Lordi Payne’s heart ached as he clutched Yunny’s fragmented remains, his voice trembling with sincerity. "My mother died when I was three," he confessed, his words raw. "She uh... she came from a lowly family, and I watched her body be buried in the clan’s forgotten side tomb. That same day, my father turned to his other wives, abandoning me—just like you, Yunny. My stepmother and stepbrother tried to poison me every month, scheming my death. I had no friends, no elders to protect me. But I survived, maybe because I was precocious, carrying memories of another life—thirty years of struggle in a world before this life. I know the pain of being discarded by your own blood, the loneliness of a devil’s domain cursed world under Abyss Pit Sect. Trust me, I’m different. I won’t abandon you like they did. I want to help you."
But the overwhelming Ninth Layer Qi Refinement stage ghost aura pressed down like a collapsing sky, suffocating him. Frost engulfed Lordi, his breath clouding in the icy air. The blood-weeping eyes dotting the princess room blinked with unrelenting malice, their crimson tears staining the walls. Every doll in the room lifted its head, their eyeless gazes locking onto the intruder with venomous intent.
The plushies shuddered, rolling together to form a towering shadow. A claw dripping tar-like malice lashed out, smashing into Lordi’s forehead. The force sent him crashing backward, his body slamming through the bedroom wall and into the living room, where he collided with a wooden couch. The impact rattled a nearby round table, causing a stone fish tank atop it to tremble violently, its surface cracking under the supernatural chill.
Agony seared through Lordi’s body, his head reeling as he struggled to breathe. Before he could recover, Yunny’s wraith materialized before him, a giant shadow oozing pitch-black tar. The chill intensified, spiderweb cracks spreading across the fish tank’s stone surface. Two goldfish, hidden at the tank’s bottom, darted upward, stirred by the commotion.
Initially, neither Lordi nor the wraith noticed the fish. But as Yunny’s claw lunged for Lordi’s head, something extraordinary happened. Instead of fleeing, the two goldfish swam closer to the tank’s surface, their delicate fins brushing against the glass as if reaching for Yunny’s spectral fingers. Despite her ferocious form—a vengeful spirit stripped of humanity—the fish showed no fear. Yunny’s pale, cracked face twisted into a more terrifying visage, black capillaries pulsing with rage. Yet the goldfish remained, their gentle presence unwavering, as if bound to her side no matter what she had become.
Yunny’s ghostly arm, dripping with tar-like mist, faltered, trembling against the fish tank. The black threads of malice dwindled, and the overwhelming ghost aura flickered, dimming like a dying flame. The bloody eyes receded from the walls, their weeping silenced. As the final eye closed, the vengeful wraith of Pond House vanished. In its place stood a small girl in a tattered red dress, her eyeless sockets closed, clutching the stone fish tank with both trembling hands. On the other side of the stone tank, the two goldfish swam in slow circles around her fingers, a silent bond transcending the barrier. Though no physical touch connected them, their presence resonated with a quiet, unshakable bond.
Lordi struggled to sit up, his body wracked with pain from the attack. The wooden couch had splintered, and a nearby shelf had collapsed, scattering a dozen scrolls across the floor. Among them, a goatskin parchment caught his eye—a clan-issued certificate, its edges worn but intact. He unrolled it, his hands trembling as he read:
"Recorded by the Hall of the Dead, Markarth Hanz, Under the eyes of Arkay Hanz, the clinic healer"
I, Cain Hanzwart, son of Balder Hanzwart, the loyal ten guardians of the long live mighty Hanz Clan, of Pond House, being of sound mind though weary body, do hereby commit my final wishes to this parchment.
To my beloved daughter, Yunny:
The abyss gods saw fit to deny you the light of this world, but I would give what little I can. When ancestors call me and your mother to the Ancenstral Shrine, our eyes shall not go with us. The immortal master healers of Stronghold Clinic are informed to keep the corneas of me and my beloved Soraya and see if they might grant you even a flicker of sight.
Mark of the Hanz Clan
"A parent’s love outlasts even death."