The Gate of Eternity Curse of Heaven

THE PRINCESS DARKNESS

Xiao Yingmei remembered, seven hundred years before the birth of Lin Fengtian and Zhao Lingyun. At that time in the Highest Shadow Tower, a ten-year-old girl stood tall before the mentors of the darkness realm. Xiao Yingmei—a name that would later become legend—faced the final test that would determine her fate as the heir to the Shadow Realm throne.

The obsidian chamber was cold, illuminated only by shadow crystals emitting a dim purple light. Five eldest elders of the shadow realm sat surrounding her, their transparent eyes observing every movement of the child.

"Show us your abilities, Princess of Darkness," Mentor Kai's voice—head of the training council—sounded like a whisper of wind among tombstones.

Xiao Yingmei closed her eyes. She was no ordinary girl. Her blood flowed with a different darkness energy—purer, more complex than her predecessors. When she opened her eyes, her red irises flickered with a strange light—half blood-red, half pitch-black.

The shadows in the room began to move, not merely following her movements, but as if they had a will of their own. They formed intricate figures: shadow warriors, imaginary dragons, impossible architectural structures. Each shadow moved with astonishing precision, as if they were extensions of her body.

"She's different," whispered one elder to another. "Her blood... it's not pure shadow."

Indeed. Xiao Yingmei was of mixed descent—her father was a supreme shadow general, while her mother was a wanderer from the between realm, a mysterious being capable of crossing realm boundaries.

Mentor Kai stepped forward, his darkness energy attempting to test the princess's limits. He sent an energy wave strong enough to paralyze ten high-level warriors. But Xiao Yingmei only smiled—the shadows around her spun, absorbing and neutralizing the attack.

"I don't want to merely defend," she said with a voice that a ten-year-old shouldn't possess. "I want to change everything."

Stories of her exceptional nature had already spread throughout the shadow realm. She could do things impossible for most darkness dwellers. Shadows weren't just tools for defense or attack—in her hands, they became extensions of consciousness.

That same night, in the farthest secret chamber of the palace, an old fortune teller read her fate lines. The destiny lines he saw were unusual—their branches formed complex patterns he had never seen before.

"She will give birth to the bearers of balance," the fortune teller whispered to himself. "Two children who will change everything."

Xiao Yingmei didn't know the future that would come. She only knew that she was different, and that difference was both power and curse.

Years later, when she met Li Tianshen—the God of War from the Celestial Realm—she finally understood why she never felt fully belonging to the shadow realm. Their meeting in the Hall of Balance wasn't coincidence, but rather a knot of destiny sewn long before they were born.

"You're not just a shadow being," Li Tianshen whispered to her when they first met. "You are the missing key to balance."

Xiao Yingmei smiled. She knew that her love for Li Tianshen would bring unimaginable consequences. The birth of Lin Fengtian and Zhao Lingyun—their children—would become a turning point in realm history.

Somewhere between realms, the mysterious figure who had been watching—the Last Gate Keeper—smiled. The plan that began hundreds of years ago would finally reach its peak.

In the eternal silence of the shadow realm, the story of Xiao Yingmei's birth remained stored in secrets that even shadows were reluctant to reveal.

Twenty years before the test night at the Highest Shadow Tower, in a place untraceable by maps or memories, a woman named Mei Lin stood at the edge of an inter-realm chasm. Her body was neither purely human nor entirely shadow being. She was a transcendent being—a transition between form and void.

Xiao Yingmei's father, Zhang Wei, was the most feared shadow general in history. His presence was more legend than human. His black eyes could strip bare hidden secrets, and his every movement brought shadows to life. Yet, behind the harshness and strength lay an unspoken longing.

The meeting of Mei Lin and Zhang Wei wasn't coincidental. It happened one night when the inter-realm gate opened—a rare moment occurring once every thousand years. Mei Lin was a realm explorer, a mysterious being capable of penetrating reality's boundaries. Her body was composed of invisible energy, moving like living mist, changing form at will.

"You're different," Zhang Wei whispered when he first saw her. His voice was deep, like the rustling of shadows moving between black stones.

Mei Lin smiled—a smile that couldn't be described in words. "I am the gap between what exists and what doesn't," she answered.

They didn't form a relationship in any conventional way. Their meeting was a meeting of energies—a cosmic ritual deeper than mere biological connection. Zhang Wei brought part of his darkness energy, while Mei Lin brought pieces of consciousness from hidden realms.

Xiao Yingmei's birth itself was full of mystery. There were no cries, no blood. She appeared among shadows on the night of a total eclipse—when the last light disappeared and darkness reached its peak. The shadow realm elders recorded her birth moment as a sign—not just the birth of a child, but the emergence of a new possibility.

Mei Lin knew her child was special. From the first time she touched Xiao Yingmei, she could feel different energy flowing through the baby's body. Not just pure darkness energy, but something more complex—a weave of shadow, light, and consciousness that had never existed before.

"My child," she whispered one night, "you will become a bridge."

Zhang Wei was rarely close to his family. As supreme general, he more often fought at realm borders, maintaining the fragile balance. However, every time he saw Xiao Yingmei, something stirred within him—an inexplicable instinct.

When Xiao Yingmei was three years old, she showed signs of her power for the first time. One night, the shadows in her bedroom began moving on their own—forming complex figures, moving with impossible intelligence.

Mei Lin watched with a mysterious smile. "She has begun speaking with shadows," she murmured.

Zhang Wei, who had just returned from battle at the realm border, only watched in silence. His dark eyes tried to read his child's future—a future that even for a shadow general like himself was difficult to predict.

No one knew—not even Xiao Yingmei herself—that her birth was part of a cosmic plan begun thousands of years earlier. Every detail in her life had been arranged, every meeting sewn with invisible threads of destiny.

Somewhere between realms, the mysterious figure—the Last Gate Keeper—smiled. The intricate plan began to move, slowly but surely