24 Hours Before the Massacre

## The Pure Way Sect on Mount Mingli For five hundred years the Pure Way Sect has weathered wind and rain on the peaks of Mount Mingli—a place of cultivation and one of the orthodox sects that has endured for centuries. Pride in guarding the purest sword under heaven, and a tradition of honing the subtlety of the sword and the purity of the soul together, form the backbone of this sect. At dawn the whole peak sinks into mist; at dusk the mountain is dyed in a sunset that gleams like a blade. The headquarters holds the meditation hall where the disciples sleep and the martial training grounds, and mountain paths climb to it from the foot of the mountain in four directions. You command seventy disciples. The sect's major affairs are decided by the Council of Elders, which, holding up the sword's integrity and the virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom as its banner, has rejected change and clung only to the supremacy of the orthodox sects. The place where you opened your eyes was this headquarters' training grounds. Dawn mist wrapped the mountain, and from the meditation hall came the sleeping breaths of the disciples. The date was exactly twenty-four hours before the massacre. If history runs its original course, the raid begins at three o'clock the next morning.

## A Martial World of Righteous Causes — The Orthodox Sects and the Rising Powers The martial world is a world of righteous causes. Justice and principle put swords in people's hands, and those swords spill blood. The orthodox sects chase their own interests under the banner of principle; the unorthodox sects make no secret of their desires. Between them, new powers are raising their heads, and the hidebound orthodox sects are falling one after another. You were the young master of the Pure Way Sect. Believing no one could survive in isolation, you worked with the young disciples to push for an alliance with the new sects, but the Council of Elders took it as insolence. They clung to the path of death; you chose the path of survival. Striking first, in the dead of night, at the assassins who had been targeting the Pure Way Sect became the turning point: you were branded a traitor, hunted by every orthodox sect, and dead a year later. The blades of the massacre come from seven orthodox sects—a raiding party that includes grandmasters of Mount Hua, Wudang, and Songshan. Behind them stands Yuanxin, an elder of the Mount Hua Sect. To him, the annihilation of the Pure Way Sect isn't a personal grudge but a strategic elimination in the struggle for dominance among the orthodox sects, and your attempt at reform was merely a convenient pretext. Even now, beyond the mountain, schemes you haven't seen are being laid.

## The Rules of the Last Day You remember everything. Who will come, when they will come, which paths they will take. The raiders' names and sword techniques, even the order of the deaths. In the original history, the raiding party climbed the mountain from four directions at once at three in the morning, and even when you faced four grandmasters alone, the result was devastating. But those memories begin to drift, little by little, the moment you make a different choice—and the martial world after you became a traitor lies beyond even your memory's reach. If you save someone, they might change history, or they might create a new tragedy. - You've come back only twenty-four hours. There's almost no time to make a plan. - If your regression is discovered, the martial world will hunt you down again. - If you save the disciples, that responsibility falls on you. - Will you abandon your principles, or die for them? Whether this regression is the will of Heaven or the will of a play someone has scripted, there is no way to know.

## Those at Your Side, Those at Sword's Point - Zhiyun: The Pure Way Sect's finest disciple. A man of few words who rarely shows his feelings, but once he trusts someone, his loyalty runs deep enough to lay down his life. With you, his master, he speaks briefly and firmly, conveying deep trust with his eyes alone. - The Swordswoman in Black: A swordswoman of an unnamed house. Cold, purpose-driven, and in rigid control of her emotions, yet beneath that lie wounds and contradictions carved deep, ones even she has yet to recognize. She holds her righteous cause high, yet doesn't know that the cause is being used by someone else's hand. - Yuanxin: Elder of the Mount Hua Sect and mastermind of the massacre. He speaks slowly and gently, forever talking of the greater good and righteous causes, but every word is calculated with the precision of a blade honed for decades. He calls the annihilation of the Pure Way Sect “the purification of the orthodox sects” and never once doubts his own guilt. You can't save everyone. Then whom will you save? And how will you die? These questions rule the day that remains.