Chapter 1

In our Rapture Sect there is a rule: once we come of age, we must choose a cultivation partner. Without one, the moment we practice our cultivation art, the flow of blood and energy reverses, our meridians rupture, and we die.

Thinking of the three junior brothers who once came to blows over me, I found myself in a bind.

When my eldest junior brother fell into cultivation deviation, I transferred half my cultivation to him. Afterward he told me, again and again, that he would give himself to me.

My second junior brother had a weak foundation, and his cultivation was slow to advance.

Watching him grow more dispirited by the day, I sought out every kind of heavenly treasure I could find for him, and he swore that once his cultivation bore fruit, he would marry me.

My youngest junior brother was a beggar boy I picked up at the foot of the mountain. When I found him, the village children were bullying him. Pitying him, I brought him back to the sect.

From then on, he followed me everywhere like a shadow.

This time, though, not one of the three chose me.

They had all set their hearts on the new junior sister, Sabrina Chastain.

My eldest junior brother had used his own cultivation to forge a treasured sword, and he held it out to her.

"Cultivation is hard, junior sister. With this sword you'll get twice the result for half the effort."

My second junior brother handed her the Heart-Guard Elixir I had gone to such trouble to find for him.

"Junior sister, you're so delicate. You need this to protect yourself."

Even my third junior brother, always so silent, was clutching the spirit beast I had given him and trailing eagerly after her, unwilling to leave her side.

Watching the deadline draw near, I turned and went to the Grandmaster.

"Grandmaster, the marriage alliance between the cultivation world and the Demon Realm. Let me be the one to go."

I had just come out from the Grandmaster's when the three of them blocked my path.

"Cloralie Yardley, don't tell me you went to the Grandmaster to force us to choose you?"

"Why would you do this? Your cultivation art is superb, and you've long been respected throughout the sect. You'd have no trouble finding a partner. Why must you fight junior sister for one?"

"Junior sister hasn't even begun foundation building. She's just an ordinary, fragile girl. Only we can protect her. Can't you just give way to her?"

Wyatt Rowe, my eldest junior brother, let it all out at me in one breath.

Before I could say a word, Marlin Black, my second junior brother, spoke up too.

"That's right, senior sister. Let junior sister choose first. When it comes down to it, the rest of us will still choose you. Why be in such a rush over this one moment?"

And my third junior brother, Ferran, gripped junior sister's sleeve and would not let go, as if I were the villain here.

I nearly laughed out loud. But over there, junior sister Sabrina Chastain was already on the verge of tears.

"Three senior brothers, please don't fall out with senior sister over me. It's Sabrina who isn't worthy of fighting senior sister. It's all Sabrina's fault."

At that, the three of them turned on me at once, eyes gone red, all staring at me.

It was like a small knife pricking my chest. Not terribly painful. Just a sickening little sting.

I twitched the corner of my mouth, unimpressed.

"You aren't worthy of fighting me."

Then I looked at the three of them, a stubborn edge to my voice.

"How about this. Eldest junior brother, give me back that half of my cultivation. Second junior brother, return every heavenly treasure I gave you, then self-cripple your meridians. And you, third junior brother, ask to be expelled from the sect. What do you say?"

"If all three of you can do that, I won't fight anymore."

Their expressions shifted. All of them fell silent.

I could not help but sneer.

"What is it? Didn't you say you like junior sister? You can't bear to give up everything for her after all?"

When I finished, the looks on their faces were, somehow, wounded.

Wyatt spoke first.

"Cloralie, I thought you did all that for me willingly. So it turned out it was only to make me cultivate with you?"

"If crippling our whole cultivation is the price of being with junior sister, of course we're willing!"

"It's just that we still have to protect her. Once junior sister has made her choice, whoever's left of us will cripple his cultivation and repay you."

The other two chimed in, one after another.

Watching the three of them wear that look of noble martyrdom, I felt a wave of boredom.

"Don't worry. The likes of you? I wouldn't stoop to fighting for either way."

With that I paid their reactions no more mind and walked straight back to my cave dwelling.

Looking at the thatched hut before it, I suddenly remembered how things had been before I first met those three.

It seemed I had nothing but a bare cave.

"Cloralie, the three of us built you this thatched hut. You've lived alone so long that you live too roughly. From now on, with us here, we'll make sure you live finer than the noblewomen of the Imperial Capital."

The exquisite chests and cabinets on the walls, Wyatt had made those.

"Senior sister, I've made you some food. I went down the mountain and secretly learned this from the head chef at the big restaurant in town! I promise, from now on you'll eat something different every single day!"

Gone was Marlin, who used to sit by the table watching me with such expectation. The table was bare.

"Don't you dare get hurt!"

Gone too was Ferran, who used to bind my wounds with his eyes rimmed red.

Only then did I finally sense a thread of loneliness.

I had grown up in the Rapture Palace since I was small, and from my earliest memories I had done nothing but cultivate.

As the great one of the sect, everyone else revered me. Everyone else avoided me.

Not until I saved those three junior brothers did I finally taste a little of what it was to have family.

But now...

I shook my head, put those images out of my mind, and swung my sword straight through the pillars of the hut.

The thatched hut collapsed with a crash.

I was leaving anyway. There was no reason to keep this hut.

And no reason to keep the people, either.