Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 250: How Dare You Neglect Junior Sister! Deserves Punishment! Deserves Punishment!

Before the grand mountain gates of the Azure Mystic Sacred Land, a group of guarding disciples bowed deeply, their hands respectfully cupped.

“Greetings, Third Martial Aunt!”

“We pay our respects to Peak Master Xu!”

“Welcome back, Third Martial Uncle!”

Their attitudes were impeccably proper, lacking even the slightest hint of neglect. Yet, facing this utmost respect, Xu Wanqing felt no surge of pride. Instead, terror gripped her. Her lips had taken on a sickly, purplish hue. Trembling, she hurried forward, overly polite as she practically begged the disciples to rise.

Not stopping there, she frantically produced a bottle of high-grade Pills, distributing them to each guard with a manic smile. Only after confirming every single disciple had received a Pill, and ensuring absolutely no one felt slighted, did she dare to scurry into the Sect’s interior, sweating profusely.

She had just returned from a trip to Sacred Heart City, the ancestral home of the Xu Clan. The journey had plunged her into an abyss of despair.

The curse of the Void Stone Wax was not confined to her alone. It had infected the entire Xu Clan. Every single person who shared her bloodline was now shackled by the exact same affliction.

It was a curse that supposedly “persuaded people to be good,” but in practice, it was an inescapable, excruciating torture. The once-proud Xu Clan ancestral land had been transformed into a living hell—or, ironically, a peerless sanctuary radiating sickeningly sweet friendliness and forced compassion from every corner.

They had no choice. The moment a single selfish thought crossed their minds, a booming roar would echo in their skulls: “Deserves punishment! Deserves punishment!” What followed was the agonizing sensation of their hearts shattering, their souls splitting, and their bones being ground to dust.

Now, every member of the Xu Clan walked on eggshells, shivering at their own shadows. The most terrifying part? The curse was completely unsolvable. Xu Wanqing had thoroughly examined her clansmen, only to find that clumps of Void Stone Wax had inexplicably materialized inside their hearts. This legendary divine material had simply taken root in their chests, appearing out of thin air.

This meant that as long as the Xu Clan bloodline existed, the curse would endure.

The only small mercy was that her relatives hadn’t accumulated as much of the wax as she had. Unlike Xu Wanqing, whose entire heart had been replaced by a solid lump of the divine material, their suffering was marginally less intense.

Yet, even that fraction of pain was enough to confine the entire clan indoors for generations to come. They were a family accustomed to running rampant, bullying the weak, and preying on the common folk. Now, if they stepped outside and so much as glared at a passing beggar, the curse would physically brutalize them into becoming subservient, benevolent saints who granted every request.

To them, this forced saintliness was a fate far worse than death.

“I cannot accept this. There has to be a way,” Xu Wanqing muttered to herself, her eyes darting nervously. “A curse must have a countermeasure!”

Entering the Sect, she sprinted directly toward the main hall. Having reached a dead end on her own, her Master was her final lifeline.

“Third Martial Aunt,” an attendant at the hall bowed. “The Sect Leader is in Secluded Cultivation. She has issued strict orders: she will see no one, regardless of the emergency.”

“Actually,” another disciple whispered, “the Sect Leader isn’t even in the Sect. She departed some time ago.”

Xu Wanqing slumped. Guan Xuelan had left days ago without a word of her destination or return date. Xu Wanqing, of course, had no idea that her Master was currently exhausting herself trying to clean up the very mess Xu Wanqing had created.

“Master is gone… what do I do?” Panic clawed at her throat. “Junior Brother! Yes, Junior Brother Jiang Xun! He is an Immortal descended to the mortal realm. His intellect is peerless! He will definitely know how to cure me!”

Without missing a beat, she altered her course toward Jiang Xun’s residence.

“Third Martial Aunt,” a menial disciple outside Jiang Xun’s courtyard reported, “Martial Uncle Jiang has been staying at the Spirit Beast Peak recently. You will have to look for him there.”

