Rolling clouds filled the hazy grey sky, the surrounding dark rain clouds cutting off the horizon between sky and earth.
The incomplete sun burned as fiery and vibrant as blood, casting a layer of sunset glow even over the Qingyun Hall.
Below the great hall of Qingyun, teams of guards composed of cultivators tightly surrounded a young woman.
The leading squad of guards wore neat and uniform attire, all dressed in black clothes and black boots, holding uniformly forged long swords, and formed a sword formation encircling the woman in the center.
The black garments were chilling, and embroidered around the chest of each black robe was a dragon pattern enclosing a striking character: “Gong”.
“Miss Jiang, please come back with us. The Young Master wishes to see you!” the leader of the Gong clan guards spoke out.
“See me?” The woman gave a miserable, desolate laugh. “To see me after my heart has been dug out, to see how I am tortured to death little by little?!”
“Miss Jiang, please come back with us,” the Gong clan leader repeated coldly.
A mocking expression appeared on the woman’s face. “You really are well-trained dogs raised by Gong Hantian!”
“Please return with us, Miss Jiang.” The commander did not grow angry, and repeated himself with a seemingly good-tempered tone.
Jiang Xu glanced at the corpse in her arms, her eyes filled with monstrous hatred yet unable to conceal her deep grief. The body had already gradually grown cold.
The wound pierced by Song Qinglin’s long sword throbbed with a dull ache, and coupled with the massive amounts of blood she had lost over the past few days, her body no longer had the strength to move. The true qi inside her body had also clumped together in a blockage.
Jiang Xu knew that she didn’t even have the strength to walk right now, let alone escape with her mother’s corpse.
However, she was so unwilling! How she hated this!
Countless thoughts raced through her mind as her expression turned icy. Her face was stained and mangled with blood, but her gaze remained dark, cold, and fierce.
Since she couldn’t escape, they would all perish together! Jiang Xu thought, before despair suddenly washed over her.
What she feared most was that she wouldn’t even get the outcome of mutual destruction; what they wanted was her heart, and she no longer had the strength to resist!
Stumbling, Jiang Xu forced herself to stand up. A mouthful of blood spewed from her mouth as she hugged the corpse tighter to her chest, murmuring:
“Mother, Xiao Wu is taking you home, okay?”
Afterward, her gaze shifted to the Gong clan guards. “I am not going back. You can take my corpse back instead!”
As soon as Jiang Xu finished speaking, she used her remaining strength to mobilize the residual true qi inside her body, gathering it toward her chest in an attempt to sever her own heart meridian.
Under the setting sun, the woman’s white clothes were stained red with blood, and fresh blood could still be seen flowing from the torn fabric of her garment.
Three thousand strands of black hair fell loosely behind her, while her arms tightly cradled a fox corpse. Her swaying figure stood with extreme difficulty.
She turned her head to gaze at the sky, looking at the boundless rosy clouds, and slowly said: “How truly beautiful.”
The woman’s blood-stained lips curved slightly, yet tears fell unbidden from her eyes.
“No, she is trying to kill herself!”
The black-clad commander cried out in alarm, wanting to stop her, but realized he was powerless to do so.
The woman before him had once possessed a cultivation level higher than his own. At this moment, waging a desperate struggle not to kill enemies but to seek her own end, it had happened so abruptly that there was simply nothing he could do.
“Damn it!” The black-clad commander cursed under his breath. If this woman died, Eldest Miss Song would not be saved, and neither the Young Master nor Second Young Master Song would let him off.
Hearing the commander’s curses, Jiang Xu felt a demonic sense of vindication deep down. She then closed her eyes, preparing to welcome the arrival of death.
Right at that moment, a streak of silver light flew out from within the Qingyun Hall, soaring past the guards directly toward Jiang Xu. A loud explosion burst from within the silver radiance.
After the smoke and clouds cleared, the black-clad commander opened his eyes to see Jiang Xu coughing up blood once again from the shockwave of the blast, collapsing onto the ground.
Though her injuries had worsened significantly, her life was still spared, which filled him with great joy.
