I’m feeling a bit deranged and want to torment someone—sorry, dear Suyu. The beginning will be somewhat oppressive, but it’ll lighten up later. If you feel stifled or angry early on, feel free to skip ahead.
The dungeon was filled with a stale, damp, musty odor. Water droplets seeped from the stone walls, sliding over moss and falling with a monotonous drip in the silence. Occasionally, rats scurried by, but they never approached the stone bed deep within the cell, for it exuded an aura that terrified all living creatures.
Suyu was chained to the stone bed with silver chains. The manacles on her wrists and ankles were lined with soft velvet, yet they had still rubbed her skin raw, leaving red marks. She wore tattered white sacred robes, the collar torn open to reveal her snow-white shoulders and neck, marred by faint red finger marks. She could no longer remember how long she had been imprisoned here. The dungeon had no windows, only flickering torches on the walls providing a wavering light. Time had lost all meaning in this place.
Footsteps approached from afar, light and graceful, starkly out of place in this grim environment.
Suyu did not look up. She knew who had come.
“Sister Suyu, have you come to your senses today?”
The voice was seductive to the bone, carrying a hint of lazy amusement. A woman in a dark red gown stood outside the cell door, the torchlight casting her like a blooming red spider lily in the underworld. She was Youli, once the Holy Maiden of the Clear Sound Pavilion, now the Holy Maiden of the Demon Path.
Suyu finally raised her eyes to look at her. Youli’s beauty remained breathtaking, but her once-clear, glass-like eyes were now tinged with a dark crimson, the corners upturned with an eerie allure. Her long hair cascaded like an ink-black waterfall, adorned with a blood-red jade hairpin—a demonic artifact forged from the heart’s blood of a cultivator.
“Youli, kill me.”
Youli chuckled softly. She walked slowly forward, the hem of her dark red gown sweeping over the stained stone floor. She stopped beside the stone bed, leaned down, and lifted Suyu’s chin with her cold fingers.
“Kill you?” Youli’s fingertip traced Suyu’s lips. “I went to such lengths to capture you. How could I let you die so easily?”
Suyu turned her face away, but Youli forcibly turned it back. Their gazes clashed in the air—one clear and unyielding even in death, the other bewitching and in complete control.
“Remember?” Youli suddenly whispered, her breath brushing against Suyu’s neck. “Back in the Clear Sound Pavilion, under the moonlight, we practiced the Heart-Cleansing Art together. You said that if one of us ever fell into the demonic path, the other must personally end her life.”
Suyu’s body trembled slightly. That was a memory from a century ago. Back then, they were both rising stars of the righteous path, as close as sisters—closer, even.
Until that incident, when Youli was corrupted by demonic energy while saving Suyu. When the righteous sects united to execute her, Suyu was in seclusion, healing her wounds, and could not arrive in time.
By the time she emerged, Youli had already become the Holy Maiden of the Demon Path, her hands stained with the blood of righteous cultivators.
“I searched for you…”
Suyu’s voice was almost inaudible. “I scoured every mountain and valley…”
“Where were you when I needed you most?” Youli’s eyes suddenly turned cold, her fingers tightening, leaving red marks on Suyu’s jaw. “When I was in the Ten Thousand Demon Cave, my organs corroded by demonic energy, you were in the Profound Jade Sect, playing the Holy Maiden, revered by thousands!”
Suyu closed her eyes. “It was my fault.”
“Of course it’s your fault.” Youli released her grip, straightening up to look down at her from above. “So now, I want you to make it up to me.”
She drew a white jade vial from her sleeve, its surface carved with eerie demonic patterns. Suyu’s pupils contracted slightly at the sight—it was “Love’s Entanglement,” one of the most vicious poisons of the demonic path. Those afflicted would develop a twisted obsession with the poisoner, eventually losing their minds and becoming puppets.
“Drink it,” Youli uncorked the vial, releasing a cloyingly sweet fragrance, “or I’ll have all three hundred disciples of the Xuanyu Sect displayed as corpses at the mountain gate tomorrow.”
Suyu’s eyes snapped open. “You!”
“You know me, Sister Suyu.” Youli curved her crimson lips. “I keep my promises.”
Their standoff stretched silently through the dim dungeon. The shadows of torches danced on the stone walls, elongating and intertwining their figures. From the distance came the grating sound of chains—whether from the wind or the struggles of other prisoners deep within this demonic palace, it was impossible to tell.
In the end, Suyu extended a trembling hand and took the jade vial.
“If I drink it, will you spare the Xuanyu Sect?”
“I’ll consider it.” Youli’s reply was ambiguous.
Suyu smiled bitterly. She knew she had no choice. Tilting her head back, she swallowed the sweet liquid in one gulp. It slid down her throat, initially sweet as honey, then transformed into raging flames that scorched her meridians and dantian.
“Good.” Youli took the empty vial, watching with satisfaction as Suyu’s gaze gradually grew unfocused. She sat on the stone bed, pulling Suyu into her arms with a surprising hint of tenderness.
“Do you know? All these years, I’ve dreamed of you every night. Dreamed you were still at Qingyin Pavilion, us practicing swordplay in the back mountains, playing the zither under the moonlight… Then the dream shatters, I wake up, and find my hands stained with blood, while you remain forever pure and untainted.”
Suyu’s consciousness was fading, but she fought to stay lucid. “Youli… turn back…”
“There’s no turning back.” Youli gently stroked her long hair. “From the moment I chose to fall into the demonic path, there was no return. But I can take you down with me, Sister Suyu. We’ll be together forever, in my way.”
Youli laid Suyu flat on the stone bed, the silver chains chiming crisply. She watched as Suyu’s eyes grew increasingly dazed, as those once clear, moon-like eyes became clouded with the chaotic hues of the poison.
“Do you hate me?” Youli asked.
Suyu didn’t answer. She had already slipped into semi-consciousness, only instinctively clutching Youli’s sleeve like a drowning person grasping at driftwood—a sign that Love’s Entanglement was beginning to take effect.
Youli watched this scene quietly, a complex, indecipherable emotion flickering in her eerie crimson eyes—a mix of triumph, sorrow, twisted affection, and deep-seated hatred. She leaned down, pressing a cold, lingering kiss to Suyu’s lips.
“Sleep,” she whispered. “Tomorrow, you’ll begin a new life. A new life that belongs to me.”
Footsteps sounded again, gradually fading into the distance. The cell door closed once more, separating the inside from the outside into two distinct worlds. Suyu curled up on the stone bed, the silver chains softly chiming with her movements. The torchlight danced across her face as a single tear silently fell, disappearing into her disheveled black hair.
The dungeon returned to silence, broken only by the rhythmic, cold drip of water droplets.
In the shadows outside the cell, Youli had not truly left. She leaned against the cold stone wall, gazing up at the impossibly high ceiling of the demon palace’s dungeon. Her crimson eyes reflected no light. Her hand gently pressed against her chest, where a heart that was half-demon, half-daoist beat steadily.
“We will be together forever, Sister Suyu.”