Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 201: Karma’s Cycle: Good and Evil Repaid

In this dire moment, Xu Xiuyun dared not delay. She spilled everything she knew about Xu Wanqing, speaking at a frantic, breathless pace.

Through her desperate narration, Gu Xiu pieced together the hidden history of the Jade Pill Peak Master.

Over 100 years ago, Xu Wanqing had stumbled upon a great “Immortal Fate” by chance. From that encounter, she obtained many treasures—the Creation Immortal Soil and various unpredictable, mysterious formations and cultivation techniques.

However, the most significant item was a jade fan.

To Xu Xiuyun’s eyes, the fan looked ordinary, indistinguishable from a common mortal trinket. Yet, Xu Wanqing never let it leave her side. It was her most guarded possession.

It was also around that time that Xu Wanqing’s personality shifted. She became obsessed with her reputation.

Previously, though recognized as a skilled healer, she was indifferent to fame. But for the last century, she had meticulously curated her image as a saint. She began treating anyone who sought her aid—saint or sinner, friend or foe—solely to spread the name of “Divine Physician Xu” across the cultivation world.

This information made Gu Xiu frown. He pondered deeply, a vague sense of understanding forming in his mind. He was close to the truth.

“I’ve told you everything I know. Can you let me go now?”

Xu Xiuyun’s voice cracked with panic. “I can’t hold on anymore… you can’t delay any longer!”

As she spoke, the transformation accelerated. Her lustrous black hair turned into a thatch of grayish-white withered grass. Her face, once smooth and tender as a peeled egg, was now etched with deep, silent wrinkles.

Worse still, the Golden Core she had spent a lifetime cultivating had become fragile, spiderwebbed with fractures like cheap glass. It was on the verge of total collapse.

Even if she survived this, her cultivation would plummet. She would be crippled.

Yet, her eyes still burned with hope. She was Xu Wanqing’s personal disciple, a master of medicine in her own right. She knew the damage was done, but as long as she lived, there was a chance.

The most important thing was to survive.

Unfortunately…

“I never said I would save you,” Gu Xiu said, his voice shattering her fantasy. “And more importantly, I cannot save you.”

Cannot save?

Gu Xiu looked at her calmly. “You and your master set up this grand scheme, sacrificing countless lives every year to nurture this soil. Even if I had a method to save you, I would not use it. To do so would be an injustice to those thousands of wronged souls.”

“Furthermore, the moment you activated the magical artifacts of the Old Farmer, the Woodcutter, and the Shepherd, turning their own weapons into instruments of their destruction, you sealed your fate.”

He paused, his gaze merciless.

“This curse is a fight to the death. It is irreversible.”

The final sentence destroyed Xu Xiuyun.

There is no hope.

Crack!

A crisp sound echoed from within her body.

Xu Xiuyun’s Golden Core… shattered.

This was a truly fatal injury. Blood sprayed wildly from her mouth. As her Golden Core disintegrated, the Foundation Establishment Dao Platform in her Dantian Qi Sea began to crumble, dense cracks spreading from top to bottom like a collapsing tower.

An icy chill gripped her heart, followed immediately by a cold sweat of realization.

“Xu Wanqing! Xu Wanqing only treated me as a pawn!”

“She never intended to let anyone leave this place alive! Otherwise, she wouldn’t have placed such a vicious trap on the Formation Disk! From the very beginning, she planned to liquidate me and Yi Zhiyin along with everyone else!”

Xu Xiuyun was not stupid. She was a schemer herself, chosen by Xu Wanqing for her agile mind. The realization hit her instantly.

Although this stranger had triggered the trap, the trap itself—a mechanism designed to slaughter the user—had been placed there by her beloved Master.

“Xu Wanqing! You bastard! You deserve to die, you bitch!”

“I am your personal disciple! I am your adopted daughter! How could you do this to me?!”

“If there is an afterlife, I will never let you go! I will haunt you!”

Regret and resentment consumed her. She screamed her hatred at the sky, cursing the woman she had worshipped.

But realizing the truth now was ultimately too late.

Boom!

A muffled explosion sounded from within her body. Her Dao Platform had collapsed.

First the top layer, then the second, third, fourth… all turning to dust.

Xu Xiuyun’s life essence was completely depleted. Her back hunched over, her spine curving into a question mark. Her eyes grew dim and milky with cataracts. Age spots bloomed across her skin like mold. Her internal organs failed one by one.

In moments, she was no longer the lofty, peerless Fairy of Azure Mystic. She was a decrepit, dying mortal woman.

The process appeared fast to an observer, but for Xu Xiuyun, it was an eternity of agony. Every shattered layer of her foundation, every ounce of marrow drained, brought unimaginable torment.

She cursed. She roared. She wept. She broke.

Eventually, the pain became so great that she began to beg for death.

Finally, when the last wisp of life essence was sucked away, Xu Xiuyun’s toothless, ancient face relaxed. The fear vanished, replaced by the release of oblivion.

The torture was over.

Her physical body, now completely drained of spirituality, turned into a dry husk, indistinguishable from the other desiccated corpses littering the field. She had become fertilizer.

Throughout the entire process, Gu Xiu watched with an expression as calm as still water. There was no sadistic pleasure in his eyes, nor any pity. He simply witnessed the execution.

He raised his head, looking into the void above her corpse.

Under his gaze, something strange happened.

Above the withered husk of Xu Xiuyun, a translucent figure quietly materialized.

