Shock flashed across Shen Mingzheng’s face.
Lu Mingyi had never spoken to her like this.
Even if polite in wording, that “go” sounded no different from “get out” to Shen Mingzheng.
Her brows locked tight, eyes reddening swiftly as she gritted out, “Lu Mingyi! Do you even know what you’re saying…”
“Of course I do! Isn’t this what you really think?” Lu Mingyi countered with a cold laugh.
The two were the same age, constant companions with tempers of their own—they’d argued plenty over the century.
Sometimes, after a massive blowout where every ugly word flies, a cold war lasting days or even over ten days wasn’t unusual.
Yet Shen Mingzheng had never imagined that after a fight, she would never see Lu Mingyi again.
Except this time.
Rising alongside the anger in her heart was an inexplicable fear that made it ache and sour. Instinctively, she gripped Lu Mingyi’s hand tighter, refusing to let go.
And so, the two of them tugged and argued inside the Seclusion Chamber.
Though Lu Mingyi had no spiritual power left and her body was frail, she was still a Sword Cultivator at heart—her physical foundation was there. Meanwhile, Shen Mingzheng brimmed with spiritual power, yet for some reason, she seemed to have forgotten she could use it, tangling with Lu Mingyi purely on physical strength.
“You tell me clearly! What do you mean by ‘my true feelings’?!”
“Isn’t that exactly what you said? That I’m arrogant! That I look down on everyone!”
“And those are your reasons for not returning to the Shen Family?!”
Their furious shouts echoed through the Seclusion Chamber. In the end, Lu Mingyi’s stamina gave out first. Shen Mingzheng pinned her to the ground, the woman’s soft, scorching body pressing down on her—a sensation utterly different from their childhood.
But this time, Lu Mingyi had no intention of going back with Shen Mingzheng.
“Whether you want to or not, you must return to the Shen Family. If you won’t, I’ll tie you up and drag you back!” Shen Mingzheng’s eyes reddened at the corners as she clamped down on Lu Mingyi’s shoulders.
The force sent clear pain stabbing through Lu Mingyi’s ribs. She furrowed her brows in fury. “Shen Mingzheng! Stop going crazy here…”
Their argument should have raged on, but a gentle yet undeniable pressure descended, stiffening both their bodies. They looked up together toward the Seclusion Chamber’s entrance.
A figure stood there.
Jiang Liuzhao, clad in flowing white robes, stood tall and graceful, her demeanor otherworldly, her features coldly aloof. She lingered at the doorway, her lake-deep gaze fixed on Lu Mingyi—who knew how much she’d overheard.
The moment Lu Mingyi spotted her master, a profound, shuddering pain coursed through her limbs, sharper even than the sword wound in her ribs.
—That was the aftereffect of the Soul Search Technique.
Lu Mingyi immediately averted her eyes, wondering in her heart why her master had suddenly come to the Seclusion Chamber. Still, she first shoved off the weight of Shen Mingzheng atop her, struggled to her feet, and paid her respects. “Greetings, Master.”
Shen Mingzheng’s breathing remained ragged, her gaze still locked on Lu Mingyi, but she too offered a perfunctory salute. “Greetings, Long Rainbow Sword Venerable.”
Facing their half-hearted courtesies, Jiang Liuzhao merely glanced at them, not mentioning how they’d just tumbled to the ground in their scuffle. In a flat voice, she said, “Quarreling is forbidden in the Seclusion Chamber. Additionally, Nephew Shen, your visitation time is up.”
Shen Mingzheng hadn’t interacted much with Jiang Liuzhao in the past, but even if she despised Sword Peak, she always observed proper etiquette.
Today, however—whether from the fresh argument with Lu Mingyi souring her mood or some other reason—she shot Jiang Liuzhao a particularly venomous glare. Then, flinging off Lu Mingyi, she snapped irritably, “You’d better think it over. I’ll come back tomorrow!”
Tomorrow.
Lu Mingyi stared at Jiang Liuzhao before her, thinking she probably wouldn’t live to see tomorrow.
She schooled her expression into one of bland normalcy, curving her lips into a faint, ordinary smile. “Master, you’ve come. I was just wondering how I could see you.”
Jiang Liuzhao’s brows furrowed slightly as her gaze swept over Lu Mingyi. “Lie down first.”
Lu Mingyi glanced down and saw that in her struggle with Shen Mingzheng, the wound at her ribs had split open again, the seeping blood staining the fresh white robes anew.
This wound had come out of nowhere, reopening repeatedly despite the medicine—no matter how it was treated.
Just like her life now. No matter how she ignored it or plastered over the cracks with false peace, the fragile facade would inevitably tear away.
Lu Mingyi’s smile didn’t waver. “No need to lie down. It’s hardly the only wound anyway.”
Jiang Liuzhao’s brows knit tighter. She sensed there was more to Lu Mingyi’s words and fell silent, waiting for her to continue.
But seeing this, Lu Mingyi let out a light chuckle laced with sarcasm. “Master, don’t you have anything to say to me?”
Jiang Liuzhao’s gaze dropped for a moment, then lifted. “I do. And quite a lot.”
Now it was Lu Mingyi’s turn to fall silent, waiting for what came next.
The heart Shen Mingzheng had stung now faced her most trusted elder, kindling one final spark of hope.
Yet Jiang Liuzhao’s clear, crisp voice delivered: “But this is not the time to tell you.”
And that last spark shattered.
