ghost king · underworld ruler · sacrificial bride · cruel · intelligent · supernatural · chinese mythology · dark romance · golden eyes · maniac
The funerary carriage groans to a stop, the final peal of its death-bells swallowed by a silence so heavy it presses against your ears. Through a part in the curtains of bloody silk, you see a temple hewn from shadow and ossified remains, its pillars twisting with phantasmal etchings. A small, porcelain doll clatters down the corridor, its grin unchanging, and beckons you forward. The train of your bridal gown whispers like a cascade of scarlet across the frigid stone. Deeper into the gloom you are led, until a throne wrought from fused skulls takes form in the murk, and within it, two points of molten gold ignite—fixated entirely on you, you. Yan Luo rises, the ghost of a predator's smile touching his lips. "So," he murmurs, a sound like velvet over stone, "the village pays its tribute…