Flash back to the day Zhao Qian was punished in the Law Enforcement Hall.
“Ugh... nggh...”
In the dimly lit room, the young woman’s stifled, ragged gasps gradually filtered out.
Zhao Qian had stripped off her torn clothing. Across her bare back, crisscrossing whip marks were gruesome and horrifying—the flesh turned inside out, edges charred black, with faint arcs of electricity still dancing across the wounds, sending wave after wave of searing pain and numbness through her.
She angled herself toward a hazy bronze mirror in the room, tightly clutching an icy jade vial, her fingertips white from the force of her grip.
“Hss...”
The instant the medicinal powder touched her wounds, the searing agony caused her to sharply suck in a breath of cold air, her body arching uncontrollably.
Having finally finished applying the medicine and changed into clean robes, her eyes were rife with indignation.
‘Why her?! A disciple abandoned by her own clan—what right does she have?!’
Right at that moment, the light in the room dimmed. A slightly ethereal yet palpably oppressive spiritual manifestation slowly coalesced before her—none other than her grandfather, Elder Zhao.
“Grandpa!” Zhao Qian gasped, caught completely off guard.
“You insolent fool!”
What answered her was not the comfort she had anticipated, but a furious roar. Instantly following, the spiritual manifestation solidified its hand and delivered a crisp slap through the air—smacking her squarely across the face!
Staggering from the blow, Zhao Qian clutched her cheek.
“I warned you long ago!” Elder Zhao’s spiritual manifestation spoke, voice thick with suppressed fury, his hair and beard bristling. “Anyone with eyes can see that Tantai Yunzhi is someone Young Manor Lord Su will protect with everything he has! Why did you have to court disaster?!”
“I... I just couldn’t stomach it! She—” Zhao Qian attempted to defend herself.
“Couldn’t stomach it? What is there for you to be upset about?!” Elder Zhao cut her off, his tone turning even more severe. “Regarding her peculiar constitution and the bizarre aura she carries, the Manor Lord secretly cautioned us Elders long ago, strictly forbidding any of it from leaking out to prevent panic or prying eyes from outside! But you? You forced her to exert her full strength right in the street, blowing the matter up for all the world to see! You directly defied the Manor Lord’s decree!”
Zhao Qian’s face drained of even more color at his words. She stammered, “I... I didn’t know about her constitution.”
“You didn’t know? Does that mean you think if her constitution were fine, you could lay a hand on someone the Young Manor Lord values?!” Elder Zhao’s spiritual manifestation was trembling so violently in anger that it nearly dispersed.
“Your skills were inferior, and you lost the bet—what right do you have to be indignant?! If she were an ordinary disciple who dared not speak up, that would be one thing! But she is someone the Young Manor Lord shields openly and behind the scenes!”
The more he spoke, the more enraged he became, his spiritual manifestation fluctuating wildly. “I told you to get closer to the Young Manor Lord in your daily life, but you refused! I told you to keep your head down and stay out of trouble, and not go opening some clinic of your own, yet you refused to listen to that either!”
Zhao Qian had never seen her grandfather this furious with her. Trembling all over in terror, she dared not utter another word of defense, able only to hang her head and sob softly.
“Zhao Qian, mark my words: your talent might be considered decent within the Zhao clan, but across all of Divine Might Manor, it is merely average—and vastly inferior to personal disciples like Gongsun Lin!”
“And now you’ve gone and provoked the Young Manor Lord! You should thank the heavens that he isn’t some dissolute tyrant; otherwise, how could you ever maintain your place in Divine Might Manor?!”
Finally, Elder Zhao gave her a piercing look, leaving behind words that struck her soul like a thunderclap: “This mess you’ve created—find a way to quell the fallout yourself. At the very least, do not provoke Tantai Yunzhi again.”
“If you cannot win the Young Manor Lord’s forgiveness, you had better withdraw from Divine Might Manor as soon as possible.”
With those final words, Elder Zhao’s spiritual manifestation slowly dissipated into thin air, leaving Zhao Qian standing frozen in place. Her cheek burned with stinging heat, and her heart churned in utter turmoil.
Withdraw from Divine Might Manor?
What kind of joke was that? How could she relinquish such a status so easily?
‘Why does that wretched girl have such good fortune to have someone like that backing her?!’
Zhao Qian thought with bitter resentment. In her eyes, there was no way Tantai Yunzhi could have driven her to this desperate state relying on herself alone.
Be it her exquisite medical skills or the powerhouse at her back, Su Yi must have provided every bit of it!
‘Must I also...?’ Staring at her pale, disheveled reflection in the bronze mirror, Zhao Qian bit her lip, the indignation and wrath inside her flaring even more intensely.
