The Awakening of the Rouling Blood
Chapter 1
The Lin Estate stood tall in the heart of the capital, carrying the quiet elegance of an old noble household. Its high white walls contrasted sharply with the dark glazed roof tiles, while stone gardens and precious ornamental plants were arranged with meticulous care, reflecting a refined and lofty taste.
Yet the most striking sight of all was the towering Great Library, a place where ancient records and secret texts were preserved—mysteries that outsiders could only guess at.
Lin Lanyi, the eldest daughter of the clan, had grown up beneath strict traditions and rigid etiquette. Every step she took along the wooden corridors had to be light and steady. Her manners and bearing were flawless.
So flawless, in fact, that she was praised as the finest young lady in the capital—the ideal daughter-in-law sought after by every noble matron.
Yet beneath that calm face and fine silk attire, Lanyi carried a heavy secret...
She was the direct descendant of the Rouling bloodline, possessing the purest and most concentrated lineage seen in centuries.
“I… cannot control it at all.”
Her dark-brown eyes lowered to her own ice-cold palm.
The Qi within her was not the fierce power of martial cultivation. It was Yin—soft, alluring, and dangerously persuasive.
It was a power capable of transformation... and of swaying the hearts of others.
“In a few months... the Gu family’s bridal procession will come to take you away.”
Her father’s words echoed once more in her mind.
“I… I’ll be able to control it, won’t I...? Suppress this power... now that it has awakened?”
She clenched her pale hand tightly, doubt clouding her gaze.
“Young Master Gu Fang... if he learns that his future wife is... no longer perfect...”
Will he still accept me?
The young woman released a long sigh.
Even though I should have been perfect...
Even though I have followed every rule, every custom, every tradition expected of me...
Then why... why would Heaven torment me like this...?
“This Venomous Allure... if I cannot control it... this wedding may become a tragedy that destroys the Lin family’s reputation beyond repair...”
She tightened the scarf around herself.
The chill that constantly clung to her body was one of the side effects of her condition.
Her beautiful eyes turned toward the distant horizon...
Toward the Cursed Lands.
That place was her only hope of preserving both herself and the dignity of a daughter of the Lin family before everything became too late.
It won’t be long now... Someone from the Cursed Lands will arrive soon. Surely they’ll be able to seal it...
Amid the peaceful stillness of the estate’s rear garden, Lin Lanyi suddenly felt as though the very air around her had begun to distort.
A strange fragrance—thick, sweet, almost heavy enough to taste—spread from her body without her realizing it.
Thunk!
The sound of a hoe striking the earth abruptly stopped.
A middle-aged gardener who had been tending the soil nearby slowly lifted his head.
For a brief moment, his humble gaze turned vacant.
Then it twisted into a horrifying obsession.
“...?”
Lanyi turned toward the strange silence, only to find the gardener staring at her with a distorted, feverish expression.
“Young Lady!!! Hahahahaha!!! Young Lady!!!”
He began to laugh.
The sound was sharp, high, and crazed.
His dirt-stained hands clawed toward her as if he had suddenly discovered some priceless treasure far beyond his reach.
“Ah...! Young Lady... please... Hahaha! You’re so beautiful!”
Lanyi froze.
Fear shot through her heart.
She hurriedly raised her sleeve to shield her face and drew in a deep breath.
“Stop... Calm yourself!”
She bit her lower lip until blood welled, forcing her mind to cling to every rule and discipline that had been drilled into her since childhood, desperately suppressing the aura of Venomous Allure leaking from her body.
“Protect the Young Lady!”
Heavy footsteps rushed closer.
The estate guards charged forward and restrained the maddened gardener just in time.
But just as the situation seemed to be coming under control, one of the guards suddenly froze.
His hands slipped away from the gardener.
Slowly, he turned toward Lanyi.
His gaze had changed.
“...Y... Young Lady...”
Lanyi had not even had time to feel relieved before horror seized her again.
Another guard was staring at her with the same desperate hunger and longing.
“W-Wait... y-you...!”
They’re affected too?!
The men, stripped of reason beneath the influence of her power, surged toward their target.
The two maidservants rushed forward, desperately trying to hold them back and shove the guards away.
But how could the strength of ordinary women possibly withstand men driven mad by Venomous Allure?
“Ahhh!”
The maids were thrown aside onto the walkway.
“Hahahaha! Young Lady, I’m coming!”
“D-Don’t! Don’t come any closer!”
Just as the maddened guards closed in on Lanyi—
A single musical note suddenly rang through the air.
Twing—!
