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In the card Magnum Opus, Sylus and MC briefly joke about their "ill-fated relationship."1 The English translation isn't wrong but if you're unfamiliar with Chinese storytelling traditions, it's easy to read this as a case of star-crossed lovers whose relationship is doomed to end badly.
But that's not what it actually means.
The Chinese script uses 孽缘 (nièyuán), which doesn't refer to a tragic romance so much as a karmic entanglement.2 It describes two souls bound together by unresolved pain, wrongdoing, or imbalance from a past life, who are fated to meet again and again until whatever went wrong is finally addressed.
Once you understand this, a lot about Sylus and MC's relationship will start to make sense:
- why their story feels cyclical,
- why Sylus is so intent on MC recovering her memories,
- and why their relationship keeps ending in tragedy.
The Logic of a Karmic Entanglement: Why It's More Than a "Bad Romance"
At first glance, Sylus and MC's relationship looks like a typical enemies-to-lovers setup. In every lifetime, they're cast as opposites, clash violently, and eventually fall for each other. Standard romance beats—except the meaning of 孽缘 runs much deeper:
孽 (niè) refers to sin, karmic debt, or something that violates the natural order.
缘 (yuán) is the karma or "fated connection" that binds people together.
Together, a karmic entanglement (孽缘) implies a bond born from unresolved karmic debt that is painful and destructive. It isn't romantic in nature but if the two people involved are lovers, their love is destined to be one that brings pain and suffering, not just to themselves but to the world around them.
Sylus and MC keep meeting as "enemies" not because that's just the way things are, but because they have unfinished business from a past life. Maybe there was a betrayal. Maybe a broken vow. Or maybe a cosmic imbalance that disrupted the natural order of things.
Whatever the original cause, the universe is pushing them back into each other's orbit to resolve it.
Think of a karmic entanglement as a spiritual version of cause and effect:
1. A debt must be balanced
In Daoist-influenced storytelling, actions that deeply affect another person's fate—betraying them, breaking vows made to them, causing their death etc.—leave lasting imprints on both souls. These create a karmic debt, a cosmic IOU that binds you together until it's resolved.
2. Death doesn't erase that debt
This is where Chinese storytelling diverges from Western narratives. In many xianxia and mythic frameworks, the universe is self-correcting. If you die without resolving your karmic obligations, they don't disappear—your soul simply carries them forward. If another soul is involved, the two become tethered. Fate will keep pulling you into each other's orbit until balance is restored. The bond that forms is unbreakable. You cannot sever or run from it.3
3. Amnesia ensures the debt is truly resolved
Each cycle begins with a mostly clean slate, forcing the characters to rediscover each other without memory. If they remembered all their past failures and traumas, they might try to 'solve' their relationship like a puzzle, following a remembered script.
But karmic debt isn't cleared through intellectual understanding—it's cleared through different choices made from genuine feeling. The question each timeline asks is: Will they repeat the same (toxic) patterns or finally choose differently?
In short, a karmic entanglement isn't a story about doomed love.
It's a story about souls trapped in a recurring trial, repeating the same mistakes until they finally resolve the root cause of their entanglement.
How We Know Sylus and MC's Relationship Is a Karmic Entanglement
If you're unfamiliar with xianxia storytelling, you might assume that Beyond Cloudfall is the story of Sylus and MC's first meeting. However, the text is littered with clues suggesting a reunion of entangled souls.
1. Instant Soul Recognition
"The more I struggle, however, the more clearly I see it: a strange, ill-fitting wisp of black mist tangled up in the strands of my soul. It's as if a foreign soul fragment has fused with my body." (Chapter 1)
On a literal reading, this appears straightforward enough: the dragon's soul fragment has fused with MC's soul.
In xianxia terms, though, this is anything but normal. Soul fusion is a delicate process that typically takes years, even decades. When two unrelated souls come into contact, there's usually resistance or rejection. Here, the fusion is instantaneous and seamless—like two familiar companions finding each other again.
