Red and white matter splattered across the mud pit. This personal disciple of the Cangyun Sect's Grand Elder, who usually stood high and mighty, was now completely dead.
Su Yueli let out a long sigh of relief, feeling as though a massive boulder that had weighed on her chest for an entire century had finally been lifted.
She looked at the headless corpse on the ground and murmured softly, “Shen Qing'an, I have avenged the grudge of that snowy night for you...”
Su Yueli lifted her foot and shook the blood off her shoe against a nearby gray boulder.
Then, through her cold, white carved mask, she smiled coldly at Shen Huai'an as he slowly descended to the ground.
“Young Sect Master, he was a fellow cultivator after all. Did you really not plan to save him?”
Shen Huai'an stood on a patch of clean ground not far away, his face showing no emotion whatsoever.
“I have no obligation to save him. The immortal sects stand side by side, but it is merely for show. With the death of a personal disciple of the Grand Elder, the Cangyun Sect won't be able to hold their heads high for the next thirty years.”
Su Yueli snorted coldly in her heart. She had indeed gambled correctly.
These cultivators were selfish to the core. There was no such thing as true sect unity.
“Before he died, he mentioned your brother,” Su Yueli said coldly, staring intently into his eyes. “Do you not plan to ask anything?”
Shen Huai'an pondered for a moment, his brows knitting together as a sudden, inexplicable ache throbbed in his chest.
But in the end, he shook his head, his tone still as indifferent as water.
“My brother was merely a mortal without an immortal root. His lifespan would not have exceeded a hundred years, and he would have turned to dust sooner or later anyway.”
“Since he was destined to be a passing traveler in my life, there is no need to care about how he froze to death back then. It was nothing more than the law of the jungle.”
Su Yueli laughed self-deprecatingly beneath her mask, her heart turning cold.
This guy had truly changed completely.
Two hundred years of high-level cultivation had turned the village boy, who once blushed while giving her steamed buns, into a completely cold-blooded stone.
The divide between immortals and mortals was so vast that it could truly erase even the bonds of blood.
“Since the Young Sect Master is so open-minded, then I shall take my leave.” Su Yueli cupped her hands and turned to leave Rocky Valley.
“Wait.”
Shen Huai'an suddenly took a step forward and called out to her in a low voice.
Su Yueli stopped and looked back at him with cold eyes.
Standing at the edge of the mud pit, Shen Huai'an's expression was incredibly complex, filled with a mixture of emotions. He remained silent for a full three breaths before speaking in a slightly raspy voice:
“That nameless little mountain village back then... how is it now? And where did the villagers go?”
Deep down, upon hearing Shen Qing'an's name, he actually wanted to know about the martial arts girl from the village—the one who had always made him feel self-conscious and whom he had remembered for nearly two hundred years.
Su Yueli's voice lacked any warmth. “Don't bother thinking about it. They are all dead.”
Shen Huai'an's body trembled slightly, and he sighed with a lonely look in his eyes. “A mortal's lifespan is but a hundred years. Once their time is up, they turn to dry bones. It is indeed so.”
“They didn't die of old age.”
Su Yueli sneered, stabbing a knife straight into Shen Huai'an's heart. “Decades ago, they were slaughtered by an incredibly powerful martial artist. Not a single soul in the village was spared, not even the chickens and dogs.”
“However, there is a massive secret behind this. As the successor of the Blue Moon Sect, could it be that the Young Sect Master hasn't heard even a whisper of it?”
Shen Huai'an froze on the spot, utterly dumbfounded, his brows knitting into a deep frown. “A martial artist? Slaughtering the village? That's absolutely impossible! Back then, after the sect elders took me away, they clearly said a severe plague had broken out in the village, and everyone died of illness. How could they have been slaughtered?”
Su Yueli looked at his bewildered expression, which did not seem feigned, and nodded slightly. Then, she delivered a subtle, fatal blow:
“A plague? Such nonsense could only fool a puppet like you, who has been locked in a secret chamber for two hundred years.”
“The martial artist who slaughtered the village shares an inseparable karma with the high-ranking officials of your Blue Moon Sect. If the Young Sect Master truly wants to know the truth, why not go back and ask your Sect Master after this tournament ends?”
Shen Huai'an heard the thorn in her words, and his face instantly turned pale.
He looked at the green-dressed woman wearing the mask in front of him, opening his mouth to ask who she was and how she knew all this, but the words caught in his throat.
For some reason, looking at this cold and aloof woman, he felt that her gaze overlapped with the old friend in the depths of his memory—the one who always wore a green robe and refused to cultivate even if it killed her.
But soon, he forcefully shook off this absurd thought.
Impossible.
Back then, Su Yueli was diagnosed with blocked meridians, possessing not a single shred of Bone Talent for cultivation.
Now that more than a sixty-year cycle had passed, a mortal should have died long ago. How could someone live to nearly two hundred years old without a single shred of spiritual energy, let alone kill a Fifth Realm cultivator with a single punch?
Seeing him standing there in a daze with no intention of stopping her, Su Yueli let out a cold snort.
She took a step forward, the terrifying blood qi of her Delusion Breaker rank erupted instantly. She transformed into a green afterimage, disappearing into the deepest parts of the wilderness.
Shen Huai'an stood alone in the cold night wind, gazing in the direction Su Yueli had departed, remaining motionless for a long time.
His originally dead Dao Heart felt as though a massive boulder had been thrown into it, whipping up raging waves.
Qingli... Yueli...
These two extremely similar names echoed repeatedly in his mind, causing Shen Huai'an's breathing to grow somewhat ragged.
But soon, he shook his head self-deprecatingly once more.
Impossible...
A mortal martial artist could never live for two hundred years. That green-robed girl, who had no Bone Talent and could not cultivate, should have died long ago when her natural lifespan reached its limit.
At that moment, his instinct was to rush forward, forcefully detain the masked woman, and get to the bottom of the matter.
But another voice deep inside his heart warned him frantically.
He was the high and mighty Young Sect Master, destined to attain the Dao and ascend in the future. He should completely sever all past mortal karma.
Wanting to detain her, yet not wanting to face the past—these two thoughts tore at his mind, causing his face to contort slightly with inner struggle.
But who exactly was this mortal woman...
Why could she kill a Fifth Realm immortal master with pure martial arts...
Why did she know so much about the little mountain village from back then...
“Could it be... she is the child of my old friend?”
Shen Huai'an's gaze flickered with uncertainty and suspicion.
If she was a descendant left behind by that person in the mortal world, or the bloodline of a survivor from the village, then everything would make sense.
However, her overwhelming hatred for the high-ranking members of the Blue Moon Sect, which leaked from every word she spoke, was absolutely genuine.
The more Shen Huai'an thought about it, the more confused he became, his mind turning into a tangled mess.
Some things, once the disguise was torn open, could never be covered up again.
The deception of the sect elders, the true cause of death of the entire village, and the “shadowy hand of the high-ranking members” she mentioned were all violently battering his Dao Heart.
“Once the Immortal Sects Tournament is over, I must return and ask the Sect Master for a clear explanation.”
Shen Huai'an gritted his teeth, forcefully suppressing the turbulent thoughts in his heart.
Casting a cold glance at Jiang Ran's mangled, headless corpse on the ground, he took a step forward. His body transformed into a streak of cold white light, instantly vanishing into the silent night.
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