Chapter 5
“Qiu Ci.”
“Qiu Ci!”
The system called me several times before I came back to myself.
“The beast tide has dispersed. Xu Youchan has reached the deepest part of the cave. You can leave now.”
“If you wait any longer, you’ll lose too much blood to make it out.”
I braced myself against the wall and struggled upright.
Every wound ached, especially the sword wound in my abdomen. It felt like a hole through which cold air continually poured.
I wiped away my tears and staggered outside.
The system said nothing.
I ran to the transport point, leaving blood along the path. Beasts roared in the forest, following the scent.
Without expression, I opened the gate.
As weightlessness seized me, the system said, “I know why you were chosen.”
Its mechanical voice was colder than ever.
“You never regret or agonize over what you’ve done.”
“Qiu Ci, is that heartlessness or excessive rationality?”
I appeared outside the secret realm with torn clothes and wounds covering my body.
The guards and elders stared in horror.
I stumbled toward them. Everyone rushed forward.
Just before consciousness left me, I twisted my face in terror and sobbed.
“Xu Youchan!”
“She tried to kill me.”
“I ran as hard as I could. It hurts…”
“Xu Youchan! Don’t! Junior Sister, don’t…”
The world spun.
When I woke, I was back in the sect.
The wound in my abdomen had been bandaged, and the shallower cuts were nearly healed.
A young attendant cried outside, “Senior Sister Qiu Ci, you’re awake?”
I struggled up, pulling the wound open. Agony made me curl in on myself.
“Senior Sister Qiu Ci is awake!”
The attendant’s voice receded as he ran to report to someone.
“How long was I unconscious?” I whispered.
“Six days,” the system answered.
“Good news: Senior Brother and Junior Brother both found the evidence. Your exit is imminent.”
“Bad news: Yan Ye is coming. You must survive him first.”
I grimaced.
Did a vicious supporting woman not count as a human life?
I had awakened directly into the hardest difficulty.
The curtains stirred.
“He’s here!”
Wrapped in the quilt, I rolled off the bed.
The fall tore my wound, and red spread across my white robe.
Pain. So much pain.
A sword buried itself in the bed. Had I moved a moment later, it would have skewered me.
I exhaled and found my last teleportation talisman.
Where should I go?
Chen Yuan? Our master?
Yan Ye stood among the layers of white gauze. Wind lifted the curtains and revealed his exquisitely handsome, almost ghostly face.
Cold sweat poured down my body, half from pain and half from fear.
I put on an imperious air.
“Have you lost your mind? Attacking your senior sister inside the sect – aren’t you afraid of the disciplinary hall?”
Yan Ye lowered his eyes and looked down at me as though I were a disgusting insect.
“You dare speak of harming fellow disciples?”
“What you’ve done to Senior Sister is enough to kill you ten million times.”
He looked toward the sword in the bed and softened his voice.
“Qiu Ci.”
He spoke as tenderly as a lover.
“I won’t allow you an easy death.”
Terrifying. Yandere men were terrifying.
Still wrapped in my quilt, I wriggled toward the talisman.
Yan Ye pulled out his sword and approached.
Move, hand. Move!
“Hurry!” the system cried.
He raised his sword and brought it down.
I closed my eyes, fingertips brushing the talisman’s corner.
Steel rang against steel.
Yan Ye’s sword flew from his hand.
Relief had only begun to rise when I saw Chen Yuan approaching with a sword.
The lofty senior brother barely glanced at me before turning to Yan Ye.
“Junior Brother. Members of the sect may not kill one another.”
Yan Ye laughed.
“Senior Brother? You intend to protect her?”
Chen Yuan frowned and shook his head.
“The disciplinary hall will determine right and wrong. Until then, no one may impose private punishment.”
Yan Ye stared at him, then suddenly smiled and sheathed his sword.
“I thought Eldest Senior Brother was the most upright among us. It seems even you have private motives.”
He looked back at me, smiling.
“Qiu Ci. Once you’re convicted, I’ll come for you again.”
I panted.
That was fine. I would be dead by then anyway.
Yan Ye disappeared behind the curtains.
Chen Yuan stopped three feet away, backlit so brightly that his ivory robe nearly merged with the light.
“Three days. The disciplinary hall.”
I crawled from my quilt toward him, sobbing.
“Why? What did I do?”
“Wasn’t Junior Sister the one who tried to kill me?”
“Why are you accusing me of harming her? I didn’t. Chen Yuan, believe me…”
He swept a hand.
A violent gust threw me into the wall.
I coughed up blood. My organs felt twisted together.
That bastard.
One day my precious girl would stab him, and then he would learn.
“Qiu Ci,” he said, “stop resisting. Confess.”
“That is my final advice to you.”
He disappeared into the light.
I spat blood and raised my middle finger after him.
As though he were some noble saint.
He was only a blind, brainless fool.
They placed me under house arrest.
A young attendant changed my dressings every day. It was humane enough, though I could not leave the courtyard.
I questioned him about the secret realm.
Time flowed much faster inside than outside, like one day in heaven equaling a thousand years on earth.
When I asked whether everyone had returned, he ignored me.
“Has Xu Youchan come back?”
