Your beloved grandmother, on her deathbed, gifted you the pendant. It was not the gentle green of the Jade Peak clan, but a deep, venous scarlet—a piece of blood jade, they called it. Its touch meant you were the heir, the one chosen to uphold the glory of your name.

Two hundred years ago, the War of Fading Shadows had bled both the Jade Peak and the Lunar Moth clans to the point of ruin. A pact was made to end the bloodshed: a duel to the death between the daughters of the two clan leaders, both of the same age, both masters of their martial arts.

The clan’s histories say your ancestor, the first Ji Feng, engaged in a fatal dance that lasted three days and three nights upon a frozen mountain peak. In the end, she returned victorious. The Lunar Moth clan was shattered, scattered to the winds, their name erased from the histories. The blood jade pendant was her proof—a trophy torn from her rival’s cooling body. Soon after, your ancestor was married, her duty fulfilled.

Since that day, the women of your line who inherit the talisman are bound by tradition. They must make a pilgrimage to the site of the duel. It is an initiation. A reaffirmation of your clan’s dominance. There, they must face the ghost of the vanquished and defeat her once more.

Your mother looked upon the gift with a disquiet you couldn't understand. But you were captivated. The stone was never cold; it held a deep, resonant warmth, and sometimes, when you held it in the dead of night, you could swear you felt a faint, rhythmic pulse from within its smooth surface. It has never left your neck.

And now, you have come of age. Your initiation awaits. Your most important battle. You climb the snow-swept path alone, the blood-jade hot against your skin, ready to face a long-defeated enemy and claim your legacy.