Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Made Public

On the high platform, tension spread like gunpowder.

The killing intent rolling off Gu Qing Yuan was so sharp it felt like it could cut skin.

Only then did Bai Yang stumble up onto the platform.

“Master…”

His voice was rough. He swayed, blood soaking his clothes, wounds so deep they were hard to look at. He could barely stand.

Yet his eyes were stubborn, fixed on Song Wan Ning as if he were clinging to the last thread of something precious.

“I beg you,” he said, forcing the words out, “save Junior Sister Ye.”

At first, he had been sick of Song Wan Ning—sick of her jealousy toward Ye Chu Xue, sick of how she kept going after Ye Chu Xue.

Later, he hated her—hated that she stood by and watched, hated that she set him up, hated that she attacked him.

But now, more than anything, he was afraid.

Afraid of losing Song Wan Ning’s love.

Deep down, he still hoped that because she cared about him, Song Wan Ning would step in and treat Ye Chu Xue.

He hoped she would pity him like she used to.

That hope outweighed even his worry for Ye Chu Xue.

Only then did Song Wan Ning turn her head and look at him—fully, seriously.

[Her three disciples had only Ye Chu Xue in their hearts.]

[See.]

[Even covered in wounds, he only cares about Ye Chu Xue.]

She raised her hand and brushed aside the blood-soaked hair on Bai Yang’s forehead.

Her fingers were cold against his skin.

Bai Yang froze.

Then a rush of joy surged through him so fast his hands trembled at his sides.

But the next moment, Song Wan Ning’s hand slid down and stopped at his left shoulder.

She pressed down hard.

The bloody wound caved in.

Crack—crack.

Bone split.

Bai Yang sucked in a sharp breath, pain tearing through him, and yet Song Wan Ning yanked him forward, pulling him close.

So close he could catch the faint, familiar scent that had once meant safety.

“So worried about her?” Song Wan Ning murmured, gaze lingering over his face. A soft smile spilled onto her lips.

“Then how about you go be Gu Qing Yuan’s disciple?”

With that, she shoved.

Bai Yang was thrown aside.

“Eldest Senior Brother!”

An Ze and Lu Nan Feng lunged forward, faces flushed with shock and fury, catching Bai Yang before he could hit the ground.

“Eldest Senior Brother, are you okay?”

Bai Yang’s face was deathly pale. He stood dazed, head hanging low, blood dripping from his fingertips.

His feet shifted—like he wanted to speak again, like he wanted to grab at her sleeve.

In the end, he didn’t.

He gave in.

He didn’t dare ask anything of Song Wan Ning anymore.

Only then did he understand.

He had long since lost the right to be willful.

“Junior Sister Song,” the Sect Master of the Heaven-Questioning Sect said, standing with a grim face, “whatever this is, we can handle it downstairs. Come—let’s go back first.”

He was trying to push them away, to keep the Heaven-Questioning Sect’s reputation from being torn apart in front of the Seven Sects and Four Factions.

No matter what, Gu Qing Yuan was still the Heaven-Questioning Sect’s biggest name.

But Song Wan Ning sat calmly, with no intention of moving.

“Sect Master,” she said, almost amused, “why are you in such a hurry?”

“It’s just that he fell in love with his own disciple. Why hide it?”

“Gu Qing Yuan doesn’t care. What do you care about?”

“Junior Sister Song, watch your words!”

The Sect Master nearly blacked out from anger.

Once those words were spoken here, Gu Qing Yuan’s reputation would be finished. By tomorrow, the news would spread everywhere.

Song Wan Ning’s expression stayed flat. “He has the nerve to ask his ex-fiancée to save the one he loves. And I’m not allowed to say anything?”

She lifted her gaze, cold and clear.

“I’d like to ask all the Sect Masters here to judge this.”

“If I refuse to treat Ye Chu Xue, am I wrong?”

She had asked herself that countless times.

Where exactly was she wrong?

