The sunlight outside the Hall of Justice was warm, yet it chilled the heart.
As Xu Wanci stepped out of the hall, she was met with countless gazes—some shocked, others filled with disgust.
One disciple couldn’t hold back his astonishment and blurted out,
"Why is Xu Wanci still alive?!"
His words instantly ignited a wave of murmurs among the onlookers:
"Exactly! How could a vile person like Xu Wanci, who schemes against and harms fellow cultivators, walk out of the Hall of Justice unscathed?"
"The evidence against her is irrefutable!"
"Besides, she harmed Young Master Jiang Qiuning! What trick did she use to escape punishment?"
Amid the clamor, Chu Qingchuan’s figure suddenly appeared before the crowd.
All eyes turned to him.
An inner sect disciple who was familiar with him cautiously stepped forward, unable to suppress his curiosity:
"Senior Brother Chu, is Xu Wanci… truly free now?"
Hearing the question, Chu Qingchuan instinctively glanced at the retreating figure ahead—one that never once looked back. His gaze held a complexity even he didn’t notice.
After a long pause, he waved his hand, signaling the disciples to disperse.
Xu Wanci was acutely sensitive to stares and scrutiny.
She felt the male lead’s piercing gaze clearly, yet her steps never faltered.
To her, the opinions of the disciples or Chu Qingchuan’s attitude were irrelevant.
What truly mattered was the Hall of Justice.
Even if the elders had let her go, her crisis was far from over—in fact, it was more perilous than before.
In the cultivation world, there were countless ways for powerful cultivators to observe a person’s actions.
Right now, someone might already be watching her every move.
From this moment on, she couldn’t afford even the slightest misstep.
Keeping her breathing and heartbeat steady, she relied on her memories to return to the original body’s residence.
Even alone in the courtyard, Xu Wanci’s expression remained unchanged from when she was in the Hall of Justice—if anything, it carried even more weariness.
She lifted her gaze slightly, staring at the illusory tree in the courtyard, her eyes hollow and lost.
To any observer using spiritual artifacts to probe her, all they would see was the profound loneliness that seemed to have clung to her for centuries.
While maintaining her façade, her mind raced:
In the Hall of Justice, she had no choice but to immerse herself in the role, relying on instinct to avoid outright lies.
She had never explicitly admitted to any relationship with Immortal Venerable Qingyan, deflecting all probes with carefully chosen words.
Except—
Her thick lashes fluttered slightly as she recalled her tentative admission in the hall about harming Jiang Qiuning.
The Truth Stone recognized her as the original owner.
At the very least, this meant she didn’t have to worry about her true identity or soul being exposed.
For now, that was the only good news.
The rest was mostly bad.
In the cultivation world, methods to uncover a person’s past and present were endless—soul-searching, the Mirror of Retrospection, diviners… She knew the Fifth Elder of the Hall of Justice was one of the most skilled diviners in the realm.
If they decided to investigate, her lies could unravel at any moment.
And if that happened, her fate would likely be far worse than the original owner’s.
The thought made Xu Wanci’s heart sink.
Yet no matter the turmoil inside, her expression remained sorrowful and wistful, even deepening with melancholy.
She caught a falling leaf in her palm, her gaze serene yet sorrowful—a stark contrast to the icy rationality in her mind:
The fact that she was still alive meant her first move had been correct.
Now, she needed to figure out how to patch the holes in that strategy.
Reviewing the original novel’s plot, she felt a sliver of reassurance:
In the story, Immortal Venerable Qingyan was a peerless genius, yet he had almost no ties to the cultivation world—no master, no family, no close friends.
Even the Taiqing Sect knew little about him. They hadn’t even realized he was the creator of the "Thousand Elixirs Transformation," spending years fruitlessly searching for its missing second volume for Chu Qingchuan.
This ignorance was precisely why she had managed to deceive them so easily.
More importantly, no one in the cultivation world dared to probe Immortal Venerable Qingyan’s past.
The cost of doing so was beyond any cultivator’s means.
That left the Hall of Justice elders with only one option: investigating the original owner.
