Episode 1
It was raining on the day of my mom’s funeral.
From the gray sky, the rain kept falling, making soft dripping sounds.
I stood there, staring blankly up at the sky.
I could hear my dad crying loudly.
My little siblings, who looked nothing like me, clung to his pants and cried.
All around, people whispered to each other, but I pretended not to hear.
“Tsk tsk… poor thing…”
“How will she live without her mother… Heaven is so cruel.”
We lived in a small village by the Yangtze River.
Life there was quiet and peaceful.
I was happy.
I didn’t want anything more.
Mom was kind. Dad had his problems and often wasn’t himself, but aside from that, he wasn’t the worst father.
Sometimes my siblings and I would pick fruit and share it.
At night, I’d play with the neighbor kid, counting stars while sitting in front of our house.
Mom always told me to come home before dark, but I never listened.
It felt safe. No one thought our peace would ever break.
But one day, everything changed overnight.
The powerful Namgung family clashed with the river bandits called Jianggang Surochai.
No one saw it coming.
Shockingly, the river bandits won.
They burned the houses of anyone who had helped the Namgung family and stole everything.
It didn’t take long before they completely took over the southern region.
The adults whispered that even the mighty Sichuan Tang clan couldn’t stop them.
But I thought none of that had anything to do with me.
…Until my mom died at the hands of the bandits.
In the final battles, the Namgung warriors used our village as their base.
Villagers and martial artists got mixed up in chaos, and since I had been wandering outside instead of staying home, I was caught in the middle.
I don’t remember much of what happened.
I was knocked out by fleeing people, and when I woke up, Mom was already dead.
Dad said she died protecting me from the bandits.
If only I’d listened to her.
I stared blankly at Mom’s coffin.
We didn’t even have enough to send her off properly—no coins for the afterlife, no paper money to place in her rough hands.
Mom’s hands were always rough.
She worked so hard for us, never shying away from tough jobs.
I only realized that too late.
The last time I held her hand, it was cold.
Then, at that moment, my strange ability appeared.
Suddenly, I saw flashes of the future in my head.
I saw myself in a strange place, wearing red clothes, serving someone.
And then I saw myself again, smiling happily while walking through a flower field with a tall man with black hair.
We looked close—like teacher and student… or even parent and child.
“Wait… that’s… me in the future.”
You see, I had a special gift:
I could see short glimpses of the future if I focused hard.
Mom always told me it was a gift only I was allowed to have.
But every time I used it, I got headaches, so I didn’t use it often.
I promised Mom I wouldn’t overuse it.
No one else knew—just her and me.
But sometimes, visions would crash into my head without warning—
not just near futures, but faraway ones.
“That outfit… bright red… maybe it’s some organization’s color?”
In the future, I looked truly happy.
It was like I’d forgotten all the pain of losing Mom and being left with my siblings.
I was smiling brightly.
Then I felt someone’s presence and turned around.
A woman was staring at me.
She was wearing bright red clothes—not something you’d expect at a funeral.
Black embroidery on the red fabric made her look a little scary.
“Red… just like in my vision…”
Even without fancy jewelry, I could tell right away—she was someone important.
I quickly bowed my head.
“A clever child, I see,”
she said, her elegant voice reaching my ears.
“Unlike your mother.”
Something inside me flared up, but her presence was so overwhelming I couldn’t move.
I had never met someone like this—someone who could crush you with just their aura.
Even Mom wasn’t like this. This woman was on a completely different level.
I cautiously raised my head and asked, “…Do you know my mother?”
The woman opened a red fan and smiled in a way I couldn’t understand.
Her bright red eye makeup suited her perfectly.
“Of course I do.”
Her voice suddenly sounded gentle.
“I know her very well. I knew about you, Yeon‑hwa, but I didn’t know she had more children.”
I opened my mouth but couldn’t say anything.
It seemed like this woman had come for Mom after a long time.
Through her fan, she gave me a faint, almost amused smile.
