Daylight seeped through the cracks in the ceiling of the cavern, casting a faint gray-white beam into the frigid stone chamber.
A night of madness.
Yan Qingxiao’s consciousness clawed its way out of a bottomless chaos.
Beneath him was bone-chilling Cold Jade, while the air was permeated by an intoxicating scent mingling cedarwood with a woman’s fragrance.
“Crack.”
A crisp sound of splitting rang out.
The indestructible black-iron chains that had bound him throughout the night shattered inch by inch, turning to powder and rustling down from his wrists and ankles.
Yan Qingxiao slowly sat up. His snow-white inner garment hung loosely open, revealing his chest and collarbones, which were covered in ambiguous marks.
His gaze fell upon the figure curled up at the foot of the bed.
Shen Weilan.
His direct disciple.
She was curled into a ball, her long black hair in disarray across her shoulders and back. She wore only a loosely draped inner garment, exposing half of one smooth, rounded shoulder.
A ring of teeth marks was unmistakably imprinted there.
This was the disciple he had personally raised. Since childhood, she had followed behind him, tilting up her face and looking at him with clear, adoring eyes.
“Master, Weilan learned a new sword technique today.”
“Master, this is peach-blossom wine I brewed for you.”
“Master…”
When had it begun?
When had those pure eyes become stained with an obsession and madness he could not understand?
Yan Qingxiao’s tightly clenched fists trembled faintly from the force.
Was it after Lu Yao came?
Ever since he had brought that girl, born with a sword bone, back to the sect and accepted her as his final disciple, everything had changed.
He could sense Shen Weilan growing more and more silent. He could also detect the undisguised jealousy and hostility in her eyes whenever she looked at Lu Yao.
He had once thought this was merely a rivalry between juniors, and that with a little guidance, she would return to the right path.
He had never imagined that this jealousy would fester into such vicious thoughts, driving her to the point of betraying her Master and Ancestor and drugging him.
Because he had given another disciple his attention, she had chosen to possess him completely through the most disgraceful and extreme means?
Absurd.
And pitiful.
“Mm…”
Shen Weilan slowly pushed herself upright, supporting her aching, weakened body. Her disordered inner garment slipped with the movement, exposing the glaring tooth mark on her shoulder even more clearly to Yan Qingxiao’s eyes.
It seemed only then that she realized where she was—and who was beside her.
“Mas… Master?”
Confusion first appeared on the girl’s face, then turned into terror.
She saw the murderous intent that had not yet entirely faded from his eyes. She also saw the disarray covering her own body.
As well as her outer garment and sash scattered across the floor.
“I…”
Shen Weilan opened her mouth, but could not utter a single word. Tears began falling in large drops without warning.
The next moment, she climbed down from the Cold Jade Bed on her hands and feet. Ignoring the soreness in her body, she picked up the outer garment that belonged to her and hurriedly wrapped it around herself.
Then she retreated three steps and dropped straight to her knees before the man on the bed.
“Thud.”
“Disciple Shen Weilan has betrayed her Master and Ancestor. I deserve ten thousand deaths.”
She slammed her forehead against the cold floor. Her voice was hoarse, yet every word was clear.
“Please, Master… cleanse the sect of me.”
“Cleanse the sect of you?”
Yan Qingxiao looked down from above at the girl prostrated on the floor. Disappointment and fury churned in his dark eyes.
“You certainly are decisive.”
Shen Weilan’s body shook violently. She raised her head, and though her small face was streaked with tears, it carried an almost eerie calm.
“Disciple knows that her sins are grave and that she has no face to go on living.”
She looked at him. There was not the slightest desire to survive in her eyes, only a dead, ashen silence.
“I beg Master to bring down the Nine Heavens Profound Thunder and strike me until my soul is scattered, never to be reborn.”
“Only then can Master’s good name be cleansed, and only then can the sect regain its peace.”
Yan Qingxiao had imagined that she would make excuses, cry and cause a scene, or beg for mercy.
