Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 207: Folding Paper Money? Physician Xu, Don’t Forget to Keep a Share for Yourself!

“What… what is happening?”

Over two hundred Longevity Lamps. Extinguished.

In the blink of an eye, the warm, golden glow that filled the box vanished, plunging the interior into darkness.

Xu Wanqing froze. Just moments ago, she had been brimming with confidence, eagerly waiting for the single lamp representing Gu Xiu to flicker and die. Instead, she was staring at a total blackout.

The Longevity Lamp was a special Dharma Treasure she had refined personally. While it didn’t require a cultivator’s soul to be voluntarily split like a traditional Soul Lamp, the principle was identical.

The lamp was life. The darkness was death.

Once lit, the flame would never waver unless the person died or the refiner destroyed the connection.

Yet, right before her eyes, every single flame had snuffed out simultaneously.

It was too abrupt. Too clean. It happened without a single warning flicker, leaving Xu Wanqing unable to process the reality of what she was seeing.

After a long, stunned silence, she snapped out of her daze and began frantically inspecting the lamps.

They were cold. But structurally, they were intact.

She checked the containment box, suspecting a malfunction in the array that housed them.

The box was functioning perfectly.

“Impossible!”

“This is absolutely impossible!”

Xu Wanqing’s hands trembled. “Unless…”

She shook her head violently. “No! That many people… so many experts… even if they failed, they couldn’t all die at the exact same second! It’s not possible!”

A terrifying thought clawed at the back of her mind, but she refused to acknowledge it.

There were over 200 cultivators in that valley. Among them were three Nascent Soul powerhouses. Even if someone were slaughtering pigs, it would take longer than this!

“It must be the lamps,” she muttered, her voice rising in pitch. “The materials were flawed. Yes, that must be it.”

Gritting her teeth, Xu Wanqing hurriedly retrieved fresh materials from her Storage Ring. She needed to relight them. She needed to prove this was just a technical error.

She grabbed a random lamp and applied her technique.

Nothing happened. The wick remained cold and dead, refusing to hold a spark.

She frowned, sweat beading on her forehead. She tossed that one aside and grabbed the lamp belonging to a Golden Core Grand Perfection disciple.

She tried again.

Failure.

“It shouldn’t be like this… it shouldn’t…”

Xu Wanqing’s face turned an ashen shade of grey. Forcing herself to remain calm, she rummaged through the pile of cold metal until she found the three ornate lamps representing the Nascent Soul experts.

Her fingers worked frantically, channeling Qi into the wicks while she muttered to herself like a madwoman.

“Gu Xiu is a cripple. His cultivation was destroyed.”

“Even if he restarted, how much time has he had? Even with the full resources of the Azure Mystic Sacred Land, he would have built one or two Dao Platforms at most.”

“He cannot do this. He is incapable of this. It is impossible for an entire army to be wiped out by a single cripple. Absolutely impossible!”

She poured more energy into the lamps, her denial forming a shield around her sanity.

But no matter how much she comforted herself, the three lamps remained stubbornly dark.

Finally, Xu Wanqing’s hands dropped to her sides. The color drained completely from her face.

The lamps wouldn’t light. Not even the Nascent Souls.

That meant only one thing.

The souls linked to them had dissipated completely.

The 200 disciples she had sent to the Awakening Spirit Valley… were all dead.

“Damn it! Damn it all!”

“How could this happen?”

“Did a third party intervene? Or…”

Xu Wanqing looked up at the sky. Above the Azure Mystic Sacred Land, the clouds rolled lazily, undisturbed. Yet, a bone-deep chill spread through her body.

Things had spiraled out of her control.

“It seems your effort folding paper money wasn’t in vain, Physician Xu.”

A ghostly voice drifted from the side. Nian Zhaoxi sat nearby, watching the scene with calm amusement.

“Though, I fear the pile is too small. After all, Peak Master Xu, you have such a Bodhisattva heart. You’ve sent so many of your own disciples to their deaths… surely that little bit of spirit money isn’t enough to pay for their passage? You wouldn’t want them to feel cold on the road to the Yellow Springs, would you?”

Xu Wanqing spun around, her eyes bloodshot.

Nian Zhaoxi smiled, her face radiant with vindictive pleasure. “Of course, most importantly… Physician Xu, you shouldn’t forget to prepare a share for yourself.”

Murderous intent exploded in Xu Wanqing’s eyes. She raised her palm, Spiritual Qi gathering for a strike that would obliterate this insolent Senior Sister on the spot.

But her hand froze in mid-air.

Xu Wanqing gritted her teeth, the veins in her neck bulging. Slowly, she lowered her hand.

Nian Zhaoxi was still useful. She couldn’t die yet.

The priority was the Awakening Spirit Valley.

She had to go there personally.

200 people dead in an instant—she needed to see the truth with her own eyes. Not just for Gu Xiu, but for the Dao Fruit she had spent a hundred years cultivating!

The Blood Field. The life-extending spirit herbs. The Void Stone Wax she had waited decades for.

Those things absolutely could not be lost.

Xu Wanqing turned and vanished in a streak of light, rushing toward the valley.

While Xu Wanqing was only just realizing the catastrophe, the Awakening Spirit Valley had long since transformed.

If one ignored the atrocities committed in the shadows, the valley was truly a paradise. Crystal streams, swirling mists, and meticulously tended spirit fields gave it an air of celestial tranquility.

But now, that paradise had become a living hell.

The defensive formations had twisted into overwhelming killing arrays. The neat rows of spirit medicine were trampled into mud. Buildings collapsed in domino effects, reducing the sect to rubble.

