BLACK STRING TEMPLE – INNER SANCTUM – NIGHTFALL

The flames from the torches flickered violently, as if the temple itself was holding its breath. The wind even stronger inside the building than the outside world.

Yueying cradled the trembling boy in her arms. For a long moment, there was no sound but the quiet thump of his heartbeat against her chest. His breathing was shaky, like someone who had never been held — not gently, not like this. Like he was experiencing something fresh. New.

"I don't know what's real anymore," he whispered.

"You don't need to know everything right now little one" Yueying said, her voice low, calm, like her mother's had been in the visions she had had. "You just need to know this isn't your fault. It's not your destiny, you can't let them decide for you "

"But I hurt people."

"They made you hurt people."

The boy pulled back slightly, eyes  red and glassy with tears. "What if… I can't stop?"

Yueying held his face gently between her hands. "Then I'll stand in front of you until you do."

Something in him broke then. Not with violence, not with fire — but with silence, and surrender. He felt a part of him redeemed.

And in that moment, Yueying realized: he wasn't her enemy. He was the result of all the enemies who had come before. She felt a pang of sympathy for him, he never experienced childhood like every ordinary young child.

The walls trembled suddenly.

Footsteps.

Heavy.

Deliberate.

They were not alone.

---

GU NI'S CELL – AT THAT SAME TIME 

Chains clinked as Gu Ni stirred, her swollen eyes trying to adjust to the sudden shift in atmosphere. She could feel it.

Not magic.

Not power.

Something deeper.

A severance.

The bond between her son and Ren — it was breaking. There was little bond to feel, it wasn't so deep in the first place.

She tried to rise, but pain bloomed across her back shocking her like an electric current. A hiss escaped her lips.

Then a soft buzz. The cuffs?

They had stopped glowing.

A flicker of a chance. She had to take it by all means.

She twisted her wrists, slowly, painfully. The metal beeped under strain, but something had changed. The energy suppressors were weakening — either from Yueying's awakening… or the boy's hesitation or maybe ____her willpower.

No matter the cause, she wasn't going to wait for them to lock her again.She yanked hard, ignoring the stabbing pain in her shoulder. One cuff snapped. Then the second.

Gu Ni collapsed onto the ground, breathless — free, but not safe.

And somewhere, she could feel it in her bones that Yueying was about to make a choice that would change everything.

---

  MOMENTS LATER AT THE TEMPLE SANCTUM

The door burst open.

Ren stepped inside, followed  by elite Black String enforcers — eyes gleaming, men in tuxedos holding pistols.

He saw his son in Yueying's arms — and froze.

"So," he said softly, voice smooth as silk and poison. "You've found each other. Tsk"He hissed.

Yueying rose, positioning herself in front of the boy. Her face was streaked with sweat and blood, her stance steady. She didn't flinch.

"I'm taking him," she said.

Ren laughed.

"You're not taking anyone, you're not sure you can leave here in one piece yourself" he replied. "You don't even know what he is."

"He's a child," Yueying said. "Not a god. Not a soldier. Not your legacy."

"He's my creation," Ren hissed. "He carries both fire and void. Experimented from the little blood of your mother " 

" My mother ?" Anger surged through Yueying.

" You don't know what bloodline I'm from Yueying, he carries my blood. He carries evil if you like to put it that way."

"I don't need to understand you," Yueying said, stepping forward. "I've seen what your understanding costs."

Ren's gaze flicked to the boy. "You disobeyed me."

The boy stood behind Yueying, eyes cold and    fists clenched.

"I chose," he said, voice steady and firm.

Ren tilted his head, something dangerous flashing in his eyes. "Then you are no longer my son."

"You never were my father," the boy said.

The air cracked.

Ren raised his hand — power forming into a black spear of voidlight. Rather to consume all around him.

Yueying's pendant flared, crimson light bursting in a circle around her feet.

"You want a war?" she said. "Then try to take him from me."

---

FLASHBACK – LU QUING'S PAST (YEARS AGO)

Han Liuhua stood with Lu Quing at the edge of a burning city.

She had just saved a group of children — and lost half her soldiers doing it. Everywhere was in chaos, they had thought it was the end.

