The world was divided into the mortal realm and the divine realm.

The Rain Clan belonged to the divine realm. They could hear the prayers from the mortal realm.

The Rain Maidens would bring rainfall to the mortal realm through prayers. They could ascend to heavens through cultivation.

In the Rain Clan, every rain maiden was born with a dragon who would ascend with her and become her mount.

When my sister and I were born, we shared only one spirit beast—a white dragon.

The white dragon was the lowest of all dragons, yet I ignored the clan’s objections and insisted on forming a bond with him so that we could ascend.

However, on the day I succeeded in calling the rain and married him, he shot an arrow straight through me while I was pregnant and at my weakest from summoning rain.

As I lay dying, I saw him rush toward my sister. “Leigh, now I can finally be with you forever.”

Only then did I realize the white dragon had chosen me under pretenses to help Leigh ascend.

When I opened my eyes again, he and I had both returned to the day of our bond.

There, he learned that Leigh was the true heir to the Rain Goddess mantle.

He dropped to his knees and loudly confessed that he had always loved Leigh, and that he wished only to be her mount.

Everyone knew I had spent half my cultivation to save him when he first hatched.

I smiled and pointed at a mottled green snake at the edge of the barrier.

The white dragon thought that as long as he bonded with my sister, he would ascend.

However, what he never knew was that without me, Leigh could never ascend.

“Chloe, what are you standing there for? It’s time for the bond.”

Bond?

Great. I had actually returned to the day of bonding with Marty, the white dragon.

“Father, I—”

However, before I could finish, Leigh and Marty dropped to their knees, hand in hand.

“Chief,” Marty said, “although I am the spirit beast of two maidens, my heart belongs only to Leigh. Let me bond with her, please.”

At his words, the entire Rain Clan gasped.

Back then, as a spirit beast, he couldn’t even break out of his shell. It was I who exhausted half of my cultivation to help him hatch.

A white dragon was originally the lowest bloodline of dragons. If I hadn’t insisted on making him my spirit beast, he wouldn’t even be qualified to stand here.

Now, he had turned me into the laughingstock of the Rain Clan.

When I saw the look he gave me, I knew he had been reborn, too.

My aunt stepped forward and slapped him.

“Do you even know your place? How dare you choose a maiden on your own?”

Every maiden, when ascending to the rain altar, needed a dragon at her side to summon wind and rain. The better the bond between maiden and beast, the stronger the effect of the prayer.

However, Leigh and I had been born to share one dragon.

Back when he was only a lifeless black egg, Leigh forced him awake, shattering his shell and nearly killing him. It was I who spent half my spirit power and used my heart’s blood to help him break free.

The white dragon wiped the blood from his mouth and glared at my aunt with hatred.

“Love can’t be forced. If I deceived Chloe and bonded with her, it would be meaningless. I wouldn’t be able to help her ascend. So why must you insist, Deputy Chief?”

Marty’s words sounded deep and passionate, but I knew the truth.

He was actually the ninth prince of the Heaven Clan. In his past life, he had fallen in love with a mortal woman.

His so-called love for Leigh was only because she reminded him of the woman he had once betrayed.

Yet Leigh truly believed that the prince loved her deeply.

Father, holding back his rage, raised his hand to strike Marty dead, only for Leigh to throw herself in front of him.

“Father, Marty and I are truly in love!”

Father slowly lowered his hand, his voice filled with disappointment.

“Marty’s spirit power is too weak. If you bond with him, it won’t do much to strengthen your cultivation. Why not let me find you the strongest spirit beast?”

“Chloe has always been stronger than I in spirit power. I’ve been weak and sick since childhood. She killed our mother and brother, yet Father still wants her to be the heir. How is that fair? Letting me have Marty is what she owes me!”

My eyes reddened as I looked toward my aunt.

Leigh and I were born of the same mother. She came first, but there had been another baby still in our mother’s womb.

The moment I was born, that child stopped breathing. Mother bled to death, and from then on, I bore the stigma of killing my mother and brother.

Because Leigh was weak, her spirit power grew slowly.

A witch doctor said my blood could boost her spirit power and cure any poison. After that, I became her medicine. Every time she suffered, Father made me suffer a hundred times worse.

