"Clang!"
Before Venerable Chun Hong could react, the door was violently smashed open, and a group of people, both familiar and utterly strange, burst in.
"Quick, look! That demoness actually killed Young Master Xu!"
"Heaven forbid! She's so heartless. Young Master Xu saved her life back then! A demoness is a demoness, inherently wicked..."
Venerable Chun Hong's ears buzzed. She could hear every word clearly, yet they made no sense when put together.
"Uncle Wang, Aunt Li, what are you all talking about? How could I..."
Before she could finish speaking, Aunt Li interrupted her. Her face, usually filled with gentle smiles, was now contorted with ferocity. "You still want to quibble? Chun Hong, look at your sword! Look at your hands! If you say you didn't kill Young Master Xu, with both human and physical evidence present, what else do you have to say?"
Venerable Chun Hong followed Aunt Li's gaze. Blood, a striking crimson, dripped from the Chun Hong Sword. The pile of bones, which had been far away moments ago, had somehow moved to rest beneath the tip of the sword.
Combined with her own blood-splattered appearance from the fight, it looked as if she had just finished draining Young Master Xu's blood with her sword.
Her voice was hoarse. "It wasn't me..."
"Don't listen to her deceptive words!" Uncle Wang beckoned the crowd to tie her up and pushed her out. "Neither of you sisters are good people! Once you are dead, the black mist plaguing our town will dissipate, and we will have avenged Young Master Xu and the others!"
The noisy agreement of the crowd echoed in her ears, and the frenzied, fervent gazes met her eyes. They seemed possessed.
Venerable Chun Hong watched it all, finding it absurd and laughable.
Uncle Yao, who bound her with ropes, needed the eighth-grade Ice Heart Grass for his eldest son's serious illness; she had ventured deep into the Red Maple Mountain Range to help gather it. Aunt Li, who pushed her forward, had gotten lost and disappeared during a blizzard; she had gone to find her. Uncle Li, who lived alone and had collapsed at his doorstep, unnoticed, was saved by her regular visits.
Although she had only been in Red Maple Town for three years, she remembered every single person in the town clearly, and she had countless connections with them.
Yet, now, these people wanted to kill her.
And the reason was so perfunctory and ridiculous.
Bai Shengyi stood not far away and personally saw several wisps of black mist casually kick Young Master Xu's remains into a corner of the house.
Countless black wisps surged into Venerable Chun Hong's body, and her expression gradually shifted from numbness to mockery and disdain.
She followed Venerable Chun Hong and the others, walking towards the town center, where despairing cries rang out mournfully.
"Sister! Sister Chun Hong! Save me!"
Venerable Chun Hong looked up and saw Qi Yue, whom she had been searching for, tied to a thick pillar. Piles of firewood were stacked beneath the wooden post.
Qi Yue cried hysterically, gasping for breath, "Sister... I'm not a demoness, I didn't harm anyone... They're going to kill me, Sister, save me..."
"Yue'er is definitely not a demoness; she can't even cultivate. Please let her go!" Venerable Chun Hong pleaded.
Uncle Wang, however, directly lit a torch and threw it onto the firewood, saying with disgust, "She is! You are all in this together! You all deserve to die!"
In the flickering firelight, Venerable Chun Hong saw Qi Yue's panicked, desperate face and Uncle Wang's ferocious expression.
"No!"
She let out a furious roar and suddenly broke free from the ropes.
"Quick! Stop her!" Uncle Wang immediately ordered, "Everyone, don't be afraid. With so many of us Golden Core cultivators, can't we stop a mere girl..."
He was pushed aside by Venerable Chun Hong with a palm strike, but he immediately turned back, tightly clasped Venerable Chun Hong's leg, and said with unyielding determination, "Both of you sisters must die today!"
The flames soared, and cries of agony mingled.
"Uncle Wang, don't force me." Crimson spread to the corners of her eyes. Chun Hong stared intently at the distant flames, feeling as if she could no longer consider anything else.
She only wanted to save Yue'er.
Bai Shengyi walked to Venerable Chun Hong's side, shaking her body and shouting loudly, "That's not Qi Yue! Master, wake up! This is an illusion! All of this is fake!"
Indeed, all of this was fake.
Beneath the black mist, Uncle Wang, Aunt Li, and others, even Qi Yue, were merely constructs of gray threads. The ground that Venerable Chun Hong's sword tip avoided hitting Uncle Wang and stepped on the stones near Aunt Li, were all living people!
"Ah!"
The "Qi Yue" on the wooden stake let out a tragic scream, and the flames instantly engulfed her.
Venerable Chun Hong could no longer hold back. She shoved aside everyone blocking her path and charged forward.
"Chun Hong's Second Sword, Withering and Flourishing!"
This was the first time Bai Shengyi had witnessed the power of her master's Chun Hong's Second Sword so clearly.
Where the sword light passed, it sliced through everything, including the gray threads on the ground, and the people hidden beneath the black mist... It was a devastating, overwhelming force that surged forward, extinguishing the flames in an instant.
She stepped forward to embrace the "Qi Yue," but heard a "plop."
"Sister, you are really so obedient."
"Qi Yue" plunged a dagger into her abdomen.
Everything before her changed abruptly, like a watercolor painting suddenly fading. The black mist that had covered the sky dispersed, the gray threads in mid-air rapidly gathered, and the "Qi Yue" in her arms turned into a pile of gray threads that scattered, only to reform nearby.
A familiar figure emerged from the gray threads.
"Yue'er?"
Chun Hong stared at it all blankly.
She suddenly remembered when she was still Sun Ying at the Sun family.
Trapped by the suppression of her family and parents, despite being female, she was raised as a boy. Her life consisted only of rigorous cultivation and sword practice. Yet, despite all her efforts, her parents eventually abandoned her because they had a son with better talent, intending only to marry her off.
Knowing her own misfortune in her youth, she felt empathy and even pity when she learned that Yue'er had also been abandoned by her parents for having a son with greater talent. She decided to treat Yue'er as her own sister.
But why...
"Sister, you cultivate the path of good, you inquire about cause and effect. Look around you," Qi Yue said, covering her mouth with her hand, gloating.
Chun Hong found it all incredibly alien. But when she looked at Uncle Wang, Aunt Li, and the others around her, their fates unknown, and clearly saw the marks of the Chun Hong Sword Technique on their faces and bodies, she was so shocked that she stumbled back, her mind greatly shaken.
"How could this be..." She had clearly avoided their vital points; she had never intended to kill them.
The crimson at the corners of her eyes returned. She felt the tendency to go mad, but she had no time to care. She stared intently at Qi Yue.
"Yue'er, did you plan all of this?"
"Sister, don't speak so harshly. You don't know how envious I am of your talent and luck. To have condensed your own Dao Heart at such a young age, it truly makes my eyes red."
Qi Yue held the Nine-Leaf Lotus, taken from Venerable Chun Hong, in one hand and smiled. "So, Sister Chun Hong, lend me your Dao Heart for a moment."