Su Wan’er turned her head to look; two people were standing behind her.

One was a tall man in his thirties, wearing the silver-patterned brocade robe unique to the inner disciples of the Heavenly Veil Sect, with a sinister air lingering between his brows.

The other was a woman, looking to be about twenty-eight years of age, with a slender figure and attractive features, a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips.

She wore a light purple, waist-cinched long dress. A silver chain was tied around her waist, and a Heavenly Veil Sect disciple token dangled from the end of it.

Li Hanyuan and Zhou Ruoshui.

Su Wan’er stood rooted to the spot, her fingers clenching subconsciously.

She hadn’t seen these two in a long time. She never expected to bump into them here, in the most inconspicuous shop in Yunze Market of all places.

“Su Wan’er!” Li Hanyuan spoke first, his voice laced with suppressed anger. “Where have you been hiding for so long! Do you have any idea how much manpower and resources the Sect has wasted trying to find you!”

He strode closer as he spoke, reaching out with his right hand directly to grab Su Wan’er’s arm.

Su Wan’er dodged sideways, leaving his hand to grab nothing but air. She took a half-step back and raised her head to look Li Hanyuan square in the eye.

“Please conduct yourself with dignity, fellow Daoist.” Her voice was not loud, but it was perfectly clear. “I severed my ties with the Heavenly Veil Sect a long time ago.”

“What did you say?!” Li Hanyuan froze, seemingly not expecting that the usually obedient Junior Sister, who never even dared to speak loudly, would actually dare to talk back to him in such a tone.

After a brief moment of astonishment, his entire face flushed red, the veins on his forehead throbbing violently. “The Sect raised you for ten years, carefully cultivating you and pouring resources into you, and this is how you repay the Sect? Su Wan’er, do you have no conscience?!”

Su Wan’er took a deep breath. In the past, facing her Eldest Senior Brother’s furious face, she might have paled and bowed her head in apology, but not anymore.

She had acknowledged a new Honored Master, learned a new Cultivation Technique, and lived anew right before the Gates of Hell. This life of hers was no longer something the Heavenly Veil Sect could manipulate at will.

“Careful cultivation?” Her tone was so calm that it made Li Hanyuan feel it was incredibly unfamiliar. Those eyes that had once always dodged timidly now did not evade in the slightest, reflecting his twisted expression. “Is the cultivation Senior Brother Li speaks of when you deliberately struck the Golden Bell outside to create noise during the critical moment of my breakthrough, almost causing me to suffer Qi Deviation? Or when Third Senior Sister kindly gifted me a cup of Spiritual Tea laced with Muscle-Softening Powder before my arena match, making me collapse on the stage unable to even hold my sword? Or would you all rather talk about how the Revered Master threw me into the Cliff of Reflection without even questioning right from wrong?”

“Later, when demonic cultivators infiltrated the sect and attacked the Cliff of Reflection, I fled for my life from their pursuit, my life hanging by a thread. From beginning to end, not a single person came to save me.” She paused, looking at Li Hanyuan’s face. “And you all searched for so long, but what did you find? Or perhaps, you never searched at all.”

The corners of both their mouths twitched as if a nerve had been struck. Looking at their expressions, Su Wan’er suddenly found it somewhat amusing.

Back then in the sect, what she feared most was precisely this look of towering rage from her Eldest Senior Brother. She was so afraid that she would even have nightmares at night about him reprimanding her.

But looking closely at it now, the anger on this face was nothing more than the shame-fueled rage of having his hypocrisy publicly torn away, leaving him with nowhere to hide.

“At that time… at that time, the sect couldn’t even protect itself! Demonic cultivators invaded, and emergencies broke out everywhere. Even if we wanted to save you, we were spread too thin!” Li Hanyuan breathed heavily, yet his voice involuntarily weakened. “Besides, falling into the hands of those demonic cultivators, it was to be expected that you were already doomed…”

“Hehe, so you admit it now, the Sect had already abandoned me back then?” Su Wan’er interrupted him, her tone indifferent. “Fine. Even if everything you say is true, there is still one thing I’ve always been curious about.”

Her gaze slowly swept between Li Hanyuan and Zhou Ruoshui. “If the Sect truly cared so much about my safety, how is it that Senior Brother Li and Third Senior Sister had the leisure to run off to this little shop in Yunze Market for a… secret tryst?”

She enunciated the last two words with exceptional clarity.

Li Hanyuan’s face twisted for a split second. Before Su Wan’er could even register his movements, a palm wrapped in Spiritual Power slammed into her chest.

He didn’t hold back the slightest bit of strength in that strike. Su Wan’er felt as though she had been rammed by a ferocious beast. The crisp crack of breaking ribs echoed from her chest as she was sent flying backward, crashing right through the shop before landing out on the street.

She coughed up a mouthful of blood, splattering it across the ground before her in a gruesome display.

Li Hanyuan stood rooted to the spot, still maintaining the posture of his palm strike. A hint of astonishment flashed through his eyes; he probably hadn’t expected to strike so heavily, but the blow had already been dealt and could not be taken back.

Zhou Ruoshui stood in place, looking at Su Wan’er who had fallen in the ruins. The smile completely vanished from her face, leaving a complex look in the depths of her eyes.

Su Wan’er lay flat on her back on the ground, every single part of her body aching in pain. She kept her eyes open, but her vision went dark in waves.

Late Golden Core against Peak Foundation Establishment, there was absolutely no suspense. She didn’t even have a chance to dodge. Had she not undergone a complete physical rebirth and cultivated a Heaven-Grade Cultivation Technique, that palm strike just now would have killed her on the spot.

But even though she survived, her current condition was at its absolute worst.

Holding on to her last breath, she painfully turned her head to the side, wanting to take one last look in the direction of her Honored Master.

Suddenly, as if lifted by a gentle breeze, Ruan Se had returned to her side at some unknown point. She crouched beside her, supporting the back of her head with one hand while flicking a jade-green Pill from her fingers with the other.

“Don’t move.”

The Pill melted the moment it entered her mouth. A surge of coolness slid down her throat into her stomach, then violently exploded, transforming into an overbearing medicinal power that rushed toward her limbs and bones.

Amidst the agonizing pain, Su Wan’er finally managed to make out the pair of amber eyes close at hand. Her lips moved slightly as she tried to say thank you, but she couldn’t make a single sound.

The next instant, her vision plunged into complete pitch-black, and her consciousness sank into boundless darkness.

Meanwhile, inside the inn.

Lai Li’an was half-reclining in an armchair by the window, his legs crossed, holding a cup of freshly brewed Spiritual Tea.

Enjoying this moment of tranquility all to himself, it was simply the most comfortable afternoon he had had in a while.

Lai Li’an sprang up from his chair. The teacup crashed to the floor, splashing scalding tea everywhere.

“Fuck! Who did this?!”

He cursed, grabbing his outer robe and rushing out the door.

Su Wan’er absolutely could not die. If she died, his Cultivation Base would be gone. If she died, who would call him Honored Master?

Lai Li’an’s footsteps grew faster and faster. As he ran, he rummaged through the System Inventory for his only remaining Immortal-Slaying Truth-Revealing Talisman, clutching it tightly in his hand.

I don’t care who you are. Daring to touch my EXP pack… no, daring to touch my disciple.

I will fight you to the bitter end.