It swept between them like a razor-sharp current of wind.
The men froze.
Then a young man descended from above as though falling from the very sky.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he drove a fist into the earth.
BOOM!!!
A massive shockwave erupted outward.
Both guards were sent flying and collapsed unconscious in an instant.
A large young man dressed in foreign furs and silver-gray ornaments rose to his full height amid the swirling dust.
“W-Who...?”
Lanyi stared in astonishment.
Perhaps it was because of his clothing, but through the haze of dust she could almost swear that a faint gray aura surrounded the young man’s body.
“You’re not hurt, are you, Miss Lin?”
A woman’s voice came from the walkway ahead.
Lanyi turned.
Her father was approaching together with an unfamiliar woman dressed in soft blue-gray clothing.
The moment she saw him, Lanyi hurried toward him in panic.
“My daughter... Are you alright?”
Her father immediately pulled her into his arms.
“There, there... You’re safe now. There’s nothing to fear.”
Lanyi clung tightly to her father.
Tears gathered in her eyes as fear, confusion, and lingering panic overwhelmed her.
Lin Wumei embraced his daughter and gently rubbed her back.
“It’s alright. Don’t be afraid. Look—the person who can help you has finally arrived.”
He eased away slightly, then gestured toward the unfamiliar woman.
“This is... the wife of the Wei clan leader—Madam Huifan.”
Lanyi stiffened with nervousness.
She had never met the woman before and did not know how she ought to address her.
Still shaken, she nevertheless tried to compose herself enough to bow.
“Th-Thank you for saving me, Madam.”
But Madam Huifan only gave her a gentle smile.
She stepped closer, carefully straightening Lanyi’s disheveled clothing and giving her shoulder a soothing pat until the young woman’s panic gradually subsided.
“You’re safe—that’s what matters. Don’t worry, dear. Oh... look at your hands. They’re freezing.”
“Yes, yes! Let’s go inside and rest first. You there—prepare refreshments for the Clan Leader’s wife in the private study!”
“Yes, my lord!”
“Yes, Master!”
The visiting lady from the distant land was soon escorted into the private study.
Once everyone had taken their seats, Lanyi’s father immediately asked the question that weighed most heavily on his mind.
“Madam Wei... may I ask how serious my daughter’s condition is?”
Huifan offered Lin Wumei a reassuring smile before turning toward Lanyi.
“For now, little Lanyi is safe.”
Lanyi could not help studying the woman before her.
Huifan was extraordinarily beautiful, dignified, and graceful.
She truly comes from the Cursed Lands...? I thought that place was supposed to be filled with barbarians...
As if noticing her gaze, Huifan turned toward her and offered a faint smile.
“You truly are a direct descendant of the Rouling bloodline. Remarkable. Such talent is exceedingly rare.”
“It seems your power only awakened recently, which is why it remains unstable and tends to come and go like this.”
Lanyi immediately seized the opportunity to speak.
“What is medicine to one may be poison to another... I cannot look upon this gift as you do, Madam.”
She gripped the fabric of her clothing tightly and looked at Huifan with desperate hope.
“This... this Venomous Allure has brought me nothing but suffering.”
“Madam... You are an expert in these matters, aren’t you?”
“Can you cure me? Can you make it disappear? And... how long would it take?”
At that question, Huifan’s brows lowered slightly in thought.
She exchanged a glance with Lanyi’s father before turning back to the young woman with a more serious expression.
“If you were an ordinary Rouling, there might be ways to suppress the power.”
“But you, Lanyi... possess an exceptionally concentrated direct bloodline.”
“Because of that... completely sealing your power would be nearly impossible.”
Lanyi’s eyes widened.
Her heart seemed to drop.
“Nearly impossible...?”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Calm yourself first.”
Huifan’s voice remained gentle.
“The more frightened you become, the more unstable your power will be.”
“If we want the safest solution... it would be best for you to come with us to the Cursed Lands, where you can receive treatment and learn to control your power properly.”
Lanyi shuddered.
Lin Wumei, unwilling to send his beloved daughter so far from home, immediately spoke up.
“To the Cursed Lands?”
“But Madam... can you truly guarantee her safety there?”
“What if Lanyi accidentally releases her power among the people—or among the soldiers of your land?”
Huifan smiled with complete confidence.
“There is no need to worry about that, Lord Lin.”
“My eldest son is himself an accomplished Zhenyuan.”
“He will personally watch over Lanyi’s safety.”
“Please put your mind at ease.”
Lanyi’s gaze drifted toward the large young man in fur who stood waiting outside the estate.