"You could've killed the enemy leader," Lu Quing said, frustrated. Fury burning in him, ready to slaughter his opponent. She stopped him and he couldn't understand why.

"I chose to save the future instead," Liuhua replied.

"And if that future turns into another weapon?" His eyes flickered.

Liuhua looked at him.

"Then you raise them right. And pray they choose better."

---

 PRESENT AT THE TEMPLE SANCTUM

Yueying's memory surged with her mother's words.

She stepped forward, crimson light trailing behind her like wings. Her red hair glowed with fierceness.

Ren attacked, black void bursting from his hand like a serpent.

The collision of forces cracked the very stone beneath their feet.

Yueying pushed the boy back with one hand. "Run!"

"No!" he shouted.

The impact sent shockwaves through the temple. Statues shattered. Flames danced on the ceiling and the edges of the building.

But Yueying didn't fall.

She stood tall.

Red eyes glowing.

Flames curled around her limbs, shaped 

into a sword. Power surging through it.

Ren tried again — another spear.

She caught it midair — and it burned away in her hand.

"You were wrong," she said calmly.

"About what?" Ren growled.

"Love doesn't destroy us."

She raised her hand.

"It saves us."

A burst of energy exploded as she took hold of her sword.

It hit Ren square in the chest.

He flew back — slammed into the wall, coughing blood.

The temple trembled as the runes around them shattered like glass.

And then—

Silence.

Ren collapsed, weakened and all.

Yueying lowered her hand.

Her pendant dimmed.

And for the first time in all this chaos, she was not her mother's daughter.

She was Yueying.

Fully.

Wholly.

---

OUTSIDE THE TEMPLE – DAWN

Gu Ni emerged from the ruins, staggering, bleeding — but alive.

She saw them standing together: her son, and Yueying.

The boy looked up — and ran into her arms.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"You don't have to be," she sobbed. "You came back."

---

LU VILLA – DAYS LATER

Lu Quing stood on the balcony, arms crossed, staring into the horizon.

He hadn't spoken to Yueying since the rooftop. He hadn't gone with her to temple sanctum. Something came up that needed urgent attention, he had sent his most trusted aide to watch over her in case the plan fails.

And yet — he felt her, all the time.

He didn't expect the soft footsteps behind him.

When he turned, she was there.

Hair down. Eyes tired, but steady.

"I didn't come back for you," she said.

"I know," he replied.

"I came back for me."

"I know."

They stood in silence for a while.

Then she said, "But I'd still like to know why you never told me you met my mother."

Lu Quing sighed.

"I saved her once," he said. "Told me if I ever met her daughter… I'd know. Because she'd be fire without a cage. "

Yueying smiled faintly. "She was right."

Then, softly, she stepped forward.

This time, when Lu Quing reached for her hand __ she didn't pull away.

And the fire inside her — quieted.

For now.

 UNKNOWN LOCATION

A figure watched the ruined temple through a shattered scrying mirror.

"They've united," the cloaked figure whispered.

Another voice answered from the dark.

"Then send in the person ."

The cloaked one turned, revealing glowing silver eyes.

"She won't survive this one."

---

BLACK STRING INNER TEMPLE — POST-CONFRONTATION SILENCE

The boy trembled in Yueying's arms.

His breathing was shallow, confused. The pendant at her neck pulsed softly, in sync with the sigil on his wrist — like two halves of something ancient calling out across time.

"I shouldn't feel this," he whispered. "They said emotion is failure."

Yueying gently pulled back to look at him.

"No," she said. "Emotion is memory. And they tried to erase your mother's."

She held his face.

"But they couldn't. Because love doesn't die just because someone buries it."

The boy's hands slowly tightened around the chain in his grasp — his mother's necklace. Gu Ni's.

"Do you remember your name?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"I… I was always called 'Blood Child.' Or 'Weapon 3.'"

Yueying's heart broke when she heard this.

"Then let me give you one."

He blinked.

"I'll name you what your mother should've had the chance to call you." She said as she smiled sweetly.

She hesitated, then whispered, "Tianlei."

The boy's breath hitched.

"Tianlei," he repeated.

The name lit something inside him. Something he wouldn't forget easily, it was part of him now .