His tray shook. He glared.
“Senior Sister Xu has left the realm and is returning now.”
He snorted.
“Not only did she survive, she obtained a new inheritance. You must be disappointed.”
How could I be disappointed?
I could not have been happier.
“Viper-hearted woman,” he muttered.
I ignored him and lay down.
At least I could see my precious girl one last time.
I wanted to leave her something valuable, but all I found was a pile of glittering, useless jewelry.
Only the final teleportation talisman had real worth.
I would give her that.
I could not think of how to deliver it, so I fell asleep.
A basin of water woke me.
A disciple from the disciplinary hall stood beside the bed, his gaze cold.
Wonderful. Suspects had no rights now.
My face felt hot.
“Senior Sister Qiu Ci, it’s time.”
I rose in my wet clothes.
“They didn’t slap my face while I slept, did they?” I asked the system.
“They called you. You didn’t wake, so…”
The disciple waved a hand. True energy dried my clothes.
I thanked him. He did not look at me.
On the road, people pointed and whispered with contempt.
Flanked by two burly disciples, I calmly endured their stares until we reached the hall.
The scene resembled Xu Youchan’s trial.
Disciples and elders filled the chamber. The elders sat above, looking down coldly.
Only this time, I was the criminal below.
The presiding elder struck the wooden block beside him.
“You stole your junior sister’s achievements, drove her into demonic deviation, and framed her.”
“Sect law forbids harming fellow disciples.”
“Qiu Ci, do you admit your crimes?”
Yesterday’s reopened wound throbbed.
I looked up at the spotless figures above.
Our master would not look at me. Chen Yuan stood beside him.
Now I finally saw Chen Yuan’s face clearly.
Contempt. Disgust… and relief.
Relief at what?
I suddenly laughed.
The hall recoiled.
“Chen Yuan,” I called. “Your betrothed is standing trial. Won’t you help her?”
He showed no expression.
“If you hadn’t stolen the credit for saving me, I would never have agreed to bond with you.”
“I’m grateful we never completed the ceremony.”
“Really?”
I laughed.
The lie had been so clumsy, the story so full of holes.
“Did you truly know nothing?”
“Xu Youchan rescued you from the Demon Realm. You knew we had been separated from the beginning.”
“Yet when I appeared and misled you with a few vague words, you believed me completely.”
“Demonic energy entered Xu Youchan’s body and made her violent. Any cultivator could see something was wrong.”
“Why did you remain silent before her trial, then question me only after she had entered prison?”
“After all your years together, after she risked her life to save you, did you truly not know what kind of person she was?”
“Did you honestly believe she would attack out of jealousy and betray every bond between you?”
“Were you too proud to admit you’d been deceived, or have you always been blind and stupid?”
“Silence!”
A blast threw me several yards.
My abdominal wound split, and I fell in a heap, coughing blood.
Chen Yuan stood with hands behind his back, his expression glacial.
“The evidence is conclusive, yet you show no remorse.”
“Qiu Ci, you are beyond saving.”
The elder sighed.
“After forty-nine bolts of heavenly lightning, your immortal bones will be removed and you will be expelled from the sect.”
“Elder, Qiu Ci is my junior sister. I bear some blame for what she became,” Chen Yuan said with a bow.
“Allow me to carry out the lightning punishment.”
Sanctimonious hypocrite.
I spat blood, forced myself upright, and raised my middle finger before everyone.
“Worthless. Bastard.”
His bonded sword flew from its sheath, lightning-fast and aimed at my vital point.
I did not dodge.
Then Frostfall tore through the air.
It knocked Chen Yuan’s sword away and continued toward him with murderous force, slicing open half his cheek.
Blood rolled down.
Dust and torn grass filled my nose, along with the faint scent of pear blossoms.
Someone stopped in front of me.
I kept my eyes shut for half a second.
Silence filled the hall.
“Am I dead?” I asked the system. “Why haven’t I gone home?”
It answered with meaningless static.
“You can be censored too?” I said gleefully.
“Qiu. Ci.” The system’s voice darkened. “Open your eyes.”
Chen Yuan’s sword was pinned to the wall. His face was black with rage, and the cut had ruined his looks.
A laugh escaped me.
Wind lifted Xu Youchan’s hair across my vision.
My precious girl!
Why had she returned now?
Our master cleared his throat.
“You returned at the right time, Youchan. We have uncovered everything Qiu Ci did.”
“We misunderstood you before, but your name has been cleared. As for Qiu Ci -”
“Senior Sister didn’t mean it.”
Her voice was like shattered jade.
Those few words struck the hall like a storm.
Every face changed.
I stared at the body shielding mine.
She must have rushed back. Her clothes were ragged and travel-stained, and her wounds had only been roughly treated.
The young woman had recently grown taller, standing a full head above me like a pine in snow.
She blocked every lofty gaze.
Between the strands of her windblown hair, I glimpsed red.
Why were her ears so red?
Then I heard her shy murmur.
“Senior Sister is a good person.”
“Everything she did… was for my sake.”
“It was her way of testing me.”
Our master’s face turned green.
The hall fell dead silent.
My vision went black.
No.
Something was terribly wrong.