The young clan master...? A Zhenyuan?
I still haven’t even had the chance to thank him for saving me...
Although fear and uncertainty remained in her heart, she was even more terrified of the uncontrollable power within her own body.
One question after another continued circling through her thoughts.
“Madam... I... Could I not remain here?”
“Could you not seal the power while I stay at home?”
Huifan looked at the frightened young woman.
“Lanyi, sealing a power is not as simple as closing a door.”
“Although we say your bloodline has ‘awakened,’ what is truly happening is more like a current beginning to overflow.”
“If that current is sealed incorrectly, the person who suffers first will be you.”
“And then perhaps the people you care about...”
“Or possibly... everyone.”
Huifan’s words made the danger feel far heavier than Lanyi had imagined.
The young woman lightly clutched the front of her robe.
This curse... is even more dangerous than I thought.
Several days later...
Inside the gently swaying carriage, the faint incense Lanyi had been using to mask her aura gradually faded.
Silence filled the compartment, broken only by the sound of wooden wheels grinding over the old road.
“A-Lan... I think the air outside feels strange.”
A-Ling, the pretty but easily frightened maid, whispered as she pressed closer to her companion.
“Look at that mist! It’s so dark, like something is hiding inside it... Are we really going to make it there?”
“I’m afraid we’ll become monster food before we even arrive!”
“Shut your mouth this instant, A-Ling!”
A-Lan, the older and more composed maid, scolded her sharply.
“One should not speak of tigers when entering the forest!”
“Lord Lin prepared everything carefully. A secret message has already reached the guardians of the Cursed Lands.”
“Besides, the Lin family has maintained a pact with those people for generations. They would never allow a direct-line descendant like the Young Lady to come to harm.”
A-Lan glanced out the carriage window.
“And besides, the carriage ahead belongs to the wife of the Wei clan leader.”
“The young man riding at the head of the procession is the Clan Leader’s eldest son—the Young Clan Master, Wei Pabao.”
“He’s one of those... Zhen-something, isn’t he?”
She continued looking outside.
“My... he truly is handsome.”
“I always imagined people from the Cursed Lands would look much more frightening.”
That’s true...
Lanyi found herself thinking the same thing.
She looked through the window toward the large young man riding outside.
A strange silver light seemed to shimmer faintly around him.
“Zhenyuan...”
“Ah! Yes, Young Lady, that’s the word!”
Both maids nodded.
The opposite of the Rouling blood flowing through me... Zhenyuan.
According to the books Father showed me, they possess tremendous power and are born to suppress creatures of Yin and evil spirits...
Lanyi thought quietly, tightening her grip on her handkerchief.
Stop thinking foolish thoughts, Lin Lanyi.
I am only going there to suppress this cursed power.
Then I can return to being the perfect young lady I was supposed to be...
The woman worthy of Young Master Gu Fang.
Yet no matter how fiercely she tried to discipline herself—
The heat radiating from the young man outside the carriage pulled at her like a powerful magnet.
Pabao seemed to feel the same disturbance.
He urged his horse farther ahead until he rode beside his mother’s carriage.
“Are you alright, Pabao?”
“I can still endure it, Mother...”
“But her power is incredibly strong.”
“I would rather not get too close to her yet.”
“It’s alright, my son. We’ll reach the estate soon.”
“And once we arrive, remember to warn your younger siblings as well.”
“Yes, Mother.”
The carriages continued along the mountain road.
The thick black mist gradually began to thin as the procession moved forward.
Strangely, the source of the clearing seemed to radiate outward from wherever the young Zhenyuan rode.
At last, the procession emerged from the oppressive forest of mist.
The sight through the carriage window left all three young women speechless.
Nestled between the mountains, completely isolated from the outside world, stood the Zhenyuan Village.
“Wow... Is that the Zhenyuan Village?”
“It’s much more beautiful than I expected! Young Lady, look!”
Lanyi turned toward the window.
Buildings of stone and timber stood strong and magnificent throughout the valley.
Orange Qi-lamps illuminated the settlement, casting warm light across a peaceful and prosperous community.
It looked nothing like the harsh, savage Cursed Lands she had heard about in rumors.
It’s beautiful...
After the long journey, the carriage finally came to a stop before a guest residence built from fragrant, high-quality wood.
Wei Pabao gracefully dismounted from his horse.
He walked to the carriage door and extended his broad, warm hand to receive their important guest.
The instant Lin Lanyi placed her slender hand into his palm and stepped down from the carriage, a faint but unmistakable fragrance struck him.
