His father and brother were right before his eyes, their lives hanging by a thread. Cold sweat dripped from Ku Yue's forehead. The impulse to save them and the overwhelming fear collided inside him, creating an unprecedented conflict in his heart, one that had never faced such turmoil before.

  One by one, the Night Butterfly warriors were reduced to ash under the hands of the so-called Taoists. Only a faint light remained on the horizon.

  We cannot be separated... Run! Take care of your sister!

  The words of his mother, father, and brother swirled in Ku Yue's mind, one after another. He gnced at his father and brother, both barely clinging to life in the spider's web, and without a second thought, he gritted his teeth, picked up his sister, and fled.

  His sister kicked and struggled in his arms, but Ku Yue ignored it, focusing only on flying toward the Cold Valley. He couldn't afford to think about anything else, nor did he have the courage to. All that mattered now was to escape as quickly as possible, to reach the human realm. Perhaps choosing to come back earlier had been a mistake...

  Suddenly, pain shot through his palm, and he instinctively released his grip. There, on his hand, were bloody, mangled teeth marks. His sister, with a speed beyond her years, had twisted in his arms, forcing herself to look back, but only for a moment. Before Ku Yue could stop her, her half-formed butterfly wings fluttered open with surprising strength, and she bolted toward the ritual ptform.

  Ku Yue leaped into the air, but it was as if he had hit an invisible wall. He tried to chase after his sister, but his feet were rooted to the spot, as if frozen by a spell. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't take that step forward.

  He watched helplessly as his young sister, with her frail body, collided forcefully with the spider yaokais guarding either side of the web. The phosphorescent light from her wings fell like glowing snowfkes, dazzlingly beautiful. But then, he saw the Ghost-Faced Spider King, with no hesitation, pierce her heart with the white silk from his mouth. He saw the agonized faces of his father and brother, contorted in pain, and heard their cries of anguish, only for the humans to silence them with a dismissive smile and a flick of their talisman.

  Ku Yue couldn't recall how he had made it back to the Cold Valley. It was only when he saw the moonlit pond, now glowing a pale, silvery white in the night, that he realized his hands had been pressed tightly against his ears. The pressure was so intense, it felt as though his skull might crack.

  He panted heavily, his gaze fixed ahead. By the edge of the pond stood a man in white, his hand tightly clutching a small girl. The scent in the air told Ku Yue that they were from his own kind. Before he could speak, the man had already pulled the girl into the water, vanishing beneath its surface. Ku Yue barely had time to see the man's appearance, only catching a glimpse of his silver-white hair that shone like moonlight.

  Behind him, the sounds of danger grew louder. The edge of the pond began to shift back to its dark, foreboding color. Ku Yue pinched his nose and leaped into the water with a spsh. The swirling bubbles and the sound of rushing water consumed him entirely.

  Everything was left behind: the Snow Butterfly royal family, the Night Butterfly warriors, the once-beautiful and peaceful realm of Rainbow, his loved ones, and his homend. From this moment on, all of it would be irretrievably cut off from him.

  He is in the water, sinking continuously, sinking...

  "Dad!” She anxiously touched her face and her shrunken body. “How could this happen? Why?”

  In the secret passage of the royal city, her father tightly held the bck-haired, snow-cd little girl in his arms. After swallowing a pill her father had given her, she had turned into this form, exactly the same as the little girl in his arms—the daughter of the Snow Butterfly King.

  Outside the secret passage, the wails of the spider yaokais grew louder. The thick stone door was being shaken violently, about to be broken open at any moment.

  "The daughter of the Snow Butterfly King is inside!”

  "Hurry! We must catch her!”

  The crashing of the door echoed, and dust fell from above, creating a choking fog in the passage. Her father walked up to her, his familiar face expressionless, and said simply, “Pretend I′m not your father.”

  She stood there, staring at the man who had been by her side since birth, the man who always hummed songs while lifting her up and spinning her around during her childhood, the man who would have gdly given her all of spring as a gift.

  In that moment, she suddenly didn't recognize this person anymore.

  Her father, carrying another "daughter" with no blood retion to her, walked to the side of the secret passage, activated a mechanism, and a small door opened, revealing a small space with food and fresh water. He walked in with the other daughter without hesitation and pressed the switch inside.

  The hidden door slowly closed, and through the st gap, she vaguely saw her father close his eyes and turn his head, no longer looking at her. She was left there, abandoned by her own flesh and blood, to face the impending catastrophe alone.

  The stone door of the secret passage colpsed with a thunderous crash. The grotesque and vile spider yaokais, dripping with disgusting saliva, crawled in, their cws outstretched, as they rushed toward her. Their barbed limbs wrapped tightly around her body, and the venomous hooks sank into her flesh. It hurt so much.

  Amidst the excited howls of the enemies, she was dragged out of the secret passage.

  "The king has captured the Snow Butterfly King and Queen; just this girl is left, and the family will be reunited!"

  "I heard if we gather their life essence, we can create a treasure!"

  "What treasure?"

  "How should I know? Anyway, if we hand this girl over to the king, we'll be making a huge contribution!"

  Bound tightly in spider silk, she squeezed her eyes shut, gritted her teeth, and desperately told herself not to be afraid, not to cry. If worse came to worst, it would just be death.

  But in the end, she survived. It was her mother, the Butterfly Cn's priestess, who sacrificed her essence and blood to cast the Blood Escape spell, trapping those deadly enemies in an illusion created by the curse, rendering them immobile.

  Although this spell, which required the complete destruction of both body and soul, was nothing to those powerful enemies, the brief moment of confusion it caused gave her a chance to escape.

  Following her mother's dying words, she hid in the Cold Valley, waiting for the bck water to turn white before escaping to the human realm.

  That pool of water was as cold as ice. But no matter how cold it was, it could never compare to the look her father had given her. She still could not forget the tragic scene of her mother′s death. She had watched helplessly as her once-beautiful body withered like autumn leaves, shriveled and exhausted, breaking apart into countless fragments in the air.

  She could never forget the st words her mother said to her—Don't hate your father!

  Could she not hate him? Could she?

  He protected another daughter but condemned his own flesh and blood to die, indirectly causing the death of the wife who had stood by him for years.

  She could never forgive him. Never, ever forgive him!