She had been jealous of Ye Chu Xue. She had hated Ye Chu Xue. She had wished Ye Chu Xue would die.

She had never hidden her malice.

And because she refused, she became the villain—soaked in supposed evil.

Her betrothed Dao Companion accused her. Her disciples despised her. Fellow disciples denounced her again and again as absurd.

Even when she was forced into demonic cultivation, they only stood aside and calmly blamed her—selfish, narrow-minded—as if it were all her own doing.

They held up the rising new star and forgot everything she had done for the sect.

They turned her into a joke.

Even now, Song Wan Ning wanted to ask: where exactly was she wrong?

She had never believed she was wrong.

The Sect Masters fell solemn, expressions tight.

This was an internal matter of the Heaven-Questioning Sect. It didn’t seem appropriate to interfere.

Then Liu Shi Yue, the Sect Master of the Blissful Union Sect, spoke.

“That’s right!”

“What Fellow Daoist Song did is fair and reasonable. Who dares say she’s wrong?”

Her expression was cold, but the way she looked at Song Wan Ning was sincere—almost fierce.

“Gu Qing Yuan is the one who betrayed her first, yet he still demands that Fellow Daoist Song save someone. It’s absurd!”

The Sect Master of the Seven Stars Sect tugged at her sleeve, trying to warn her off.

Liu Shi Yue ignored it. Her gaze slid to Gu Qing Yuan, sharp with disdain. “Men are always like this. They fall in love with one after another, then shove all the blame onto women.”

“I’ve seen plenty of shameless people, but someone as shameless as True Lord Gu?” Her lips curled. “This Sect Master is seeing it for the first time.”

The Sect Masters exchanged glances, helplessness flashing in their eyes.

Gu Qing Yuan had walked straight into Liu Shi Yue’s crosshairs.

Gu Qing Yuan’s face turned ashen. His arms tightened around Ye Chu Xue.

“This has nothing to do with Sect Master Liu,” he said coldly. “Watch your words!”

Then, turning back toward Song Wan Ning, he forced out, “Song Wan Ning poisoned her in the first place. She should be the one to cure it!”

Ye Chu Xue lay unconscious in his arms, light as a feather. It made his heart ache until it felt raw.

He had to make Song Wan Ning remove every last bit of poison, or Chu Xue’s future cultivation would be harmed.

Song Wan Ning suddenly laughed.

“Ha… ha… ha…”

She laughed until she nearly toppled over, like she’d heard the funniest joke in the world.

When she finally stopped, she looked up at him.

“Gu Qing Yuan, you’re ridiculous. I poisoned her?”

“It was your obedient disciple who talked Bai Yang—that idiot—into stealing my pills. He failed to steal the right ones and ended up taking poison instead.”

“If even one person here had any sense of decency, Ye Chu Xue wouldn’t have been poisoned.”

With that, she had cursed everyone in the room.

The Sect Master of the Heaven-Questioning Sect’s face burned. His anger surged, then choked itself back. The Song Family was powerful. He truly didn’t dare offend Song Wan Ning too far.

The other elders were furious too. None of them spoke.

Guilt sat in their throats like stones.

The Sect Masters’ understanding shifted again, and the way they looked at Gu Qing Yuan turned strange.

If what Song Wan Ning said was true, then Gu Qing Yuan had gone far too far.

And the fact that Song Wan Ning could still sit here and speak at all was already generosity.

“Chu Xue never encouraged Bai Yang!” Gu Qing Yuan snapped.

“Stop smearing her!”

His face was icy as harsh words burst out. “Not everyone is as scheming and vicious as you!”

Ye Chu Xue was like pure snow on a mountain peak.

And on Song Wan Ning’s hands—what was left besides blood?

“Tsk.”

Song Wan Ning didn’t get angry.

She stood, dusted off her sleeves, and reached down to take Li Ruo’s hand beside her.

“If I’m so vicious,” she said, voice calm as a blade, “then I definitely won’t cure this poison.”

“Don’t kneel and beg me again in the future.”