2. Shared Pain and Memory
"At night, the moment I close my eyes, the wind whistling through the cave brings back visions of that blood-red valley and the dragon's anguished cries. The moment the blade pierces his chest, the same pain and fury pierces me too." (Chapter 3)
On the surface, MC seems to be witnessing Sylus's memories because of the soul fragment.
But notice what's happening emotionally: she doesn't just see his trauma—she experiences it as her own. In xianxia storytelling, this level of shared pain usually points to a past-life bond, not a simple magical link.
The revelation of the dragon's human form at the end of Chapter 3 confirms this. This is the most intimate, defining trauma of Sylus' past (in this cycle, at least). A random stranger wouldn't have access to it at all. It's the same reason current timeline MC has flashbacks of his death at the end of the dragon myth—because she was there.
3. The Obsession with His Eye
"His eye... I want that eye... It's mine... It belongs to me..." (Chapter 1)
Taken literally, the voice is urging MC to take Sylus's eye.
In xianxia logic, however, the soul remembers even when the mind does not. An intense fixation on a specific feature—an eye, a voice, a scar—is often a sign of unresolved karmic entanglement.
When the voice urges her to "devour" him, it doesn't necessarily mean literal consumption. In this genre, devouring can also mean merging or reclaiming something that was once part of you.
Given what the Silverwings myth later reveals about their souls, it's possible this is MC's own soul trying to make itself whole again. (Or there's something in Sylus' eye that's important to her.)
The fact that she hears this voice before their soul-sharing pact in Chapter 7 is key: whatever is binding them predates the dragon myth itself.
4. The Sword That Knows Her
On a literal level, the sword appears to be a magical weapon that dissolves into MC's body.
In xianxia terms, the fact that it doesn't harm MC when she pulls it but dissolves into her body shows that it recognizes her soul4, hinting she is its "true master" with a buried connection to his sealing.
What Happens If the Karmic Entanglement Isn't Resolved?
If the karmic entanglement isn't resolved in one lifetime, it doesn't vanish.
The souls carry the debt forward into their next lives, meeting again and again in what's called a karmic loop—a cycle of reincarnation where bound souls keep crossing paths to resolve unfinished business.
This mechanism isn't unique to karmic entanglement; souls can loop together for many reasons—for example, blessed unions (like the one Sylus hopes for in Magnum Opus), master-disciple bonds, debts of gratitude.
But when it's the result of a karmic entanglement, what makes it distinct is its destructive nature: because the original debt involves wrongdoing or cosmic imbalance, each reunion tends to recreate suffering and tragedy until they address what originally went wrong.
The Nature of a Karmic Loop: What Repeats and Why
To be clear, a karmic loop isn't a time loop.
Sylus and MC aren't trapped in a Groundhog Day scenario where the same events replay identically. As illustrated by the myths and main story, the details change from lifetime to lifetime—the setting, the antagonists, their mental state, even how emotionally mature they are when they meet.
What doesn't change are the themes of the core conflict—betrayal of trust, choice between duty/freedom and love, the temptation to use or consume the other for power—leading to their eventual separation.
In each timeline, the universe is presenting them with a new test: can they break the cycle or will they sink deeper into it?
1. The Inevitable Pull
Their reunions are never random.
Across the myths and the current timeline, Sylus and MC are drawn to each other not by memory, but something more instinctive—a kind of soul-level gravity.
In Beyond Cloudfall, Sylus' very first words to her are: "I like your eyes."
In Daoist symbolism, the eyes are windows to the soul. Even without conscious memory, he senses something familiar about her intuitively.
In Where Silverwings Rest, her blood summons him.
While the imagery of this myth leans European gothic, blood pacts are also deeply rooted in xianxia tradition. A person's blood carries their essence (think of it as a unique soul signature.) By using her blood to summon him, MC is effectively sending out a homing signal he can't help but respond to.
