Sanhua

Instead of her name, Sanhua is more commonly referred to as "the Magistrate's Bodyguard."

Sanhua is always seen standing silently behind Jinhsi, maintaining an adequate distance. She stands tall and poised, hidden in the periphery of others' gazes, like a sharp blade ready to be unsheathed at any moment.

Although the majority of voices opposing Jinhsi have already subsided, there are still a handful of individuals who would attempt to challenge her authority. Because Jinhsi still held the title of Jinzhou's Magistrate, the seemingly blunt and inflexible bodyguard by her side seemed the easier target for pressure. Or so they assumed.

Regardless of how impossible the ill-intended demands sounded, Sanhua can always flawlessly execute them to the utmost perfection.

With her impeccable time management, sharp intellect, cool under-pressure demeanor, and savvy negotiation skills... even the harshest critics were left stunned.

As the Magistrate's bodyguard, Sanhua handles both unruly daytime guests, and those uninvited guests who lurk in the shadows.

Being Jinzhou's Magistrate, Jinhsi is a prime target with a high price on her head. Unwelcome guests sought more than just a cup of tea, but they would soon learn their mistake: instead of hot tea, they were met with the razor-sharp blade of her bodyguard. The crimson-eyed bodyguard seemed to possess an uncanny ability to detect lies. Within seconds, she transformed into a fearsome Asura ready to strike.

One quick slash revealed shivering limbs as severed trouser legs fell in the cold air. This alone was enough to scare off most of the unwanted guests. Naturally, once the blade returned to its sheath, all shadows and shady dealings would be erased. Jinhsi's radiance would remain untainted, free from contamination.

But sometimes, even Sanhua meets surprises in life...

"Hello. You must be Madam Magistrate's bodyguard?"

So asked the strange resonator standing before her, who bears the same beautiful human-shaped frequency as Jinhsi.

Her world was suddenly filled with new ripples.

Sanhua's story began with the snow.

Her birthplace was destroyed by a Waveworn disaster, fueled by an unforgiving blizzard and the emergence of deadly Tacet Discords.

Within moments, all forms of life were crushed by the anomalous blizzard, only to be reshaped into a colossal TD standing atop the snowy mountain-turned-Tacet Field. The sight was both awe-inspiring and horrendous, as the entrenched TD loomed over the devastated landscape, both divine and demonic in its presence. It resembled a giant statue of the Asura.

The Midnight Rangers did everything in their power to finally defeat the colossal TD. Finally, it collapsed and disintegrated in piercing roars. While cleaning the battlefield, they were shocked to find a frozen infant amidst the wreckage, her body cold and tinted blue.

The infant was still breathing faintly.

No one could imagine how she could have survived such a cataclysm, nor did anyone have the time to ponder such thoughts. The Rangers wiped the bloodstains from their hands and carefully lifted her from the rubble. They shouted, "We found a baby! A survivor! She's alive!"

Their excited cries echoed far beyond the frontlines, instilling courage in every soldier and spreading their love for life across the battlefield, a comforting balm for their worn-out spirits. People believed this to be "a miracle of divine favor".

Several days later, the girl rescued from the depths of hell opened her captivating odd-colored eyes for the first time. Tacet Discords did not take her life, but instead corroded her right eye. The lingering frequencies miraculously reconfigured themselves into a new eye, allowing her, who was born blind, to directly see the frequencies of all things in the world.

— Unbeknownst to everyone back then, it was also a "Curse of the Lament".

The curse distorted everything in her eyes into grotesque, eerie, and cacophonous apparitions, disturbing her senses and shattering her perception of existence in the world. She saw no lies, but neither did she ever see light.

She relived that snowy night endlessly, struggling to escape hell only to fall back into it again, until she became an Asura herself. In a way, she was never truly rescued from that battlefield. Her world was a painting of purgatory, and she was doomed to be haunted by the Tacet Discords for the rest of her life, unable to break free.

Sanhua occasionally dreamt of the snow.

Since a young age, Sanhua had been silent and reserved, and not particularly good at social interactions. A chilling aura always enveloped her, cutting her off from others. Passersby were wary of the inexplicable frostbite it caused.

She was vigilant, dangerous, and unreadable. It might be hard for others to imagine that someone like Sanhua would have recurring nightmares about snow.

In her dreams, she was always lost in endless darkness, searching for a field of snow, or a glimmer of light. But in the next instant, she would be lying on the snowy ground, surrounded by twisted monsters. They gnawed at her as she lay among hundreds of shattered corpses. As they gouged out her eyes, darkness descended and only their flickering shadows remained. And then she woke up with a start.

As she grew older, her Forte became increasingly powerful. The restless demon lurked within her, urging her to follow TDs' instinctive hunger to consume frequencies: the power of snow became harder for her to contain, and even the frequencies between humans and TDs grew ever so challenging to distinguish.

At times, Sanhua thought she had escaped the nightmare, only to realize she was still trapped within and had been transformed into a monster. Was it her lack of compassion or the harshness of the snow that caused this? Or maybe, she was simply a part of the snow all along.

Confronting an inevitable fate entwined with demons, Sanhua embarked on a journey of self-imposed exile.

Recently, Sanhua still dreamt of the snow.

Sanhua never needed lights in her room; she could see perfectly in the darkness. So when she was jostled awake from another nightmare and noticed the presence of light, she immediately realized that it must be Jinhsi still working on her documents.

"Forgive me, my lady..." Sanhua apologized for not fulfilling her duty.

