Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Boom! Rumble!

The Heaven-Leveling Mountains shook.

Deafening thunderclaps tore through the sky, drowning out the miserable, gut-wrenching screams echoing from the epicenter of the storm.

Watching from a distance, Yuchi Chunlei’s heart clenched in panic. “Junior Brother… you cannot die here!”

She stood paralyzed, hands trembling. “I can’t interfere. If I step in, the Heavenly Dao will view it as provocation and multiply the tribulation’s power. Junior Brother, you have to hold on. You must!”

When the lightning first descended, Yuchi Chunlei had been forced to retreat instantly. This was the iron law of the cultivation world: interfere with another’s tribulation, and you doom both yourself and the one crossing it. If she rashly entered the strike zone now, the intensity would likely ascend to a level that would obliterate them both.

This ordeal was Jiang Xun’s alone to bear.

Yet, as she watched the apocalyptic arcs of electricity ravage the earth, fear gave way to confusion.

“A Heavenly Tribulation descends for two reasons: a cultivator is breaking through a major realm, or they have committed an act intolerable to the Heavenly Dao,” she muttered, her brows knitting together. “Junior Brother did neither. He merely destroyed a cave dwelling to cover his tracks. Why would that trigger a tribulation?”

Was that cave some sort of Fated dwelling protected by the heavens? Did destroying it violate the natural order?

“Impossible… it was just a broken, unremarkable hole in the mountain. The heavens are striking him down over that? Is the Heavenly Dao truly this unfair?”

Just as the thought left her lips, Yuchi Chunlei’s scalp prickled. A cold sensation washed over her.

She snapped her head around.

A stray bolt of lightning, having finished its assault on Jiang Xun, did not dissipate into the earth. Instead, it twisted in the air, locking onto her aura like a viper.

It was coming for her!

Yuchi Chunlei’s soul nearly fled her body. She kicked off the ground, retreating frantically while activating every defensive technique she knew. Vast Spiritual Qi surged from her Dantian, forming layers of barriers.

But her heart sank. This wasn’t normal dispersing energy. As the bolt closed the distance, its power inexplicably spiked, swelling in size and intensity.

It was targeted. It was personal.

ZZZZT!

A crisp crackle filled the air, followed immediately by the acrid stench of burnt hair.

Yuchi Chunlei staggered to a halt, coughing up a puff of black smoke. Her face was scorched black, her hair standing on end in a frizzy, charred mess.

Her eyes were wide with terror.

That wasn’t a trial. That was a warning.

It felt less like a tribulation and more like a Heavenly Punishment. She had the distinct sensation that if that bolt had actually wanted her dead, she would already be a pile of ash. The fact that she was only humiliated and disheveled meant the lightning had deliberately restrained its lethality.

What… what in the world is going on?

Before she could process the absurdity of it, the thunderclouds in the distance finally ceased their rumbling. The oppressive pressure began to lift as the dark clouds slowly dispersed.

“Junior Brother!”

Ignoring her own charred state, Yuchi Chunlei turned into a blur of motion, rushing toward the crater where Jiang Xun had been standing.

She arrived in the blink of an eye. But when she saw what lay in the center of the scorched earth, her eyes nearly split open in horror.

“Junior Brother!!!”

Jiang Xun’s condition could only be described as catastrophic.

Gone was the man whose features were usually as handsome and elegant as carved jade. In his place lay a shriveled, blackened husk that looked more like a piece of charcoal than a human being. He lay silent, motionless, with not a shred of aura emanating from his body.

“Junior Brother! Wake up!”

Yuchi Chunlei’s scorched-black face drained of color. “Don’t scare me! Senior Sister is here, I’ll save you!”

She fumbled with her storage ring, dumping out a pile of high-grade healing Pills. She prepared to rush forward and force them down his throat.

But she had barely taken two steps when a terrifying repulsive force erupted from Jiang Xun’s motionless body.

Bang!

Yuchi Chunlei was blasted backward, tumbling through the air before regaining her footing.

