop. The ultimate, concentrated power of her dead kingdom was now flowing directly through her veins, securely locked away where no living enemy could ever strip it from her.

As the hot, magical tea settled deep into her core, the temperature inside the small bedroom suddenly plummeted into a freezing, winter chill. A soft, familiar hiss echoed from the pitch-black shadows beneath her wooden bed.A small, jade-green snake crawled gracefully out from the dark. It scaled Lian’s arm with ease, wrapping its cool body comfortably around her shoulder. To an outsider, it resembled a harmless, exotic garden pet. But this creature was a legendary Spiritual Flying Dragon. Bound directly to Lian’s soul through the mystical red bracelet, the dragon could manipulate its physical size based entirely on her emotional state. In the deep, unchartered forests, it could expand into a colossal, sky-tearing titan. But here within the fragile walls of the cabin, it remained a tiny, silent, and loyal companion.

Suddenly, the tranquil morning was violently shattered.The front door of the cabin shook on its hinges from a heavy, brutal kick. The unmistakable, terrifying clatter of iron armor and the unsheathing of sharp swords echoed from the front yard."Mei! Bring out the cursed girl right this instant!" a harsh, commanding voice roared from the yard, practically demanding blood. "The King's imperial tax collectors are here, and we know you are harboring a secret royal refugee from the fallen line!"Lian’s dark eyes narrowed into dangerous, lethal slits.

Beneath her thick black mask, the Dark Abyss Bear inside her soul woke up with a wild, violent fury, clawing mercilessly at the back of her throat. She slowly rose from the wooden floor, her crimson bracelet flashing with a sudden, deadly crimson light.The world had hunted her down to the point of death on Earth, and humanity was attempting to hunt her here. But she was no longer that helpless, terrified little girl locked away in a pitch-black room. The prey had learned how to hunt.

The harsh, ruthless imperial tax collectors marched into the small, fragile wooden cabin, instantly breaking and smashing every piece of furniture in sight. They carried themselves with the arrogance of men who answered only to the high ministers, tearing down curtains and kicking over porcelain pots to find hidden wealth.

Lian’s younger brother, Xiao, who was only fifteen years old, felt a surge of protective bravery. He rushed forward and pushed one of the armored guards away from their belongings. But the brutal, hardened men easily grabbed the boy, lifting his light body up and throwing him across the room. He crashed against the wall, groaning in pain. Mei ran over immediately, dropping to her knees to beg them, her voice shaking with desperation."Please, leave the boy alone! I will give you the tax money as soon as I find it. Right now, I have absolutely nothing!"The soldiers ignored her tears.

They kept smashing the table and stools, pushing Mei until she lost her balance. Two guards picked up Xiao by his collar again, preparing to carry him out."If you do not have the proper tax money, we will just take this brat," the leader sneered. "He is not even your real son anyway. We can find a use for his labor in the capital to cover your debts."They started walking out of the cabin, dragging Xiao while Mei kept weeping and begging from behind. But just outside the front door, the soldiers suddenly stopped.

One guard turned to the leader and whispered in a low, fearful tone, "Master, the rumors say a teenage girl lives here who always wears a dark mask. The villagers say she carries an unnatural power inside her body. That is why she hides her face."The leader let out a wicked laugh. They turned right back around, throwing young Xiao onto the dirt yard. The leader pulled his sharp steel sword and pressed the cold blade near Mei."Go bring us that masked daughter of yours," he ordered. "If she comes out and shows us this 'power' of hers, perhaps we will reconsider your taxes."Mei’s face turned bright red with pure, maternal rage.

She stood up and slapped the lead soldier hard across his face. "Not even in your worst dreams will you ever touch her or look at her!"The humiliated leader growled, signaling his guards. They grabbed Mei and began to treat her roughly. When Xiao tried to rush in to save her, they struck the boy, throwing him into the corner again.Suddenly, the heavy bedroom door opened.

Lian calmly stepped out into the living area, having just finished her deep, spiritual cultivation meditation. She didn't display any fear. Instead, she walked forward with graceful steps and handed them a thick stack of valuable silver notes."If you have no other business here, take the full year's taxes and leave," Lian said. Her voice was completely calm, but it carried a freezing, deathly cold tone that made the temperature in the room drop.The lead soldier stepped forward to take the silver notes. But instead of just taking the papers, he reached out and gripped Lian’s wrist with a cruel, mocking grip."With a face hidden like that, you should be careful how you speak to your betters," he whispered, leaning closer. "Maybe we should see what you are hiding."Lian’s dark eyes narrowed into dangerous, lethal slits.