Back in the Hall of Justice…
Elder Grandmaster stared solemnly at the Truth Stone, his brow furrowed as if he had sensed something amiss.
Elder Second Master followed his gaze, her own frown faint but present:
"Senior Brother, do you suspect Xu Wanci’s words were false?"
Elder Grandmaster finally turned to her, his voice measured but firm:
"Junior Sister, do you truly believe Xu Wanci has ties to… the Immortal Venerable?"
Elder Second Master’s eyes flickered with surprise at the question:
"Senior Brother, the Truth Stone is a divine artifact. It has never erred."
"Besides, Xu Wanci is merely a Golden Core cultivator. Even if she had the heavens’ favor, she couldn’t possibly lie before you, me, and the Truth Stone."
Elder Grandmaster shook his head, his expression unreadable.
He stepped down from the platform, stopping where Xu Wanci had knelt earlier, and said meaningfully:
"The Truth Stone doesn’t err…"
"But Xu Wanci never directly admitted to any relationship with the Immortal Venerable."
His gaze lifted to the figures on the judgment platform as he cut straight to the heart of the matter:
"Everything was merely our own conjecture based on her words."
Elder Second Master froze momentarily, then hesitated: "She didn’t say it outright, but…"
Recalling the scene in the hall, she joined Elder Grandmaster below the platform, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him:
"Some of the secrets Xu Wanci mentioned about the Immortal Venerable… even we didn’t know."
"Take the 'Thousand Elixirs Transformation' that Chu Qingchuan cultivates—the Taiqing Sect searched for years for its second volume without a single lead."
"No one in the entire cultivation world knew it was created by the Immortal Venerable."
"And you know as well as I do that the Immortal Venerable… prefers solitude. The Taiqing Sect—no, the entire cultivation world—knows almost nothing about him."
"Even if we wanted to investigate his preferences, there’s no way to begin."
Her eyes flicked to the Truth Stone as she added:
"If Xu Wanci weren’t close to him, how could she know these things?"
Despite her logical reasoning, Elder Grandmaster’s expression remained grave.
He clasped his hands behind his back, his tone calm but unyielding:
The cultivation world is full of opportunities. How can you be certain Xu Wanci learned these things from the Immortal Venerable and not from some other source?
"If Chu Qingchuan could find the first volume of the 'Thousand Elixirs Transformation,' someone else could have found the second."
"Or perhaps find other divine artifacts left behind by the Immortal Venerable."
"If one is diligent, they might deduce many things unknown to us from the opportunities left by the Immortal Venerable."
As he spoke, he turned his head, his gaze carrying an unconscious reverence and... fear:
"Moreover, do you truly believe the Immortal Venerable would... show special favor to a mere disciple?"
A hundred years ago, the mere mention of Immortal Venerable Qingyan was enough to make all cultivators tremble in fear.
The higher one's cultivation, the more they understood the Immortal Venerable's power and... his indifference.
In the vast world of cultivation, not a single person or object had ever held his attention for even a moment.
Xu Wanci was merely a Golden Core disciple now—how could she have had such close ties with the Immortal Venerable a century ago?
Hearing this, the Elder Second Master froze in place. She knew better than anyone how the Immortal Venerable had been back then...
But—
The image of Xu Wanci's desolate, despairing eyes suddenly surfaced in her mind.
After a moment of silence, the Elder Second Master still felt a trace of sympathy for Xu Wanci: "But the words she spoke, the emotions she displayed before us..."
"Could they really be so convincing as to deceive even us?"
The Elder Grandmaster also recalled Xu Wanci's earlier expression.
Yet, in an instant, he regained his composure, his voice laced with faint mockery: "Perhaps there was sincerity, but how much of it was genuine remains unclear."
"Back then, countless people admired the Immortal Venerable. Xu Wanci was likely just one among them."
He had already made up his mind about Xu Wanci's earlier performance.
"Now that she’s using the Immortal Venerable’s name to escape punishment, even if she once revered him, all that remains now is exploitation."
Turning to the Elder Second Master, who still seemed unconvinced, he flicked his sleeve dismissively:
"Now that she’s managed to flee the Hall of Judgment, she’s probably thinking of how to escape entirely."
