Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 210: Breaking Free from the Curse, Heart of Stone Wax

Tantai Shi’s eyes burned with determination, a steely resolve that bordered on ruthlessness.

Gu Xiu remained silent, looking at the remnant soul of the Senior.

To sacrifice ten generations of his own bloodline for the sake of the clan’s future survival… such a choice was impossible to judge. As an outsider, Gu Xiu had no right to condemn him.

If one called it wrong, Tantai Shi had done it to save his descendants from extinction. But if one called it right… for the ten generations who lived and died in agony, the word “right” was a cruel joke.

After a long silence, Gu Xiu finally asked, “Senior, you didn’t reveal all this just to clear your conscience. What do you need me to do?”

Tantai Shi did not hesitate.

“The ten generations of wax boiling are complete. Only the final trace remains to be extracted. However, the Void Stone Wax is intertwined with my clan’s blood. If stripped away completely, the shock will sever their life force.”

“I have embedded a failsafe in the bloodline. My soul is already anchored to it. I will use the complete dissipation of my soul as the price to shield the bloodline, preserving a sliver of vitality for the child.”

“I ask you, Fellow Daoist Gu, to burn my soul to ash and help me activate the final Wax Boiling Array.”

He had planned this from the very beginning. As he said, he was prepared to scatter his soul, denying himself reincarnation for all eternity.

Gu Xiu didn’t answer immediately. He looked past the ghost to the mother and daughter in the cage.

The woman had raised her head. Her eyes were fixed dead on Tantai Shi.

“I will hate you forever,” she rasped. Her voice was rough from disuse, the syllables clumsy, but the venom was unmistakable. “Forever and ever. Even if your soul scatters to nothing.”

She stared at her ancestor with a look that suggested she wanted to tear the flesh from his bones with her teeth.

Tantai Shi flinched. He instinctively avoided her gaze. He felt no shame toward the clan in the abstract, but facing the specific, living victim of his scheme—his own flesh and blood—he crumbled.

He lowered his head. “Child… I am sorry. I am so sorry…”

“Come here,” the woman beckoned.

Tantai Shi hesitated, then drifted toward the cage. He assumed she wanted to strike him, to vent her rage. He deserved it. He couldn’t refuse.

But the moment he floated within reach, his spectral heart sank. He tried to recoil, but it was too late.

Thud! Thud!

The woman’s hand moved with viper-like speed. She slammed two long, dark spikes into his ethereal body.

Soul Sealing Nails!

These were tools Xu Wanqing used to prevent her prisoners from committing suicide by detonating their souls. Somehow, this woman had hidden two of them.

The nails pinned Tantai Shi in place, paralyzing his spiritual form.

“Child, what are you doing? Let me go!” Tantai Shi struggled desperately, his form flickering.

The woman ignored him completely. She turned her gaze to Gu Xiu.

“If a soul must be burned… burn mine.”

Tantai Shi froze.

Even the little girl, who had been silent in the corner, trembled and looked at her mother in disbelief.

“In this place, I cannot cultivate,” the woman said, her voice gaining strength. “I am powerless. I can only endure torture once a month. I was forced to bear a child I did not want.”

“But I have the Void Stone Wax in my body. I have the gifts left by my father, and his father before him. My soul is not strong, but it is far more potent than this old man’s tattered remnant.”

“Since the array needs fuel… use me.”

Tantai Shi panicked, thrashing against the nails. “No! Child, don’t do this! I am the sinner! Let me die! I will use everything I have to protect you and your daughter!”

“You are indeed a sinner,” the woman sneered. “But do you think dying is your punishment? Do you think your death is the best outcome?”

Tantai Shi was stunned into silence.

The woman’s expression softened as she turned to the little girl. The child was staring at her, eyes wide with terror and confusion.

“Child,” she whispered. “Your mother is useless. From the moment I was born, my father told me I had to survive. No matter the pain, I had to live.”

“I listened to him. I lived.”

“But he didn’t know that I never wanted to be here. Every day, I didn’t think about how to escape. I thought about how to die.”

“When you were born, I thought about strangling you in your swaddling clothes. I wanted to save you from this hell. But I failed. I saw how small you were. How young.”

“You can still see the world outside. I… I couldn’t bear to end you.”

Tears streamed down her grime-streaked face.

The little girl finally stood up. She rushed to the cage bars, reaching out her small hand to grasp her mother’s robes.

But the woman, who usually yearned to hold her child every second of the day, stepped back. She created a cruel distance.

“I have no name. My father had no name. But I don’t want you to be nameless.”

“Mother will give you a name.”

“You shall be called… Ping’an.”

Peace.

The moment the name left her lips—

BOOM!

A violent pillar of purple fire erupted from the woman’s body.

