Chapter 25: The Cauldron’s Secret and a Fated Choice

Li Wuxia?!

Shen Zhaoqing gasped in shock, instinctively turning her head.

‘Niece? Aunt?’

‘Li Wuxia… she’s connected to Li Ruan’yan of the Qinghe Li family?!’

She had always known Li Wuxia was one of the many children in the Li manor, but she never imagined she was the illegitimate daughter of the Qinghe Li family—the one rumored to be ambitious and colluding with the Demonic Dao.

‘Then why did she beg me to help her sneak into the Qingyun Sect?’

Li Wuxia, sensing Shen Zhaoqing’s shocked and scrutinizing gaze, gripped the hem of her robe until her knuckles turned white, tears instantly welling in her eyes.

“No… that’s not it, Senior Sister, please let me explain…”

“Explain?” Li Ruan’yan’s smile grew even more gentle. “What is there to explain?”

“Are you going to explain how you, bearing the Li family’s ‘Qinghe Yinsha Scripture’ cultivation method, infiltrated the Qingyun Sect to steal its teachings? Or perhaps explain how you, a ‘cauldron’ meant for the Joyful Union Sect, managed to escape and then presumptuously tried to cling to a branch far beyond your reach?”

A cauldron?!

These two words struck Shen Zhaoqing’s heart with brutal force.

She gazed at Li Wuxia’s tear-streaked face, then at the faint, delicate poison mark behind her ear, and understood everything in an instant.

‘No wonder, no wonder she always felt a faint chill emanating from Wuxia. No wonder she was always so frail…’

It turned out that from the very beginning, Li Wuxia had been nothing more than an item of trade.

And she, the ‘Senior Sister’ whom Li Wuxia had relied upon, had remained utterly oblivious.

****

“The Qinghe Li family, the Joyful Union Sect, the Myriad Flower Blood Palace… excellent.”

With the Immortal-Binding Array broken, spiritual power and qi naturally began to recover. As the Qingyun Sect disciples regained their strength, Ning Jihe also forced herself to stand.

“Within the Ten Thousand Beast Valley, an illicit evil array was established, fellow disciples were slaughtered, and connections were forged with the Demonic Dao.”

“Each and every one of these acts has violated Qingyun Sect rules thirty-six, seventy-two, and one hundred and eight.”

“Everyone, surrender yourselves and return with me to the Enforcement Hall for trial.”

Her gaze paused briefly on the heavily wounded Gu Chang’an, a flicker of complex emotion crossing her face before quickly being replaced by an even deeper chill.

Finally, her eyes settled on Shen Zhaoqing, who was shielded behind Ling Shuangjue.

‘It was all her.’

‘The one who summoned the demons!’

“Outer disciple Shen Zhaoqing, as the source of this chaos, for luring demons into the sect, your crimes are compounded! Immediately return with me to the Snow Law Prison for solitary confinement and reflection!”

Shen Zhaoqing: “???”

“And who might this be?” Ling Shuangjue idly twirled a strand of Shen Zhaoqing’s hair. “Ah, another ant, it seems.”

The situation on the field seemed to grow increasingly bizarre.

There was the mad, possessive Demonic Venerable Ling Shuangjue, vowing to package her up and take her away.

There was Senior Sister Gu Chang’an, gravely wounded and on the verge of death, yet still determined to protect her beneath her sword.

There was the sickly junior sister, Li Wuxia, whose identity was exposed, now weeping uncontrollably and clinging to her desperately.

There was the family matriarch, Li Ruan’yan, with a dagger hidden in her smile, seemingly intent on selling both her and Li Wuxia.

And there was the upright and uncompromising Chief Ning Jihe of the Enforcement Hall, who immediately wanted to lock her away in a dark cell.

Five factions, five different gazes, all intensely focused on Shen Zhaoqing alone.

Shen Zhaoqing stood at the very eye of the storm, enveloped by these five gazes that threatened to tear her apart, feeling utterly dizzy.

She looked at Gu Chang’an, heavily wounded and spitting blood.

She looked at Li Wuxia, her identity exposed, now staring at her with despair.

She looked at Ling Shuangjue, who had forcibly shattered the Immortal-Binding Array to ‘save’ her.

She looked at Li Ruan’yan and Ning Jihe, who saw her as a pawn, a source of calamity, a mere tool.

A sense of unprecedented absurdity swept over her.

‘Why?’

‘Why must my fate be manipulated by all of you?’

‘Why must I be snatched back and forth like a piece of merchandise?’

‘Escape?’

For the first time, she questioned that word in her mind.

‘Where else could she possibly escape to?’

If she fled the Qingyun Sect, she would be captured by the Demonic Venerable Ling Shuangjue. If she remained, she would be confined by the Enforcement Hall and constantly have to guard against the Li family’s schemes.