A young woman was writing vigorously at the lamp. Noticing movement, she raised her head, "I believe I asked you to rest up, Sanhua. I couldn't finish half by tomorrow morning without your help. You stayed up all night sorting them out."

"My lady, you must rest. Please let me handle these."

"Please, Sanhua. Would I really let you handle those boring papers alone? Not a chance." Jinhsi pondered for a moment, then offered a mischievous smile, "If you want to help, just stay and chat with me for a while. I'll be finishing up soon."

"Of course. What would you like to talk about? Shall I recite the Heart Sutra for you?"

"Oh, then tell me what you dreamt of? I believe I heard you mumbling in your sleep."

"Perhaps I was reciting the Heart Sutra in my dream, then."

"...Do we have to keep going back to that? Truth be told, working on these documents does begin to tire me..."

"Hmm... I dreamt of you, my lady. You were standing in the snow... You looked beautiful."

Sanhua responded with a warm smile. Her journey ahead was no longer alone.

Sanhua had seen the snow before.

Sanhua traversed various places during her exile. She journeyed to remote mountains and plains, gazing over a desolate, uncharted expanse from a cliff.

She witnessed star-shaped fissures spread across the land — The Tacet Marks, from which TDs continuously were hatched. They corroded the land humanity relies on for survival, like how they once corroded her eyes.

Sanhua tried to slay the monsters but found no solace. The never-ending chaos of noise tormented her, day and night. Her only motivation was survival, pushing her forward despite the constant assault on her senses.

She was like a kite floating atop the wilderness, guided only by a thin thread that would seem to break at any moment. She let the snow pummel her, lost and directionless. Wherever she roamed, blizzards would ravage everything in their path. She became a calamity.

As word of Sanhua's notoriety spread, people came after her. She didn't know who they were, or why they were trying to kill her. She somehow realized she must contain the devil within, but panic always prevailed and she would always fight before fleeing in distress.

Until one day, she was cornered and trapped in the mountains. It was then that she finally "saw" the snow – a golden shower of radiant snowflakes, like petals falling from the sky.

The sight was mesmerizing. She forgot her dilemma and pain, drawn by a deep, magical voice that calmed her mind. As the blizzard cleared, she found herself surrounded by golden snow. A man appeared and revealed himself to be the abbot. She soon realized it was all an illusion meant to enlighten her.

"All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow; like dew or a flash of lightning. Thus one should contemplate them in this way. What you perceive as suffering, yet you do not know that suffering leads to salvation... Only with one's karma, may one's cause and outcome arise."

Sanhua barely understood the meaning of those words, yet she did not attempt to escape. The abbot accepted her... or rather, she was captured and taken into the temple, like a stray cat. No one could have predicted that she would be tamed not by force, but by the silent falling flowers and a piece of advice.

In the temple, she was bestowed the dharma name "Sanhua". She practiced swordsmanship and recited the Heart Sutra daily with the other monks.

Sanhua wondered: If karma helps hatching every cause into its fated outcome, then to what outcome will her own karma lead her?

Sanhua stood once again on the battlefield, where blood and fire intertwined, ready to fight for what was taken from her. Years ago, they took her eyes and her once-home, when she couldn't fight back. But now, she was on the battlefield as a warrior, with the snow as her curse, as her blade.

Her eyes were starting to strain from the overwhelming TD frequencies, and her ears were filled with deafening screams. Through the blizzard, she saw a horrific sight that resembled her previous nightmare, one that she hadn't dreamed of in years.

Hundreds of corpses piled together to form a massive Asura before her, but upon closer inspection, she recognized the faces of those she called companions...

She was trapped in an illusion, watching helplessly as the demon within her consumed her with vicious force. Her abilities, once a source of power, now controlled and devoured her. The curse that gave her strength seemed futile against the overwhelming force of the Lament.

"...In the end, nothing ever changed."

Sanhua collapsed from exhaustion, overwhelmed by monsters and hallucinations. She muttered quietly to herself as she hit the ground.

She lost count of how many injuries she had sustained, only feeling warmth slipping away from her. She was back in the nightmare of her childhood, lying once again on that snow field. Coldness consumed her body as she melted into the icy ground.

As the world descended into a state of complete silence and darkness, a fleck of white entered her blurry vision.

"...Snow..."

Sanhua reached out, longing to touch that coldness, but her fingertips were greeted by warmth instead.

...No, it was not a snowflake.

Sanhua struggled to blink as the clear sight of a young woman gradually emerged in her vision. It was a frequency she had never seen before.

The young woman stood before Sanhua, shielding her from harm. Lightning seemed to flow at her fingertips. The chaotic blizzard that swirled around Sanhua was drawn towards her, and she guided those frequencies, gradually bringing them to stability. The seasons changed around them, distant thunder and winds signaling its arrival. Like a divine child responding to prayers, she eradicated all the Tacet Discords with her dazzling lightning.

Following the melting of ice, the piercing cries in Sanhua's ears gradually subsided. She no longer heard the painful screams of the battlefield, but the sounds of blowing wind, chirping birds, and the rejuvenating earth. It was at that moment when she finally broke free from that snowy night, and the once-frozen time started flowing again in her life.

That was when Sanhua finally understood what karma had in store for her.

"Only with one's karma, may one's cause and outcome arise." Jinhsi has shown Sanhua the power of rebirth in destruction. Jinhsi... She may be the guiding light for all people during this devastating time.

The future Jinhsi has demonstrated is precisely where her fate lies. The light she has been pursuing in the darkness all this time.

Sanhua took up her blade again. This time, she has transformed her demons into the power for protection.