Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Guan Xuelan was a woman of ice—eternally calm, her emotions sealed beneath a facade as smooth as a frozen lake.

But in this moment, the ice cracked.

Panic, raw and unfiltered, flooded her senses. She tried to retreat, her body blurring as she attempted to flash backward, but the Slaying Immortal Millstone beneath her exerted a terrifying, gravitational dominance. It wasn’t just pulling her; it was anchoring her existence to the center of the formation.

There was no retreat. She was cornered.

“Wind Snow Realm!”

Guan Xuelan shouted the incantation, her voice trembling slightly.

A blinding burst of white light erupted from her core, expanding outward with explosive force. In the blink of an eye, a domain covering a hundred miles manifested. The scorching air of the valley vanished, replaced instantly by a bone-chilling absolute zero. Howling gales tore through the space, and frost crystallized in the air.

This was the power of a Supreme Venerable.

A Supreme Venerable Realm—a pocket dimension where the creator’s will was law, akin to the Heavenly Dao itself. Omnipotent. Absolute.

Detecting the anomalous nature of the Slaying Immortal Formation, Guan Xuelan had instinctively deployed her domain to suppress it. But the moment it fully expanded, her eyes widened in horror. She frantically collapsed the domain, shrinking it from a hundred miles down to a mere three-foot sphere around her body.

She had felt it.

To this monstrous formation, her Supreme Venerable Realm wasn’t a threat. It was food.

In that single instant of contact, the millstone had devoured nearly twenty percent of her domain’s essence. Had she hesitated a heartbeat longer, her entire realm—and likely her cultivation base along with it—would have been ground into dust to fuel the array.

Now, she could only huddle within her shrunken barrier, pouring every ounce of her strength into resisting the crushing rotation of the millstone.

“Not enough…”

Her teeth clenched. “Damn it! My power isn’t enough to break free!”

“Why is there such a terrifying setup here? Who? Who is trying to ambush This Venerable?”

Guan Xuelan’s face was a mask of frost, but her mind raced with the chaotic speed of a cornered beast. She was a Supreme Venerable! While not the sole apex predator in the world, she was the undisputed ruler of this corner of the Eastern Wasteland. She belonged to the strongest sequence of living beings.

Yet here she was, caught off guard, unable to budge.

She watched helplessly as the millstone ground away at her defenses. Bit by bit, her cultivation, her domain, her divine soul, and even her physical flesh were being siphoned away.

A thought, cold and alien, took root in her heart.

I… am going to die here.

“Master? You… what is happening?”

Shi Siling’s confused voice drifted from the perimeter.

The onlookers hadn’t realized the truth. They assumed Guan Xuelan had deployed her domain to scout the valley after taking that step forward. They couldn’t imagine that a being of her stature was currently fighting for her life.

But Shi Siling cultivated the Dao of Origin. Her senses were sharper than the rest. She couldn’t see the mechanics, but she could feel the vibration of her Master’s soul.

It was the vibration of fear.

Hearing her disciple’s voice, Guan Xuelan’s eyes snapped up, scanning the perimeter.

In the short time she had been trapped, over twenty powerful cultivators had arrived. The weakest were at the Soul Formation stage, with several Void Refining experts among them. The allure of the Immortal Fate was irresistible.

They stood at the edge, greedy but hesitant, intimidated by Guan Xuelan’s presence.

A flicker of cold calculation sparked in Guan Xuelan’s eyes.

“Do you all wish to seize this Fated Chance?” she asked, her voice projected with forced calm.

The gathered cultivators exchanged glances. Look at you, look at me. The answer was obvious, but who dared to move before a Supreme Venerable?

Seeing their hesitation, Guan Xuelan spoke again, her tone dripping with feigned benevolence. “This Venerable just received a premonition. Worldly Fated Chances belong to those with the destiny to grasp them. Since you have arrived, you are fated. If you wish to seize this opportunity, you may enter.”

“What?”

The crowd was stunned. A Supreme Venerable giving up her claim?

“However,” Guan Xuelan added, tightening the hook, “Fated Chances are always accompanied by risks. This Venerable must warn you: Falling Rain Valley is unpredictable. You may all perish. If you are timid, withdraw now.”

She paused, letting the silence hang before delivering the final push. “If you do not fear death, enter and investigate.”

That was all it took. The warning only served to validate the treasure’s worth in their eyes.

“Thank you, Supreme Venerable, for granting us this opportunity!”

One cultivator, unable to restrain his greed, cupped his fists and bowed. He turned and shot into the formation like a desperate arrow, vanishing instantly into the mist.

With the first sheep moving, the herd followed.

Figures transformed into streaks of rainbow light, filing into the valley one after another.

Guan Xuelan watched them go, her eyes narrowing into cold slits. As each cultivator breached the perimeter, she felt the pressure on her own body lighten. The formation’s hunger was being distracted; the grinding force was dispersing among the new arrivals.

It was working.

She needed more.

Guan Xuelan waved her hand. Above the formation, the phantom of the white butterfly erupted with a fresh wave of dazzling, hypnotic light. A beacon to draw in more moths.

The effect was immediate. More experts arrived, drawn by the phenomenon. Guan Xuelan played the role of the benevolent senior, guiding them in. As desperation mounted, she lowered her standards, waving in even mere Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Not enough! Still not enough!

Her expression remained impassive, but internally, she was screaming. Her cultivation was still leaking away. Her injuries were compounding.

Her gaze landed on a group of cultivators lingering at the far periphery. These were the cautious ones, the veterans who sensed that something was wrong with Guan Xuelan’s generosity.