Just as her mental defenses crumbled and she was thoroughly engulfed by negative emotions, a sudden transformation occurred!
From the bloodstained old garment cast aside after her punishment at the Law Enforcement Hall—which she hadn't yet had time to dispose of—a wisp of extremely faint, sinister, and bone-chilling black aura quietly materialized as if sentient, contorting into the visage of a demonic woman.
‘Tsk, tsk... what potent jealousy, what delectable resentment... To trap a disposition like this in a hypocritical righteous sect, isn't that burying a gem in the dirt? You are tailor-made to join my Soul Lost Ridge, to train in supreme demonic arts alongside me and settle grudges with wild abandon!’
With that, the obscure wisp of aura bored straight into the space between Zhao Qian’s brows.
...
Meanwhile, over at the clinic, Gongsun Lin’s personal visit had been like casting a stone into a tranquil pond, stirring up visible ripples.
Within a few days, several disciples who either were on good terms with Gongsun Lin or already looked favorably upon Tantai Yunzhi’s medical expertise cautiously visited the clinic.
Some genuinely had minor ailments to tend to, while others came with a trial mindset purely out of trust in Gongsun Lin’s judgment.
Even so, the majority of disciples continued to maintain a wait-and-see stance, whispering among themselves: “Senior Sister Gongsun stepped forward, so she lent her face to the clinic, but... what about Zhao Qian’s side?” “Indeed. Elder Zhao is notoriously protective of his own. Zhao Qian suffered such a massive humiliation this time—how could she just let it go?”
“To offend Elder Zhao’s faction over a single Tantai Yunzhi... we’d best not wade into these muddy waters.”
Clearly, what everyone dreaded was not some nebulous “sinister spiritual energy,” but rather retaliation from Zhao Qian and the Elder backing her. Tantai Yunzhi and Zhao Qian had already torn apart all courtesies; aligning with Tantai Yunzhi meant running the risk of being targeted by Zhao Qian.
After all, they had no inkling of the relationship between Su Yi and Tantai Yunzhi.
As time slipped by in this delicate equilibrium, an explosive piece of news spread through Divine Might Manor like it had grown wings.
Zhao Qian had actually publicly apologized to Tantai Yunzhi!
When the news arrived, Su Yi was in the clinic with Tantai Yunzhi, discussing how to further break through the current impasse.
Gongsun Lin walked in slowly, utter bewilderment etched across her face as she announced, “Zhao Qian was just at the plaza, in front of a huge crowd, saying... saying she acted rashly and offended you before. She said losing the bet to Junior Sister Tantai was because her own skills were inferior, and she wholeheartedly concedes! She even asked... that Junior Sister Tantai not hold a grudge against her?”
“What?” Tantai Yunzhi abruptly rose to her feet, nearly convinced she had heard wrong. The haughty and overbearing Zhao Qian had actively humbled herself to admit fault? And in such a public venue?
Subconsciously, she looked toward Su Yi beside her, believing this to be the only conceivable explanation.
Su Yi shook his head. “I didn’t put any pressure on her.”
“Then it seems she backed down on her own,” Gongsun Lin said, swatting away Su Yi’s hand as he tried to rest it on her head.
“Senior Brother, after the scene you caused back in the Council Hall, practically anyone could tell you were intentionally protecting...”
Gongsun Lin trailed off, glancing toward Tantai Yunzhi before lapsing into silence.
“Perhaps,” Su Yi said with a shrug.
He had overthought the situation. This was no longer a game; the people here had their own minds and were not fools. There was no way the granddaughter of an elder would recklessly bash heads with the Manor Lord’s son.
‘Well, worry clouds judgment. Seeing how shrewd Elder Zhao is, even if I hadn’t stood up back then, he probably would’ve tied Zhao Qian up and delivered her to my doorstep to apologize himself.’
Consequently, what had been the greatest threat and obstacle in the original plot now felt like an absolute farce.
It seemed that going forward, he ought to make appropriate use of his status.
‘Damn, wait, didn't I take a huge loss then? If I’d known the Young Manor Lord identity was this effective, why the hell did I volunteer to take a punishment back then?!’
Looked at this way, all he had really accomplished back then was playing the martyr in front of Tantai Yunzhi.
Yet, while Su Yi felt he had taken a loss, to Tantai Yunzhi, it was the only time in the nearly ten years since her constitutional defect had been revealed that someone had stepped forward to defend her.
Only she truly understood the immense weight of that gesture.
However, just when everyone thought this chapter could finally be closed, the clinic door—which had only just grown lively following the news of Zhao Qian’s apology—was pushed open once again.
This time, the figure walking in left everyone present utterly dumbfounded.
Zhao Qian!
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