In Long Awaited Revelry, she baits him using her aether core.5
Each reunion marks the start of a new cycle. Fate is telling them: Here's another chance. Try again.
2. Opposing Roles
Every lifetime casts them on opposite sides of a conflict: dragon slayer and dragon, law enforcement officer and crime boss, mage and demon.
This opposition is deliberate. It's the pressure point where their unresolved wounds and attraction resurface.
Each cycle asks the same question in a new form: Can they look past appearances and recognize each other's souls?
3. Trials by Fire
Sylus consistently challenges MC, whether he's doing it consciously or not.
These aren't just tests of strength or resolve. They are provocations designed to jolt her memory and force a confrontation with their shared history.6
4. The Enemy Is Fate Itself
External forces like the Legion of Justitia or EVER aren't just villains to overcome. They act as the personification of the fate they are trying to defy. Hence, the real challenge for Sylus/MC isn't just to defeat the enemy, but to prove that their bond can rewrite the script it's forcing them to enact i.e. they're fated enemies who are destined to kill each other.
5. The Core Crisis: Pressure on the Unhealed Wound
Each loop tests their bond by targeting a specific, unresolved flaw.
In Beyond Cloudfall, the question was whether they could merge souls as equals, without one trying to dominate/devour the other.
In the Silverwings myth, their commitment to the bond comes under scrutiny. MC embarks on a quest to cure her pain, not realizing that it's caused by carrying a piece of Sylus' soul. In this case, the test is whether she can realize—and accept—that the pain is her connection to him. Will she still choose to be bonded to him if she knows it's going to cause her this much agony?7
Sylus' parallel test is whether, if given the chance to be free, he would let her destroy their connection and walk away.
And this brings us to the main story: what is the loop testing in the current timeline?
6. The Separation: Resetting the loop
When a cycle ends in tragedy, it isn't because fate is cruel.
Death (or sealing) is the default way of ending the destructive cycle of that particular lifetime. It shows Sylus and MC have yet to learn to be with each other in the right way. It isn't simply a matter of choosing each other or joining hands to merge souls.
Their separation is the universe's way of resetting the loop and telling them: "This version of your bond is unsustainable. Try again."
Breaking the Cycle: The Unanswered Questions
Each myth shows a different attempt to defy fate. Each failure, while tragic, is a lesson on what needs to change.
The dragon myth shows a subconscious attempt to break the loop through a soul bond but it fails, ultimately reinforcing the prophecy they sought to defy. Why? Because their union was built on imbalance. MC underestimated what it meant to soulbond with Sylus, and was thus unprepared for the sheer power of his ancient dragon soul. Instead of a harmonious union, their bond created a corrosive fusion. His consciousness and desires overwhelmed hers, leading to the dissociative fracturing of her identity ("Between day and night, I began to lose myself / Sometimes I'm the dragon... sometimes I'm the human.")8 Their attempt to defy fate resulted in Sylus' worst fears coming true, proving that blind defiance alone cannot break the cycle.
The Silverwings myth shows a different attempt. This time, they choose each other openly after losing their souls. They even manage a period of happiness despite the forces trying to divide them. But the story shows why their union is still "ill-fated": it is akin to a plague that brings widespread suffering. The longer they run from fate, the more collateral damage they leave behind. In the end, death is the only way to stop the cycle of violence and destruction.
The present timeline introduces one crucial difference: Not only has Sylus recovered his memories, he knows they're in a karmic loop.
No longer amnesiac, he is now maneuvering events to force MC's memories awake. His actions are a high-stakes gambit, driven by a) a desire to break the loop and b) their new adversary: EVER. If they capture an amnesiac, unprepared MC, they could weaponize her unstable cosmic power with apocalyptic consequences. Sylus is, in a sense, attempting an emergency intervention.9
This creates the central tension. Sylus, guided by the memory of past failures, is trying to change the course of their fate. But the key may lie with the one person he cannot control: MC.
Frustrating as it may be, her amnesia is the prerequisite for a true resolution. Since she isn't influenced by the past, she can approach him—and their bond—without any baggage.