She ignited her own soul.

She was boiling the wax herself, drawing upon the power of her bloodline to shield her daughter’s life!

“Mom!”

Ping’an screamed, slamming her small hands against the invisible barrier of the cage. She clawed at the air, trying to reach the flames, trying to pat them out. But she was too weak. She could do nothing but watch her mother burn.

“That old man…”

The woman’s voice came from within the inferno. She looked at Tantai Shi one last time. Her eyes were still filled with infinite hatred.

“He is not a good person. But he has been outside. He has skills. He can protect your peace. He can teach you how to survive.”

“You have grown so big, and Mother never had the power to protect you.”

“This time…”

“I will protect you.”

Tantai Shi, pinned by the nails, trembled uncontrollably. His eyes filled with an agonizing sorrow that eclipsed death.

She hated him. She wished she could eat his flesh raw.

But for the sake of her child, she stole his sacrifice. Not just to ensure the ritual succeeded, but to force him to live.

She was burdening him with the guilt of her death and the responsibility of her child.

Every word she spoke, every flicker of the fire consuming her, was an axe carving into Tantai Shi’s soul. He slammed his head against the ground, wailing incoherent apologies, but the woman ignored him.

She turned to Gu Xiu and offered a slight, respectful nod.

“Sir… please help me.”

Gu Xiu didn’t move immediately. He looked deep into her eyes.

Inside the flames, amidst the agony of soul-scouring, he saw relief. He saw the joy of release. There was a flicker of reluctance as she looked at her daughter, but it was quickly replaced by yearning.

She had made her choice. She was finally free to do the one thing she had wanted since birth: leave.

Gu Xiu sighed. He cupped his fists and bowed deeply to her.

Then, he activated the Wax Boiling Array.

hummm—

The formation roared to life. The purple soul-fire intensified, merging with the array’s golden light.

The Void Stone Wax, buried deep within the Tantai bloodline for millennia, began to boil. The curse was being stripped away.

The woman’s soul and blood served as the fuel, the catalyst, and the shield. She replaced her child as the sacrifice, preserving the last spark of life for the Tantai Clan.

This was Tantai Shi’s grand gamble. A bet placed with the lives of ten generations.

But in this gamble… there were no winners.

While the final trace of the Void Stone Wax was being agonizingly extracted in the cage, a very different scene was unfolding in the sky miles away.

Xu Wanqing, flying frantically toward the Awakening Spirit Valley, suddenly stopped mid-air.

A look of ecstatic shock washed over her face.

Her heart raced. She could feel it—mysterious, unfathomable power converging toward her chest from the void.

“My heart… it’s becoming complete!”

“The Void Stone Wax! It’s been fully extracted!”

“500 years of waiting! It’s finally here! I will possess the complete Void Stone Wax!”

Xu Wanqing’s eyes shone with a manic brilliance.

The Tantai Clan’s wax had been boiled out. Liberated from its original host, the ancient artifact sought the nearest compatible vessel—her. She possessed the Heart of Stone Wax. She was the new Host!

She would wield the power of creation itself. She would replace the Tantai Clan.

And best of all, she believed this would end the curse. The “heart-shattering pain” that plagued her periodically would surely vanish once the artifact was whole.

Without hesitation, Xu Wanqing landed on a nearby peak. She hastily deployed a defensive array and sat cross-legged, opening her arms to welcome her destiny.

She had always believed this was her Fated Chance. Her immense, heaven-bestowed fortune.

She did not know the truth.

The half-heart she possessed had given her the wax’s power of creation. But what was coming to complete it… was the wax’s accumulation of karma, pain, and the terrifying curse that balanced the scales.

She did not know that the pain she had suffered for centuries was merely the tip of the iceberg compared to what a complete Void Stone Wax demanded.

Oblivious, Xu Wanqing absorbed the invisible energy with a greedy smile. She felt the Heart of Stone Wax stitching itself together, bit by bit.

Finally.

Xu Wanqing’s eyes snapped open.

The last wisp of wax arrived.

The Heart of Stone Wax was complete!

But before her smile could fully bloom, the air around her turned cold.

In the empty void surrounding her, countless red threads quietly materialized.

They moved with the silence of ghosts, wrapping around her body, her limbs, her throat.

Flesh. Soul. Bloodline.

Everything was instantly bound tight.

Startled, Xu Wanqing summoned her White Jade Treasure Fan. The artifact flew out automatically, slashing furiously at the threads.

But the red threads were formless and intangible. The fan passed right through them.

Instead of severing them, her struggle caused the threads to dig deeper, tightening until they bit into her soul.

Faintly, a whisper echoed in her ear:

“The Clan of Sinners has revived.”

“Since that is the case… it is time to persuade people to be good.”