"The Holy Son?" Kai whispered. That was usually the future leader of a sect.
"Yes. He was handsome, talented, and arrogant," Su Qing said dryly. "But I was not interested in power or romance. I was interested in the Dao of Arrays."
Her face darkened.
"However, his rejection did not sit well with one of his admirers. A female disciple—a 'Junior Sister' I had once helped."
She gave a hollow, sad laugh that echoed in the quiet room.
"Jealousy is a poison more potent than any venom, Kai. She couldn't bear that the Holy Son looked at me and not her. She couldn't touch me openly within the Sect, so she waited."
"During a mission to explore an ancient ruin near the Bone-Eating Forest, she made her move. She didn't attack me herself. She had contacted... them."
"People from the Soul-Severing Hall," Su Qing whispered, the name dripping with venom. "They are like assassins who specialize in destroying the foundation of a cultivator without leaving a mark on the body."
"I was ambushed. My defensive arrays held off their physical attacks, but I could not stop the Soul Needles. Three of them pierced my sea of consciousness."
Kai winced, imagining the pain.
"I managed to escape using my spatial treasure," she said, looking around the cottage. "I crash-landed here, bleeding from my nose and ears, my mind fragmenting. I used the last of my strength to build this Spatial-Fold Array to hide."
"But the damage was done. My soul was corrupted. It was dissolving like sugar in water. I realized I could not heal it. So, I decided to separate my remaining consciousness from my body to preserve the vessel, hoping... waiting for salvation."
"I waited for decades," she whispered. "Watching the seasons change outside my illusion. Watching beasts pass by. Until my consciousness began to fade, turning into a mere ghost."
"Then..." Kai instinctively finished for her, "Then you met me. Someone who can see you. Someone who can carry your wish."
Su Qing nodded slowly. "Yes. The Heavens are cruel, but perhaps they left me a small window of mercy."
She pointed a shaky finger toward the coffin.
"Look at her neck."
Kai leaned in. Resting on the collarbone of the body was a pendant. It was a simple piece of Blue Jade, carved in the shape of a crescent moon. It didn't look magical, but it pulsed with a faint, rhythmic light.
"That is my Lineage Token," Su Qing said. "It contains my final memories and a message for my father."
"I want you to take it," she said, looking Kai in the eye. "Someday, when you are strong enough to travel to the Human Greatland... I want you to return it to the Su Clan."
"They will understand fully," she said, her voice trembling. "They think I ran away with a lover. They think I abandoned them. I want them to know... I died a warrior, not a traitor."
Kai stared at the pendant. It was a heavy request. Traveling to the Human Greatland was a journey of thousands of miles, filled with dangers he couldn't even imagine yet.
"Just do this for me," Su Qing implored. "And in return, there are artifacts in this room. My ring. My mask. Things that are useless to a ghost but priceless to a cultivator of your realm."
When the story finished, silence descended upon the room again.
Kai sat there, processing the tale. It was a classic tragedy—a genius struck down by petty jealousy. It made his blood boil.
He looked at Su Qing, who seemed smaller now, unburdened by the secret she had held for decades.
"But..." Kai frowned, unable to hold back his curiosity. "Don't you want revenge? You know who did it. That 'Junior Sister'. The Soul-Severing Hall."
He stood up, walking closer to her. "Is there really no chance for recovering your body? Don't you feel hate? Don't you feel the injustice burning inside you?"
Su Qing looked at him, her expression calm, almost placid.
"Do you want revenge against your clan, Kai?" she asked him back quietly. "Tell me. Do you feel so much hate for them that it consumes your every waking thought?"
Kai opened his mouth to say 'Yes', but the word died in his throat.
He thought about the Lin Clan. Did he hate them? Yes. But did he want to spend his life chasing them just to kill them?
"I..." Kai trembled slightly, looking at his hands. "I don't know. I just want to survive. I want to be free of them. Killing them... it feels like it would just tie me to them forever."
"That is the same for me," Su Qing nodded. "Hate takes energy, Kai. And I have very little energy left. I just want my family to know my demise so they wouldn't pin any useless hope on my return. The faster, the better."
"And for my reviving..."
She fell silent. She floated over to the coffin and placed a translucent hand on the glass, trying to touch her own face. Her hand passed right through.
"I tried many things," she whispered. "I researched every text in my library. But a shattered soul is like shattered glass. You can glue it, but it will never hold water again."
"I am helpless," she admitted, her shoulders slumping. "Even after waiting for fifty years, this part of my soul—the ghost standing before you—will also vanish soon. Perhaps in a decade. Perhaps less."
She turned to him with a sad smile.
"There is no hope, Kai. I have never heard of any people being revived after being struck by the Soul-Severing Hall's poison. It is irreversible."
The resignation in her voice angered Kai.
It wasn't a rational anger. It was the anger of someone who had just discovered that the world was malleable. He had a System. He had a Dark Affinity that devoured poison. He had seen a panther heal from a rotting leg in minutes.
Why was death the only answer?
Kai abruptly stood up from his seat, startling Xiao Bai awake.
"No," Kai said, his voice rising, echoing in the small room.
Su Qing looked at him, surprised.
"You have hope," Kai stated firmly, his eyes burning with a sudden, intense resolve.
He pointed at her, then at himself.
"You waited decades. What is another decade of time? You said your soul is fading? Then we find a way to stabilize it. You said it's irreversible? Says who? The people who killed you?"
He stepped closer to the coffin, placing his hand on the cold stone.
"I am alive," Kai declared. "I survived the Clan. I survived the fall. I survived the poison. I will get strong. Stronger than you. Stronger than the Holy Son."
He looked Su Qing dead in the eye.
"It's few years more, and that is enough. I can get strong with time. I will carry your token, yes. But I will not carry your death sentence."
"I will help you," Kai vowed, his voice ringing with the stubborn naivety of youth, and the iron will of a budding Sovereign. "I will find a way to wake you up."