Chapter 1: The unhinged woman
Shenhe City is a blend of nature and impressive buildings with curved roofs, and it has wide, stone-paved streets lined with trees and colorful gardens. There is a large, busy plaza with market stalls selling exotic goods. In the centre of the city is located the actual sect, a grand complex of halls and towers on a raised platform. Surrounding the sect are many academies, training grounds, and living areas, it's all designed to be useful, efficient, and beautiful. The air is fragrant with flowers, and lanterns light up the streets, creating a peaceful atmosphere. People from different lands, both Righteous and demonic Gu Masters, have settled here, drawn by the city's beauty and the opportunity to join the Devine River sect.
The sect leader, Leng Tianming, was a rank 5 Gu Master, known for his exceptional talent for Gu refinement. He had two wives. His first wife, Liu Yuzhen, whom he married for love, was a perpetually cheerful woman. His second wife, Shen Meiying, was taken out of obligation and was not his choice. Shen Meiying was an ambitious woman and didn't mind Leng Tianming neglecting her, instead she focused on expanding her influence.
Leng Tianming had a daughter with Liu Yuzhen, named Leng Ji Yue. A year later, he had a son with Shen Meiying, whom she named Leng Ji Yan. Although Shen Meiying had no problem being alone, she found great joy in her son's birth.
Strangely, exactly a year after Leng Ji Yan's birth, Leng Tianming and Liu Yuzhen were killed outside the sect. Investigations revealed that the culprits were from the Combat Immortal Sect, starting a new wave of conflict.
In the following days, Shen Meiying shut herself in her room, garnering pity and sympathy from the sect members. What they didn't know was that she had orchestrated the deaths providing information to the Combat Immortal Sect. As a rank 5 dark path Gu Master, Shen Meiying was confident in her concealment skills, certain she had left no loose ends. Even if she had, she trusted her mother to handle them.
After a week in seclusion, Shen Meiying emerged, resolutely declaring her intent to annihilate the Combat Immortal Sect herself. She adopted the two-year-old Leng Ji Yue and attended her husband's funeral, then seized the seat of sect leader. Although there was quite a bit of resistance, it was nothing she wasn't prepared for. Years of careful planning had finally borne fruit.
She was one of the sect's most talented immortal seeds, and it was almost certain for her to become an immortal if all went smoothly. But she wasn't satisfied with just that, she wanted more, she wanted to become a indomitable existence in the world, one that none would dare to gaze upon, much less contest.
She knew she couldn't achieve this lofty dream with her current strength alone, so she aimed to take control of the sect and grow her influence from the ground up. To do this, she needed to become the sect leader. So, she didn't feel guilty for killing her husband, seeing it as a necessary step toward her goal.
She wasted no time in quelling any revolutionary sentiments among the elders and sect members, gradually taking complete control of the sect. Her ruthlessness towards those who defied her earned her both respect and fear.
Despite her strict rule, she did not neglect Leng Ji Yan and Leng Ji Yue. She herself personally taught them history, etiquette, music, chess, hand combat, and more. She soon discovered that her son was a genius, while her stepdaughter could be considered a prodigy by normal standards, Leng Ji Yan was something extraordinary. He could memorize and comprehend everything after hearing it just once, and he never forgot it.
As she spent more time with him, she felt increasingly attached to him. Her harsh and solitary life had never allowed her to open up like this, and she always hid her true feelings deep in her heart. But thinking of him as her son, her possession, she started to truly care for him.
Although she didn't discriminate between her children and showed both of them equal love, there was a subtle but crucial difference. She kept a close eye on Leng Ji Yue and, behind the scenes, made sure that nobody approached her. She wanted Ji Yue to be completely dependent on her and nobody else. In contrast, she appointed a maid for her son, claiming he was too lazy to do all his work himself.
She had considered killing Ji Yue too, thinking she could become a threat after finding out the truth, but she thought it would be such a waste to just kill someone as talented as Ji Yue. Confident in her ability to control the girl from a young age, she believed that by the time Ji Yue discovered the truth, it would be too late.