“You,” Guan Xuelan called out, her voice dropping an octave. “Do you not wish to seize the Fated Chance?”

The group shook their heads vigorously.

“Our strength is meager; we only wish to observe the ceremony.”

“Such a tremendous Immortal Fated Chance is not something we can hold. We thank the Supreme Venerable for her kindness, but we will pass.”

“Just watching. We are just watching.”

Guan Xuelan’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “And what if This Venerable orders you to enter?”

The group froze. Panic exploded in their chests, and several turned to flee.

But before a Supreme Venerable, escape was a fantasy.

A spectral chain materialized from Guan Xuelan’s palm, shooting outward like a viper. It bound the fleeing cultivators in an instant, cinching tight enough to crack ribs. With a grand sweep of her arm, she hurled them into the formation.

“Hmph?”

Guan Xuelan let out a soft sound of surprise.

Among the crowd she had targeted, an old man with a bow strapped to his back had vanished, slipping free of her restraint. His cultivation didn’t appear to be at the Mahayana level, yet his Divine Soul power momentarily spiked with a terrifying intensity.

Like an ascending Immortal.

But she had no time to ponder anomalies. As the latest batch of sacrifices was consumed by the array, the Slaying Immortal Millstone finally loosened its grip on her.

This was her only chance.

Guan Xuelan didn’t hesitate. She summoned a blade of pure energy in her hand and swung it down.

Slash!

“Master!” Shi Siling shrieked.

She watched in horror as her Master, the invincible Supreme Venerable, severed her own leg—the one that was still anchored deep within the formation’s pull.

Blood sprayed.

Guan Xuelan didn’t even flinch. She used the momentary release to explode backward, retreating miles in a single breath.

She hovered in the distance, her face as pale as paper. Her aura was unstable, her cultivation severely damaged. She needed to return to the Azure Mystic Sacred Land immediately for Secluded Cultivation, or her realm might permanently collapse.

Without a backward glance, she transformed into a stream of light and fled toward the horizon.

Her voice, thin and terrified, echoed back to Shi Siling:

“This Venerable must enter seclusion immediately! Watch Falling Rain Valley, but do not step foot inside!”

“This place is a trap!”

A trap?

Shi Siling stood frozen, the realization hitting her like a physical blow. If this was a trap… then the people her Master just sent inside…

“AHHHH!”

A miserable, blood-curdling scream tore from the depths of the mist.

Shi Siling whipped her head around.

What she saw made her scalp go numb.

The cultivators who had rushed in—dozens of them—were trying to claw their way back out. But it was impossible. No one could escape Falling Rain Valley. Before they could even reach the edge, their bodies began to wither. Flesh turned grey, then transparent, decaying at a supernatural speed until they dissolved completely.

They turned into wisps of green smoke, drifting deeper into the valley.

It was a slaughterhouse. A hell designed to harvest anyone above Foundation Establishment.

Shi Siling’s gaze followed the green smoke. The wisps drifted through the layers of formations, converging on a humble, simple courtyard shrouded in thick fog.

Through a momentary gap in the swirling clouds, she saw something.

A figure, sitting cross-legged in the eye of the storm.

Who is that? An Immortal?

Shi Siling strained her eyes, pushing her vision to the limit.

The figure became clear for a split second.

Bam!

Her mind reeled.

Gu… Gu Xiu?

It was impossible. Before she could confirm it, the clouds surged again, burying the courtyard and the figure from view. The fleeting glimpse left Shi Siling trembling, doubting her own sanity.

Was that real? Or did I hallucinate?

…

Inside the formation.

Gu Xiu frowned slightly as he watched the ribbons of green smoke drifting toward him from all corners of the valley. They were beautiful, glowing with an ethereal luminescence that invited one to touch them.

But Gu Xiu knew better. Each wisp was the distilled essence of a powerhouse’s life.

Potent. And deadly.

He glanced at the white butterfly hovering before him. In the short time since the slaughter began, the phantom had grown distinct, intricate patterns manifesting on its wings.

Yet, it still lacked the spark of true life.

“Gu Xiu, although you activated the array, rest assured,” the voice of Rain Lotus echoed from a nearby projection. “I placed safeguards within the formation long ago. This slaughter will not taint your karma.”

The projection of Rain Lotus spoke softly, her expression resolute. “All karma, I alone shall bear.”

This recording had been left eons ago. Even in death, she had calculated everything. She knew that the ‘Immortal Death for Life Exchange’ ritual required more than just energy—it required blood and bone.

To scheme for the resurrection of her beloved, she was willing to endure bitter cultivation for a thousand years. She was willing to become a killing god and slaughter the Kongquan Sacred Land.

And she was willing to scheme against every powerhouse in the world.

Gu Xiu looked deeply at the projection, then back at the butterfly, which was slowly, painfully beginning to pulse with vitality.

He withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes.

Continue.

The spiritual energy here was overwhelming. His progress was terrifyingly fast. His second Dao Platform had already reached Perfection.

Now, he stared at the Heaven’s Gate Stone resting on his second platform.

It was time to forge the third.

A unique… Immortal Gate Dao Platform!

…

Meanwhile, in Azure Mystic City, at the foot of the Azure Mystic Sacred Land.

In a dimly lit teahouse, several figures sat in the shadows, their faces concealed.

The atmosphere was heavy, electric with shock. A piece of intelligence had just landed on the table.

“All Azure Mystic disciples outside Falling Rain Valley’s gate have been subjected to a Soul Search,” one spy whispered.

“The information has been consolidated and confirmed…”

“Gu Xiu…”

The spy swallowed hard.

“Gu Xiu has abandoned the Azure Mystic Sacred Land!!!”