Chapter 2

The moment I rounded the corner, a sword touched my throat again.

If I had not stepped back in time, it would have opened a cut.

Yan Ye’s expression was dark. “Don’t let me find the evidence.”

I gave him an exquisitely innocent smile.

“What evidence?”

“Junior Brother, whatever are you talking about?”

Yan Ye met my gaze and smiled, but there was no warmth in it.

He lowered his sword. “Second Senior Sister.”

“You can hide behind Senior Brother for now, but sooner or later, you’ll be alone.”

It was a naked threat.

Even knowing that I was destined to die, I could not stop a shiver from running through me.

I was about to answer when footsteps hurried toward us from beyond the corridor.

“Senior Sister!”

Yan Ye vanished at once.

I turned and saw Xu Youchan rushing after me.

Her hair was a little disheveled, and the collar of her inner robe had fallen open, revealing skin as fine and pale as mutton-fat jade.

“What is it?” I asked with a smile.

Inside, I praised Yan Ye. He could spot deception, endure humiliation, and act when needed. He truly had the makings of a male lead.

He might just barely be worthy of my precious girl.

Xu Youchan’s steps faltered.

Her face went paler. “Senior Sister, there is no man I love.”

I was wondering what the other male leads were like when –

Wait.

What?

I froze.

Oh.

She must have feared that I resented her for accidentally ruining my ceremony with Chen Yuan, so she had hurried over to explain.

I was deeply moved.

My precious girl was so innocent and kind.

Xu Youchan’s face turned even whiter.

Her gaze settled on the wooden hairpin at my temple.

“That hairpin… did Senior Brother give it to you?”

Here it came.

That year, beneath the misty apricot blossoms, you said you would carve a hairpin for the woman you loved. I glimpsed the pear blossoms you had carved – my favorite flowers – only to see the pin appear in my rival’s hair.

Summoning my inner schemer, I covered my mouth and laughed.

“Chen Yuan gave it to me. It was his first time carving one, so the workmanship is a little crude.”

“But he said that as long as I liked them, he would carve hairpins for me for the rest of our lives.”

I added with deliberate provocation, “Do you like it too, Junior Sister?”

Xu Youchan’s lips moved. She trembled faintly.

Before I could look more closely, the glimmer of tears in her eyes had already vanished.

She bit her lip and asked abruptly, “Senior Sister… could I trade my Exquisite Eight-Treasure Hairpin for yours?”

That was an extraordinary treasure. Trading it for this shabby piece of wood would be an appalling waste.

I curled my lip inwardly.

“If you like it, you can have it.”

“It’s only a hairpin. If I want another, Chen Yuan will carve one for me.”

I tossed it to her with a contemptuous expression.

What a wonderful performance, wasted on the blind.

The young woman caught the hairpin and merely inclined her head.

“Thank you, Senior Sister.”

We parted beneath the long corridor.

In the quiet wind, I heard a nearly imperceptible crack.

It sounded like wood splitting.

Yet when I looked back, all I saw was the young woman’s slender, lonely figure.

The poison gradually accumulated in her body.

As the color slowly returned to her face, more and more blood vessels appeared in her eyes.

I stopped adding poison to her medicine and replaced it with an immortal herb that aided cultivation.

At last, Yan Ye left the sect on a mission.

I suggested to Chen Yuan that we hold a banquet to celebrate Junior Sister’s safe return.

He looked at me with a complicated expression.

“Ci, you no longer blame Youchan?”

“What is there to blame?” I smiled gently. “Youchan is still young. She did not mean to disrupt our bonding ceremony.”

“Besides, she is our junior sister. Even if she made a mistake, it is our duty to be forgiving.”

Chen Yuan bent down and kissed my forehead with a sigh.

“If only Youchan were as understanding as you.”

I smiled.

But I did not miss the stiffness in his body when his lips touched my skin.

On the day of the banquet, I went alone to fetch Xu Youchan.

She had rarely left her quarters lately.

There was no need to guess why. She could no longer suppress the demonic energy in her body.

I peered in through the window.

The room was in ruins. Sword strikes had shredded the bedding. The person on the floor sat with her head bowed, her hair disheveled and her inner robe soaked in blood.

Her bonded spirit sword, Frostfall, was clenched tightly in her hand like her last lifeline.

