Chapter 4

Chapter 4

We didn’t keep running.

Since the person behind the scenes was hell-bent on driving Gong Hegui and me into a dead end, I would tear this trap wide open first.

That night, Gong Hegui and I circled back to the Qingxu Sect. Using the spiritual aura from our shared Golden Core to mask our presence, we slipped into the forbidden grounds of the back mountain. Hidden there was the Wuwang Cave Heaven, a place even successive Sect Leaders could not easily open, and a place I had been strictly forbidden from approaching since childhood.

Deep within the Cave Heaven sat a Life Tablet, my name carved upon it.

It wasn’t just the name from the disciple registry; it recorded my birth date, bloodline, and pill bones-every detail was present.

Behind the tablet lay a yellowed jade slip. It recorded how, eighteen years ago, the Qingxu Sect had found a baby girl at the edge of the Cracked Abyss. The jade slip stated clearly that the girl possessed a Pure Spirit Pill Heart, capable of suppressing malevolence and nourishing souls. She was the perfect “Catalyst for life extension and sealing the Abyss.”

That baby girl was me.

My fingertips turned cold. As I scrolled further, another secret record pierced my eyes.

The so-called Child of Destiny, Jing Qingyao, wasn’t born with spiritual bones at all. He was a vessel raised by the Sect Leader using a wisp of Demonic Nightmare Breath from the Cracked Abyss. When the vessel was about to shatter, they took my Golden Core to patch it; when the Cracked Abyss could no longer be sealed, they took Gong Hegui’s Calamity Bone to fill it.

That arrow at the Cold Soul Platform was merely to fuse my spiritual aura with Gong Hegui’s, ensuring the sacrificial array would form perfectly in one go.

“From the very beginning, they never intended for us to live,” I said, my throat feeling parched.

Gong Hegui took the jade slip, but his expression was calmer than I expected.

“That’s why I said blocking your Sect Gate is more effective than trying to reason with them.”

Looking at those words, I suddenly felt the absurdity of it all.

I once thought the sect raising and teaching me was an act of grace.

In reality, they were just cultivating a medicinal ingredient.

A spiritual flame suddenly ignited in the depths of the Cave Heaven. My Master stepped out from the darkness, followed by the Sect Leader and Jing Qingyao, looking as if they had expected us to return all along.

“Liuying,” Master looked at me, his tone actually carrying a hint of regret. “If you had just been a little more obedient, you wouldn’t have needed to know any of this.”

I gripped the jade slip tightly. For the first time, this man I had called “Master” for over a decade felt like a complete stranger.

“Why did it have to be me?”

When I asked this, my voice was very soft, so fragile it seemed it would break at a touch.

Master remained silent for a moment before saying, “Because you are the most suitable.”

How laughable.

It wasn’t because I was obedient, or because I was talented, or because they actually liked me-it was simply because I was the most suitable person to die.

Jing Qingyao stood beside Master, his white robes as pure as snow. He looked as gentle as he always did whenever he stood in front of me to shield me from others. He looked at me, and there was even pity in his eyes.

“Little Junior Sister, don’t hate the sect,” he said. “Without you, I wouldn’t have lived until today; without Gong Hegui, the Cracked Abyss couldn’t be sealed. By fulfilling our needs, you are also fulfilling the needs of the world.”

I suddenly laughed.

“So, you knew all along.”

Jing Qingyao did not deny it.

It turned out that all those years he spent tenderly calling me ‘Little Junior Sister,’ gathering herbs with me, and teaching me sword techniques were all real; but his desire for me to die was also real.

The Mountain-Suppressing Array of the Qingxu Sect crashed down as dozens of Spirit-Binding Chains whistled through the air. Gong Hegui pushed me behind him first, raising his sword to forcefully block the first wave of the array’s light.

However, the chains took the opportunity to nail themselves into his shoulders and back, trapping him in the center of the sacrificial altar.

I rushed forward, only to be knocked to the ground by a flick of Master’s sleeve. The Sect Leader raised his hand, and the blood-red runes around the altar lit up inch by inch. It truly was an ancient Covenant Sacrifice Formation.

“As long as you and Gong Hegui establish a Dao Companion Pact and channel the power of dual cultivation into the array, both the Cracked Abyss and Qingyao’s Life Palace can be stabilized at once,” the Sect Leader said. “Liuying, this is your destiny.”

Locked within the array, Gong Hegui was covered in blood, yet he still looked up at me.

“Chu Liuying,” he rasped, “don’t listen to them.”

The Sect Leader sneered. “At this point, do you even have a choice?”

Gong Hegui’s lips suddenly curled into a smirk, one wilder than any I had ever seen from him.

“I do.”

He looked at the crowd of immortals filling the hall and said, word by word, “My proposal to marry her was not a matter of convenience, nor was it an act.”

“I am doing this of my own free will.”

As those words fell, my heart felt as if it had been struck hard by something.

And the blood runes on the altar actually shifted their direction slightly because of this single moment of sincerity.