The area where the Azure Mystic disciples were stationed had it the worst. It was an inferno.

But this was not ordinary fire.

The disciples of the Awakening Spirit Valley shrieked as they were swarmed by vengeful spirits. The “Rain Ghosts”—manifestations of their past sins—clawed at them, demanding blood for blood. The longer a disciple had lived in the valley, and the deeper they were involved in the sect’s dark practices, the more spirits attacked them.

Only the young—those new recruits with clear eyes who had yet to stain their hands with innocent blood—stood amidst the chaos, bewildered and untouched.

However, the locals had it easy compared to the invaders.

The disciples of the Azure Mystic Sacred Land were not just being attacked from the outside. They were burning from the inside.

Heartfire.

A terrifying, invisible flame ignited within their chests, fueled by their own Spiritual Qi, their organs, and their very souls. It could not be doused. It could not be smothered.

They clawed at their own throats, vomiting liquid fire as they were incinerated alive.

Even the three Nascent Soul powerhouses were not spared. In fact, their suffering was shorter. The stronger their cultivation, the more violent the Heartfire. They burned out faster than the Foundation Establishment disciples, turning to ash in seconds.

And death was not the end.

As their bodies crumbled, their souls were forcibly condensed by the array, only to be immediately pounced upon by the swarm of vengeful spirits.

Just like Xu Xiuyun before them, they were torn apart, wailing in agony, denied even the release of dissipation.

“This… what is happening?”

“Did they self-destruct?”

“It looks like a self-destruction array… but isn’t that supposed to take the enemy down with you? Why is it only killing their own people?”

Wan Xiaobei and the group of experts from other sects stood on the periphery, staring dumbfoundedly at the carnage.

They couldn’t process it.

They had seen the Azure Mystic disciples march out in formation to kill Gu Xiu. But before they could even finish activating their formation, they spontaneously combusted.

It happened so fast that the spectators were left blinking in confusion.

Even Gu Xiu raised an eyebrow.

He had noticed the self-destruction array hidden beneath the valley earlier. He knew it was linked to the lifeforce of the Azure Mystic disciples—a fail-safe to destroy evidence and witnesses.

He had modified it, yes. He had tweaked the parameters so he could trigger it himself, and added a filter to spare the innocent.

But he hadn’t expected this.

The power of the array seemed to have been amplified by his modifications. It was erasing Nascent Soul cultivators as if they were dry leaves.

Subconsciously, Gu Xiu glanced at the Carefree Jade Pendant at his waist and the Crossing Immortal Sword in his hand.

A shared consciousness from the artifacts echoed in his mind:

“Only artifact spirits that help their Master are good artifact spirits!”

“Broken Star Boss said the Four Sages of Shaking Antiquity exist solely to solve Master’s troubles!”

Clearly, the Four Spirits had “helped” with the modification.

Gu Xiu didn’t mind. He sent a mental ripple of Well done to them and immediately stepped forward.

He moved toward the cage holding the Tantai mother and daughter.

His goal had never changed. He was here to save people.

But just as he reached the cage, before he could swing his sword to break the lock, Wan Xiaobei’s scream pierced the air from behind.

“Look out!”

A sudden chill spiked in Gu Xiu’s heart.

He didn’t turn. He simply reversed his grip on the Crossing Immortal Sword and blocked it vertically behind his back.

Clang!

A massive force collided with the blade.

Normally, a sneak attack of this magnitude would be fatal, but the Carefree Jade Pendant flared with light, deploying a shield capable of withstanding a Nascent Soul strike. The force dissipated instantly, leaving Gu Xiu unharmed.

He turned his head slowly.

Standing there was Yi Zhiyin.

The Sect Leader of Awakening Spirit Valley was in a sorry state. His robes were scorched, and half his face was disfigured by burns. Yet, unlike the others, he was still standing. The Heartfire had damaged him, but it hadn’t consumed him.

More importantly… the air around him was clear.

“Why aren’t the vengeful spirits attacking him?” a cultivator in the crowd shouted.

“Based on the array’s logic, the heavier the killing karma, the worse the backlash. He is the Sect Leader! He’s the chief culprit! He should be buried under a mountain of ghosts!”

“Did he… never kill innocents?”

“Impossible! This valley is built on blood. How could the leader be clean?”

The onlookers were baffled. While his subordinates were being gnawed to the bone, Yi Zhiyin stood alone, injured but free of the spectral torment.

Yi Zhiyin ignored the chatter. His remaining good eye stared fixedly at Gu Xiu.

“Your strength lives up to the legend of the Sword Immortal,” Yi Zhiyin rasped.

“And you still intend to stop me?” Gu Xiu asked calmly.

“I must.”

“Why?”

Yi Zhiyin pursed his cracked lips. “Physician Xu has shown me great kindness. She wants you dead. No matter the cost, I must help her achieve it.”

“Are you an idiot?”

Wan Xiaobei couldn’t hold back anymore. She shouted from the distance, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

“This place was set up by Xu Wanqing! That array that just roasted your people was clearly her doing! She is wicked, ruthless, and treats you all like disposable tools! She’ll kill you the moment you lose your value!”

“At a time like this, you should be running or exposing her crimes! How can you still be foolish enough to work for her?”

Wan Xiaobei was sharp. In just a few glances, she had deduced the truth of the situation.

Yi Zhiyin fell silent for a moment.

“Wicked and ruthless… indiscriminately killing innocents… perhaps.”

His voice was quiet, devoid of fanaticism, filled only with a heavy, suffocating resignation.

“Although I dislike it…”

“If that is what she wants to do, I am willing to help her.”

“My life… is hers.”