The ward around the door flickered faintly.

“She’s about to fall into demonic deviation,” the system said without emotion.

“Go in.”

My hand trembled as I undid the ward.

“This is a road she must walk. Every trial is only a stepping stone to make her stronger.”

“You want her to become stronger too, don’t you?”

The door creaked.

As it swung open, the ward dissolved.

Ferocious sword energy shot toward my face, stopping a hair’s breadth from my eye.

The young woman coughed up a great mouthful of blood.

Crimson flooded her smoky-gray eyes.

Xu Youchan lowered her gaze to conceal the change. “Senior… Sister.”

Cold sweat covered my back.

I forced myself not to wipe the blood from her lips.

“Junior Sister.”

Smiling warmly, I walked toward her.

She coughed up more blood and struggled backward.

“Senior Sister, don’t come any closer. I can’t control -”

“Chen Yuan and I are going to complete our bonding ceremony.”

I spoke over her.

“Today.”

“Junior Sister, I’ve come to invite you to our ceremony.”

I stretched out a hand, smiling down at her from above.

Did it hurt?

Her cultivation had stagnated. Her wounds festered over and over. Like a cripple, she could only hide in this room and suffer each day.

Did she hate?

The senior brother she loved had abandoned her overnight. Her lonely courage in fighting her way out of the demon caverns with him had become a joke.

Did she resent it?

He had a beautiful bride beside him and every reason to be proud, while demonic energy tore through her body, piercing her heart and rending her insides without mercy.

I advanced one step at a time.

She retreated in panic, her tangled hair hiding her eyes.

Disgraced. Broken.

“Junior Sister,” I said.

“We will be very happy.”

“We’ll grow old together. Perhaps we’ll even have a sweet child. When that happens -”

“Why don’t we make you the child’s godmother?”

“Junior Sister.”

My words became knives, each one thrust into her heart.

“You’ll give us your blessing.”

There was nowhere left for her to retreat.

“Won’t you?”

“Senior Sister!”

The red light in her eyes flared. A tear of blood rolled down her cheek.

Her sword rang and trembled.

She threw it aside and covered her ears.

“Stop…”

“Please…”

Her mind was collapsing.

Only one final blow remained.

I gritted my teeth.

“It was such a pity when you interrupted our ceremony that day.”

“But Chen Yuan and I have long been of one heart.”

“Junior Sister,” I said. “Don’t you want me to be happy -”

A sword had a spirit of its own.

Frostfall hummed in fury on its master’s behalf.

In the next instant, it flew straight at me.

Razor-sharp sword energy mingled with a thick stench of blood.

I closed my eyes.

I neither flinched nor dodged.

Blood.

The smell was so overpowering that it turned my stomach.

But the grave wound I expected never came.

The sword tip merely grazed the clothing over my left shoulder. Cold air brushed my exposed skin.

I opened my eyes.

Xu Youchan’s bloodless face was inches from mine.

Blood covered her features, and her crimson pupils had gone unfocused.

Every breath brought that suffocating metallic stench.

She – she – she –

She had blocked her own sword for me.

My mind went completely blank.

Frostfall had pierced Xu Youchan through the right side of her chest, wailing as if its own heart were breaking.

“Senior… Sister…”

She lifted her eyes to mine.

I screamed inside my head.

What was I supposed to do? A wound this terrible would take ages to heal –

No, wait. Chen Yuan would be here any moment. If I was uninjured, how could I complete the scene?

But why had she protected me from her own sword?

Thoughts tumbled wildly through my mind.

I failed to notice the look in her eyes change.

As if she had made a decision, she leaned forward with painful effort and bit down hard on my shoulder.

Then her body went limp.

What?

I touched the teeth marks and asked the system, “Does this count as a wound?”

“Where is your brain?” it roared. “Of course it doesn’t!”

“A bite mark like that is only good for flirting!”

Chaotic footsteps sounded outside.

I heard Chen Yuan and the other disciples.

“Why does it smell so strongly of blood?”

“Something must have happened.”

“Hurry!” the system shouted.

I stared stupidly at Frostfall.

Forgive me, my precious girl.

Gritting my teeth, I yanked the sword free.

The blade trembled, rejecting my touch, and its sword energy cut my hands.

I hardened my heart and slashed it across my own shoulder.

