Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The moment I finished speaking, the square around the Ascension Platform fell deathly silent.

The celestial music was still playing. The golden light was still shining. Yet every pair of eyes was fixed on me.

Shock, confusion, then anger.

“Utter nonsense!”

“Demonic lies meant to mislead the masses!”

“Shen Yuan, I think your cultivation has gone wrong and driven you mad!”

Lu Qingxuan’s face turned ashen. He descended from the Ascension Platform one step at a time, and every step felt as if it were landing on my heart.

He stopped in front of me.

“Shen Yuan, take back what you said, and I can pretend none of this happened.” He lowered his voice, a threat laced through his words. “Just say you missed Master too much and lost control for a moment.”

I looked at him, at this Eldest Senior Brother who had grown up alongside me under Master’s care.

His gaze was steady, but there was only calculation in it.

What he was protecting was not Master. It was the Azure Cloud Sect’s reputation, and the position of sect leader that was about to fall into his hands.

“I’ll say it again.” I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth, enunciating each word. “Master was fished away with a hook.”

Lu Qingxuan’s patience ran out.

Killing intent flashed in his eyes.

“Stubborn fool!”

He struck without warning. Not with a palm, but with a restraining move. Two fingers clamped precisely onto the Jianjing point on my shoulder.

Agony surged through me. Half my body went numb, and all my strength vanished in an instant as I collapsed.

“Men!” Lu Qingxuan shouted. “Disciple Shen Yuan has been invaded by inner demons. She is spouting madness and blaspheming the Patriarch’s ascension ceremony! Seize her at once and imprison her in the Cold Cave of Reflection Cliff to await punishment!”

Two enforcement disciples stepped forward immediately and grabbed me from either side.

Their arms were like iron clamps, utterly merciless.

“Eldest Senior Brother is wise!”

“A proper punishment! We can’t let this lunatic ruin the sect’s grand occasion!”

Voices of agreement rose from the crowd.

They looked at me as if I were some filthy, unreasonable monster.

No one believed me.

Not a single person.

I was dragged away, my feet carving two powerless trails across the ground.

I passed the junior brothers and sisters who had once laughed and chatted with me.

One after another, they avoided my gaze, their faces filled with disdain and fear.

I saw Little Junior Sister. She had clung to Master the most, and she had always loved following behind me.

Now she hid behind a senior sister, only her eyes showing. There was no sympathy in them, only deep confusion and estrangement.

The pain in my heart was far worse than the wounds on my body.

So these were the fellow disciples I had protected with my life.

So this was the Azure Cloud Sect that Master had spent his entire life guarding.

How laughable.

Lu Qingxuan turned back to face all the disciples, his voice solemn and dignified once more.

“The Patriarch’s ascension is a blessing our Azure Cloud Sect has not seen in a thousand years! This is the Heavenly Dao’s recognition, a sign that our sect is destined to prosper! As disciples, we must cultivate diligently and never fail the Patriarch’s great expectations!”

“We will obey Eldest Senior Brother’s teachings!”

Their thunderous response drowned out everything once again.

They had begun to celebrate.

Celebrating a sacrifice wrapped in exquisite lies.

I was dragged farther and farther from the Ascension Platform.

At the last moment before I was pulled off the square, I turned back and looked at the sky once more.

The auspicious clouds were slowly dispersing.

Through a gap in the thinning clouds, I seemed to see a pair of eyes.

A pair of eyes so enormous they defied description, eyes that resembled no living creature in this world.

Behind the clouds, they watched everything in silence.

Then they vanished.

A shiver ran through me.

“Lu Qingxuan.” As I was dragged down the dim stone steps, my voice came out hoarse. “You will regret this.”

He did not look back.

The Cold Cave.

The harshest place in the Azure Cloud Sect for punishing disciples.

The cold inside pierced to the bone. It could erode one’s cultivation and freeze the soul.

Anyone locked inside would lose a layer of skin even if they survived.

The enforcement disciples roughly opened the stone door and threw me in like a piece of trash.

Bang!

The stone door slammed shut behind me.

The cave was pitch-black, so dark I could not see my own hand in front of my face.

Only a bone-deep chill came rushing from every direction, burrowing into my wounds, then into the cracks between my bones.

I curled up on the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

Pain.

Cold.

And endless despair.

I closed my eyes, and my mind filled with the image of the hook piercing through Master’s throat.

That final look he gave me…

It was not relief.

It was a plea for help.

He had been asking me to save him!

A thought flashed through my mind.

Master must have known what was going to happen!

He must have left something behind!

My eyes flew open, and I fumbled through the front of my robe in the darkness.

Before Lu Qingxuan sent me flying, at the very moment I rushed onto the Ascension Platform, Master’s hand-which had seemed to hang limply at his side-had quickly pressed something into my palm.

It had been small and cold.

At the time, I hadn’t had a chance to look closely. I had only clenched it instinctively.

Now, it was still there.

With trembling hands, I took it from my clothes.

It was a piece of jade.

The most ordinary kind of Nurturing Spirit Jade, roughly made, the sort every entry-level disciple received.

This one was mine. Master had given it to me many years ago, and I had always worn it close to my body.

What could possibly be special about it?

I gripped the jade and, using the last of my strength, poured the faint spiritual energy in my body into it.

The jade pendant showed no reaction at all.

My heart sank.

Had I thought too much?

Just as I was about to give up, the icy jade pendant suddenly grew faintly warm.

Then an image branded itself directly into my mind.

It was Master’s quiet room.

Bookshelves, a meditation mat, an alchemy furnace.

The scene shifted and settled on an inconspicuous meditation mat in the corner.

Then the image disappeared.

I froze where I was.

Was this… the clue Master had left for me?

He had foreseen all of this long ago. He knew I would be the only one able to see the truth. He also knew I would be imprisoned.

So, with his final chance, he had given me this hint.

What was hidden beneath that meditation mat?

Something that could expose the truth behind everything.

I had to get out!

I had to go to Master’s quiet room!

The will to survive and take revenge overwhelmed all my pain.

Bracing myself against the icy wall, I struggled to my feet.

Lu Qingxuan, did you think locking me in here would end everything?

No.

Everything was only just beginning.