Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 256: Unable to Defend Oneself, Triple Torment!

“See, Junior Brother? Do you believe your Senior Sister now?” Xu Wanqing’s eyes were the picture of clarity, her posture upright and honorable. “I admit I’ve done some wicked things in the past, but I have completely awakened! I am determined to be a good person from now on. I will absolutely never spin another web of lies—especially not to you, Junior Brother.”

Watching Jiang Xun inspect her Storage Ring, she spoke loudly, without a hint of hesitation or ambiguity. She truly intended to turn over a new leaf; all the world’s evils were officially behind her. At least, that was the act she was committing to.

Only… mid-sentence, the words died in her throat.

Right in front of them—two women and a dog—Jiang Xun smoothly withdrew a familiar white jade fan from her Storage Ring!

Bark! Bark! Bark! The stray dog beside them immediately went berserk, baring its fangs at Xu Wanqing as if it wanted to devour her alive.

Qin Meran offered a slow, mocking sneer. “I must admit, Third Senior Sister’s skills are formidable. Your lies are like a finely woven net, meticulously cast to ensnare our hearts.”

“No!” Xu Wanqing was stunned. She stared at the white jade fan in Jiang Xun’s hand, shaking her head frantically. “This isn’t mine! I didn’t hide it!”

“Junior Sisters, Junior Brother, you have to believe me! This white jade fan really was lost, I…”

Qin Meran scoffed. “Lost? So, Senior Sister is trying to say that this fan just accidentally ‘lost’ itself inside your Storage Ring, right?”

“No, I… I…” Xu Wanqing stammered, desperately trying to formulate a defense, but her mind was entirely blank.

What was going on? She had clearly lost the white jade fan. It was gone! How could it possibly appear inside her own Storage Ring?

She looked pleadingly at Jiang Xun, praying he would believe her. Unfortunately, meeting her gaze, Jiang Xun merely pursed his lips. “Senior Sister, the white jade fan was originally yours. Taking it back is naturally understandable. But if you really wanted to reclaim it, you could have just said so in advance. You didn’t have to push Seventh Senior Sister to such a state…”

“Junior Brother, even you don’t believe me?” Xu Wanqing gasped, utterly betrayed.

But this time, Jiang Xun didn’t speak up in her defense. He merely sighed.

That disappointed sigh almost made Xu Wanqing burst into tears on the spot. Gritting her teeth, she knew she couldn’t just accept this frame-up. She hadn’t done this! She absolutely could not confess to a crime she didn’t commit!

“Someone is stirring up trouble in the shadows!”

“Right! Someone set me up!” Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Xu Wanqing. “This white jade fan was genuinely lost just now. Someone must have used an underhanded method to steal it from me, only to secretly plant it back into my Storage Ring!”

Woof! Woof! Woof! Lu Qingyao barked furiously. She was currently just a feral dog, incapable of speaking human language, so no one could understand her vicious curses. However, one didn’t need to speak ‘dog’ to see she didn’t believe a single word of Xu Wanqing’s excuse.

Qin Meran laughed coldly. “Third Senior Sister is truly amusing. You hoard a treasure for yourself, and when caught, you blame it on some mysterious great power? Even a dog wouldn’t believe that excuse.”

Woof! Woof! Lu Qingyao barked twice more—this time, aggressively directing her ire at Qin Meran.

“I’m telling the truth! Really!” Xu Wanqing didn’t have the energy to watch them bicker. Her mind raced until she suddenly remembered a crucial detail. “Think about it! Do you all remember the Sect Leader token that Master kept in her Storage Ring? At the time, Master claimed it was stolen by a thief!”

Hmm?

Those words caused everyone to narrow their eyes. It was a somewhat distant memory, but it had indeed happened. Back then, Guan Xuelan had personally promised to pass the Sect Leader token to Jiang Xun, only to fumble around and fail to produce it. Later, when that very token initiated the Sect Severance Treaty, Guan Xuelan was forced to tell them the truth.

