Chapter 005

Chapter 5: I Won’t Admit It, Even If I Die

He stared at her and pressed on: “You said you were jealous of Junior Sister for a moment and went down the wrong path. You said you planned it to teach her a lesson so she would have to stay in bed a while, and you never thought the consequences would be so serious. It was an accident. Right?”

Pain spread across her cheek, but Ye Wan Wan’s eyes did not retreat. She let out a cold laugh and said: “…No. I am here to admit a fault.”

“But not that fault.”

“I was wrong to take so many years to see your true faces. Ye Qian failed her Core Formation and pushed the blame onto me. You all knew and still helped her, dug out my Golden Core, and punished me to reflect at Black Ice Cliff, all because…”

“I have no one behind me.”

Her gaze swept across everyone from the Supreme Sect as she said: “She, Ye Qian, has the powerful Ye Clan at her back and shares their surname. I am only an orphan with both parents dead. You stood by while the Ye Clan pinned their crime on me because I was easy to bully.”

“Ye Qian is like this. So are all of you.”

She looked coldly at Yan Ding and the Supreme Sect’s Sect Master as she said: “A pack of hypocrites.”

Ji Chang Huai’s face went white. “Shut up,” he snapped.

“And you,” Ye Wan Wan said, turning that chill on Ji Chang Huai, “stop pretending to be fair and caring, Eldest Senior Brother. You are so biased. The moment Ye Qian cries, I am the one at fault. The moment her eyes turn red, I am the one who bullied her.”

“Is she brainless or disabled that I can bully her at every turn?”

“Isn’t she the first genius you all brag about, even more gifted than me?”

“If she is so great, then why is it that every time something goes wrong, it is always my fault?” she shouted.

Raging, Ji Chang Huai raised his hand to hit her again. Ye Wan Wan caught his wrist, turned it, and slapped him twice.

Pop. Pop. The sound was sharp and clear.

He stared at her in disbelief. She shoved him back and said: “Get out of my way. That is the interest I owed you.”

Then she faced the elders on the high seats and said: “Dao Sovereign Yan Ding, I do not believe you failed to notice Ye Qian’s Core Formation problem. You saw it and still let our match go on. Before the spar, I asked for your opinion.”

“You agreed.”

“During the match, I was an Early Golden Core. How could an Early Golden Core shatter another Early Golden Core’s Golden Core? If the story spreads, isn’t it ridiculous?”

“The truth is clear to each of you. You want to force me to confess so I will give way to the Ye Clan’s young miss.”

“That will not happen.”

Her voice rang out like metal. Even under Dao Sovereign Yan Ding’s pressure, as the weight on her shoulders grew heavier, she did not bow her head.

Ye Cong Ying’s face turned iron-blue as he sneered: “Sect Master Cheng Wen, Dao Sovereign Yan Ding, this is the disciple you raised?”

Clang. The girl drew out her personal disciple’s Jade Token. She held it up, then let go.

Clang. The Jade Token hit the floor.

With a crooked, scornful smile, Ye Wan Wan said: “I am not your disciple anymore. I was not expelled. It is that this sect is too filthy, and I refuse to stay.”

The Sect Master’s expression did not change as he asked: “Do you know the result of leaving the Supreme Sect?”

“It is not betrayal. It is voluntary departure,” Ye Wan Wan answered, meeting his eyes. “I abolish my cultivation and meridians. For the rest of my life, I cannot step into the Supreme Sect again.”

Then she laughed softly and said: “But my cultivation has already been abolished.”

“Everything I learned from the Supreme Sect, I have returned.”

“I do not owe you anything.”

“Insolent!” The pressure slammed out. The force hurled Ye Wan Wan through the door and into the corridor. Ji Chang Huai, Dou Ming, and Ye Qian all flinched, their faces turning pale, especially Ye Qian, who trembled from head to toe.

Ye Wan Wan pushed herself up and said, clear and steady: “Even if you want to kill me to silence me, I still have to say this.”

“I did not shatter Ye Qian’s Golden Core.”

“Ye Qian failed her Core Formation and framed me.”

“The Ye Clan did it to take my Golden Core.”

“The Supreme Sect helped them.”

“Blind eyes, blind hearts.”

“Dao Sovereign Yan Ding, you failed your disciple. You are not worthy to be a teacher.”

