Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 242: Your Azure Mystic, Truly Stinks to High Heaven

The sequence of events unfolded in a blinding flash. The onlookers only saw Yin Wenshu lunge forward to ambush the scholar Ning Yuan, only for Ning Yuan to sense the danger and dodge at the last possible second. As a result, Yin Wenshu absorbed the full, devastating brunt of the handsome scholar’s strike the moment the latter broke free.

By all appearances, it was a classic case of a sneak attack backfiring catastrophically.

Yet, defying all logic, Ning Yuan—having just narrowly escaped death—showed no trace of relief or triumph. Instead, he immediately rushed to catch the collapsing Yin Wenshu, his face pale with frantic anxiety.

“Teacher! How are you holding up?” he cried out. “Teacher, you… you cannot die! You must not die!”

Teacher?! That single word struck the crowd like a physical blow. Even Yu Sihai, who had been sprinting forward to assist, skidded to a halt. He stared at Ning Yuan in absolute bewilderment. Master and disciple? These two knew each other? Amidst the confusion, “Ning Yuan” casually swept a hand across his face. In an instant, the illusion shattered. The unremarkable scholar dissolved, replaced by a visage of breathtaking, picturesque beauty.

It was a face that etched itself into the memory with a single glance. Her eyes were like deep, tranquil pools, painted with flowing light that seemed to whisper a thousand words. Her elegant nose and naturally crimson lips held an intoxicating allure. Ink-dyed sheer gauze reflecting the moonlight; the scent of books lingering in the endless night. Her mere presence left the crowd spellbound, and it didn’t take long for the gasps of recognition to ripple through the courtyard.

“Qin… Qin Meran!”

“She is the Peak Master of Ink Scroll Peak in the Azure Mystic Sacred Land, Qin Meran!”

“He wasn’t the scholar Ning Yuan! She is the Supreme Venerable’s personal disciple, the renowned Azure Mystic Talisman Master!”

As the only Sacred Land in this region, its radiant Peak Masters were figures of legend. Many had heard of Qin Meran, and those who had seen her instantly recognized her. No one could have predicted that this mysterious scholar, whose background was a void in Cloud Firmament City, possessed such a terrifying lineage.

Even Yu Sihai’s pupils constricted. He froze, his mind racing to calculate his next move.

Qin Meran, however, ignored the commotion. Weeping pearly tears, she desperately channeled streams of Spiritual Qi, pouring them relentlessly into Yin Wenshu’s broken body. To the naked eye, she was doing everything in her power to pull him back from the brink of death.

“Teacher, Teacher, please hold on!” she sobbed, her voice ringing clear over the crowd. “Meran was only playing a joke on you! I never intended to compete with you, nor did I want to steal your Fated Chance! You must survive! You absolutely must survive!”

She choked on a sob, large tears spilling down her cheeks. “If you want to kill Meran again, I swear I will stand perfectly still! I won’t dodge! Just don’t die, Teacher! Please don’t die!”

Her anguished cries were a masterpiece of tragedy, evoking profound pity from the onlookers.

But it was all a lie. What the crowd saw as life-saving Spiritual Qi was, in reality, a lethal accelerant. The moment her energy entered Yin Wenshu’s body, it fed the inferno ravaging his Dantian, pushing the flames to devastating new heights.

More insidiously, a specialized thread of her Spiritual Qi bypassed the fire entirely. It slithered backward up his Meridians, making a beeline for his fracturing Sea of Consciousness. Specifically, it sought the Divine-grade Dao Rhyme residing within.

His Divine Invocation.

The Character ‘Mi’ (Seek) Rune!

A Divine Invocation was more than a mere affinity with a Heavenly Dao Rhyme; it formed an ethereal contract. The core of the Dao Rhyme anchored itself in the Talisman Master’s Sea of Consciousness. Even before the Body of Incarnation was formed or a Perfect Dao Talisman unlocked, this connection provided monumental advantages, especially when advancing to the Soul Formation realm.

And now, Qin Meran was violently hijacking her teacher’s prized Rune.

Normally, a bound Divine Invocation could not be forcefully plundered without the owner’s willing surrender. Unless…

“A forcible Divine Invocation?!”

“Yin Wenshu is trying to invoke the Divine at a time like this?”

“Has he lost his mind? With his body destroyed, how could he possibly succeed?”

“He isn’t invoking the Divine; he’s Courting death!”

Gasps echoed through the courtyard as a bizarre, suffocating aura erupted from Yin Wenshu’s mangled form. Simultaneously, the sky above boiled. Thick clouds materialized out of nowhere, churning with a dense concentration of Divine-grade Dao Rhymes.

This was a Divine Invocation. And a forcible one at that!

Naturally, this was entirely Qin Meran’s doing. Whether offering or receiving a Divine Invocation, an overwhelming willpower was fundamentally required. Enduring unimaginable agony, Yin Wenshu was barely conscious, let alone capable of such willpower. But by the same token, he possessed zero resistance.

Yin Wenshu, since you once promised to return the Character ‘Mi’ Rune upon your next Divine Invocation, consider today your deadline, Qin Meran sneered internally.

Outwardly, her face twisted in a mask of sheer panic. “Teacher, what are you doing?! Stop!” she shrieked. “Are… are you trying to pass your Divine Invocation to me?! No! Please don’t! Your disciple doesn’t want it! Teacher!”