---

BLACK STRING COMMAND CENTER — AT THAT SAME TIME

A violent crash shattered the crystal pool Ren had been watching.

"She reached him," the blue-eyed woman said.

Ren's jaw tensed. His knuckles whitened around the shattered glass.

"No. She named him."

His eyes burned like coals.

"Gu Ni was never supposed to survive. Neither was the girl."

"And now?" the woman asked.

Ren turned.

"She'll come for Gu Ni."

---

The doors burst open.

Two guards collapsed, flames licking their bodies.

Yueying strode in like a storm, Tianlei beside her.

The room was a tomb — dim, sterile, and humming with suppression fields.

And at the far end…

Gu Ni, chained and barely breathing. She had managed to escape but that blue eyed witch caught her.

Who was she ?

Ren's mistress?

"Ni!" Yueying shouted.

Gu Ni's head turned up weakly. Her eyes widened.

"Tian…"

Tianlei froze in the doorway, shaking.

"Is that… her?"

Yueying nodded.

"She's waited a lifetime for this."

The boy's steps were hesitant, slow — until he fell to his knees beside his mother.

"I thought… you were a lie."

Gu Ni smiled through cracked lips. "And I thought… I'd never hear you call me anything."

" Mom" .  He touched her face gently, the way a child might touch a dream.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"For what?" she asked.

"For not knowing you." Tears streamed down her eyes.

She laughed, coughing hard. "No child is born knowing. That's why they're supposed to be held."

Yueying turned away, giving them space — wiping silent tears from her cheeks.

 

What would it be like if she has a child? She wasn't meant to fall in love. But even at that the person she love never loved her back.

---

OUTSIDE THE PRISON — FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING

But time had run out.

Ren stood just beyond the entrance, dressed in black ceremonial robes, his sigil glowing like wildfire across his chest.

"So the family reunion happened," he said, voice cold. He chuckled.

Yueying stepped out into the hall, standing between Ren and the door.

"You won't touch them."

"I already did," Ren replied. "Years ago."

She clenched her fists. "You used them. Your own blood."

He smiled. "You speak like you're better. Like your own hands aren't stained."

Yueying's pendant pulsed. "I may be fireborn. But I was never yours to control."

Then the flame exploded from her body, engulfing the corridor in a wave of heat.

Ren raised a hand — shielding himself — and pushed back with a gust of black energy that cracked the walls.

The hallway trembled.

Tianlei ran out.

"Stop!" he yelled. "Don't hurt her!"

Ren froze.

"I am your father," he said firmly.

"You're nothing," Tianlei replied. "You taught me pain. She taught me my name."

His eyes flashed — red and gold at once.

And something snapped in Ren.

His power surged, black tendrils spiraling around him like serpents.

Yueying moved first.

And so did Tianlei.

Together, they launched toward him — flame and light, grief and power — colliding with Ren in a fiery burst that sent the prison floor collapsing.

---

UNDERGROUND  — UNKNOWN MINUTES LATER

Yueying coughed as she pulled herself from rubble.

Tianlei lay beside her, stunned but alive.

And Ren… was gone.

Only a cracked mark remained in the stone, smoking and glowing.

"He escaped," Tianlei murmured.

"No," Yueying said, voice trembling. "He ran. That's different."

Tianlei turned toward her. "Will he come back?"

Yueying didn't answer.

She looked up through the jagged hole above.

And whispered, "We need to leave."

---

LU VILLA — DAWN RETURN

Yueying stood on the steps, Tianlei beside her. Guards whispered in confusion. Gu Ni had been rushed inside for healing from Yueying.

Lu Quing stepped forward, stunned.

"You… found him."

Yueying nodded.

"I brought him back. But Ren's still out there."

Lu Quing looked at the boy — at the resemblance, the red eyes, the weight behind them.

Tianlei stared back.

He didn't bow.

He didn't speak.

But he didn't flinch but he felt terrified of Lu Quing's aura. There was just something about him that was strong and powerful.

"He's mine," Gu Ni's voice said from behind, weak but clear.

"Not yours. Not Ren's. Mine."

Lu Quing looked from her to Yueying.

Then back to the boy.

And he finally understood—

This wasn't a victory.

It was the beginning.