He had never imagined that she would directly beg for death—and ask for the most horrific death of all.
The fury he had accumulated throughout the night struck an invisible cushion, leaving it with nowhere to go.
“Do you think dying will settle everything?”
“You committed such a treasonous crime, and now you want to free yourself so easily?”
“Then what else should I do?”
Shen Weilan suddenly let out a sorrowful laugh. Mixed with her tears, that smile was indescribably tragic.
“What else does Master want to do?”
She tilted her head up and looked straight at him.
“Throw your disciple into the Ten-Thousand Snake Cavern?”
Yan Qingxiao’s pupils constricted in that instant.
It was the cruelest punishment the sect imposed on traitors. He had never imagined hearing it from her lips.
“Master, do you know?”
As though she had not noticed the sudden change in his expression, Shen Weilan continued speaking on her own.
“Your disciple was jealous. I was so jealous I nearly went mad.”
“I was jealous of Junior Sister Lu, jealous that she was born with a sword bone, jealous that she could so easily receive your praise.”
“Even more jealous that she… could stand so purely at your side and receive all your care.”
Her words were like sobs and laments. Every one of them sounded like an accusation, yet also like a confession.
“Master’s gaze and Master’s tenderness used to belong to me.”
“But after she came, everything changed.”
“You smile at her, personally guide her in swordsmanship, and search out natural treasures for her foundation establishment.”
“And what about me?”
She raised a hand and pointed at her own heart, tears streaming even more fiercely down her face.
“I could only stand in the distance and watch you move farther and farther away from me.”
“Master, I only… only wanted to take you back.”
“Even if it were only for one night.”
Yan Qingxiao’s chest heaved violently. He wanted to open his mouth and rebuke her absurdity, but his throat seemed to be blocked by something, and he could not utter a single word.
He had always thought she was merely being willful, merely spoiled because she had been indulged.
He had never known that such profound resentment and obsession had been building up inside her.
“I succeeded, didn’t I?”
Shen Weilan looked at him, a sick, mutually destructive light flickering in her eyes.
“Last night, you were mine.”
“Mine alone.”
Her voice carried a sob, yet also a mad, demonic satisfaction.
“Now, my wish has been fulfilled.”
She lowered her head once more, pressing her forehead against the cold floor. Her voice returned to its original calm.
“I committed a monstrous crime and defiled Master’s chastity. I am willing to accept any punishment.”
“I only beg Master to grant me death.”
Yan Qingxiao looked at Shen Weilan kneeling on the ground. Her thin, constantly trembling back was like a thorn, driven deep into his eyes.
For a long time.
So long that Shen Weilan’s knees were nearly numb.
Only then did a hoarse voice, filled with utter exhaustion, come from above her head.
“…Put your clothes on.”
At an angle no one could see, the corner of Shen Weilan’s mouth curled into a smile of triumph.
She had known it.
His heart had softened.
“Yes, Master.”
She answered, her voice still thick with tears and nasal congestion, sounding aggrieved yet obedient.
She braced herself against the floor and tried to stand, but her body swayed as though she had used up every last bit of strength.
Slowly, one piece at a time, she put the scattered garments back on.
Her movements were slow and clumsy.
With his back to her, Yan Qingxiao listened to the rustling of her clothes behind him and felt only restless agitation.
He closed his eyes, trying to drive the chaotic images of the previous night from his mind, but those images only grew clearer.
Her whispers beside his ear, her kisses upon his lips, her fingers entwined tightly with his…
And finally, beneath him, her suppressed moans, trembling with sobs and impossible to restrain.
Just then.
A clear female voice, accompanied by several polite knocks, rang distinctly in from outside the cavern abode.
“Master? Are you inside?”
“Yao’er heard that your spiritual energy went into upheaval while you were in seclusion last night, and I was truly worried. I specially simmered a Heart-Clearing Soup and brought it to you…”