“You must be confused. Things didn’t go as I promised your mother.”
She gently waved her fan.
Then she moved her paper umbrella, pulling me under its shade.
“Still, a promise is a promise. I’ll take care of you—no matter how many mouths I have to feed.”
What kind of promise had she made with my mom?
I stared at her blankly.
As if reading my mind, she answered, “It’s nothing complicated. I just promised to look after you after she was gone.”
“Look after me?”
“Yes. I can’t promise you heaven, but I can at least give you work and take you away from your father.”
She already seemed to know everything about my unstable father and my younger siblings.
I hesitated, thinking about leaving them behind.
The woman spoke again.
“If you’re worried, I can arrange a place for your siblings, too. Isn’t that generous?”
I glanced over at Dad, sitting frozen in front of Mom’s coffin.
Outside, the rain sounded heavy and grim.
If I went back home, Dad would get drunk again and turn violent.
Before, Mom protected us… but now she was gone.
And this woman… she was even offering to take care of my siblings.
That kind of mercy was something rich and powerful people would never understand.
Deep down, I already knew:
Ah… I’m going to go with this woman.
There was no other choice.
And besides, the future I saw didn’t look so bad.
“Then… what should I do?”
I was seven years old when I became a servant girl of Saparyeon—
The alliance of the dark sects.
“Phew…”
I let out a small sigh.
It hadn’t been that long since then—maybe seven weeks or so?
It still didn’t feel real that Mom’s funeral had been so recent.
My heart was still back in that village.
But my body was here… in Saparyeon.
I still didn’t know exactly what Mom had done in her life, but she had some connection to someone important in Saparyeon.
Someone so high up that I, a mere servant, could never approach.
I wanted to ask more about Mom.
But I couldn’t even get close, let alone talk.
After all, that person was Saparyeon’s Great Elder—their matriarch.
Saparyeon.
Just the name alone made local kids run away in fear.
It was a massive alliance of dark sects, and famous groups like Hao‑mun were part of it.
It was, in short, the darkest of the dark.
I had once trembled in fear at the mention of Saparyeon, but now I worked for them, so I had to endure.
When I thought of dark sects, I imagined scary debt collectors in ragged clothes.
But Saparyeon’s main base, Heukmunbang, was like a palace.
Even the servant girls here dress nicely.
Heukmunbang was in Jiangnan, south of the Yangtze.
Surrounded by powerful sects like Wudang in Hubei, the Zhuge clan in Shandong, and the Namgung family in Anhui.
Normally, being surrounded like that would make someone careful… but not Saparyeon.
In the martial world, strength is what matters most.
And the strongest person in the world at that time… was Saparyeon’s leader.
The Lord of Saparyeon.
The Overlord.
The strongest of the dark sects.
All those titles pointed to one person:
Sama Ryun.
Normally, our lives would never cross…but now, he was my master.
“Funny… I haven’t even seen his face yet.”
I kept walking along the wall of the compound.
Heukmunbang was fascinating.
Because Saparyeon’s leader worked here, so many different people came and went.
Like the Hao‑mun innkeepers—the kind of people you’d expect to shout “Order up!” and carry trays—but here, they had sharp eyes and moved in and out like shadows.
Even courtesans from famous cities like Suzhou and Hangzhou came and went, along with poison masters from Thousand Poison Valley, or disguise experts from the Thousand Faces Sect.
The courtesan ladies were always kind to me.
Maybe because I was the youngest servant here.
They’d give me little treats, pat my head, and teach me shortcuts around the compound.
Their heavy perfume was overwhelming, but their kindness was real.
I could tell the difference between kindness and danger, even as a child.
But after hearing “You’re so cute!” all day and eating sweets…reality hit me when I returned to my room.
I kept walking, then stopped.
A chill ran through me.
“Why… do I feel something bad is about to happen?”
I focused my mind—and then saw a vision a few seconds into the future.
I saw…
…myself getting splashed all over with dirty mop water.
(End of Episode 1)
