Lin Chaoyu claimed her Fourth Sister, Jiang Wanru, was "at death's door," but right now, Wanru was standing in a corner of her own room. She clutched the longsword in her arms tightly, the visible half of her face deathly pale.
Yes, this was her bedroom, but early this morning, she wasn't alone.
The bedroom door was shut tight. Only the dim, gray morning light filtered through the paper window, outlining everything within. The candle on the table had just burned out, a lingering wisp of blue smoke drifting from the charred black wick.
Sitting at the table, Su Mei took a deep breath but choked on the wisp of smoke, letting out a couple of heavy coughs. The others thought she was about to speak and turned to look at her. But at this point, what was left to say? Su Mei silently licked her dry lips, her hands tightening around the twin swords resting across her lap.
She could keep her composure, but that didn't mean everyone else could.
"Second Senior Sister... Master still isn't here. Should I go again..."
Qin Suyin hadn't finished speaking when Su Mei shot her a sharp glance. Suyin's forward step froze instantly, and she began to tremble violently.
For the past nine years, she had been closest to her Second Senior Sister. If First Senior Sister was like a mother, caring but with a touch of elder strictness, then Second Senior Sister was everyone's big sister. In everyone's memory, she had always been gentle and considerate.
And that was precisely why she'd been able to gather everyone here.
But in Qin Suyin's eyes, her Second Senior Sister had changed. When did it start? Probably the moment she had gathered everyone while their Master was away on the Kipchak Steppe, plotting to kill her...
Suyin wasn't sure what kind of person her Master was. Her memories of Master weren't numerous, but among the few she had, the most vivid was undoubtedly Master's seemingly calm eyes.
Seemingly calm, but she always felt something else hidden beneath the surface. Was it concern? Suyin didn't know, but she felt Master cared about them all. For her, trying to recall the past inevitably led back to that day nine years ago—
The first color memory painted for that day was a vast blue. The blue sea roared, waves occasionally washing over her ankles as she stood, young, by the shore.
White waves, soft sand, a high sky with wispy clouds. Behind her, noises she couldn't recall even now. She remembered a flock of gulls nearby taking flight in alarm, and then Master swept her up from behind.
That embrace was warm and calm. So Master couldn't possibly be a bad person.
That's why, when her usually close Second Senior Sister proposed they band together to kill their Master, Suyin's world completely shattered.
She neither agreed nor refused, simply retreating into her fear. Master had just left for the campaign; she thought the war would surely last several years. By then, maybe Second Senior Sister would have changed her mind?
But unexpectedly, in less than a year, Master resolved all the trouble and returned to Mount Taixuan. Suyin was forced to choose.
She chose to tell Master, but before she could take two steps, she found her Second Senior Sister, who knew her best, blocking her path.
She said her parents were killed by Master. "And yours too. Those memories you can't recall? That's the process of Master killing your parents."
Suyin shook her head, unwilling to believe. So, her Second Senior Sister, who knew her best, gave her another choice:
"I won't stop you. Either go tell Master, let her come kill me, or join us in killing Master. There's no third option."
But how could she choose between Second Senior Sister and Master? The old saying goes, you can't always have the best of both worlds. For Suyin, if she had to choose only one, her choice was... not to choose.
But isn't not choosing a choice in itself? And so, she was swept up in it all, confused and reluctant.
Now was the last chance. Master hadn't yet stepped into the kill zone they'd prepared. There was still time to turn back—that's what Suyin thought.
She even anticipated Second Senior Sister refusing her. No, she hoped Second Senior Sister would refuse her. She didn't want to choose between Master and Second Senior Sister. So, if she chose Master now, and Second Senior Sister rejected her, wouldn't that mean choosing Master without abandoning Second Senior Sister...?
Alright, she knew this was just self-deception, a futile attempt to escape. But what was wrong with escaping?
Maybe nothing was wrong with it. But the rejection she imagined never came. Second Senior Sister seemed to have anticipated everything. She said nothing, merely glancing at Suyin with those cold eyes.
And so, yesterday's words echoed in Suyin's mind once more:
"Either go tell Master, let her come kill me, or join us in killing Master. There's no third option."
Still the same choice, still the same unbearable hesitation.
Suyin's foot hovered in mid-air, unable to land.
Suddenly, she forced a smile and said:
"Second Senior Sister, look... Didn't that Raksha say... Fourth Sister's condition improved because of Master? ...Master talks tough about punishing demonic transformation, but she hasn't harmed Fourth Sister all these years... And... and other misunderstandings... we... we don't have to kill Master, right? ...We can talk to her... right?"