She looked up, stunned.

Jiang Xun’s Heaven-Bestowed Ruyi was floating above his chest, pulsing with waves of gentle cyan light. It hovered protectively, shedding specks of luminescent dust that drifted down onto his charred skin.

Where the cyan motes touched, flesh knit together. The artifact was repairing him!

“This is…?” Yuchi Chunlei stared, incredulous.

She knew of her Junior Brother’s Heaven-Bestowed Ruyi. She had even studied it once, failing to find any use for it other than its ability to automatically shield its master in times of fatal danger.

But this?

“Magical Artifacts that can repair themselves are rare enough. But an artifact that autonomously repairs its Host? And heals such devastating injuries?” Her breath hitched. “That is unheard of.”

Her eyes narrowed, analyzing the phenomenon. “And that cyan light… standard healing artifacts either consume the user’s life essence or burn through massive amounts of Spiritual Qi. But this light contains no life essence. In fact… it seems to be actively isolating him from the surrounding Spiritual Qi.”

“If even I, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, cannot comprehend its principles, there is only one explanation.”

Yuchi Chunlei’s eyes burned with sudden intensity.

“An Immortal Artifact! And not some damaged scrap picked up from a battlefield—this is a true, supreme Immortal Artifact!”

Joy surged through her heart. She was genuinely happy for him. With such a treasure, her Junior Brother would not only recover but would have a path of cultivation smoother than anyone in the sect.

“Master was right. Junior Brother is the future of Qingxuan. He will reach heights we can only dream of!”

She watched the healing process, frowning slightly. “However, this speed is too slow. As his Senior Sister, I cannot simply stand here and watch while he suffers.”

She paced back and forth, her mind racing. “Think, Chunlei, think. How can you help him?”

Suddenly, her eyes lit up. “I’ve got it!”

“Although I don’t understand why the artifact’s light is repelling the ambient Qi, it defies all logic for a cultivator to heal without energy. Repairing the physical body requires massive amounts of fuel!”

“The artifact must be struggling because the ambient Qi here is too thin! If I set up a Spirit Gathering Grand Formation for him, I can flood this area with energy and supercharge his recovery!”

Yuchi Chunlei had never been accused of being a genius.

But when it came to taking action, she was unparalleled. Once the decision was made, she wasted no time. She began pulling out formation flags and spirit stones, busily arranging a powerful array around the crater.

She was going to turn this barren patch of dirt into a cultivation paradise.

Meanwhile, in the center of the crater.

Jiang Xun was drifting back to consciousness. The gentle warmth of the cyan light was soothing his agony.

“Thank goodness… thank goodness,” he murmured internally, his mind still hazy.

“Thank goodness the Spiritual Qi in this wretched place is so sparse. At this rate, I can fully recover from these Heavenly Punishment injuries in a day. If the Qi were any denser, I’d be in for a world of pain.”

Jiang Xun harbored a deep secret.

The injuries caused by Heavenly Punishment were fundamentally different from normal tribulation wounds. To heal them, one needed specific, unorthodox methods.

For a cultivator wounded by the Heavens, Spiritual Qi—usually a miraculous panacea—was effectively deadly poison.

It wouldn’t kill him, but the interaction between worldly Qi and the wounds of Heavenly Punishment would cause excruciating, soul-rending torture. It would be like pouring salt and acid into an open sore.

“I’ve used the Heaven-Bestowed Ruyi to erase my tracks countless times without issue,” Jiang Xun thought, his mind sharpening with malice. “My intuition was right. Someone interfered. Someone plotted against me!”

“Damn it!”

“Once I recover and deal with that waste Gu Xiu, I will find the person who did this. I will make them regret being born!”

He grit his teeth, plotting his revenge, feeling lucky that the environment was sparing him further suffering.

He had absolutely no idea that a hundred zhang away, a terrifyingly high-quality, Top Grade Spirit Gathering Grand Formation was rapidly taking shape with him as the exact center.