In my previous life, Leigh once said she had never seen a maiden and a beast fight. So, she threw me into the Valley of Beasts. I was nearly torn apart before my aunt set up a barrier and saved me.

On my birthday, she spiked my wine and threw me into the prisoner camp, powerless. My aunt, frantic, tracked me down with all her might and carried me back.

Later, when Leigh’s face grew scarred, she demanded a new one.

So the witch doctor stripped my face and grafted it onto hers. From then on, she became the beauty of the Great Wasteland, while I became its ugliest monster.

I kneeled on the ground. “Father, I’m willing to give Marty to my sister.”

“But what about you? Today was supposed to be your bonding ceremony with Marty. If the bond doesn’t happen, then which maiden will pray for rain today?”

I stood up and pointed at a green snake outside the barrier.

“I can bond with him and pray for rain!”

Leigh glanced at the mottled green snake beyond the barrier and pretended to persuade me kindly. “Chloe, there’s no need to rush like this. A rain maiden must ride a dragon to soar into the sky. You must be mistaken, seeing a snake as a dragon.”

The crowd whispered as I pulled the snake toward me with my spirit power.

“Princess Chloe is confused. A white dragon, no matter how weak, is still a dragon. At today’s ceremony, I’m afraid only Princess Leigh can put an end to the drought on Earth.”

Everyone’s eyes turned expectantly to Leigh. The first prayer after a rain maiden and her spirit beast bonding would take place at the rain altar.

If successful, the maiden’s power would grow immensely, giving her a greater chance of ascending.

However, Father suddenly stepped forward to hold Leigh back. “Leigh, your body is frail. Today, just form the bond. Don’t stir up further trouble.

“As a rain maiden, if you can’t bring rain, then even with a spirit beast, ascension will be nearly impossible.”

I admired my fresh manicure and looked at Leigh with a faint smile.

“Who said I can’t? Today, I’ll show you who the true future rain goddess is!”

Leigh held Marty’s hand and stepped onto the rain altar.

Marty hated being touched. In my previous life, I thought he was simply cold by nature, but now I know he just loathed me and my looks.

When facing Leigh, the most beautiful woman in the Wasteland, his heart raced.

He began to summon his true form, preparing to ascend. However, before he could even pass the first heaven, the immense spirit power of the rain altar forced him to crash back down, spitting blood.

“Leigh, help me.”

He looked up at her with puppy-dog eyes.

“Presumptuous! Leigh has been frail since childhood. Do you know how much effort I’ve spent helping her cultivate her strength? How can we waste her power on you?”

Father shielded Leigh and struck Marty hard, sending him flying.

“If you can’t transform into your dragon form and ascend with your own power, then today’s bonding ends here.”

Marty’s gaze shifted to me. “Princess Chloe, you raised me with your heart’s blood since I was young. Can you really bear to watch me suffer like this?”

In the past, I would have given him my spirit blood without hesitation.

However, before I could speak, Evan, the green snake, stepped in front of me. “You humiliated Princess Chloe today, and you still dare ask her for help?”

Shame and rage burned on Marty’s face. He clenched his fists and slowly stood. “Fine. Today, I’ll prove that I can ascend on my own.”

After forty-nine failed attempts, his body battered and bleeding, Marty finally took flight.

Leigh mounted him, and together they called the rain. A fresh, damp aura spread through the area, and the clansmen basked in delight.

Grass sprouted, and spirit power filled the air.

In the crystal orb, the mortal realm appeared. Clouds gathered, and the emperor stood at the rain altar, burning three sticks of incense.

Everyone awaited the long-desired rainfall that would end three years of drought.

Suddenly, Marty lost control and plummeted from the Ninth Heaven. At the same time, the damp aura around us suddenly pulled on the clansmen’s spirit power.

The sky in the mortal realm instantly turned into blazing sunlight.

Leigh struggled desperately, wanting to try again. However, a bolt of heavenly thunder struck her down, slamming her heavily onto the rain altar.

“Impossible! I’m clearly the one most qualified to bring rain and ascend!”

Furious, Leigh pointed at me and cursed. “It’s you! You tampered with it, didn’t you?”

Father’s heart ached as he pulled Leigh into his arms, his face stern as he looked at me.