He stepped directly forward to subdue her, snatched the fox corpse from her arms, and handed it to a subordinate nearby. “A filthy demonic beast, get rid of it.”
“Do not touch my mother!” Jiang Xu’s eyes were blood-red. Not yet freed from the despair of having her suicide interrupted, she spoke in a hoarse voice.
Tears mixed with blood streamed down her face, making her expression terrifyingly ferocious.
The commander gave her a harsh shove. Harboring resentment that she had nearly caused him to fail his mission, his men showed even less restraint as they tied her up securely.
He then cast his gaze toward the silver light, and a shiver ran through him the moment he saw it clearly.
Shimmering silver with a bucket-inverted shape, this was Second Young Master Song’s spiritual weapon, the Stelar Cover!
Indeed, only this item could prevent a cultivator from severing their own heart meridian.
The Stelar Cover isolated one’s aura. Anyone trapped inside would have their true qi locked away, rendering them like ordinary mortals and naturally unable to channel spiritual energy into their heart meridians to commit suicide.
However, the Stelar Cover, which normally radiated a brilliant silver glow, had now lost its luster, because it had been deployed as a retroactive countermeasure. This spiritual weapon was already ruined!
The commander picked up the Stelar Cover, ordered his subordinates to keep Jiang Xu under close guard, and prepared to report back to the Young Master.
Creak. The doors of Qingyun Hall opened, and a man in green robes stepped out. With a gentle temperament and a handsome visage, he walked leisurely toward the exterior of the hall.
Seeing him, the black-clad commander hurried forward. “Second Young Master, Miss Jiang has been captured.”
The commander glanced at the man in green and added tentatively, “Thanks to the assistance of your spiritual weapon, Second Young Master, but it seems to have been destroyed.”
“It doesn’t matter,” the green-robed man replied, his gaze bypassing the commander entirely to land on Jiang Xu, who was now bound by the Gong clan guards.
Seeing the woman’s white robes stained with blood and her eyes pale and lifeless, a flash of unbearable pity crossed the man’s eyes before turning resolute.
“Bring her to the rear hall. Also, go invite Miss Yue of the Medicine Valley over, and tell her to fulfill her promise.”
“Yes,” the commander acknowledged in a low voice, then respectfully withdrew.
Inside the Great Hall of Qingyun.
“Hantian, am I going to die?” Clad in white, Song Qingling lay upon the cold jade bed, her complexion pale as she spoke in a soft whisper.
The beauty furrowed her brows in a frail and delicate posture.
Gong Hantian was accustomed only to seeing her clad in fluttering white robes, aloof and self-contained. Where had he ever seen her show such vulnerability? His heart instantly melted into a puddle of warmth.
“You will not, Ling’er. I have already had someone capture Jiang Xu, and Ah Lin has also sent people to invite Yue Sheng. Once she arrives, we will have her perform the heart transplant. Jiang Xu has a unique constitution; with her heart, your poison will never act up again.”
Gong Hantian comforted her in a tender voice.
“But Jiang Xu is innocent after all.”
Song Qingling wanted to continue, but before she could finish, Gong Hantian interrupted her. “Ling’er, that her heart can be of use to you is her supreme honor.
Besides, out of consideration for you, I originally intended to only have her provide daily blood draws, and even bestow upon her the status of a concubine.
It is she who did not know what was good for her and dared to injure you. Since she refuses to mend her ways, there is no need for her to remain in my Qingyun Hall any longer.”
Gong Hantian’s gaze turned profound.
“Alright, Ling’er, the poison within you has just flared up not long ago; you should rest properly now.
Do not think too much about it. Leave the rest to Ah Lin and me.”
After tucking the blanket around Song Qingling, Gong Hantian turned and left.
Lying on the cold jade bed, Song Qingling watched the man’s tall, straight retreating figure, unable to keep a look of triumph from her eyes, proud of her special and exceptional status in Gong Hantian’s heart.
Then, thinking of the man’s words just moments ago, her expression turned frosty. A concubine? Jiang Xu was hardly worthy!
Still, Jiang Xu’s heart was about to be dug out to cure her poison!
With this thought, Song Qingling felt an incomparable sense of gratification wash over her.