Yuchi Chunlei wiped sweat from her blackened forehead, her face glowing with excitement.

“Don’t worry, Junior Brother!”

“Your Senior Sister is building you the most powerful, peerless Spirit Gathering Formation this world has ever seen!”

“Just wait! The energy is coming!”

While a disaster was being constructed in the mountains, another formation was nearing completion at the entrance of the Bibo Sect mine ruins.

“It’s done! It’s finally done!”

“Thank you, Fellow Daoists! With your help, the Heavenly Secrets Maze Formation is complete!”

A young man in purple robes, radiating an air of nobility, addressed the crowd with a triumphant smile. This was Ren Liuyun, a celebrated genius from the prestigious Ren family of Dapan City.

Surrounding him were a dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators, all looking equally relieved.

They had spent two days scouring the ruins with nothing to show for it. Some had ventured deeper, seeking a Fated Chance to bypass the invincible statues. Others, like Ren Liuyun, had decided to use their brains.

He had rallied the frustrated cultivators to pool their resources and build a massive array. It had taken a day and a half of grueling work.

“Is this thing actually going to work?” one cultivator asked skeptically.

“Absolutely,” Ren Liuyun declared, puffing out his chest. “This is the Heavenly Secrets Maze Formation, gifted to my ancestors by a great expert five hundred years ago. It doesn’t just hide your body; it masks your very existence from the heavens. Those stone statues might be strong, but they are brainless lumps of rock. They will never detect us!”

To prove his point, a cultivator stepped forward.

The moment he crossed the formation boundary, he vanished.

The others gasped. They extended their senses, scanning the area, but found nothing. Even a cultivator skilled in divination tried to locate the man, but came up empty.

“Good! Good! Excellent!”

“This array covers the entire exit path. We can walk right out, and those statues won’t even twitch!”

“All that effort wasn’t in vain!”

“With this formation, the treasures inside are as good as ours! They are practically within our grasp!”

The crowd buzzed with excitement. They had invested heavy materials and time, but the payoff was about to be immense.

Just then, a figure walked toward them from the depths of the ruins.

The group immediately fanned out, blocking the path.

“Halt! What do you think you’re doing?”

“We spent days building this formation. You think you can just waltz in and take advantage of our hard work?”

“I remember you! When Ren Liuyun asked for help, you ignored him! Now that it’s finished, you want a free ride? Keep dreaming!”

“If you want to pass, you’ll have to go through us!”

The group was hostile, their hands resting on their weapons.

The person approaching them was a bit of an oddball. Earlier, while they were sweating over formation diagrams, this man had been wandering around the material storage chamber. He had picked up random ores and made strange hammering motions in the empty air, like a blacksmith who had become mozheng—obsessed to the point of madness.

Ren Liuyun had personally invited him to help, but the man had ignored him.

Now, facing the wall of angry cultivators, the “mad blacksmith”—Gu Xiu—stopped. His expression was indifferent, his eyes calm.

“I have no interest in your formation,” Gu Xiu said flatly. “I want to leave. You are in my way.”

“Huh?” The group blinked.

“I want to go out. Is that not allowed?” Gu Xiu asked again.

The cultivators looked at each other, confused by his arrogance. Finally, Ren Liuyun sneered and waved his hand. “Let him pass. As long as we don’t activate the formation for him, he’s on his own. Let’s see how he handles the statues without our help.”

The crowd parted, looks of mockery on their faces.

Gu Xiu didn’t spare them a glance. He walked straight to the edge of the ruins.

One step away from the exit, he paused. He looked at the two terrifying stone statues standing guard at the entrance.

The air grew tense. The crowd behind him snickered, waiting for him to be smashed into paste.

Gu Xiu considered something for a moment, then stepped out.

He walked past the boundary. He stood there. He even lingered for a moment, adjusting his sleeves.

The statues remained completely motionless. They were dead stone.

A faint, mocking smile touched Gu Xiu’s lips as he walked away, leaving the stunned crowd—and their useless formation—behind him.