Xu Wanqing’s footsteps faltered. Spirit Beast Peak. Right now, that was the absolute last place on earth she wanted to visit. The Mountain and River Remnant Realm had been lost while under her care. Although she strongly suspected her Master had taken it, she had no proof. Confronting Guan Xuelan was out of the question, especially with the Void Stone Wax monitoring her every impulse. She was forced to swallow the bitter loss in silence.

If she went to Spirit Beast Peak and Lu Qingyao demanded to know what happened to the realm, what could she possibly say?

“Oh, by the way, Third Martial Aunt,” the disciple added, “Little Martial Uncle specifically instructed that if you returned, you should be informed about Seventh Martial Uncle. She has sustained grave injuries and requires your medical expertise.”

“Little Seven is injured?”

A spark of genuine, unrestrained joy ignited in Xu Wanqing’s eyes. “How is she? Is it serious? When did it happen? Is she suffering?”

The disciple blinked, taken aback by the rapid-fire questions. Why did the Third Martial Aunt look so… thrilled?

Before the disciple could process the unsettling reaction, Xu Wanqing was already in the air, soaring toward the Spirit Beast Peak at breakneck speed.

High above the clouds, a cold sweat broke out across Xu Wanqing’s forehead. Her hands clamped over her chest as blinding agony tore through her sternum.

Because the moment that spark of joy had bloomed, the booming voice of karmic judgment had detonated in her skull.

“As a benevolent soul, you actually rejoice in the misfortune of others? Deserves punishment! Deserves punishment!” The heart-shattering torture nearly sent her plummeting from the sky. Gasping for breath, she forcefully crushed her glee. Through her torment, she had learned the cruel rules of her existence: doing evil brought agony, but merely thinking evil brought it just as swiftly.

However, she had also learned a loophole. If she immediately smothered the malicious thought and forcefully overcompensated with sickening positivity, the pain would recede without requiring external acts of goodwill.

No, no! she chanted frantically in her mind. Junior Sister is my beloved sibling! The little princess I watched grow up! As her Senior Sister, it is my absolute duty to save her! Her safety matters more than my own life! She repeated the lie until she half-believed it herself.

Unfortunately, her frantic mental gymnastics failed. Instead of receding, the pain doubled. A soul-splitting agony joined the heart-shattering torment.

“As a benevolent soul,” the voice thundered, “you blatantly ignore the truth of your Junior Sister’s true identity! This is discrimination and a grievous lack of respect for another’s existence! Deserves punishment! Deserves punishment!” What?! Xu Wanqing’s face contorted in disbelief. She had only mentally referred to Jiang Xun as her “Junior Brother.” The curse was actually punishing her for misgendering the disguised “Immortal” in her own head?! Was there no justice in this world?!

Thankfully, the punishment was brief. By the time she crashed onto the grounds of the Spirit Beast Peak, the boundless torment had receded like the tide.

Jiang Xun sensed her arrival immediately and rushed out, his face lighting up. “Third Senior Sister, you’re finally back!”

“L-Little Martial… Martial…” Xu Wanqing stammered, paralyzed by fear. If she called him Junior Brother, would the curse strike again? If she called him Junior Sister, would Jiang Xun get angry and trigger a different punishment?

Oblivious to her internal crisis, Jiang Xun grabbed her arm. “You came back just in time. Seventh Senior Sister’s condition is deteriorating. Please, hurry!”

“Of course! Seventh Junior Sister is of utmost importance!” Xu Wanqing exhaled a shaky breath, following him inside.

Hearing about Lu Qingyao’s catastrophic injury had initially made Xu Wanqing gleeful. Deep down, she had even briefly hoped the girl was dead. But she knew Lu Qingyao was a self-proclaimed ‘person of destiny’ with endless tricks up her sleeve. She wouldn’t die that easily.