Her words rolled across the lake house, each one striking like a bell. No disciple dared to speak.

Ye Wan Wan lifted her eyes and said: “If one day I disappear, it will be Ye Qian and the Ye Clan who killed me, and the Supreme Sect will be the accomplice.”

Yan Ding’s tone was unreadable as he asked: “You still will not admit your fault?”

Her voice was ice: “I will not, even if I die.”

[If I admit it, I carry a stain and cling to life, only to be driven out in the end. Rather than that, I will not admit it. I will not, even if I die.]

“Very well,” Yan Ding said. “Lock her in Blackwater Prison.”

Within the Supreme Sect there were two places disciples feared most. One was Blackwater Prison. The other was Black Ice Cliff. Both were the harshest punishments of the Disciplinary Hall, reserved for only the gravest crimes. Blackwater Prison, with its endless darkness and water cells, was even more terrifying than Black Ice Cliff. It could drive a person mad.

Ye Wan Wan gave a low laugh and said: “Dao Sovereign Yan Ding, I am no longer your disciple. You have no right to punish me.”

“Take her away,” Yan Ding ordered coldly.

Two disciples dragged Ye Wan Wan out. She did not struggle. As they hauled her away, she glanced at Ye Cong Ying and saw the killing intent in his eyes. Her lips moved soundlessly as she mouthed: “Trash.”

The murder in Ye Cong Ying’s gaze swelled even more.

“Master!” Ji Chang Huai dropped to his knees and cried: “Please spare Little Seven, Junior Sister!”

Dou Ming stared at bleeding, battered Ye Wan Wan, dazed. [Has she gone mad?] Then he turned to look at the trembling Ye Qian and froze again. [Could it be… Ye Wan Wan was truly misunderstood?]

Silence fell across the room. No one dared speak. Yet before half an hour passed, the two disciples who had taken Ye Wan Wan away rushed back.

“Sect Master, Junior Sister Ye ran!”

“She ran?” Everyone was shocked.

“How did she run? Wasn’t her cultivation abolished? The two of you could not hold her?”

“This…” One disciple hesitated, then took out a half-burned talisman and said: “It was Talisman Arts.”

Everyone stared. Ji Chang Huai was even more stunned as he said: “A Talisman Cultivator? When did she learn that? Our Supreme Sect has no Talisman Cultivator.”

No one knew how Ye Wan Wan had learned. But the charge of secretly learning from outside sects was now certain. The Supreme Sect sealed its gates and began a full search for her.

Holding the half talisman, Yan Ding’s face was unreadable. Elder Yu Chun, who had heard the news, only sighed: “The Supreme Sect has made a terrible mistake this time.”

The Supreme Sect had no Talisman Cultivator, but the Archive Pavilion did have talisman manuals left by the ancestor. A few years ago, Elder Yu Chun had run into Ye Wan Wan in the Archive Pavilion several times, the girl reading while drawing talismans. He still remembered it well. Such a gifted disciple had been pushed out by the Supreme Sect.

While the sect boiled over in a frantic search, Ye Wan Wan went alone to Black Ice Cliff.

By the time Ji Chang Huai and Dou Ming heard and hurried over, she was already standing in the wind. She looked over the edge at all the disciples who had chased her here. It almost seemed like she was smiling.

Ji Chang Huai and Dou Ming both trembled as they shouted: “What are you doing? Come back!”

Ye Wan Wan hooked her lips, but her eyes were cold as she repeated, firm and slow: “I did not shatter Ye Qian’s Golden Core.”

“Ye Qian framed me and stole my Golden Core.”

“You want to force me to confess. I will not, even if I die,” she said, each word heavy. “I will not, even if I die.”

As they stared in disbelief, she took step after step backward.

“I will not admit it, even if I die!”

With a turn of her body, she leaped. Her voice echoed in the icy wind. All the disciples stood frozen in horror as Ji Chang Huai lunged forward and shouted: “Come back to me!”

But Ye Wan Wan did not come back.

Everyone knew what lay at the bottom of Black Ice Cliff. Before she ever reached the ground, the killing gales would tear her apart, leaving no bones behind.

Ji Chang Huai’s outstretched hand could not reach her shadow. All he saw was the mocking look in her eyes.

Something inside Ji Chang Huai cracked with a sharp snap, as if something precious had broken. “Little… Junior Sister,” he whispered.