An impenetrable black mana barrier rose around the girl, separating them on opposite sides. Aurora's eyes leaped from black to white, once again one step away from falling, on the limbo between life and death.

A shadow arose before Aurora. Covered only by black rags that draped her face, the stranger walked across two of the steppingstones until she reached the girl. Aurora noticed that she had no feet. Black chi was keeping her off the ground.

"We finally meet," the voice said, feminine, sweet but sharp. "I'm sorry, but your mentor can't hear this conversation. I thank him for what he did for the other necromancers, but this is a conversation that is taking place on a level of existence that he cannot access," she said.

"Am I dead?" Aurora asked her. Her fingers still buried in the dead soldier's brain.

The voice laughed, "Of course, not. All this is happening within you. You ask the same question your father once asked. But moving forward... I don't think we have much time. I'm not as strong as I once was. Let me ask you, what do you know about Yuanying, the Nascent Soul?"

"Not much... My adoptive father used to tell me legends in which cultivators could survive even after death. But only immortals, or those close to it, could get that far," Aurora said. She looked back and saw Liu-Ken punching the transparent barrier. His hands were shrouded in blue, smashing the wall, the color being sucked in by the near monolith.

"You know enough, then. There's something you have to understand before you proceed. Necromancers are different from other cultivators. They don't follow the same path as others. You are one of my personal envoys. Your path is unique and will be so if you want it. You don't have to conform to any rule or law of society," the voice said. She stepped forward and laid her hand on Aurora's left shoulder. She had no skin. It was just bones coated with black chi.

"Your special envoy? Who are you?" the girl asked.

"I am Yin. I bear death on my back, throughout the universe, and appear only to those who contain part of me. You are one of them, Aurora. Twenty years ago, your father asked for my help. He agreed to build up my army and fight for me in exchange for your survival. I did it. I was the one who left you at your adoptive parents' door and I was the one who left the note signed by your father," she said.

Aurora interrupted her, "Did my father sacrifice himself for me? Did you ask for his life in return?"

"Don't interrupt me again, girl," the voice said, the body increasing twice its size. "Your father made his choice. He knew he would be persecuted forever. No school would give him shelter. If he gave his life in battle, it was to give you a chance to survive. He fought until his last breath, his last gasp when the blade of the now leader of the Kaji School pierced his heart," she said.

"If my father was so valiant, so brave, why didn't he have a nascent soul?" Aurora asked, the anger once again producing an excess of black chi that clogged his meridians.

"Haven't you figured it out yet, kid? I am your nascent soul. Necromancers don't need to create a golden core for that. You don't need to spend dozens of years trying to be a god. Your body is also mine. It is the burden you carry. You can raise thousands of dead people, but death is the ending game for you. You do not have a second chance but to be reborn into another body and that is beyond my reach. It is from the domains of the Yami, Lord of Purgatory, and his minions to analyze and decide the destiny of each person's afterlife," the voice confessed, "I appear before you now to ask you if you will follow in your father's footsteps. I can feel the desire for vengeance flowing through your veins. I can give you the power to wipe out all the embassies of the Kaji School within a radius of a hundred kilometers from here. They won't even know what hit them."

It took Aurora about twenty seconds before she answered, "I have a question first. If you were on my father's side, on the necromancers’ side before, why didn't they win?"

She heard something being cracked and teeth shattering what sounded like a wooden log, but couldn't see anything beyond the black specter. "Good question. I was naive. I didn't expect my brother, Yang, to get involved in my affairs. He also has chosen people on this earth, people who walk among the crowd, possessing light powers, special healing powers, and others. He teamed up with Luan-Lu, the white-bearded old man who for decades ruled the Kaji School and overthrew not only all my necromancers but also the undead. It was they who took all my strength away from me, for I have only as much strength as my necromancers have. Your father still lasted long enough to bring down the old man. But his son, Quan-Lu, had a deity on his side and was strong enough to take advantage of our weaknesses. I only have two necromancers left. You're one of them," she told Aurora.

"Why didn't they kill you?"

"Girl, our time is running out. You must make a decision," the voice said, hasty as if it was afraid someone was listening and she could be located, "I am one of the two principles that govern this world. I cannot be killed. Only my disciples can, the reasons for my strength.”

"I appreciate the proposal, but I'll do it alone. I don't want your help. My revenge is mine and nobody else's," Aurora said, taking Yin by surprise.

"Idiot. One day, you'll understand what you refused. An immense power, the ability to raise dozens of dead, as many as your body and soul could raise. You'll lose months, maybe even years, until you reach what I could give you in seconds," she said.

"I believe so, but I'm still gonna do it alone. I'll train for that. One day I'll kill the leader of the Kaji School with my own sword and it will be because I made it happen, not because I accepted the easy path," she said.

The voice laughed. "Foolish as your father. He, too, refused my offer until he ran out of options. Have fun wasting your time," she said.

With a superfluous movement of hand, black chi wrapped around her body and she vanished as soon as her body flew into the ground. The barrier dissipated seconds later. Sweat ran down Liu-Ken's forehead, the blue of his hands transparent and one knee already on the ground.

"It was her, wasn't it?" he asked, gasping for breath, the words coming out one by one, separated by a brief pause.

"She?" Aurora echoed, pretending not to know what it was about. She wanted to keep it to herself, her little secret. An underlying fear that Liu-Ken would abandon her when he knew the proposal that had been made to her. To Aurora, it could only mean that the evil within her was greater than expected, that she was rotten inside, and there was no salvation. The girl bowed her head, unable to look the mentor in the eye.

"Yin. Only she has this kind of power. Don't ever get carried away!" Liu-Ken shouted. It was the first time he lost his composure. Even though he was tired, his fingers dripping with sweat and the folds of his robe frayed, he stood up and stared at Aurora. "It was because of her that your father died. I told him we were able to survive without help, but no, he had to sacrifice himself for her. Even after he had rejected her a dozen times." he said.

"Do you... blame me for my father's death? She said he did it for me," Aurora asked.

"Of course, I don’t. Girl, don't be an idiot," Liu-Ken replied, pressing the girl's forehead with two fingers and shoving her, "Your father did what he thought was necessary to protect you. I respect that. But she took advantage of him in a fragile and desperate moment. I will never forgive her for that. My only chance to fight back is to lead you through whatever path you choose, without ever resorting to her,".

"Then you're also moved by revenge," Aurora finished off, with a slightly sarcastic smile in the corner of her mouth.

"You're getting too smart for my taste," Liu-Ken replied and smiled. "What did she tell you?"

"She told me she could help me destroy all the Kaji Schools within miles. You don't have to worry. I refused. I'll get there with my own skills and training," Aurora told him and sat cross-legged, "I'm sorry I destroyed one of the bodies. I feel so tired,"

"It's normal. It's exhausting. This won’t be her last time talking to you, believe me. Do the breathing exercises and let the mana all around us energize you. I'll get something that can help you," he said.