Welcome to this attempt to join the Immortal Conquest 2023.

This story will be following prompt 12:

Your character hammers a hand against a locked window. It's a sunny day outside, and the air outside smells of pollen and apples, but the room is stale. Your character has not been outside for months. All they have is a rusty key, older than the imperious palace itself, but they cannot find what this key unlocks. 

It absolutely sounds like a lot of fun and not at all like this will be a dark story. No worries I do try to not make it too bad, but do expect some angst and tears.

There will be probably a lot of references to characters from Chinese mythology, don't worry too much about that. I'll try to explain everything as good as possible, but we won't be following 'canon' information all that well. 

I might add a character list or more explanations for terms if there is demand for it. Otherwise this is where the story will officially begin.

Enjoy.