This world felt like a colossal net, and she, the moth with nowhere to flee.

No.

That’s not right.

Shen Zhaoqing’s gaze slowly swept across the people before her.

They were powerful, strong enough to summon clouds with a flip of their hand and rain with another.

Yet all their struggles, all their schemes, all their confrontations, revolved around one core.

That core was… her.

They all wanted her.

‘Then why shouldn’t the power of choice be in my own hands?’

All this time, she had only wanted to drink, sweep floors, cling to life, and live as an unremarkable junior disciple until her natural end.

From the night raid on Black Wind Fortress to today’s deadly predicament in Ten Thousand Beast Valley, she had been like a vortex, involuntarily drawing everyone into her orbit.

Since she couldn’t escape…

Perhaps she wouldn’t hide anymore.

Shen Zhaoqing’s pale golden eyes, usually tinged with a hint of drunkenness and confusion, were at this moment clearer than they had ever been.

Slowly, deliberately, she freed herself from Ling Shuangjue’s hand resting on her shoulder.

Shen Zhaoqing looked at no one. She simply raised a hand, wiped the dust from her face, and then picked up the white jade bone hairpin that had fallen to the ground, stained with Qu Hanpo’s blood.

She clutched it as if it were a sword.

Qu Hanpo’s vengeance had been exacted by Ling Shuangjue.

Yet the hatred, the burning desire to personally end all threats, had taken root and begun to sprout within her heart.

She could no longer allow herself to be slaughtered.

She would personally settle her own grievances!

The very moment Shen Zhaoqing made this decision in her heart, Ling Shuangjue, standing beside her, imperceptibly swayed.

“Cough…”

A faint cough, forcibly suppressed.

Yet a thread of crimson blood, uncontrollable, slowly seeped from the corner of her pale lips.

The backlash from the Heavenly Dao, incurred by forcibly shattering the Great Yan Dynasty’s Immortal-Binding Array, had finally erupted.

****

That thread of blood, oozing from the Demonic Venerable’s lips, was a shocking crimson under the pale valley light, like a drop of boiling oil falling into already churning cold water.

‘Ling Shuangjue is injured?’

This thought, like a wildfire across a prairie, ignited simultaneously in the minds of Gu Chang’an, Ning Jihe, and Li Ruan’yan!

An opportunity!

The gentle smile on Li Ruan’yan’s face froze for a moment, then a flicker of greed and calculation flashed deep within her eyes. A wounded Demonic Venerable, and a heavily injured Sword Immortal… this game, it seemed, still had moves to be played.

Ning Jihe’s reaction was the most direct. The Decree Plate in her hand hummed, erupting with brilliant light. Her dark-green robes billowed without a breeze, and a stern, formidable aura of law shot skyward, locking onto Ling Shuangjue from afar!

“The demon is wounded, heavenly justice is manifest! All disciples, form the ‘Clear Law Heart Lock Array,’ prepare to capture the demon!”

Ning Jihe’s voice was devoid of emotion, yet each word was like ice, ringing with authority.

Tensions mounted, ready to explode at any moment!

However, Shen Zhaoqing moved.

She didn’t scream, didn’t flee, nor did she betray any excess emotion.

Shen Zhaoqing’s body, like a handful of distiller’s grains scattered by the wind, silently dissolved into an extremely faint, thin mist of alcohol.

‘Drunken Hidden Evasion’.

This cultivation method was something she had discovered after transmigrating, tucked away in the tattered ‘Junior Disciple’s Introductory Guide.’ It was inconspicuous, sandwiched between ‘How to Sweep Efficiently’ and ‘How to Distinguish the Quality of Spirit Grains.’

The method’s description was a single sentence: ‘Using alcohol qi as a guide, merge with heaven and earth, conceal one’s form; only those with great perseverance and drinking capacity can cultivate this.’

“Well, isn’t this the perfect slacking skill tailor-made for me?” Shen Zhaoqing had thought at the time.

So she practiced it on the spot.

As it turned out, this technique had little practical use beyond allowing her to perfectly disguise herself as an unopened jar of wine during Enforcement Hall patrols, thus enabling her to nap peacefully in a corner.

The alcohol mist was incredibly faint, blending with the pungent scent of blood and dust in the valley, making it almost impossible to detect.

Shen Zhaoqing merely raised her hand slowly, spreading her fingers. The meager spiritual energy throughout her body, like a trickling stream, surged frantically towards her fingertips.

In her palm, the white jade bone hairpin she had retrieved, stained with Qu Hanpo’s blood, began to tremble faintly.

The hairpin was already shattered, only half remaining, its broken edge sharp as a blade.

Now, as Shen Zhaoqing poured her spiritual energy into it, the broken end began to emit a faint, almost imperceptible, shimmering white light.

The light was subtle, yet it carried an indescribable sharpness.

‘Almost… this is the feeling I need…’