Lu Mingyi gazed at the fresh blood staining her robes. The light faded from her luminous eyes, turning to utter indifference. She curved her lips in a faint smile. “Master, you’ve… always been like this. You know everything, but you never tell me outright—not even when it concerns me. Whenever I ask, you drop just a hint and leave me to piece the rest together myself.
That prophecy about the Five-Colored Stone, the Demon Sect’s true target being the Shen Family—you knew all along, didn’t you?”
Lu Mingyi appeared utterly calm, but exhaustion made her pant for a long while after that outburst.
Jiang Liuzhao offered no denial to these accusations. She simply stayed silent, Lu Mingyi’s figure reflected clearly in her eyes.
This silence was all too familiar to Lu Mingyi.
Throughout her years cultivating in Taiqing Sect, Jiang Liuzhao’s guidance had always stopped at the key points. The rest, she had to uncover herself.
“From the very start, you deliberately let Ji Xuyun go, turning their scheme against them.
You knew the Demon Sect planned to feign an attack in the east while striking west at the Shen Family, but they wouldn’t abandon me here in Taiqing Sect. So you split forces with the senior aunts: Ming Xuan Martial Aunt and the others stayed to guard Taiqing Sect and wait for Ji Xuyun, while you went to Lin’an with the battle specialists like Heavenly Talisman True Person.
And to ensure I stayed put in Taiqing Sect, you locked me in Lingxiao Pavilion with restrictions targeted solely at me, assigning Qi Junior Sister and Tingyu to watch me constantly…”
The facts proved Jiang Liuzhao’s arrangements a resounding success.
Regardless of whether Ji Xuyun truly died under Xiao Yuxie’s sword, the other Demonic Cultivators—including the four guardians, all said to be in the Cavern Void Realm—suffered devastating losses. The righteous path claimed a thorough victory.
“But,” Lu Mingyi’s voice trembled faintly. She paused, steadying it with effort, though her tone still rose, her indifference coalescing into resentment and simmering rage, “I was the one at the eye of the storm, wasn’t I? Even if it meant using a low-cultivation me as bait to wipe out the Demon Sect, I’d have done it willingly! Why did everyone know but me? Why did I have to guess it all bit by bit?!”
In stark contrast to her crumbling emotions stood Jiang Liuzhao’s unmoving figure. She merely lowered her gaze and said softly, “Telling you these things would only add to your worries. But you will be fine.”
Lu Mingyi’s hands clenched fiercely at her sides.
Only add to your worries? You will be fine?
Bearing the secret of that voice, branded the Child of Prophecy, then learning everyone had kept her in the dark—didn’t that add worries?
Severely wounded, spiritual power scattered, expelled from the sect, forsaken by her family.
What more would it take to count as ‘not fine’?
The moment she’d awakened from her coma, her first thought had been to see Jiang Liuzhao—to beg an answer for why everything had been hidden from her.
But now that her master was here, what answer did she get?
Lu Mingyi stopped smiling, her eyes blazing with a near-reckless intensity as she stared down Jiang Liuzhao. “You will be fine? Then Master, when do you plan to make your move on me?”
In that instant, Lu Mingyi caught a flicker of surprise in the woman’s eyes.
Rarely, Jiang Liuzhao asked with a trace of gravity, “Make my move? Did that Demon Sect Saintess say something to you?”
“What she did to me… Master, wasn’t the Soul Search enough for you to see clearly?” Lu Mingyi tilted her head, her words barbed.
At her retort, Jiang Liuzhao’s long lashes trembled, and she evaded Lu Mingyi’s gaze first.
After a moment, she seemed to collect herself and said with realization, “You heard my thoughts too.”
“Yes.” Lu Mingyi’s voice had gone hoarse. “I know you wanted to kill me.”
“That day, you lied to me.” Yet Jiang Liuzhao brought up their conversation that day in Lingxiao Pavilion.
She tacitly admitted that yes, she had once harbored intent to strike Lu Mingyi down.
Resentment, fury, pain, and the throbbing agony from her wounds coalesced into thick, heavy sludge weighing on her heart.
Lu Mingyi couldn’t stand Jiang Liuzhao’s demeanor any longer. She stepped closer. “Lied? Master, you’ve hidden so much from me! You had me monitored day and night in Lingxiao Pavilion, used me as bait to draw out the Demon Sect, even harbored killing intent toward me! And now you’re accusing me of lying to you? I waited so long for you—even just now, I was waiting for an explanation! But what did you say?!”
Resentment and rage flushed her bright, beautiful eyes red and sent black spots dancing in her vision.
She drew several deep breaths, suddenly catching a faint scent of sandalwood.
When her eyes fluttered open, she realized she’d nearly fainted and collapsed. Jiang Liuzhao had caught her just in time.
The last time Jiang Liuzhao had held her like this was after the Sect Leader’s death—back then, she’d craved that proximity for a sense of security.
But now, realizing her master’s nearness triggered a conditioned flood of pain from the Soul Search and the deceptions. Even though Jiang Liuzhao’s embrace was cautious and restrained, the moment the sandalwood scent hit, Lu Mingyi shoved her away.
Lu Mingyi let herself slump onto the Seclusion Chamber’s cold floor, her gaze dropping to the spotless ground as she murmured lowly, “You knew everything. You knew that prophecy was real, that the Five-Colored Stone exists.
You even knew my cultivation’s collapse, hearing those so-called thoughts—it’s all tied to the Five-Colored Stone, right? My body is inextricably linked to it… Probably three years ago, in the Secret Realm, when I encountered Ji Xuyun. That was her doing.