As she finished speaking, a stir went through the room. Clearly, Little Junior Sister Qin Suyin's words weren't just her own thoughts, but shared by the other four present...
Perhaps even Su Mei herself felt the same way.
Su Mei remained silent, lips pressed tight, her gaze slowly sweeping over her junior brother and sisters. She suddenly laughed, but the smile was strained and sorrowful:
"Maybe. Maybe everything is just our misunderstanding. But... we've come this far. Is there really a way back? If Master finds out what we've plotted, will she really let us live?"
Qin Suyin opened her mouth, mustering her courage to say loudly:
"No, Master isn't like that! Nothing irreversible has happened yet, she won't kill us!"
"Oh? Is that so?"
Su Mei tilted her head, a sad smile playing on her lips. "What kind of person is Master? Suyin, do you think you really know? Back when Yan Shiluo caused chaos in the martial world and was defeated by your First Senior Sister, what did Master do? Killed people, burned the manor, left almost no one alive. I was there... And your Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sisters were practically the only survivors from that place."
Qin Suyin was speechless. Seeing her at a loss, and glancing at the others, Su Mei smiled again and said softly:
"Perhaps... I was the one driving this all along. You were all misled by me. If you choose to back out now, maybe Master really will spare you... But I... I'm in too deep. There's no escape for me..."
At this, she shook her head sharply, then looked down at her feet and sighed helplessly:
"Forget it... Just forget it... All of you, go. Little Ma'er, you go too. If Master wants to punish someone, let it be me alone..."
"No, I won't go!"
Yanqing, who had been called out, looked deeply pained, but ultimately chose to stand by his Second Senior Sister.
Wanxi and Wanru remained silent, standing side-by-side in the corner, their movements identical—clutching the longswords gifted by their Master tightly, as if the swords were their only lifelines while drowning.
Seeing no one speak, no one take a stance, no one make a choice, Suyin felt even more lost—was she really supposed to abandon Second Senior Sister like this?
No, that was impossible. It was impossible to begin with, and even more so after Second Senior Sister's words.
Suyin became frantic, unsure how her other sisters and brother would view her. The argument just now... she had started it all.
Just as she was caught in this dilemma, she felt someone silently approaching her...
"!"
A jolt went through her. The words "silence the witness" hadn't even fully formed in her mind before she felt her hand being held.
The hand was cold, but warmth radiated from the palm, impossible to ignore.
Suyin turned her head in surprise to see Ling Shuang standing beside her, expressionless.
"Fifth Senior Sister..."
Ling Shuang silently shook her head and pulled her aside.
And so, the six people in the room spontaneously split into three groups: Ling Shuang pulled Suyin to the right of the door. The sisters Wanxi and Wanru stood clutching their swords to the left of the door. Su Mei sat on the chair directly facing the door, hands resting on the twin swords across her lap.
The youngest, Yanqing, stood firmly by Su Mei's side, eyes shut tight, his face etched with struggle and pain.
Su Mei looked around at everyone again, a bitter smile touching her lips.
Her Third and Fourth Sisters were here primarily because of Fourth Sister's illness. Now that this issue was resolved... And the attitudes of Suyin and Ling Shuang were also quite intriguing...
Of course, the parents of these four were also killed by Master—that was an undeniable fact. But the hatred stemming from memories of parents long faded, could it truly overcome their reliance on Master?
Su Mei couldn't say for sure. Especially since she had staked the outcome on her most inscrutable Fifth Sister.
And Little Ma'er... He had the least reason to be here, suffered the most being here, yet stood the most firmly behind her...
This group she had forcibly held together was gradually falling apart. Su Mei knew it, of course, but it didn't matter anymore. Look on the bright side—three groups, perfect for a three-sided encirclement. Attack together, with Senior Sister Chaoyu as the final piece blocking Master's retreat. Everything was exactly as she had planned, wasn't it?
But... speaking of which, what choice would First Senior Sister make?
That was the one thing Su Mei couldn't control...
True, what was about to happen would be cruel, condemning everyone present to spend the rest of their lives in agony, but...
If they didn't do this, they would suffer even more. At least she herself would suffer more.
"I'm sorry... for dragging you all into this."
She wanted to apologize at the last moment, because if they failed, these might be her last words.
But the muscles in her throat tightened, blocking any words from coming out.
In the end, she said nothing, just closed her eyes and quietly waited for the final moment to arrive.
