Central State, Clear Sound Pavilion
The Clear Sound Pavilion was not a major sect. They pursued the Dao through music and had few disciples. The environment was quiet and elegant. However, at this moment, outside an elegant cottage planted full of emerald bamboo within the pavilion, the atmosphere was as oppressive as the stillness before a storm.
Inside the cottage, a young man dressed in green robes with a handsome face marked by deep exhaustion and pain was staring dead at a young woman before him. She wore a moon-white long dress, had a exquisitely beautiful face, but her demeanor was unusually cold and calm.
He was Ling Yun, a disciple of this generation at Clear Sound Pavilion.
"Why... tell me why?!" Ling Yun's voice trembled violently from extreme anger and pain. He pointed at the woman, his words almost squeezed out from between his teeth. "Three years ago... the person who died in 'Youhun Stream' three years ago... wasn't you at all! It was your twin sister, Ji Xue! Isn't that right?! You deceived me! You deceived everyone! You are Ji Cang! Your sister was the real Ji Xue!"
The woman called Ji Cang, facing this earth-shaking accusation, showed not the slightest panic on her face. Instead, she was so calm it was chilling. She gently stroked her still-flat abdomen, her eyes indifferent, as if stating a fact that had nothing to do with her:
"Ling Yun, you're different from him. You're stronger than him, more rational than him. If he learned the news of my sister Ji Xue's death, he certainly wouldn't be able to bear it—he would have followed my sister in death for love. My sister died saving me. I couldn't just watch the person my sister loved die."
Her tone was matter-of-fact, even carrying a strange kind of "compassion" that was "all for my sister's sake."
"You...!" Ling Yun was struck as if by lightning. He staggered backward, his face instantly paper-white.
Ji Cang continued, her voice still unwaveringly flat: "These three years, I used my sister Ji Xue's identity to stay by his side, watching him... gradually emerge from the shadows. Moreover..."
She lowered her head, looking at her abdomen, and an extremely faint, twisted "gentleness" even appeared on her face: "In these three years, I've already become pregnant with his child."
"Don't worry," she raised her head, looking at the nearly-collapsed Ling Yun, her tone as if comforting an object. "After the child is born, he'll have something to hold onto, a new support and attachment. At that time, I'll return. I'll come back to your side. Everything will return to the right track. I'll treat you well and make up for these three years of your waiting."
"Hahaha... hahaha..." After hearing this incredible, utterly absurd rhetoric, Ling Yun was first stunned, then suddenly burst into a hysterical, maniacal laugh. His laughter was filled with endless grief and mockery!
He laughed until tears streamed down his face. Pointing at Ji Cang, his voice was hoarse and twisted: "Make it up to me? Return to the right track? Hahaha... Ji Cang! These three years, using Ji Xue's identity, every night, in the room right next to mine... you... you... performed the duties of husband and wife with him! Those sounds... I heard them for three years! Every day! Every night! I thought it was your sister and our senior brother... So! So it was you! You used your sister's body... with your own brother-in-law?! Hahaha... lunatics! You're all lunatics!!"
This cruel truth, like the sharpest blade, completely shredded Ling Yun's last defenses!
Just then, the door to the cottage was pushed open. The Clear Sound Pavilion's Pavilion Master, who was also Ling Yun's Shi Zun, along with several senior brothers and sisters who had heard the news and hurried over, walked in.
Shi Zun looked at the seemingly possessed Ling Yun, his brows tightly furrowed. Not only did he not criticize Ji Cang, he instead spoke sternly: "Yun Er, stop your nonsense! Cang Er... what she did, though her methods were extreme, was to preserve the friendship between you and your senior brother, and even more to leave behind blood continuation for your senior brother! This was a helpless choice, born of deep affection! You should understand her painstaking efforts!"
"That's right, Ling Yun Senior Brother, Ji Xue Senior Sister... no, Ji Cang Senior Sister is also motivated by deep devotion!"
"Senior Brother, just endure it for the sake of the child, for Ji Cang Senior Sister..."
"The big picture is what matters, Senior Brother!"
Several senior brothers and sisters also spoke up one after another. Their words were shockingly all on Ji Cang's side, subjecting him to absurd moral blackmail! As if the three years of deception, humiliation, and torment he, Ling Yun, had endured were worth nothing at all!
Ji Cang listened to everyone's words, her expression growing even more "calm" and even "composed." She looked at Ling Yun again, her tone carrying a hair-raising "magnanimity" and "charity":
"Ling Yun, what are you still worried about? I told you, when the child is born, I'll naturally come back. At that time, my person and my heart will still belong to you. The grievances you've suffered these three years, I'll use the rest of my life to properly compensate you."
Compensation...
Compensation again!
Using her sister's identity to carry on an affair with her brother-in-law for three years, bearing a child, and then telling him she would return to "compensate" him?
Ling Yun listened to this word that was like a curse, looked at the thoroughly twisted, matter-of-fact expressions on his Shi Zun and senior brothers' faces, looked at Ji Cang's face that was calm to the point of cruelty...
His maniacal laughter gradually died down, finally settling into deathly silence.
All the emotions in his eyes—pain, madness, indignation, struggle—receded like the tide. All that remained was a bone-deep, utterly despairing coldness.
He slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping across every person present. The corners of his mouth curved into an extremely strange, chilling arc.
"I understand... hahaha... I understand..."
He murmured to himself, then suddenly threw his head back and used every ounce of his strength to scream at the empty roof:
"Heavenly Alliance fellow daoists—"
"Please—!!!"
"BOOM—!"
Before his words had even fallen, the roof and walls of the cottage suddenly exploded! Amidst flying wood debris and bamboo splinters, several figures wearing Heavenly Alliance attire with sharp, formidable presence descended like thunder!
Blades and sword shadows instantly filled the entire space!
"Heavenly Alliance Law Enforcement! Purging calamity evil! Surrender immediately!"
Amidst the cold pronouncement, the slaughter began!
"What are you doing?!"
"Presumptuous!"
Shi Zun and the senior brothers were both shocked and furious. They tried to resist but were instantly suppressed and slaughtered under absolute power! Blood instantly dyed the elegant emerald bamboo and floor crimson.
Ji Cang's expression finally changed for the first time. It was a look of disbelief and bewilderment, as if she completely couldn't understand what was happening before her eyes. "Ling Yun! You..."
Her words were never finished.
A cold figure had already appeared before her.
It was Ling Yun.
In his hand he held a short sword flashing with cold light, taken from who knows where.
His eyes were hollow, dead—and yet they held a determination that made one's heart tremble.
"Compensation?" He looked at Ji Cang, his voice light as if sleep-talking. "Next life."
"Puchi—!"
The short sword pierced Ji Cang's heart without hindrance, with precision.
Ji Cang's body suddenly went rigid. Her eyes widened as she looked down at the blade sunk into her chest, then slowly raised her head to look at Ling Yun. Her eyes were filled with incomprehension, shock, and a trace of... twisted, lingering obsession? She opened her mouth as if wanting to say something more, but in the end made no sound at all as she slowly crumpled to the ground.
Blood gurgled from her heart, dyeing her moon-white dress crimson.
Ling Yun pulled out the short sword. Without even glancing at the body on the ground, he turned and staggered out of this bloody slaughterhouse. The Heavenly Alliance cultivators quickly cleaned the scene, sealing the wisps of black energy rising from the corpses.
The mountain valley's wind blew in, carrying the thick stench of blood and the fresh scent of bamboo leaves, mixing into a nauseating aroma.
Ling Yun raised his head to look at the gray sky. His face held no expression at all. Only two lines of cold tears silently slid down.
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