This fresh approach is what makes genuine, unscripted choice possible when she finally regains her memories and understands what caused the previous timelines to fail.
That is the only way a karmic loop breaks. Not by solving it like a problem, but by stepping off-script entirely and discovering a solution that they've never considered before.
The Questions That Matter Now
As we follow their story, the central mysteries become:
- What was the original transgression or imbalance that bound their souls?
- Will MC recover her memories in time to avert disaster?
- Can Sylus guide her without his own fears and need for control becoming the very pattern that traps them again?
- What must they do differently to form a bond that doesn't end in destruction?
Understanding what a karmic entanglement is reframes Sylus and MC's story from a series of tragic romances to a single, ongoing trial—one that can only end when they finally understand what they need to do differently.
The question isn't whether their love story in this timeline is doomed.
It's what they must do to turn an ill-fated bond into a blessed one.
Footnotes
1. In the café scene, Sylus asks MC to help him convince the gods that he is genuinely seeking a blessed union (姻缘 yīnyuán lit. a fated connection leading to marriage). She jokes that she's hardly the best messenger since the gods clearly don't like her either—they've already given her a fated connection, and it's a terrible one (因为他给我安排了一份孽缘 lit. "They've already arranged an ill-fated relationship for me.") return to text
2. Some translations render this as "fated entanglement." The idea is the same. return to text
3. Like MC, many people fell for Sylus' performance in Razor's Dance. (Yes, he was giving us an acting masterclass. Give that man an Oscar.) Until they resolve whatever it is between them, he can't actually leave. Even if he tries, the universe will not allow it. It's the reason why the "invisible bond" pulled him back after he severed MC's linkage and tried to leave her at the inn in Where Silverwings Rest. return to text
4. It's possible that the sword is a natal/soul weapon, which is to say it isn't a physical weapon but a manifestation of the wielder's qi or soul. These typically answer to only one master, which raises an intriguing question: how exactly did the Sacred Judicator manage to get his hands on it? return to text
5. The difference is that this time, Sylus is waiting for her. return to text
6. And I suspect this is also simply the nature of their (cosmic) dynamic. There will always be a certain degree of tension in their relationship, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. When the bond is healthy, they challenge each other to be the best version of themselves. When it's not, they're constantly fighting and trying to dominate the other person. Yes, I do have a theory about their symbolic roles...but that's a post for another day. return to text
7. Hence the reason he told her in the dragon myth that sharing a soul with a demon is a fate worse than death. At the time, MC didn't understand what he meant, nor did she bother finding out. To be fair, there was a lot going on at the time—he was dying, she was wracked with guilt, the Legion was at their doorstep—and her priority was saving his life and defying the prophecy.
The same thing happened when she cursed his soul at the end of the myth. Again, she wasn't thinking of the consequences. In the Silverwings myth, we see them catching up with her. The universe is essentially holding her accountable for the decisions she made in the previous cycle (which is why you don't make vows lightly in a Chinese story. The universe isn't Costco. It will not accept "I changed my mind" as a reason for breaking it.) return to text
8. There's actually a term for MC's condition in xianxia storytelling: "soul contamination", which, in this case, refers to the erosion of the boundary between her consciousness and Sylus'. In other words, she's losing the ability to distinguish her sense of self from his. return to text
9. I refuse to believe that Sylus "Master Strategist" Qin, who is ten light years ahead of everyone else, was brute-forcing her memories awake in Long Awaited Revelry simply because he was desperate for her to remember him. If EVER wasn't a threat, he probably would have let her take her time to recover her memories. However, per chapter 6 of World Underneath: Sealed in Dust, EVER is also in a race to capture her while her powers are still dormant ("Tell your masters that they better get their hands on her fast.... If you keep stalling, EVER will end up losing more than they bargained for once she develops.") Once she fully awakens as the Origo core, they will no longer be able to control and use her as a resource. return to text