She was merely the daughter of a concubine born to a demonic beast. How could she possibly deserve Gong Hantian’s ten-mile red carpet and boundless brocade?
The Rear Hall of Qingyun Hall.
Water flowed slowly, though not from any natural river; this was the sound of water circulating within the cisterns of the water dungeon.
Beneath the cisterns lay the true prison, dark, damp, and occasionally reeking of decay.
This was where Jiang Xu had been imprisoned. Song Qingling had instructed the commander to lock her away in the rear hall without specifying an exact location.
Nursing a grudge because Jiang Xu had nearly killed herself, and wishing to curry favor with Song’s eldest miss and second young master, the commander had directly had her thrown into the most agonizing and unbearable water dungeon.
Inside the dungeon, Jiang Xu was bound to a stone pillar, the blood from her wounds seemingly completely drained as it no longer seeped out.
Her hair was scattered in disarray and her white garments were in tatters. Jiang Xu stared wide-eyed, plunged into a depth of despair beyond measure.
Her mother’s corpse had been snatched away. How they would treat the remains, she did not know, but she could easily guess it would not be anything good.
And as for herself, she could not escape the fate of having her heart dug out!
Jiang Xu struggled fiercely within the dead sea of despair, only to be ultimately submerged.
She kept her eyes wide open, dried to their absolute limit, refusing to close them.
Drip, drip, drip. A sound of footsteps echoed through the space.
Jiang Xu lifted her head with difficulty, her vision focusing toward the entrance of the water dungeon as a figure gradually emerged into view.
The newcomer wore brocaded black robes, his ink-black hair smooth as silk, with sword-like brows and starry eyes.
His features were sharply chiseled as if carved by a knife, his thin lips pressed tightly together, and his tall, sturdy physique stepped slowly toward Jiang Xu in black cloud-patterned boots.
Gazing at him, hatred erupted within Jiang Xu’s eyes, making her wish she could tear him apart with her bare hands.
Her hoarse and parched throat squeezed out an ugly sound: “Gong Hantian!”
Every word was squeezed through clenched teeth, dripping with blood.
Hearing her voice for the first time, so parched and raspy, Gong Hantian was slightly startled before following the source of the sound.
He saw Jiang Xu tied to the stone pillar in such a horrifying state, and an unbidden pang of pain pierced his heart.
“Jiang Xu, you…” The man was momentarily at a loss for words, as if he had not expected her to be in such a miserable state, or to hate him this deeply.
“What did you do to my mother?” Jiang Xu asked darkly. Even though she already knew the likely outcome, she still forced the question out.
“Your mother?” Gong Hantian repeated, only then recalling that the mother she spoke of was a lowly-born demonic beast.
The trace of pity that had just arisen in his eyes instantly vanished, replaced entirely by disgust and aversion.
The man replied coldly, “This young master does not know what became of that beast, but my Gong clan is not a place to harbor filth. That fox has likely already been disposed of.”
Hearing those words, Jiang Xu felt her entire body go limp as if drained of strength. Had she not been bound by ropes, she would have collapsed straight into the water.
She had long known how heartless the man before her was, yet she had still underestimated his indifference!
Jiang Xu mocked herself in her heart for being blind. How could she ever have fancied him in the first place?
She wished desperately that time could flow backward, choking that naive and pure Jiang Xu right in the bud.
“Jiang Xu, this young master originally had no intention of digging out your heart. As long as you provided blood daily for Ling’er, I was even willing to grant you the status of a concubine.
It was you who did not know what was good for you, daring to harm Ling’er. Everything today is brought upon yourself.”
Seeing her icy gaze laden with intense hatred, Gong Hantian felt deeply uncomfortable and could not help speaking up in self-justification.
He told himself he had not done anything wrong. The fault lay with her, for being ungrateful and pushing her luck!
Hahahaha. Hearing these words, Jiang Xu burst out in wild, unrestrained laughter, laughing until she coughed up blood without stopping.
Then, she raised her head to look at Gong Hantian, her bloodshot pupils engraved with madness.
“You…” Startled by the woman’s crazed appearance, Gong Hantian frowned in displeasure.