Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 229: The Peak Master… Was Eaten Alive!

The scene froze the blood in everyone’s veins.

“Mas… Master… where did she go?”

A disciple stammered the question, but the silence that followed was deafening. No one dared to answer. The pile of fresh, wet bone fragments and the blood-smeared maws of the fleeing beasts screamed the truth louder than words ever could.

The answer was right there.

“Don’t just stand there! Get inside!”

“Master has heaven-shaking abilities! It’s impossible for her to die like this!”

“Right! The Peak Master isn’t an ordinary person! She must be fine! She must be!”

Snapping out of their stupor, the disciples scrambled to dismantle the remaining formations, their voices loud and frantic as they tried to drown out the terror in their hearts.

Master is dead?

Eaten by wild beasts?

A Peak Master of a Sacred Land… a Grandmaster of Beast Taming… eaten alive by her own subjects?

It was too sudden. Too absurd. It left them paralyzed with fear and confusion.

Even Shi Siling, the strongest cultivator beneath the Supreme, stood frozen. It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck her soul.

Junior Sister… just died?

She had sensed something was wrong. She had felt the danger. But death? Total annihilation?

“This is not my fault.”

“I did nothing wrong. She forced me to swear the Heavenly Dao Oath. If I had intervened, my Dao would have shattered. This isn’t on me.”

“It’s her fault. She didn’t call for help. She chose this.”

“Life and death are fate. This was her fate. I don’t need to feel guilty.”

Shi Siling repeated the mantra internally, reinforcing her mental barriers. If she didn’t, this tragedy would crack her Dao Heart.

The self-hypnosis worked. The panic in her eyes receded, replaced by her signature icy detachment.

“Vile creatures! You think you can run?”

Her gaze locked onto the fleeing beasts. With a step, she vanished, reappearing amidst the scattering herd.

The power of a half-step Supreme was absolute. In an instant, she immobilized hundreds of beasts. She didn’t hesitate. She reached out to Soul Search them, needing to know exactly what had happened.

But the moment her Divine Sense touched them…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The beasts detonated.

It wasn’t just a physical explosion; their souls self-destructed instantly. They chose oblivion over capture.

“Damn it!”

Shi Siling’s face darkened. She waved her hand, golden light surging from her palm to scoop up the dissipating soul fragments from the blood mist.

She managed to salvage a few shreds of memory.

But what she saw made her retch.

The memories were a chaotic montage of fanaticism and bloodlust. The most vivid image was of Lu Qingyao lying paralyzed on the ground, screaming as they ate her.

They hadn’t killed her quickly. They had savored it.

Starting from the toes, they had worked their way up, stripping flesh from bone inch by inch. Like ants dismantling a fallen giant.

And throughout it all, Lu Qingyao was conscious.

She begged. She cursed. She wailed. And finally, she just watched in silent, eye-bulging horror as her body disappeared into a hundred hungry mouths.

The disciples had waited outside for hours. And for hours, Lu Qingyao had been enduring this.

It was a torture worse than Lingchi. At least an executioner doesn’t chew your meat in front of you.

Bleugh!

Shi Siling bent over and vomited. She had seen war. She had seen death. But this… this was a nightmare made flesh.

“Junior Martial Uncle!”

“Junior Martial Uncle is here!”

A commotion drew her attention. She wiped her mouth and turned.

Jiang Xun, who had been a recluse since the incident at the sect gate, was rushing up the mountain, his face wild with panic.

“Fourth Senior Sister!” He grabbed her arm. “I felt a premonition… Did something happen to Seventh Senior Sister?”

“This…”

Shi Siling couldn’t meet his eyes. “Your Seventh Sister… has met with misfortune.”

“What? What did you say?” Jiang Xun’s eyes widened. “Impossible! She was fine! How could she meet with misfortune in the sect?”

“Her breakthrough failed,” Shi Siling whispered. “She was… devoured by the beasts.”

Jiang Xun staggered back as if slapped. His face turned paper-white.

“How is that possible?”

“How could she just die?”

“She can’t die! She can’t!”

“Those damn beasts! I’ll kill them all! I’ll kill them all!”

His rage was genuine. He had invested too much in Lu Qingyao. She was a key piece in his grand plan. If she died now, his schemes would unravel. Everyone in Azure Mystic Sacred Land had to die… but they had to die by his hand, at the right time. Not like this!

Shi Siling sighed, mistaking his frustration for grief. “Junior Brother…”

“Wait.”

She paused, her head snapping toward the ruins of the formation.

“Help… Fourth Sister… help…”

A fluctuation. Faint, weak, but undeniably alive.

“It’s Seventh Sister!” Jiang Xun shouted, his eyes lighting up.

Shi Siling moved instantly. She flashed into the center of the carnage, scanning the bloody mud.

“Senior Sister… here…”

She looked down.

There, half-buried in the muck, was a monster.

It was the size of a thumb. It had eight mismatched legs—some hairy, some scaled, some insectoid. And atop the grotesque body sat a tiny human head.

It was Lu Qingyao.

SPLAT!

Before Shi Siling could react, a boot slammed down on the monster.

A Nascent Soul-level steward had rushed in behind them. Seeing the aberration, he stomped on it instinctively.

“What evil creature dares ambush us here!”

The stomp buried the tiny monster in the mud.

“You deserve death!”

BOOM!

Jiang Xun roared. Without a second thought, he unleashed a palm strike fueled by pure hatred and the power of his Perfect Golden Core.

The steward tried to block, but he was too slow.

Crunch.

The steward flew backward, chest caved in, vomiting pieces of his internal organs. He hit the ground and didn’t move.

No one cared. Every eye was fixed on the mud.

“It’s the Peak Master!”

“It’s her Nascent Soul! She succeeded! She abandoned her body and escaped!”

“She’s alive!”

“But… why does she look like that?”

The grotesque spider-thing twitched. Beneath it, the White Jade Fan glowed faintly, emitting a protective barrier that had saved the frail soul from being crushed.

“Seventh Sister!”

Jiang Xun rushed forward, scooping the tiny monstrosity into his hands. He began pouring spiritual energy into it frantically.

Lu Qingyao had survived, but barely. Her physical body was gone. Her Nascent Soul was a premature, malformed wreck. Without the White Jade Fan, she would have dissipated long ago.

Don’t die! You can’t die now!

Jiang Xun injected a stream of mysterious, special power into the soul, stabilizing its core. Shi Siling joined him, tapping vital points on the tiny body and infusing her own potent energy.

For fifteen minutes, the two worked desperately.

Finally, the tiny, eight-legged Lu Qingyao twitched. Color returned to her minuscule face. She shakily pushed herself up on Jiang Xun’s palm.

She was alive.

But before anyone could celebrate…

The spider-Lu Qingyao suddenly stiffened.

Her eight mismatched legs bent in unison.

She knelt.

She lowered her tiny head to the ground, trembling violently.

“This…”

Jiang Xun and Shi Siling exchanged bewildered glances.

Then they noticed.

It wasn’t just Lu Qingyao.

In the sky, the Immortal Spirit Cranes folded their wings and dropped, bowing in mid-air. In the pens, the surviving beasts prostrated themselves. Across the Heaven-Leveling Mountains, millions of demons fell to their knees.

Across the entire Eastern Wasteland…

Every beast, every spirit, every creature with a drop of wild blood… bowed.

And in their minds, a single, unified thought resonated like a bell.

“We respectfully welcome the Demon Ancestor…”

“Descending upon the world!”