Then I kicked the sword away.

The door burst open.

There were screams. Panic.

Clutching my bleeding left shoulder, I looked at the man who had entered first. My eyes flooded with tears.

“Chen Yuan!”

“Junior Sister – she tried to kill me!”

Chen Yuan’s expression lay hidden in shadow.

“Junior Sister… there is…”

“There is so much demonic energy around her.”

How vile.

Even I wanted to slap myself twice.

Half a month of utter chaos followed.

Fairy Qinghe finally withdrew her needles and nodded to me.

“You’re recovering well. Rest properly.”

I thanked her politely.

The sect’s genius junior sister had fallen into demonic deviation and attacked a fellow disciple.

The wound on my shoulder carried Frostfall’s sword aura, and demonic energy had filled the scene. Together, they proved Xu Youchan’s guilt.

The elders argued without end.

Xu Youchan was imprisoned while unconscious to await judgment.

When Yan Ye returned, he stormed into the elders’ hall to demand justice. For the first time, that spine of iron bent.

He repeated the same words again and again.

“Senior Sister is innocent.”

Then our master swept his sleeve and sent him flying back to his own peak.

As for me, I lay in bed, eating well and nursing my injury.

I tossed and turned, one hand unconsciously brushing the bite mark on my left shoulder.

“Ci.”

Chen Yuan’s sudden voice made me turn. As though hiding something, I pulled my robe more tightly around me.

“What is it?”

His gaze wandered before finally settling on my face.

“Junior Sister is awake.”

“The elders are taking her to the judgment hall now.”

I immediately rose. “I’m going too.”

Chen Yuan narrowed his eyes.

“All right.”

By the time I arrived, the elders had assembled. Disciples crowded outside to watch.

Xu Youchan stood between two disciples from the disciplinary hall. The blood on her inner robe had long since dried. Her hair was tangled, and her body looked painfully thin.

Her head hung low.

My heart tightened.

“This is her trial,” the system said.

My steps faltered. I tore my gaze away and followed Chen Yuan to stand beside our master.

The elders argued fiercely.

Some lamented the loss of a genius and pleaded for leniency. Others condemned her actions and demanded severe punishment.

At last, everyone turned to our master.

“Immortal, she is your disciple. You decide her punishment.”

Our master seemed to have aged many years. He frowned without looking at Xu Youchan and gave a long sigh.

“With demonic energy in her body, she may become a danger if she cannot suppress it.”

“Though she was not in her right mind when she harmed a fellow disciple, the deed itself was grave.”

“Confine her in the Cold Prison so she may reflect on her actions.”

The hall erupted.

The Cold Prison was meant for the worst offenders: traitors who joined the Demon Realm, bloodthirsty killers, people who murdered their masters or slaughtered their own kin.

Of every ten people sent inside, seven died, two emerged crippled, and the last went mad.

Several elders who valued talent tried to protest.

Our master waved them silent. “My decision is final.”

The woman below showed no reaction.

From beginning to end, her head remained bowed, as if the sentence had nothing to do with her.

A dull pain spread through my heart.

“Master.”

The word escaped me before I could stop it.

“Could we… could we at least let Junior Sister recover from her injuries first?”

Xu Youchan’s head snapped up.

Her eyes locked on me.

Unable to meet them, I hid slightly behind Chen Yuan.

Her smoky-gray pupils flickered, and crimson slowly spread through them.

Demonic energy.

Killing intent.

It nearly took physical form.

I hurried to draw everyone’s attention.

“Junior Sister and I have shared decades of sisterly affection. Demonic energy was what drove her to do this.”

“Master, please let her heal before she goes.”

Tears shone in my eyes.

Our master glanced at me and waved a hand.

“Since you bear her no resentment, she may recover first.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then the system spoke in a quiet, weary voice.

“You always interfere in these tiny ways.”

I said nothing.

The machine sighed.

“As long as you don’t alter a major plot point, it doesn’t matter. Just don’t be too softhearted.”

I laughed it off.

“Doesn’t it fit my character? I look compassionate and gain everyone’s favor.”

“Qiu Ci.”

The system used my name with unusual gravity.

“You know a sword cannot become sharp without being forged.”

The disciples from the disciplinary hall led Xu Youchan away.

I watched that lonely figure disappear between them.

I had no answer.