It was clean like the first fall of snow—
Yet beneath that purity lay a deep, intoxicating allure.
So this is... the direct Rouling bloodline.
Pabao clenched his jaw, forcing down the sudden skip of his heartbeat.
He was a well-trained Zhenyuan, strong-willed enough to resist ordinary seductive Qi.
But Lanyi’s scent was different.
It did not assault him with lust.
Instead, it seeped into his Qi like morning dew extinguishing restless heat...
Drawing him in so gently that it became difficult to look away.
“Come along, little Lanyi.”
Huifan stepped forward and took Lanyi’s hand, separating it from her son’s.
“Mother will show you to your residence.”
Little Lanyi? Mother?
Lanyi was far too surprised by Huifan’s choice of words to notice anything unusual about Pabao.
Meanwhile, Pabao hurried back to the main residence, where his two younger brothers were playing a wooden striking game.
“Oh? Big Brother is back?”
“You two... listen carefully.”
Pabao spoke sternly as he entered the main hall, his gaze sweeping across his two younger brothers, whose personalities could not have been more different.
“You are forbidden from approaching Miss Lin’s guest residence.”
“Her aura is far stronger than either of you can safely withstand.”
Puzhen, the second son, rose from his seat.
He possessed the firm, well-proportioned build of a warrior, and a mischievous smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
“Oh?”
“Why is that, Big Brother?”
“Is this noble lady from the capital really so charming?”
Beyuan, the youngest brother, spoke from where he lounged lazily in a carved wooden chair.
His face carried an easy, playful expression.
One hand idly spun a teacup while he crossed his arms with arrogant confidence in his own strength.
“Exactly, exactly!”
“Big Brother, are you captivated by her beauty—or by her Rouling Qi?”
“It is nothing like that...”
“Stop spouting such insolent nonsense this instant!”
A commanding voice rang out from behind the pearl-silk curtain.
The First Madam, Lady Pan—their mother—stepped into view.
Her movements carried all the dignity expected of the mistress of the household.
Although her sons were already grown men, her beauty remained remarkably radiant.
The two younger brothers instantly fell silent and sat upright the moment they saw their strict mother.
“Lanyi is not some ordinary Rouling for the two of you to joke about.”
Her voice was cold as she stared at them.
“Huifan has already told me.”
“Her Qi is so pure that it is nearly dangerous.”
“If either of you loses control and frightens her, that power could backlash so violently that you might cough blood.”
“Hmph. And what of it, Mother?”
Beyuan muttered with an unconvinced grin.
His narrow eyes gleamed with pride in his own Yang power.
“So what if her bloodline is pure?”
“We are Zhenyuan.”
“We’ve been trained our entire lives to strengthen and control our power.”
“There is nothing we cannot handle.”
“Rouling were born to pair with Zhenyuan like us, weren’t they?”
“She’s only a little girl whose power has just awakened.”
“What is there to be afraid of?”
Pabao frowned deeply at his younger brother’s arrogance.
Puzhen, on the other hand, gave a low laugh as if he found some truth in Beyuan’s words.
“Hahaha! Little Brother has a point.”
“Mother knows perfectly well how capable we Zhenyuan are.”
“If you truly had so little faith in our control, why would you dare let Fourth Sister travel around outside the valley all by herself?”
“Or perhaps what Mother truly means is that people born with exceptionally pure power are all equally stubborn... just like our fourth sibling?”
Lady Pan’s expression immediately changed.
“You two... Do not drag her into this!”
“Miss Lin came here to have her power sealed.”
“She did not come here so that the two of you could boast about your abilities!”
Worry flickered visibly through Lady Pan’s sharp, beautiful eyes.
For a brief moment, silence covered the hall at the mention of that child—
The one who possessed exceptionally pure Zhenyuan power, yet was so stubborn and unruly that no one could keep her confined within proper boundaries.
If that child comes home...
Lady Pan thought, her fingers tightening faintly.
She has always been mischievous and refuses to listen to anyone.
All I can do is hope she has no interest in testing herself against Lanyi...
She released a long, quiet sigh.
For a moment, her usually straight and dignified shoulders seemed burdened by a much heavier weight.
Perhaps it is fortunate that she is not currently at the estate.
“If either of you disobeys me, you will be punished!”
“Puzhen. Beyuan. Return to your rooms and practice your Qi.”
“And do not let me discover either of you sneaking around Miss Lin’s guest residence!”
After their mother finally left the hall...
The two brothers exchanged a glance.
Then both smiled with unmistakable mischief.
Something like this... has to be tested for ourselves!!!