Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Ye Chu Xue’s Poison Flares Up Again

“Eldest Senior Brother was only hurt and not fully healed,” An Ze blurted, fists clenched tight enough to tremble. “Otherwise, he would’ve taken first place!”

In An Ze’s eyes, Eldest Senior Brother was always the best.

And besides… why Eldest Senior Brother lost—Master should know better than anyone.

Yet she scolded him. Humiliated him. In public.

An Ze hated the weakness in his own bones. If he were stronger, he could have stood in front of Bai Yang. He could have spoken back.

But he wasn’t.

Song Wan Ning shot him a cold sideways glance. She raised her slim, pale hand and merely brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

An Ze flinched so hard it was instinct. He lifted an arm to shield his face.

“Tsk.”

Song Wan Ning laughed under her breath.

He used to snarl at her at the slightest thing. She’d thought he had a spine.

Turns out he was just a coward.

Li Ruo handed her a cup of Bamboo-Peach Immortal Brew. Song Wan Ning accepted it and took a slow sip, calm as if she were watching a play that didn’t matter.

The mood stayed heavy. Eyes flicked back and forth between Song Wan Ning and Bai Yang.

It wasn’t until a startled cry from the nearby Battle Platform snapped through the tension that everyone remembered Ye Chu Xue was still fighting.

They turned—

And froze.

Ye Chu Xue had been knocked to the ground. A large pool of black blood spilled from her mouth, staining the platform like ink.

She lay there, barely breathing.

The black spread outward, thick and horrifying.

Xi Wen Jun’s broad saber hovered at her throat. A long lock of hair lay severed on the ground beside her.

“Chu Xue!”

Gu Qing Yuan lurched up in shock. In a flash, he appeared on the Battle Platform, knocked the saber away with a single palm, and pulled Ye Chu Xue into his arms.

The girl was weak to the extreme. Her lips were turning black, her body slack, like a broken doll.

“Chu Xue!”

Xi Wen Jun was flung back by the force, but Gu Qing Yuan didn’t spare him a glance. Holding Ye Chu Xue tight, he flashed back to the viewing platform and stopped directly in front of Song Wan Ning.

“Song Wan Ning,” he demanded, voice strained, “save her!”

His whole body was taut. A blood-red tint edged his eyes. His usual cool composure had shattered into raw panic.

The commanding tone made everyone present flinch.

Below, Bai Yang forced himself upright and staggered toward the viewing platform step by step, blood dripping from him. His eyes were full of worry.

Lu Nan Feng rushed forward too, concern written openly across his face.

Even An Ze ran over, no longer caring how Song Wan Ning might react.

“Senior Sister Ye… what’s happening to her?”

Everyone could see it. Ye Chu Xue had been poisoned.

“This young friend has been poisoned,” the Sect Master of the Myriad Swords Sect said quickly, stepping in before anyone could point fingers at Xi Wen Jun. “The toxin likely entered her meridians and dantian during the fight, causing her spiritual energy to go chaotic and surge backward.”

“If the reversal continues through the meridians, it could lead to qi deviation. The consequences would be serious.”

He paused, then added, “Fortunately, her symptoms aren’t that severe yet. Once the poison is removed, she will naturally wake.”

The Sect Master of the Heaven-Questioning Sect forced a bitter smile, feeling as if more white hairs had appeared overnight.

One headache after another. One disaster after another.

He was exhausted.

“Junior Sister Song,” he said carefully, voice tight, “Ye Chu Xue’s poison has flared up. Could you treat her?”

When he asked, he had no confidence at all.

Song Wan Ning lounged back in her chair as if none of this concerned her.

The Sect Masters from other sects exchanged subtle glances, sensing something sharp and ugly under the surface.

“Song Wan Ning!”

Gu Qing Yuan’s teeth clenched. His knuckles tightened one by one around Ye Chu Xue’s frail body.

“What do you want?”

[Song Wan Ning is doing this on purpose.]

Gu Qing Yuan knew Song Wan Ning better than anyone.

He remembered Bright Moon Valley—when he dueled Lu Xing Yao of the Myriad Swords Sect. Neither had yielded. They fought until both were badly injured.

Song Wan Ning had been furious and distressed over his wounds. She fed Lu Xing Yao the Blood-Feeding Congealed Venom Pill and made him itch for seven full days, scratching himself raw.

Song Wan Ning had always been like this. If anyone made her unhappy, she had plenty of ways to get even.

Only with him, she had always protected him, respected him, soothed him.

And now, she was turning those same methods on him.

Unease crawled through Gu Qing Yuan’s chest, but Ye Chu Xue’s limp weight hurt worse.

“I’ll apologize to the Myriad Swords Sect later,” he snapped. “It’s none of your business. Save her first!”

Song Wan Ning tilted her head, lips curving faintly.

“And what if I don’t?” she asked.

Her voice was almost light. “Are you going to kill me again?”

The outsiders were shocked.

Weren’t Song Wan Ning and Gu Qing Yuan once engaged?

Gu Qing Yuan’s body went rigid. “I never thought about killing you! Stop being unreasonable!”

He only wanted to force her hand. He had never truly wanted to kill her.

“Is that so?”

Song Wan Ning’s smile faded.

She still remembered begging him—again and again—pleading with him not to harm the Song Family.

Begging him to save her.

She was his junior sister.

She had once been his lover.

But Gu Qing Yuan had only looked at her coldly and said, without mercy, “My junior sister died long ago!”

They were the ones who drove her into madness. Yet in the end, they still stood above her and accused her of bringing disaster to the world.

Gu Qing Yuan personally bound her with the Immortal-Binding Rope.

Her “good” disciple, Bai Yang, drove a sword into her chest.

He shattered her heart, destroyed her Nascent Soul Stage, and then ground her bones to dust.

All in the name of making sure she would never rise again.

A sharp pain stabbed through Song Wan Ning’s chest. She gripped the armrests hard, nails digging in, forcing down the hatred that threatened to spill out.

She raised her head and looked at Gu Qing Yuan.

[And she had been the one to give him that Immortal-Binding Rope…]

“I do have the ability to save her,” Song Wan Ning said, her gaze drilling into Gu Qing Yuan as if she could see through bone. “But what should I do?”

Her lips curved.

“I just don’t want to save her.”

“The one you love is about to die… heh, heh, heh…”

She covered her mouth as she laughed, the sound sending a chill through the crowd.

A coldness crept up from people’s feet.

Song Wan Ning was clearly a top-tier Fire Spirit root cultivator, yet the aura around her felt sinister—heavy and gloomy, like a stormcloud pressing down.

The outsiders finally understood, pupils trembling as they looked between Gu Qing Yuan and Ye Chu Xue.

The one he loved.

His disciple.

The square erupted.

Only the disciples of the Heaven-Questioning Sect looked unsurprised.