"A lie may work for a moment, but not forever."
Hearing the Elder Grandmaster’s unwavering certainty, the Elder Second Master frowned imperceptibly:
"There’s no evidence yet... Senior Brother is being rather hasty."
The Elder Grandmaster detected her lingering trust in Xu Wanci. Recalling her fondness for mortal romance novels and her soft spot for devoted lovers, he sighed helplessly:
"Junior Sister, you’re at it again..."
He trailed off, shaking his head. "Then let us see what she’s doing now."
With a wave of his hand, an irregular mirror surfaced at the center of the Hall of Judgment.
The mirror rippled like water, and after a few breaths, a familiar figure gradually appeared.
At the sight of Xu Wanci, the Elder Grandmaster’s eyes flashed with surprise.
Though Xu Wanci had been injured in the Hall of Judgment, her wounds hadn’t been life-threatening—a few medicinal pills would have restored her completely.
Yet now, her face was even paler than before.
She stood motionless before the Illusionary Beauty Tree, as if mourning a lost love, her gaze heavy with unshakable sorrow.
The Illusionary Beauty Tree was a low-tier spiritual tree, said to reveal one’s deepest desires.
The Elder Second Master glanced at the tree, realization dawning, and when she looked back at Xu Wanci, her eyes held a trace of pity:
"Senior Brother, do you still doubt her now?"
The Elder Grandmaster frowned and averted his gaze from the mirror:
"What of it?"
A century ago, when he had last seen the Immortal Venerable, he had dared to look up once.
He would never forget that gaze—one that didn’t even acknowledge his existence, as if he were nothing but ashes in the wind.
In the Immortal Venerable’s eyes, he hadn’t even qualified as an ant.
How could he believe such a being would care for an ordinary disciple?
The Elder Grandmaster flicked his sleeve, his voice as cold as ever:
"If Xu Wanci can stand before the Truth Stone and swear she shared a close bond with the Immortal Venerable, I will harbor no further doubts."
"Let’s see if she can do that."
The Elder Second Master nodded slightly, conceding to his logic:
"Senior Brother speaks wisely."
Yet as she watched Xu Wanci’s longing gaze fixed on the Illusionary Beauty Tree, her heart softened:
How could such a look be feigned?
Xu Wanci was completely unaware of the debate unfolding in the Hall of Judgment. She was pouring every ounce of her acting skills into maintaining the facade of a grieving lover.
For the past half-hour, she had sensed eyes upon her.
The magical fluctuations were faint—so subtle that, were it not for her acute sensitivity to surveillance, her current cultivation level wouldn’t have detected them.
Such refined control could only belong to the two elders of the Hall of Judgment.
Her heart sank, but her expression remained unchanged—etched with bone-deep sorrow.
Their surveillance meant they doubted her story.
The cultivation world had countless ways to test the truth, and in her current state, she had no means to resist any of them.
Xu Wanci slowly closed her eyes, her mind racing.
How could she dispel their suspicions and make them abandon their scrutiny?
No—that wasn’t the right approach.
She couldn’t control others’ thoughts or actions. She could only work on herself.
What she needed to consider now was—
What was the most heart-wrenching act a grieving lover could perform?
In an instant, she made a decision bordering on madness.
Back in the Hall of Judgment, the two elders suddenly noticed a subtle shift in Xu Wanci.
As if recalling something, she opened her eyes—but the anguish was gone, replaced by quiet yearning.
A faint smile curved her lips, blending anticipation with acceptance.
A breeze tousled her hair, her face still bearing traces of injury, yet her expression was eerily serene.
Her lowered lashes and soft laughter held a devastating beauty.
The Elder Grandmaster barely registered anything else. Catching that smile, he felt vindicated.
With a cold snort, he declared, "Now the truth comes out—"
But before he could finish, the mirror erupted with a violent surge of spiritual energy.
His eyes widened in shock:
That was—Soul-Severing Bone!!!
A force capable of crippling even Unity or Mahayana-stage cultivators!
Through the blinding light, he saw Xu Wanci smiling, embracing death with open arms.
As if—
Soul annihilation was the ending she had awaited for a century.