Looking at it from that perspective…

“It must be the same person! Someone is doing this deliberately. That hidden expert has been watching our Azure Mystic Sacred Land this entire time, aiming to destroy us!” Xu Wanqing argued urgently. “This time, they are using the exact same method to sabotage Azure Mystic! Junior Sisters, you have to believe me!”

While Qin Meran and Lu Qingyao remained highly suspicious, Jiang Xun’s expression underwent a drastic shift.

He remembered. His Heaven-Bestowed Ruyi had also mysteriously vanished for two days. At the time, its disappearance was so inexplicable that Jiang Xun nearly went insane tearing the world apart to find it. In the end, it was only through his astonishing array of methods and a desperate blood-summoning that he barely managed to drag the Heaven-Bestowed Ruyi back.

Looking at it this way… was there truly a terrifying almighty cultivator hiding in their midst?

Who was this person? What was their endgame? How were they bypassing all their defenses?

As this barrage of questions flooded his mind, Jiang Xun’s heart began to pound like a war drum. A profound sense of impending doom washed over him.

But just as this intense vigilance peaked, a faint, barely perceptible voice echoed directly within his divine soul: “Master, do not believe her. This woman is wicked!”

Hmm?

Jiang Xun instantly furrowed his brows, casting an imperceptible downward glance at the white jade fan in his grip. He recognized that voice. It was the fan’s artifact spirit, an entity that had remained dormant and hidden for years. Even Xu Wanqing had no idea the artifact had spawned a spirit. Only someone like him, possessing ties to an Immortal root, could hear and communicate with it!

“This woman is deceiving you! She did this deliberately. She was the one who suppressed me inside her storage Dharma Treasure!”

“Not only did she imprison me…”

“She completely drained my source!”

As these frantic streams of consciousness hit him, Jiang Xun’s expression tightened. He hurriedly directed his spiritual sense into the white jade fan to inspect it.

The deeper he looked, the uglier his face became.

Empty!

The white jade fan was completely hollowed out! The vast reserves of origin energy he had painstakingly schemed to collect for a century—energy he had buried within this fan over a hundred years ago and continuously gathered through Xu Wanqing’s ignorant efforts—were gone! All of it!

In that fleeting instant, the gaze Jiang Xun leveled at Xu Wanqing was laced with pure, unadulterated killing intent.

This bitch! This damned bitch! She actually dared to scheme against me! She dared to rob me!

“Junior… Brother? Why… why are you looking at your Senior Sister like that?” Xu Wanqing clearly caught the murderous glint in Jiang Xun’s eyes. An inexplicable, bone-deep terror seized her, forcing her to instinctively step back. “You must believe me! I swear I didn’t deceive you. Think about it carefully, someone is framing me…”

“Naturally, I believe Senior Sister’s words.”

In the blink of an eye, the lethal killing intent in Jiang Xun’s eyes vanished without a trace. His face softened, returning to his usual kind and amiable smile. “Junior Brother believes you!”

Hearing this, Xu Wanqing let out a massive sigh of relief, even briefly doubting if the terrifying malice she had just sensed was merely a trick of the light.

However, the stray dog beside them completely shattered the brief peace.

Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof woof woof! Lu Qingyao couldn’t speak, but her frantic, aggressive barking made Xu Wanqing’s scalp go numb. She knew exactly what the dog was demanding.

Lu Qingyao wanted her Mountain and River Fragment back!

Xu Wanqing tried to avert her eyes, pretending she didn’t understand the animal’s barks to muddle through the crisis. Unfortunately, Jiang Xun—who was currently keeping his true thoughts tightly veiled—spoke up at the perfect time.

“Third Senior Sister, it seems Seventh Senior Sister has no use for the white jade fan anymore. In that case, shouldn’t you return her Mountain and River Fragment?”

“This…” Xu Wanqing broke out in a cold sweat. She didn’t dare lie anymore, so she could only force a look of profound grief. “Seventh Junior Sister, Senior Sister has wronged you.”

Woof woof woof! Lu Qingyao barked, her tone shifting to sheer anxiety.

