The pressure in the air deepened.
Bai Yang let out a choked cough, blood spilling past his lips. His face drained of all color, skin cold and clammy, yet his hands remained clenched in the soil, trembling with rage. Veins bulged across his knuckles. His killing intent surged like a tide, crashing violently against his reason.
If hatred alone could kill, Song Wanníng would have been ripped to shreds a thousand times over.
"What? Still not convinced?" Song Wanníng raised an eyebrow, her voice tinged with amusement. She lifted her hand again, slowly, deliberately.
Before she could strike, the sect master stepped forward in haste.
"Junior Sister Song, please, enough."
His voice wavered between command and plea. With Ye Chuxue already teetering on death's edge, another serious injury to Bai Yang would send the situation spiraling beyond control.
But Song Wanníng turned to him with a slow, icy look that made the sect master take a reflexive step back.
"I'm disciplining my own disciple," she said, voice flat and unhurried. "And now you're going to interfere with that too?"
Being publicly defied only deepened the fury in the sect master's chest. He kept his face calm but said coldly, "Bai Yang only spoke in a moment of desperation. As a Nascent Soul cultivator, why lower yourself to punish a junior so harshly?"
"Oh, he just said a few things wrong?"
Song Wanníng sneered. She waved her hand, and a water screen shimmered into view before them. In full view, the image showed Bai Yang sneaking into her pill storage, stealing the elixir.
Everyone's face changed.
Bai Yang's own expression darkened like thunderclouds. So she had known all along. She'd set him up and waited for him to fall into the trap.
"My gods, Senior Brother Bai actually stole Master Song's pill! No wonder she's furious."
"It makes sense. Everyone knows how much Master Song spoils her disciples. She's never so much as scolded them before."
"She must have been truly pushed to the edge."
The disciples watching from a distance shook their heads. No matter how they looked at it, Bai Yang had crossed a line.
He deserved it.
"Did you see that?" Her voice was quiet, but each word carried weight. "He stole from me. And yet when I discipline him, I'm in the wrong?"
She raised her hand again.
"If I wanted him dead," she said softly, "he should have the decency to lie down and take it."
Then her palm struck forward.
Spiritual energy surged. It gathered above Bai Yang like the force of a collapsing mountain.
Bai Yang's pupils shrank. He was powerless to stop it. Like a ragdoll, he was hurled across the air. The sect master and elders flinched but didn't move. As much as they wanted to interfere, Song Wanníng was well within her rights.
There was nothing they could say.
CRACK.
He flew through the air like a ragdoll, crashing hard against the courtyard stones. Blood splattered in a wide arc. Bones snapped beneath the impact.
"Agh—!"
He clutched his arm, shaking from pain, his body convulsing from the spiritual backlash.
Shock bled into hatred.
She actually did it.
She had shattered his body without hesitation. All for a single pill?
She was willing to destroy her own disciple without a second thought?
No, she never cared. She didn't have a heart.
"One day." He bit down on his tongue, forcing the pain into focus. "One day, Song Wanníng, you'll fall into my hands."
He raised his head. His eyes were filled with blood, with rage.
Song Wanníng caught the look. She smiled slightly.
Then she slapped him again.
This time he dropped. Hard. Motionless.
He tried to get up once.
Twice.
But his limbs failed him.
He didn't rise again.
"That's enough!"
Gu Qingyuan couldn't watch any longer. His gaze was full of accusation, cold and sharp.
"What have you become? Because of jealousy, you left your fellow disciple to die. You even poisoned her. And now you do this to your own disciple. Song Wanníng, you've become terrifying."
His words struck like daggers. They pushed her into madness, forced her clan into ruin, and now they stood here, pretending to be righteous?
She had changed?
How could she not?
Her beloved fiancé betrayed her, then turned around and called her jealous, called her cruel.
Despised her. Abandoned her. Destroyed her.
Her own disciples turned their backs on her, then condemned her for being ruthless, for being venomous.
They slandered her, rejected her, and wanted her dead.
"Ha… ha… hahaha..."
Song Wanníng laughed.
It began soft, dry. But it grew, louder and louder, until it echoed across the mountains like broken bells.
"I'm terrifying?" she repeated slowly, her laughter falling silent. Her eyes fixed on Gu Qingyuan with terrifying calm. "You're a hypocrite. A coward hiding behind a mask of righteousness."
"You were the one who broke your vows. You were engaged, but you turned around and fell in love with your disciple. You chased after her like a dog in heat, yet you blame me? You're unbelievable."
She took a step forward.
Last time, she had suffered for being too quiet.
Being angry had never helped her. All it did was leave her vulnerable.
"Tch—"
"No way. Master Gu... had feelings for his disciple?"
Gasps rippled through the watching crowd.
That was taboo.
People began to look at Gu Qingyuan with disbelief.
"Junior Sister Song, stop this nonsense! Are you trying to destroy him?"
The sect master panicked. He wanted nothing more than to seal Song Wanníng's mouth shut. This kind of thing—romantic feelings for a disciple—would be scandalous if it spread. Gu Qingyuan's reputation would be ruined. This wasn't like her usual jealous outbursts. This was dangerous.
"I'm lying?"
Song Wanníng let out a dry chuckle and turned her sharp gaze to Gu Qingyuan, who still said nothing. "Why don't you ask him to swear on his heart demon? If he lies, the price will be Ye Chuxue's life. Let's see if he dares."
Gu Qingyuan's fingers clenched around his sword.
Rage twisted inside him like thorns.
But he didn't swear.
Silence fell.
Bai Yang looked up, stunned.
"Did Master Gu... truly feel that way about Junior Sister Ye?
How?"
The sect master and elders were pale as ghosts, too shaken to speak.
So Song Wanníng had been telling the truth all along?
All those times she got jealous—she had a reason?
Gu Qingyuan truly...
Everyone stared at him now. Shock. Disappointment. Judgment.
Gu Qingyuan shut his eyes. This secret had tortured him for years.
He had always known it would come out one day. He just never thought it would be now—when Ye Chuxue's life hung by a thread.
"Enough."
He opened his eyes. His voice was cold and clipped.
"Come with me. Save her."
He forced himself to swallow the killing intent surging in his heart.
He still needed her.
Song Wanníng let out a sharp laugh, almost breathless from how absurd he sounded.
"Gu Qingyuan, where do you find the nerve to ask me that?
Is it because of all the years I gave you? Or all the times I risked my life to save yours?"
She took a slow breath. Her words were steady now, ice in every syllable.
"What gives you the right to demand I save the woman who destroyed everything I had?"