“Chloe, Leigh is your elder sister. How could you plot against her?”

The clansmen, their spirit power drained, turned on me as well.

“Princess Chloe, even if you’re jealous of Princess Leigh, you should think of the greater good.”

“That’s right. If this rain fails, who in the Rain Clan will be able to ascend and protect our clan?”

I crossed my arms and looked coldly at Father. “Are you really going to twist black into white? Don’t you know why Leigh failed?”

Father always favored Leigh.

Every spell I found growing up, she always got to choose first, while I endured harsh training within the clan.

Only my aunt cared for me, and before my death, she told me the truth.

I was not the murderer of my mother and brother.

“That day, when Mother and a mortal woman both went into labor, the mortal woman began to hemorrhage. It was you, Father, that unleashed the water beast in order to save the mortal woman.

“Mother fought the water beast during childbirth. While she was at her weakest, you drew her divine bone to save the mortal woman, your long-lost love. Because of that, I was nearly never born, and my brother died in the womb.”

Father tried to seal my lips, but his divine power had no effect on me.

“Had Leigh’s mother endured the burden of the divine and survived childbirth, would you not have married her instead?

“To cover up the truth, you carried me out and publicly declared me a cursed star, saying I was the one who killed my mother and brother. From then on, you forced me to bear that crime and trained me mercilessly.

“I used to be so naïve, thinking that if I one day succeeded in bringing rain, you would finally recognize me. I wanted to protect the Rain Clan and make up for the harm I supposedly caused.

“It wasn’t until Mother’s death anniversary, when I saw you at Carefree Mountain, at a nameless grave. You admitted then the real reason you trained me. Leigh, born of half-mortal blood, was frail and sickly. You planned to strip my divine bone so she could ascend in my place.

“All those years I fed Leigh with my heart’s blood, it was only to help her adapt to my divine bone bit by bit so her body wouldn’t reject it.”

“Enough!” Father clenched his fists, glaring coldly at me. “I don’t know where you heard such nonsense. Considering your youth, I won’t punish you today. Return to your Water Moon Cave and reflect.”

I lifted my skirt and walked onto the rain altar, standing tall at the center.

“Father, I think I’ve done more than enough. Now, the mortal emperor is praying for rain. If the rain doesn’t fall today, aren’t you afraid the Ninth Heaven will demand an explanation?”

The clansmen, still drained of power, began to doubt. Now that they knew Leigh carried impure blood, their eyes shifted toward me.

“Lucas, let Chloe try. Otherwise, how will we answer to the Ninth Heaven?”

My aunt pressed at the right moment, forcing Father to agree reluctantly.

I reached out and pulled Evan onto the rain altar. He instantly felt the crushing weight of its spirit power, barely able to stand straight.

I pricked my finger and offered him my blood, but he shook his head.

“If I don’t have the strength on my own, then I’m not worthy to be your spirit beast. Please, Princess, let me try myself.”

“You talk too much. We’re about to form a bond. You are my partner now, and partners share both hardship and joy.”

“Princess Chloe, he’s just a green snake. If you insist on contracting with him, I fear he doesn’t have the strength to carry you and summon the rain.” Marty folded his arms, sneering.

I flicked a finger, blasting him a hundred feet away from the rain altar.

I continued to channel my power.

Evan’s head throbbed with pain, but horns sprouted on his head, and his scales shone a brilliant green light.

From a distance, he looked no different from a green dragon.

With a roar, he lifted me high into the skies.

“No matter how much he looks like a dragon, he’s not one! Green dragons are the strongest among dragons. A green snake can’t possibly be one. It’s just an illusion!”

Marty ground his teeth in hatred, deliberately mocking Evan.

The other clan leaders grew worried, too, urging me not to risk ruining the ceremony out of pride.

However, just as they were ready to leave in disappointment, the plants around the rain altar suddenly flourished, vibrant and lush.

Spirit power overflowed, filling every clansman with warm, healing strength.

In the crystal orb, storm clouds once again gathered over the mortal world. The emperor’s face lit up with joy.

“Rain! The Goddess has brought rain!”

The mortals below cheered, kneeling in front of the Rain Goddess Temple.

“Thank you, Goddess, for bringing the blessed rain!”

“Thank you for bringing us the blessed rain!”