25 Chapter 92: Risking Everything for the Rescue Part 2

As the heaven-sent prodigy of the Taiqing Sect, Lu Mingyi's life had been extraordinarily smooth sailing.

Not only had she cultivated to the Golden Core Stage at a young age and become a direct disciple of Sword Peak, but within the sect:

Above her was the gentle, water-like eldest senior sister who had always taken great care of her;

Below her was the lively, spirited junior sister with whom she could chat through the night until dawn;

Next door at Pill Peak was her childhood sweetheart of similar age and cultivation, whom she had grown up with;

Even the master, rumored to be as cold as frost and aloof from human emotions, had guided her with utmost care and imparted everything she knew without reservation.

But from a certain day onward, Lu Mingyi's cultivation inexplicably regressed, and with it came the ability to hear others' inner thoughts.

Lu Mingyi discovered that her eldest senior sister's kindness toward her stemmed entirely from a deceased cousin who bore some resemblance to her;

Her childhood sweetheart appeared close on the surface but harbored deep jealousy, believing Lu Mingyi had stolen the spotlight that rightfully belonged to her;

Her junior sister was the Demon Clan's saintess, whose goal was to steal the sect's secret treasure to fulfill the Demon Clan's grand scheme—Lu Mingyi was merely her tool;

As for her master, she genuinely hoped Lu Mingyi would grow strong, only to kill her and achieve perfection in the Ruthless Dao.

As Lu Mingyi's cultivation regressed, the people around her grew harsh, deeming her unworthy of being a direct disciple of the Taiqing Sect. In the end, she was even framed for fabricated crimes.

In the Punishment Hall, Lu Mingyi explained desperately, but everyone simply watched as she endured the punishment alive.

Thrown into the dungeon, Lu Mingyi was utterly wretched. It turned out those beautiful memories had been nothing but her own one-sided delusions.

Despairing, she resolved to leave the Taiqing Sect after her confinement ended and cut ties with everyone from her past.

But Lu Mingyi died suddenly.

When she opened her eyes again, the seas had turned to mulberry fields.

With a chance to start over, Lu Mingyi decided to focus solely on cultivation and steer clear of the turbulent mortal world.

Yet along the way, she heard that her former "close friends" had not fared well in recent years:

The eldest senior sister, now the family head, had turned white-haired overnight for some reason and lingered daily at Lu Mingyi's old residence in the Taiqing Sect, performing soul-summoning rituals;

The once arrogant and willful childhood sweetheart had undergone a complete personality change, switching from Pill Cultivator to Sword Cultivator, wandering the world with Lu Mingyi's former sword in hand, desperately seeking traces of her lingering soul;

The Demon Clan's saintess had caused a massive uproar at the Taiqing Sect back then, becoming the new Demon Lord feared throughout the cultivation world, and she dispatched people everywhere to search for clues about Lu Mingyi;

And the master, now the Sect Leader of the Taiqing Sect, had regressed drastically in cultivation from excessive grief and worry, forced into secluded recovery.

Lu Mingyi: "Ha? They're acting, right?"