To save a life, he had no choice but to sacrifice himself—by marrying a woman he did not love.
But even after the wedding, he would never lay a finger on Song Wanníng!
His heart, his body, belonged to one person and one person only: Chuxue.
"Tch…"
Song Wanníng stood tall at the entrance to the grand hall, eyes like ice cutting through fog. She looked at Gu Qingyuan, not with longing or anger, but something emptier. A woman who had seen too much. A heart that had given everything and gotten ash in return.
In her past life, it was through the leverage of a single pill that she forced Gu Qingyuan to agree to marry her. As if she were some vile temptress, coercing an unwilling man. But the engagement, once upon a time, had been something he offered willingly.
His vows still echoed in her ears.
But his heart had long since strayed.
And the object of his betrayal?
Her own disciple.
How absurd!
The man once praised as an aloof immortal, aloof and pure, was nothing more than a sanctimonious hypocrite. Stripped of the haze of love, the man before her now was nothing special.
Song Wanníng's eyes were dark and unreadable. Before she could speak, Bai Yang could no longer hold back his outrage.
"Master! How could you use Senior Sister Chuxue's life to threaten Uncle Master Gu? This is shameless!"
The disgust in his eyes was unmistakable, leaking from every corner of his gaze.
How had she never noticed before?
Her own disciple loathed her.
Song Wanníng narrowed her eyes. Her lips curved up, and without a word, she lifted her hand and slapped across the air.
Smack—
The sound echoed in the still hall.
Bai Yang staggered backward, blood and teeth scattering across the floor. Four of his front teeth were knocked loose, bouncing like stones. He cradled his face, stunned.
"A name like Bai Yang... turns out raising you really was in vain."
She lowered her hand and stared at it for a moment before letting out a satisfied smile.
"Yes, this was how it should be." She was the villainess, after all. What logic was there to explain? What fairness was left to seek?
Just hit first. Talk later.
Bai Yang trembled with humiliation. His ears rang. His pride shattered.
"She hit me...?
How dare she?"
Resentment swelled in his chest like a roaring flame. He bit down hard on his lip, veins bulging on the back of his clenched hand.
"One day... I'll surpass Song Wanníng. And when that day comes, I'll make her pay tenfold."
Gu Qingyuan stepped forward at last, his patience clearly spent. He didn't care about Bai Yang. Didn't even spare him a glance. His entire mind was consumed with one thing.
Ye Chuxue.
"I already agreed to marry you!" he snapped. "What more do you want?!"
Song Wanníng tilted her head slightly, a half-smile dancing on her lips. It was a cold, amused smile. A dangerous smile.
"What do I want?" she echoed.
She raised one brow, and her voice turned soft.
"Kneel."
Her next words landed like stones in a quiet lake.
"Beg me."
"Song Wanníng!" Gu Qingyuan's voice cracked with disbelief. He looked at her as though he didn't recognize the woman before him. "Have you forgotten that I'm your senior brother?!"
Senior brother.
The words stabbed deep. Not clean like a blade, but rusted and poisoned, twisting inside her.
He remembered that now?
When he helped raze her clan to the ground, when he bound her in chains like a criminal, did he remember then? A storm churned in Song Wanníng's eyes, her gaze hollow and venomous, like a ghost that had crawled out of hell.
The deeper the love, the deeper the hatred.
And Gu Qingyuan would repay every debt in full.
"You can kneel or not," she lazily cleaned her fingernails, her tone casual and unhurried. "I'm not the one dying."
She wanted to see it. How far he would go for Ye Chuxue. How deep his devotion truly ran.
"You can't kneel, Uncle Master Gu!"
A disciple nearby cried out. Gu Qingyuan was a Nascent Soul cultivator. How could he kneel to someone like her? Even Bai Yang and the others looked conflicted, their faces twisted in hesitation. They worried for Ye Chuxue, but felt indignant on Gu Qingyuan's behalf. Every gaze turned toward Song Wanníng, full of disgust.
"I will kneel."
He looked at Song Wanníng with a fury that barely masked his shame.
"Song Wanníng. Once I kneel, everything between us is over."
He dropped to one knee, then both.
The proud, untouchable Senior Brother, the man once held high like a celestial being, now knelt in the dirt before her. All for the sake of another woman.
Song Wanníng stared.
Then she laughed.
"Hahahaha... How ironic. How unbelievably ironic."
She laughed so hard her eyes reddened, though her ruthless expression concealed the sorrow underneath. So this was the extent of his love for Ye Chuxue?
Decades ago, when Gu Qingyuan's life was hanging by a thread, she had knelt outside the Ghosthand Alchemist's residence for three days and nights, begging until he finally agreed to save him.
She had done it all for him.
And now?
He had forgotten everything. Thrown away every memory like rotting paper.
Worse than forgotten. He wanted to sever the past completely.
"Ha... ha..."
The sound of her laughter faded as she stepped forward and crouched beside him.
She tilted her head playfully, smiling like a child who had found a shiny toy.
"Oops..." She whispered, her voice a velvet taunt laced with amusement
"Too bad. I already ate the Heavenly Origin Heart-Nourishing Pill."
Gu Qingyuan's expression twisted. His hand shot up, clamping around her throat.
"What did you say?"
His grip tightened, fingers digging into her flesh like claws.
But Song Wanníng only smiled. She didn't resist.
She looked him in the eye, calm and eerie.
"Go ahead. Kill me."
"Crack open my skull. Tear my Nascent Soul out. Maybe the pill's effects haven't fully dispersed yet."
Her voice was soft, her lips curled in a chilling smile. Her eyes, blank and unblinking, were no longer human.
A chill ran down Gu Qingyuan's spine.
"Madwoman!"
He shoved her away, recoiling as if burned.
For the first time, he felt something unfamiliar: fear.
"Heh…"
Song Wanníng stood and straightened her robe.
"I gave you a chance, but you didn't treasure it. So now, it's my turn."
She winked playfully at Gu Qingyuan. His whole body went stiff.
"She's insane. Completely insane."
There was no more time to waste. The pill was gone, and Chuxue couldn't wait any longer. Gu Qingyuan stared at Song Wanníng one last time, engraving every moment of today's humiliation into his heart. Then he turned and stormed off.
The disciples nearby gave Song Wanníng a fearful salute and scurried after him. Lu Nanfeng and Bai Yang moved to follow, but the moment Song Wanníng's cold gaze swept over them, they froze in place.
Thankfully, she ignored them. She turned and left the mountain peak. Lu Nanfeng wiped the sweat from his brow and let out a long breath.
"Hurry, let's go check on Junior Sister Chuxue."
He lifted An Ze in his arms, clearly worried about her condition.
But Bai Yang paused, brows furrowed. He looked back toward the hall and shook his head.
"No."
He glanced toward the grand hall with a calculating glint in his eyes.
"I know where Master keeps her pills."
He had once seen her put the bottle away and remembered the location clearly.
Now that she had left...
A restless eagerness began to stir in his heart.
"You're insane!"
Lu Nanfeng grabbed his sleeve in a panic. "She said she already took it! Even if she didn't, if she finds out we stole it, she'll kill us!"
"Just now, she nearly beat Third Brother into a coma for talking back. If we steal something from her..."
"What reason would she have to take it herself?" Bai Yang sneered. "She just didn't want to give it to Junior Sister Chuxue. She's always been jealous of her. There's no way she'd ever willingly save her."