Yet, when Xu Wanqing stepped into the room and laid eyes on Lu Qingyao, her jaw dropped.

“This… this is Qingyao?”

“Yes. She encountered an unexpected disaster during her breakthrough,” Jiang Xun explained, his voice heavy with grief.

Xu Wanqing stared. Sympathy genuinely flickered in her eyes, purely because the sight was so pathetic. Lu Qingyao’s physical body had been entirely devoured by a Demon Beast. She had been forced to prematurely break through to the Nascent Soul realm just to survive, resulting in a catastrophic drop in power. Now, she was nothing more than a fragile, glowing Nascent Soul hovering in the air. While she occasionally regained a sliver of consciousness, she was largely trapped in a delirious stupor.

This was worse than Xu Wanqing had dared to hope.

Masking her dark delight, Xu Wanqing shook her head solemnly. “Seventh Junior Sister’s current state is a fate worse than death. Even if we manage to reconstruct her physical form, I fear she…”

“Third Senior Sister,” Jiang Xun interrupted, frowning. “Do you truly believe Seventh Senior Sister is the type to surrender to despair over a mere tribulation?”

“Of course not!” Xu Wanqing backpedaled instantly. “I will do everything in my power to save her! However… reconstructing a body requires an astronomical amount of heavenly treasures and a tremendous amount of time. A Nascent Soul cannot survive outside a physical vessel forever. Her power will slowly bleed into the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth. Our absolute priority is to find her a temporary vessel.”

“A vessel?” Jiang Xun’s eyes lit up. “You mean find a suitable host for her to perform Body Seizing?”

“I…” Xu Wanqing swallowed hard. The Void Stone Wax pulsed threateningly in her chest. As a newly minted ‘benevolent saint,’ she couldn’t advocate for murder. “Actually, a compromise might be better. We can find a high-tier puppet for her to inhabit temporarily.”

While vastly inferior to true Body Seizing, it was a viable stopgap.

Jiang Xun immediately vanished, returning moments later with a towering, immensely powerful puppet. “Sixth Senior Sister crafted this from the corpse of a Soul Formation expert! If Seventh Senior Sister inhabits this, her physical strength alone will rival the Soul Formation realm!”

Absolutely not, Xu Wanqing sneered internally. She wasn’t about to hand her rival a weapon of mass destruction.

“No,” Xu Wanqing said aloud, her voice dripping with fake concern. “The spiritual pressure of this body is far too aggressive. It doesn’t harmonize with her weakened state.”

“What about this one?” Jiang Xun swapped it for another imposing Soul Formation puppet, this one female.

“Still too turbulent,” Xu Wanqing sighed, shaking her head.

“Then… this Nascent Soul puppet?”

“Do you have anything lower?”

“I have Golden Core puppets, but…”

“Perfect!” Xu Wanqing clapped her hands. “Your Seventh Senior Sister’s Nascent Soul is incredibly fragile right now. Forcing her into a powerful vessel will overtax her soul and hinder our future reconstruction efforts. We must be gentle.”

After meticulously sorting through the weakest options, they settled on a perfectly average Golden Core puppet that bore a passing resemblance to Lu Qingyao.

“This is the most compatible,” Xu Wanqing lied smoothly. “It will allow her to perfectly acclimate without straining her essence. As a temporary shell, it is ideal.”

Jiang Xun, trusting her medical expertise, agreed without hesitation. He quickly asked what materials were needed for the actual reconstruction.

Xu Wanqing rattled off a list of impossibly rare herbs and treasures. Then, her eyes drifted toward the magnificent white jade fan floating steadily above Lu Qingyao’s spiritual form, shielding the fragile Nascent Soul.

“However, the most crucial component for the ritual is that white jade fan,” Xu Wanqing said, her tone deadpan. “But to utilize its core arrays for the healing process, we must first sever Qingyao’s soul-brand from it. Little Junior Brother… I believe you are the only one skilled enough to strip her ownership of the artifact.”