Her performance was flawless. If Xu Wanqing were present, even she would have to concede she had met her match in hypocrisy. Her desperate cries perfectly deflected the crowd’s rising suspicions.

Instead of seeing murder, the onlookers sighed in collective awe.

“Such a profound bond between master and disciple.”

“They are scholars who read the sages’ texts, after all. No matter their past grievances, true character shows in the face of death.”

“After the Awakening Spirit Valley scandal with Divine Doctor Xu, I thought Azure Mystic was completely rotten. It seems there are still righteous people there.”

“Peak Master Qin’s reputation might be second to Xu Wanqing’s, but she is clearly a saint.”

“And Yin Wenshu commands respect. He must have realized he was beyond saving and chose to bestow his legacy upon his student.”

These whispered praises drifted clearly into Qin Meran’s ears. A cold, triumphant smirk tugged at her lips as she transmitted a private message directly into Yin Wenshu’s mind.

You should be thanking me. You spent your entire life committing evil and abandoning your principles. Yet, despite our differences, I am wrapping you in a beautiful facade. You will die a legend. The transmission sent Yin Wenshu’s burning Nascent Soul into a state of rabid, helpless frenzy.

Qin Meran, you venomous whore! You bitch! he screamed in his mind. You read the sages’ texts only to feed them to the dogs! You deserve to be struck by lightning! You will die a miserable death! He cursed her with every ounce of his evaporating soul. But his fury was utterly impotent. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and his silent screams reached no ears but hers. He could only watch in agonizing despair as she forcibly extracted the Character ‘Mi’ Rune he had zealously guarded for over five centuries. Bit by bit, it was peeled from his soul.

In his fading delirium, his memories drifted back five hundred years. He saw a little girl, delicate as carved jade, clutching a stack of books as she eagerly asked him questions about the sages’ teachings. He had never imagined this. She had been his favorite, the disciple upon whom he had pinned all his hopes. Now, she was the venomous demon flaying his soul.

His thoughts shifted to a young man from the past—the boy who had begged him to save his Senior Sister. Even now, the memory of that boy’s burning gaze terrified him, making him instinctively want to look away.

I used to wonder why I couldn’t meet his eyes, Yin Wenshu realized bitterly. Now I know. I wasn’t worthy. I read the sages’ texts, but I, too, fed them to the dogs! Qin Meran, neither of us is fit to read those books! We are identical monsters, unworthy of even whispering the word ‘sage’! “Hahaha! Hahahaha!” Yin Wenshu laughed aloud, a jarring, broken sound devoid of joy. It held nothing but infinite desolation.

Qin Meran’s mental reply was chillingly indifferent. The sages said, ‘When at an impasse, change; through change, find a way; finding a way, endure.’ The writings of dead men are just the useless ramblings of stubborn fools. In this world, adaptation is everything. If you don’t adapt, you become a relic. You are dying, and you still don’t grasp this. I feel embarrassed just calling you Teacher. This blasphemous heresy made Yin Wenshu’s manic laughter boom louder. In the past, he would have taken his Ink-Black Ruler to correct her warped ideals. Now, he had no ruler, nor the desire to correct anything. He simply roared with his final breath, “He who commits great injustice will inevitably destroy himself! I will wait for you in hell!”

“Hmph.” Qin Meran scoffed, instantly dismissing the dying man.

Her eyes turned greedily to the heavens. Above, a radiant talisman seal, drawn by the vacuum in Yin Wenshu’s collapsing Sea of Consciousness, was slowly descending, passing right through the Origin Dao Rhyme.

Even Qin Meran was stunned.

Could it be… Yin Wenshu’s forced Divine Invocation is actually succeeding?! Her only goal had been to rip back the Character ‘Mi’ Rune and eliminate a rival for the Immortal Fated Chance. She hadn’t anticipated this. If a new Divine Invocation was descending now… didn’t that mean she was about to harvest two runes today?

It’s the Immortal! she realized with ecstatic clarity. The Immortal is manipulating the Origin Dao Rhyme, stimulating the Heavenly Dao Rhyme! That’s why Yin Wenshu’s forced invocation is succeeding! The Immortal is helping me! He wants to gift me this new Divine Invocation alongside the Seek Rune! Intoxicated by her own brilliance, she mentally gloated to the corpse in her arms. Hahaha! Open your eyes and look, Yin Wenshu! There is no karmic retribution in this world! There is only overwhelming, invincible fortune! Qin Meran was vibrating with supreme arrogance, high on the absolute perfection of her victory.

But just as her euphoria peaked, her expression stiffened.

High above the courtyard, a silhouette had quietly materialized in the sky.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a spectacular tragedy between master and disciple,” a voice echoed, dripping with disdain.

“You are a Peak Master of the Azure Mystic Sacred Land, I take it? I must admit, your methods are quite exquisite. Borrowing another’s knife to do your dirty work, butchering your own teacher to steal his treasures, and spinning it all to bolster your own saintly reputation. Killing three birds with one stone.”

The figure paused, their tone turning icy.

“It seems your Azure Mystic is exactly as the rumors claim.”

“Truly, it stinks to high heaven.”