Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Destined to Be Enemies Until Death
“Come,” Liu Lan Yi said quietly, squeezing Song Wan Ning’s hand. “Don’t let blind fools ruin your mood.”

She left with Song Wan Ning and Li Ruo, their figures disappearing into the heights of Cloudsky Peak.

The Sect Master watched Ancestor go. Facing the mess left behind, he could only rub his forehead, frustration making him feel ten years older.

Gu Qing Yuan unconscious. An Ze half-dead with humiliation. Ye Chu Xue shaken and unstable.

And all of it—every last spark—had been lit by Song Wan Ning.

He swallowed his anger, made arrangements with a rigid face, and once everything was settled, he flicked his sleeve and returned to the Sect Master Hall.

Not long after, clattering sounds rang out from within.

The disciples on duty exchanged uneasy glances and tightened their grips on their weapons.

Meanwhile, on Lan Le’s peak, Wu Dan slowly woke up. Color returned to her face, breath steady again. The surrounding disciples burst into praise.

“Of course it has to be Grandmaster Song. She cured it instantly!”

“Exactly. Unlike some people—can’t refine properly but refuse to admit it, almost killing someone!”

“Shh,” someone hissed. “Keep it down…”

Their eyes still darted toward Ye Chu Xue.

Ye Chu Xue, pale and trembling, forced down the humiliation burning her throat and staggered away while supporting Gu Qing Yuan.

Bai Yang started forward as if to help—then stopped, remembering the broken figure in the corner.

He still had to look after An Ze.

So he could only watch Ye Chu Xue leave.

“Eldest Senior Brother…” An Ze’s voice came out thick, his mouth swollen. He clutched Bai Yang’s sleeve, hatred glaring in his eyes. “She actually… expelled me…”

Bai Yang’s body went tense. Guilt flashed across his face. “Sorry. Earlier, I couldn’t stop Master…”

If he had stepped in, Master might have cast him out too.

Now he couldn’t gamble. He no longer had the right to be willful.

“But don’t worry,” Bai Yang said, voice low. “I’ll still protect you. I won’t let you suffer.”

They would always be good brothers.

“Okay…” An Ze nodded repeatedly, swallowing the sting in his throat. His eyes turned distant, already searching for another path forward.

The crowd gradually dispersed. Lan Le ordered his disciples to clean the area, as if scrubbing away bad luck.

He looked toward Cloudsky Peak and let out a heavy sigh.

Opposing Song Wan Ning only brought misfortune.

From now on, it was better not to anger her.

*

At the top of Cloudsky Peak, Liu Lan Yi sent Li Ruo away. She sat with Song Wan Ning beneath a tree, fingers still wrapped around hers.

“Did Gu Qing Yuan bully you?” Liu Lan Yi asked softly.

Her gaze sharpened. “I told you long ago he wasn’t worthy of you.”

Gu Qing Yuan’s background was as uncertain as duckweed in rain. No matter how you looked at it, he wasn’t worthy of Song Wan Ning.

Yet Song Wan Ning had been stubborn, pouring her whole heart into him, willing to stand behind him and help him rise step by step.

“Martial Uncle,” Song Wan Ning said quietly, voice rough at the edges, “it was Wan Ning’s fault.”

She leaned against Liu Lan Yi’s leg, rubbing affectionately as if anchoring herself. “I misjudged someone before. I won’t ever do that again…”

Her fingers tightened without her noticing.

“If… if I say I will be enemies with Gu Qing Yuan until death,” she whispered, “will Martial Uncle blame me?”

Liu Lan Yi’s hand stilled in Song Wan Ning’s hair.

Shock flickered through her eyes.

What had happened… to drive Wan Ning to this?

Then Liu Lan Yi’s expression softened into something grave and steady. She sighed and patted the crown of Song Wan Ning’s head, calming her without asking a single question.

“If you’re doing this,” Liu Lan Yi said, “you must have a reason you cannot avoid. Martial Uncle believes you.”

Her eyes turned cold, sharp as frost.

“If you have concerns, yet still must do it—then I will clear every obstacle for you.”

“Martial Uncle…”

A clear tear slid down Song Wan Ning’s cheek.

She remembered it—being cornered with no way out, forced by Gu Qing Yuan and his people toward the Demon Abyss.

Martial Uncle had descended from the sky, tearing open a path with blood and fire for her slim chance to live.

Back then, Martial Uncle had been one step away from the Ascension Stage—yet she was forced into self-destruction by that group.

Even as her life scattered, she had used her last bit of spiritual power to send Song Wan Ning away.

Song Wan Ning opened her eyes slowly.

She would never let Martial Uncle take that risk again.

And it wasn’t only Gu Qing Yuan and Bai Yang.

All those admirers of Ye Chu Xue—every one of them who had cheered, excused, and stabbed from the shadows—were accomplices too.

She would settle those accounts one by one.

No one would escape.

*

“Well, well. If it isn’t our An Ze—Young Master An.”

An Shan blocked An Ze at the gate. Behind him, several An Family juniors crowded together, watching with open schadenfreude.

The An Family was a small clan under the Heaven-Questioning Sect. As the legitimate heir of this generation, An Ze had entered the Heaven-Questioning Sect as a child. With Song Wan Ning behind him, he had lived in endless glory.

Who would’ve thought he’d be expelled for a woman a few days ago—reduced to a laughingstock overnight?

An Shan and the others had swallowed plenty of An Ze’s temper in the past. Now they rushed to block him the moment they got the chance.

“Move,” An Ze growled.

His talent was decent, but his cultivation was still low. Old injuries hadn’t healed, and he was in no state to fight back.

He took a solid beating.

By the time they were done, his face was swollen into a pig’s head.

“You’re asking to die!” he rasped, half-slumped against the wall, killing intent rolling off him in thick, poisonous waves.

“Oh?” An Shan curled his lip and stepped in, kicking him again. “Still talking about death?”

“You really think you’re somebody?” An Shan sneered. “Without True Lord Song protecting you, you’re nothing!”

“Now you’ve offended True Lord Song,” he went on, laughter sharp, “you’d better think about how you’re going to stay alive—hahahaha!”

Even setting aside the Song Family, Song Wan Ning’s status alone meant no one in the Cultivation World would dare accept him as a disciple again.

Without a true lord shielding him, after offending so many people—whether An Ze could even survive was uncertain. What was he still acting arrogant for?

“You…” An Ze spat blood, fury shaking his whole body.

But in the end, he could only watch them swagger away.

“You’ll all regret this,” he hissed, forcing himself upright, eyes vicious. “Just wait!”

Wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, he limped into the An Family. Whispering stares clung to him like burrs, and a fire jammed in his chest, ready to explode.

But he still had business.

He grit his teeth and went to find a few of his so-called “good brothers.”

Ye Chu Xue needed to bid for the Heaven-Origin Heart-Nourishing Pill, and it would cost a mountain of spirit stones.

He had already returned his spirit stones to Song Wan Ning. If he wanted to help, he could only borrow from the An Family.

But his old “brothers” had turned cold.

Not only did they refuse, they mocked him to his face.

“What do you know?” someone scoffed. “Senior Sister Ye is hundreds of times better than Song Wan Ning!”

An Ze’s fury rose like a flood. He was about to argue—

When he heard someone mention, casually, that his parents had already been transferred to the Nan Hai City branch.

An Ze’s blood ran cold.

“What did you say?!”