Just as she feared, Xu Wanqing spoke with heavy sorrow: “It is Senior Sister’s incompetence. That great power hiding in the shadows… they… they fished away your Mountain and River Fragment earlier…”

The moment those words hung in the air, the feral dog completely lost its mind.

Lu Qingyao lunged straight at Xu Wanqing, jaws snapping wildly!

She wanted to rip the woman’s throat out and gorge on her flesh! This bitch was absolutely doing this on purpose! Absolutely, completely, without a doubt intentional!

First, she stole the Mountain and River Fragment. Then, she released the myriad demonic resentful spirits locked inside, destroying Lu Qingyao’s physical body and forcing her soul into the vessel of a mangy street dog. And now? Now she was permanently confiscating the artifact?!

Lu Qingyao felt an overwhelming wave of injustice. Bullying someone was one thing, but this was systematically driving her to her grave!

Faced with the dog’s hateful, snapping jaws, Xu Wanqing knew she was entirely in the wrong and didn’t dare mount the slightest resistance.

She could only retreat, apologizing frantically. “Qingyao, I’m sorry! Senior Sister has wronged you!”

“I didn’t want this to happen! It’s my fault, I’m so sorry! Don’t worry, Senior Sister will do everything in her power to forge a perfect new physical body for you as quickly as possible!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Whether her apologies were genuine was up for debate, but her utter refusal to fight back was very real. She was terrified. She was mortally afraid that the horrific curse of the Void Stone Wax would trigger again. Even if it meant enduring physical agony, she could only stand there and let Lu Qingyao maul her face.

She had made up her mind. Even if her Junior Sister ate her alive, she would absolutely not fight back! She had to be a “good person”!

But…

Although Lu Qingyao possessed the soul of a Nascent Soul cultivator, her current physical vessel was nothing more than a common stray dog.

She clamped her jaws viciously down on Xu Wanqing’s cheek. Yet, instead of tearing away a bloody chunk of flesh, a sickening crack echoed through the air.

Accompanied by a miserable “whimper, whimper, whimper”, the dog tucked its tail and scrambled away, hiding behind a pillar. One of her canine teeth had completely snapped off.

Meanwhile, Xu Wanqing’s cheek didn’t have a single scratch!

Witnessing this absurd scene, Xu Wanqing didn’t feel a shred of relief. Instead, the blood drained from her face. Because at that exact moment, the terrifying, judgment-laced voice she had been dreading finally echoed in the depths of her soul.

“As a benevolent person, your face is so incredibly thick that not even a dog can bite through it.”

“A Penalty is deserved! A Penalty is deserved!”

“As a benevolent person, you carelessly lost another’s treasure, bringing them grave misfortune.”

“A Penalty is deserved! A Penalty is deserved!”

“As a benevolent person, you have caused those closest to you to harbor deep, seething hatred. You are a failure of a human being.”

“A Penalty is deserved! A Penalty is deserved!”

Three consecutive judgments of Penalty struck Xu Wanqing’s mind like thunderbolts.

Heart-shattering!

Soul-rending!

Bone-grinding!

A triple torment descended upon her in rapid succession. This horrifying Penalty crashed over her like a tidal wave, causing Xu Wanqing to instantly collapse to the dirt, screaming in ungodly agony. It was a boundless torture—a living hell where one wasn’t even granted the mercy of death!

Writhing on the ground, enduring the soul-tearing torment, Xu Wanqing could only turn her tear-streaked face toward Jiang Xun, stretching out a trembling hand.

“Junior Brother! Quickly, save me! Save me!”

“I’ve been cursed!”

“Quick! Please, save me!”

She had originally planned to wait before asking her Junior Brother for help in resolving the Void Stone Wax curse, but she couldn’t afford to wait another second. She begged him with everything she had.

Only…

Looking down at her pathetic, agonizing state, Jiang Xun didn’t extend a hand to help.

On the contrary.

Standing over her, Jiang Xun was actively contemplating a dark, ruthless thought that Xu Wanqing would never have expected.

This bitch has already lost control.

Why not take this opportunity… and erase her right now?