It was her Yin Soul.

Usually, when a person dies, the soul scatters instantly. Only those with powerful obsessions or specific cultivation techniques can condense a Yin Soul after death.

But now…

“My… my Yin Soul hasn’t dispersed!”

The translucent Xu Xiuyun looked at her hands in shock.

“I’m still conscious! I’m no longer bound by the flesh! This is a blessing in disguise… I’ve broken the barrier between Life and Death!”

“Yes! Yes! It must be the Blood-Colored Field! This place was designed to refine not just lifespan and cultivation, but also soul power! But the formation malfunctioned—it didn’t refine me, it condensed me!”

“I can become a Ghost Cultivator! I can seize a body! I can live a second life! Hahahaha!”

After the initial confusion, ecstasy washed over her spirit. A moment ago, she was hopeless. Now, she saw a path to immortality. As a high-ranking cultivator of a Sacred Land, she knew the legends of Ghost Cultivators.

My fate is not meant to end!

However, just as the thought formed, a chill deeper than the grave rose from the bottom of her soul.

“Wait… if the formation is working properly, why wasn’t I consumed? Why was I condensed?”

“Is it… am I protected by the Heavens?”

Before she could finish the thought, she felt eyes on her.

She turned around.

Her excitement vanished like a flame doused in ice water.

Behind her, densely packed and endless, stood a legion of Yin Souls. They stared at her with eyes glowing crimson, their faces twisted into ferocious, hungry grins.

Among them were the spirits of the Old Farmer, the Woodcutter, and the Shepherd. But they were not the predators here. They were currently being gnawed upon by countless other spirits—torn apart, slowly repaired by the field, and then torn apart again.

And the ones eating them?

They were the souls of the Awakening Spirit Valley disciples who had just died. And behind them were the vengeful spirits of the thousands of victims sacrificed over the last hundred years.

And now, all of them stopped eating.

Thousands of crimson eyes turned in unison to look at the new arrival.

Xu Xiuyun.

“You… you all stay away!” Xu Xiuyun shrieked, backing away. “Harming you had nothing to do with me! I am innocent! Listen to me!”

“Don’t come over! Stay away!”

“Ahhh—!”

Her scream was cut short as the tide of vengeful spirits crashed over her.

Because of the unique nature of the Blood Field, her soul could not dissipate. No matter how much she was torn apart, the formation would stitch her back together, only for her to be devoured again.

She would not die.

She would fall into an eternal cycle of suffering.

Gu Xiu, observing this through the special vision of his Yin-Yang Purple Qi Dao Platform, finally withdrew his gaze.

Good and evil will ultimately be rewarded; the Heavenly Dao favors cycles.

Xu Xiuyun would spend the coming eons paying for her sins.

And this… was only the beginning.

While Xu Xiuyun began her eternity of torment, a different kind of tension filled the Sect’s Main Hall in Awakening Spirit Valley.

Yi Zhiyin sat stiffly on his throne, staring vigilantly at the woman seated across from him—Wan Xiaobei, the Pavilion Master of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion.

He had ultimately let her in.

He had no choice.

This newly appointed Pavilion Master was incredibly stubborn. She insisted on entering, dropping subtle and not-so-subtle hints about the massive spirit cannons on her warship parked right outside his gate.

Those were war-grade Dharma Treasures. Pointing them at his sect was a naked threat.

Suppelling his rage and anxiety, Yi Zhiyin had to hold his nose and play the diplomat to protect the valley’s secrets.

“Pavilion Master Wan,” Yi Zhiyin said, forcing a smile. “Someone as busy as you, managing a thousand daily tasks, shouldn’t have time to visit a backwater like my Awakening Spirit Valley. If you have business, why not speak plainly?”

Wan Xiaobei laughed heartily, waving her hand. “As I said outside, the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion seeks cooperation. I’m just here to look around and observe your sect’s upcoming ceremony.”

“Thank you for your high regard,” Yi Zhiyin said, shaking his head. “But we are just a small, obscure sect. We are not qualified to partner with a behemoth like the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion.”

“Sect Leader Yi, don’t belittle yourself. Size doesn’t matter in business.”

The two continued their verbal sparring. Yi Zhiyin was eloquent, but Wan Xiaobei was slippery.

After several rounds of tea and conversation, neither side had gained any ground.

Wan Xiaobei’s excuses were flimsy. First, she wanted to tour the valley. Refused. Then she claimed she had a childhood benefactor named “Shi” and wanted to check if he was here. Refused.

She was clearly stalling.

Yi Zhiyin was losing patience. His mind was back in the Blood-Colored Field, worrying about Xu Xiuyun’s progress against the intruder.

He hesitated, then finally hardened his expression.

“Pavilion Master Wan,” he said coldly. “Although Awakening Spirit Valley is small, we are not a place to be bullied at will. Your Pavilion is powerful, but are you here today specifically to pressure us with your influence?”

It was a bold counter-move.

The experts from various sects accompanying Wan Xiaobei shifted uncomfortably. They began to wonder if Wan Xiaobei was indeed abusing her power to bully a small sect, which would damage their reputations by association.

Fortunately, Wan Xiaobei never fought alone.

Just as the atmosphere in the hall grew tense and she found herself on the back foot, a loud thud echoed through the chamber.

The ornate screen behind Yi Zhiyin—the one hiding the entrance to the underground dungeon—suddenly, and silently, toppled over.