A freezing, unnatural wind started to howl inside the small room. Beneath her silken clothes, the small green snake lifted its head, its eyes glowing as it prepared to transform into a giant, sky-tearing dragon. But Lian looked down at the creature with a sharp gaze, and the spiritual beast slowly retreated back into her sleeve, waiting for her command.Mei saw the dark, swirling energy rising around Lian and panicked. She knew that if Lian unleashed her power, she could destroy the entire valley."Lian, please! Do not ruin this place!" Mei cried out. "If you destroy this valley, we will have nowhere else to live!"Mei tried to push the leader away from Lian.

The man became completely furious, lunging toward Mei and grabbing her by the throat to silence her.Lian’s hidden anger turned into pure, silent, and absolute fury.She looked across the room at another guard who was holding a heavy sword. With a swift, physically impossible movement, she used her spiritual energy to pull the steel blade straight out of his hand from across the distance.Before the guards could even blink, Lian moved through the room like an unstoppable shadow. She did not aim to kill, but her strikes were precise and devastating.

In a flash of silver light, she disarmed every single guard, her blade moving so fast it was invisible. The soldiers fell back, their weapons shattered or knocked away, their pride broken by a force they couldn't comprehend."Next time we meet," Lian whispered, her voice sending a terrifying chill into their very bones. "You will not leave this place. Run away now, and never return to this village. I am a person who always keeps my word."Terrified and overwhelmed by the sheer spiritual pressure, the soldiers scrambled out of the cabin, fleeing into the darkness of the night. Mei rushed over, gasping for air, and hugged Lian tightly."Thank you for saving me, my child," Mei whispered. "But you must be very careful. Those men serve the High Minister of Taxes.

They do not forget such a defeat."Meanwhile, inside the grand Imperial Palace, Prince Ximei received a secret report. He stood up quickly from his golden seat."Are you absolutely sure that everything is finished? Did you double-check the report yourself?""Yes, Your Highness," the hidden guard bowed low. "The royal carriage was destroyed in the deep mountain forest. The Crown Prince and his guards are no more."Ximei smiled victoriously, a dark look of ambition in his eyes. He turned around to walk toward the King’s grand throne room to claim his new position.At the exact same time, in a luxury palace on the wealthy side of the land, the young son of the Tax Minister was relaxing on a lavish silk couch. Suddenly, the heavy doors burst open. His elite tax soldiers stumbled inside, humiliated and broken. They explained how a masked girl in a remote village had defeated them all.The young master jumped up, a murderous rage taking over his face."Burn them!" he roared. "Send the vanguard to burn that entire village to the ground tonight! Leave absolutely no one alive, and bring that girl to me!"Back at the Imperial Palace, Prince Ximei entered the massive throne room and dropped heavily to his knees before the King, putting on a fake show of sadness."Father! Please do not be angry about the tragic loss of my younger brother.

I failed to protect him on the road. I deserve your heaviest punishment!"But as Ximei kept his face pressed against the floor, a silent figure stepped out from behind the golden throne. The person was wearing a full face mask—the exact, familiar mask the Second Prince always wore.The Crown Prince slowly turned around, looking down at his kneeling older brother with cold eyes."Brother, when the bandits attacked me in that deep forest, not a single guard survived to carry the news out," the Crown Prince said, his voice as cold as absolute ice. "So tell me, my beloved older brother... how did you receive the news of my death so quickly, unless you already knew it was going to happen?"Ximei froze completely, realizing his entire plot had been exposed.As the night grew darker, Lian and her younger brother Xiao were walking back from the local night market.

Suddenly, a massive cloud of black smoke filled the midnight sky, coming directly from their village.Lian used her immense cosmic energy to leap high into the clouds. When she looked down, her heart shattered.The entire village was a massive, roaring wall of fire. Every house was burning, and the streets were filled with the aftermath of a brutal raid.

She dropped back to the ground, grabbing Xiao and handing him the small green snake."If I do not return, take this snake and run to the secret cave on the mountain!" Lian said. "Protect each other and stay out of danger!"Before Xiao could even ask a question, Lian sprinted with superhuman speed into the dark, burning forest. Lian broke through the burning trees, entering the heart of the destroyed village. She looked around at the massacre, her heart breaking into pieces. Remembering her own home, she started running directly toward the flames, screaming into the dark night:"Aunt Mei!"