===Prologue===
The bronze candlestick in the Huang Clan Ancestral Hall bore an ancestral maxim: "*Sever karma, not people; kill to protect life.*" Twelve-year-old Chunxiang knelt on the cold blue bricks, her father Zhenyue's reprimand echoing in her ears: "Do you know why our Huang Clan gained footing in the Xuanmen realm three centuries ago?"
In the flickering candlelight, her father unfurled a yellowed silk scroll. The painting depicted Huang's founding ancestor wielding a peachwood sword, trampling over countless demonic limbs. Chunxiang noticed translucent humanoid figures蜷缩 in the corner - the slaughtered demons' eyes streaming bloody tears.
"At seven, Patriarch Huang grasped the sword; by sixteen, he purged the demon nest of Western Mountain." Her father's finger traced dried vermilion seals on the silk. "Villagers once sacrificed children to demons there, until the Patriarch reforged human virtue with blood."
Chunxiang stared at the Patriarch's twisted visage. Why did this deified hero look more ferocious than the demons? She recalled what she'd seen three days prior behind the ancestral hall - a lightning-charred ancient locust tree hollow containing dozens of child skeletons, its roots entwined with corroded bronze ritual vessels.
"Why did the Patriarch suddenly enter closed-door cultivation?" she blurted. Her father violently rerolled the scroll, making the bronze candlestick hum.
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Huang Chunxiang lived up to her name - "Spring Fragrance" - entering the world with vernal freshness. She should have been the proudest daughter of the illustrious Huang Clan, a Daoist sorcery family risen from obscurity through rigid discipline and uncompromising morality. They viewed their celestial mandate as eradicating evil spirits, believing prosperity their rightful reward for upholding righteousness. Elders rejoiced at Chunxiang's prodigious spiritual talents, expecting her to become the clan's new prodigy.
Yet as Chunxiang grew, unease festered within the clan. This hopeful heir rebelled against expectations. Her compassion knew no bounds; she shunned combat, showing pity even towards vicious demons.
"Since when does Huang blood tolerate demonic filth?"
"Is she cowardly?"
"Or too self-preserving to fight?"
Accusations flooded Chunxiang. Her parents burned with shame.
She endured silently, heart bleeding. Not from cowardice, but because her soul perceived the anguish behind "evil" beings - tormented spirits, slain innocents, creatures persecuted through misunderstanding. Their voiceless weeping needled her conscience. How could she annihilate them? She sought salvation, not slaughter. Without argument, she stubbornly pursued her own dao.
At sixteen, Chunxiang resolved to save spirits through inverted sorcery. Moonlight bathed her chamber as she soaked shorn hair in morning dew, braiding strands while reciting the *Purifying Earth Mantra*. Golden sigils - the Huang bloodline's demon-subduing glyphs - shimmered in reverse flow within her locks. She wove these cursed strands into simple black cloth shoes.
At dawn, Chunxiang donned these soleless shoes, bare feet bonding with suffering earth, heading towards a demon-ravaged town. The braided shoes oozed dark red with each step - reversed sigils backlashing. Flesh melted from her soles, channeling purer spiritual energy into the land.
The town's central temple lay in ruins, now a demonic realm festering with vengeful ghosts and rampaging spirits. Yet when Chunxiang opened her heart, she saw truth: a bridal-robed girl haunting rubble with purple strangulation marks; a one-armed daoist clutching broken swords, chest bleeding crimson; a century-old fox demon cradling its severed head, railing against heaven's cruelty. Their memories flooded her, near-suffocating.
Bearing this agony, Chunxiang reached the cursed epicenter. Standing in temple ruins, she released warm spiritual energy through her braided shoes. Her power flowed like spring streams over scorched earth, sunlight piercing frozen gloom.
The demonic realm convulsed. Rage-filled entities flocked to this warmth like moths. Touching her shoes, they dissolved into Chunxiang's legs through tender absorption. Their fury and grief soothed in her oceanic compassion; their sins absorbed by her resilient heart. She purified without destruction, granting peace.
When the Huangs arrived, they recoiled. Their pure jade daughter now radiated concentrated "filth" - countless tainted entities nested within her flesh! Her sanctity defiled!
To them, Chunxiang had become corruption incarnate. Fear overrode kinship. After bitter debate, they exiled her, stripping the Huang name.
Now rootless, Chunxiang wandered yet persisted. Wherever she went, she absorbed suffering souls.
During travels, she rescued Yue Qingyan - a mortally wounded scion from the immortal Yue Clan. As she healed him with Daoist arts, he attempted Yue purification techniques on her. When Qingyan touched the blackened marks on her neck, burning needles stabbed his fingers - his clan's cleansing arts rejecting her corruption. Persisting, his spiritual sight revealed horrors: a chained fox demon birthing cubs under executioners' blades; a scholar leaping into a well with lightning-scorched exam papers...
"Don't look," Chunxiang whispered, but Qingyan gripped tighter. Sweating, he suppressed his clan's demon-slaying instincts through meditation. Finally understanding why his dying body had instinctively crawled to her - beneath the "filth" pulsed purer life essence than any elixir.
Looking at tainted Chunxiang, Qingyan saw only sacred beauty. "You're the holiest soul I've known," he vowed.
Chunxiang's sealed heart cracked open. Since exile, she'd never felt such acceptance. Years of loneliness erupted in Qingyan's embrace as she wept through the night, shattered spirit mending under his love.
Their passion conceived Yue Huangying. Those months were Chunxiang's happiest. But joy proved fleeting illusion.
Her body - vessel for countless spirits - decayed daily. The Yue lineage's potent spiritual blood clashed catastrophically with Huang flesh. Her womb became an overfilled balloon, cracks spreading.
Instinct demanded expelling the foreign energy. But feeling her child's kicks, Chunxiang chose differently. She burned her remaining life-force to suppress bodily rejection, channeling all vitality to her unborn daughter.
Labor was brief agony. When the infant's cry rang out, Chunxiang's ruined body expired. Turning her paper-white face towards the wrinkled, vibrant life she'd birthed, she smiled exhaustedly - the world's most beautiful sound echoing as she departed.
Huang Chunxiang completed her dao - achieving supreme sanctity through ultimate defilement. Carrying endless love, she dissolved like spring blossoms after brief glory, leaving only warmth to guard her daughter Yue Huangying.
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