...
"Master, Fourth Sister is really fading!"
The voice from the room didn't manage to put Lin Chaoyu off. She started pounding on the main hall's door instead.
I wonder, if I had decided to just hide inside and not come out, what would she have done? Hua thought sarcastically, instinctively shrinking back into the familiar, warm embrace before her.
But the next moment, she realized something, placed her hands on Michael's chest, and straightened up—
Unfortunately, this embrace didn't belong to her. Not to the her of now, nor had it ever belonged to the her of the past.
"Have you decided what to do?"
Hua shook her head.
"I don't know. I really don't."
She was clearly fifty thousand years old, and even counting only her conscious time, she was well over five thousand. But in this moment, at least for this instant, Hua felt like she had reverted to the girl from over fifty thousand years ago—confused, knowing only how to follow his lead.
"Michael..."
"I'm here."
"Do you remember... that poem? The epic of our civilization, which we brought to this one? The story of our civilization, sprouting anew in this era—"
"Hector knew his kingdom would fall, and Achilles understood he was walking towards death. Yet neither hesitated nor wavered when stepping onto the battlefield. In this story, destined for tragedy from the start, not a single person faltered."
"They were like that. We... I am like that too."
Perhaps a bit inappropriate for the situation, a jarring voice sounded in Hua's mind.
After all, she wasn't walking onto a battlefield to face death. But similarly, she had to face what she must face, what she shouldn't evade—the inevitable betrayal.
"It's okay."
Michael's voice was as gentle as she remembered, blurring her sense of time even further.
Then, a familiar touch on her head. Michael gently ruffled her hair, pressing the hairpin he'd removed earlier back into her hand.
"Go on. Whatever choice you make, I'll be right behind you. I won't let anything happen to you."
Hua nodded, her fingers tightening around the hairpin.
"Actually... you really didn't need to go to all this trouble. In the future you foresaw, I simply didn't expect such a betrayal. Now that I'm prepared, they naturally can't kill me."
As she spoke, Hua gradually regained her confidence, the flicker of weakness in her heart extinguished before it could grow.
"Still, be careful. Ling Shuang has cultivated your Taixuan Sword Ki to the 'Sword God' level. She possesses the potential to kill you."
"That's merely potential."
Hua stood up, gathering the long hair Michael had trimmed and pinning it up again. She walked straight towards the door, no longer a trace of hesitation in her steps.
She lifted the latch, grasped the doorframe, and pulled it inward. The morning light instantly flooded in. Hua instinctively narrowed her eyes against the contrast.
But it didn't hinder her vision. Lin Chaoyu stood right before her, hand raised as if to knock again. Hua's sudden appearance startled her. Already feeling guilty, Chaoyu stumbled back half a step, nearly falling down the steps.
Hua's gaze lingered on her for a moment before she spoke flatly:
"Let's go."
Lin Chaoyu was wondering what excuse she could use to get behind her Master, but saw Hua walk past her without another word, heading straight for the death trap they had set.
After taking a couple of steps, Hua glanced back at her expressionlessly and asked:
"What's wrong, Chaoyu? Aren't you coming?"
"Oh... Oh!"
Lin Chaoyu hastily caught up, staring at Hua's back. She suddenly felt that Master was very different today.
Has she noticed? No, this strange feeling comes from...
Chaoyu's gaze fixed on the ends of Hua's hair, which now only reached her waist.
"Master... you cut your hair?"
She was surprised. As far as she could remember, Master had never cut her hair since she arrived on the mountain...
Uncharacteristic... So much so that an ominous feeling churned within her, impossible to dismiss.
"Mm."
Hua responded curtly, offering no explanation and initiating no further conversation with Chaoyu.
Just like that, they reached the door to Wanru's bedroom. Hua stopped.
Gulp—
She heard Chaoyu swallow hard behind her.
"Hm?"
She bent down. By her feet lay a dried leaf. No matter how the morning breeze blew around it, the leaf clung motionlessly to the ground, as if it weren't a leaf at all, but an iron sword impervious to the wind.
On Mount Taixuan, only two people could achieve this level of control.
"Hmph..."
Hua closed her eyes, but the corners of her mouth lifted involuntarily.
She picked up the leaf between two fingers of her right hand, straightened up, stepped forward, and gently placed her left hand on the door.
But she didn't push the door open immediately. Instead, she softly murmured:
"Chaoyu..."
The next instant, before Chaoyu could reply, she thrust the door open.