Chapter 4: A Blood Oath and a Golden Cage

“I disagree.”

The voice was not loud, yet it instantly pierced the solemn atmosphere within the hall.

Everyone turned their heads in unison. At the entrance of the grand hall, Gu Chang’an was slowly walking in, clad in a snow-patterned sword robe, with the Frostbright Longsword strapped to her back.

Her expression remained impassive, her steps steady. Wherever she passed, the very air seemed to freeze.

She did not look at anyone, her gaze falling directly upon Ning Jihe.

“Junior Sister Gu?” Ning Jihe’s brows furrowed deeply. “This is a sect meeting; what brings you here?”

“For my person.” Gu Chang’an’s reply was concise.

“Your person?” Ning Jihe’s lips curled into a cold arc, as if she had just heard the most ridiculous joke. “Junior Sister Gu, have you perhaps forgotten what sword art you cultivate? The ‘Supreme Oblivion’ art—how can there be ‘your person’?”

“She is different.” Gu Chang’an spoke sparingly, her words precious.

“Oh? How is she different?” Ning Jihe took a step forward, her aura becoming aggressive. “Is it because she can help you break through your bottleneck? Gu Chang’an, would you truly endanger the entire sect for your own selfish desires?”

The two senior and junior sisters, one upholding justice like a mountain, the other as aloof as snow, stood in stark opposition, their tension palpable. The temperature within the hall seemed to drop yet further.

Xuanweizi rubbed his temples, a headache brewing.

Both of his disciples were once-in-a-millennium sword cultivation geniuses, yet also stubborn to the point where even nine oxen couldn’t pull them back.

“Chang’an,” he began in a deep voice, attempting to ease the tension. “Junior Niece Ning’s words are also for the greater good of the sect. As for Shen Zhaoqing…”

His sentence remained unfinished, abruptly cut off by Gu Chang’an.

“Master,” Gu Chang’an lifted her gaze, her eyes moving from Ning Jihe for the first time to meet Xuanweizi’s, who sat on the high platform. Her expression remained frigid, yet it held a resolve she had never shown before. “Your disciple only asks one thing: must the sect truly imprison her in the Snow Law Forbidden Courtyard today?”

Xuanweizi fell silent.

He gazed at his most accomplished disciple, discerning a faint crack deep within her ancient, placid eyes.

He knew that should he nod, this fissure would never mend.

Yet, the sect’s public opinion, the elders’ worries, the Demon Venerable’s threats… as the Sect Leader, he could not disregard them.

Seeing her Master remain silent for a long moment, Gu Chang’an slowly lowered her gaze.

When she lifted them again, those eyes, like frigid stars, held nothing but utter stillness.

Without uttering another word, she slowly raised her right hand before all the elders in the hall. Her fingers, pressed together like a sword, came to rest upon her glabella, the location of her Violet Palace.

A resolute and tragic sword intent erupted with a thunderous force!

“Chang’an! What are you doing!” Xuanweizi cried out in alarm, leaping abruptly from his seat.

All the elders’ faces paled in terror, and Ning Jihe’s pupils constricted sharply.

For they all understood: Gu Chang’an was about to… destroy her own cultivation foundation!

Gu Chang’an’s voice, devoid of even a trace of emotion, resonated through the entire grand hall, amplified by spiritual energy.

She looked at Ning Jihe, at Xuanweizi, and at everyone else within the hall. Word by word, she swore her blood oath.

“Shen Zhaoqing is bound to my sword path.”

“If she enters the Forbidden Courtyard, I will cripple my own cultivation.”

“If she is expelled from the sect…”

At this point, she paused, a flicker of something she herself hadn’t noticed passing through her eyes.

“Then I will abandon my sword, embrace demonhood, and sever all ties with the Azure Cloud Sect!”

Boom!

These words, once uttered, exploded like a thunderclap from the nine heavens within everyone’s minds!

A stunned silence fell upon the entire assembly!

Abandon her sword and embrace demonhood?!

Uttered by the Azure Cloud Sect’s most astonishing and brilliant Chief Disciple in a millennium, these four words carried a weight tens of millions of times heavier than if Demon Venerable Ling Shuangjue herself had appeared at their mountain gate!

This signified that the Azure Cloud Sect would lose a future pillar of strength, and the Three Purity Dao Alliance would lose its sharpest sword!

Furthermore, the Infernal Demonic Realm would gain a terrifying Sword Demon who knew the Azure Cloud Sect inside and out, wielding the ‘Oblivion Slash’!

Who could possibly bear such a price?

“You… you’re insane!” Ning Jihe’s face was ashen, her finger trembling faintly as she pointed at Gu Chang’an. She never could have imagined that her usually cold and emotionless junior sister would commit such a mad act for a mere menial servant she had known for less than a day!

Xuanweizi, meanwhile, was trembling with rage, pointing at Gu Chang’an, utterly speechless for a long moment. He knew his disciple too well: her sword heart was pure, and her word was her bond.

If she said it, she would absolutely do it!

A deathly silence enveloped the grand hall.

After a long while, Xuanweizi slumped back into his seat, seemingly aged by a decade in an instant.

“Enough, enough…” He waved his hand, his voice heavy with exhaustion. “Very well, this matter will be as you wish. Shen Zhaoqing… will temporarily reside at your Frostbright Abode, under your ‘strict supervision,’ and is not to step half a pace outside the peak. Until the matter is thoroughly investigated, no one is to disturb her further.”

This was already a compromise, the best possible outcome for all parties.

It both protected Shen Zhaoqing and provided a graceful retreat for the Enforcement Hall and the sect.

“Thank you, Master.” Gu Chang’an withdrew her hand, her expression still impassive, and bowed to Xuanweizi. Then she turned, not sparing a glance for the ashen-faced Ning Jihe, and walked directly out of the grand hall.

From beginning to end, not a single superfluous emotion crossed her face.

It was as if the person who had just threatened the entire sect with abandoning her sword and embracing demonhood was not her at all.

****

“Have you heard? Senior Sister Gu, for that menial servant named Shen Zhaoqing, declared before all the elders that she would abandon her sword and embrace demonhood!”

“Heavens! Is that true? What exactly is Shen Zhaoqing’s background?”

“More than that! I heard even the Demon Venerable came for her, confronting Senior Sister Gu at the mountain gate for a long time!”

“Hiss… First a demonic titan, then the Immortal Sect’s Chief Disciple. This… this is practically a femme fatale among femme fatales!”

“Exactly! And now, the Sect Leader himself has personally ordered Senior Sister Gu to ‘house her in a golden pagoda’ at Frostbright Abode, calling it ‘strict supervision.’ Who would believe that?”

Rumors and gossip swirled, reaching a fever pitch.

Shen Zhaoqing’s reputation as a “femme fatale” and a “demoness who bewitched immortals and devils” was thus thoroughly solidified.

Yet at this very moment, the “troublemaker” herself, pushed into the eye of the storm, sat cross-legged on the cold floor of Frostbright Abode, clutching her precious wine gourd, her face a picture of utter despair.

A junior outer-sect sister, tasked with relaying the message, stood timidly before her, recounting the outcome of the council meeting.

When Shen Zhaoqing heard Gu Chang’an’s declaration of “abandoning her sword and embracing demonhood,” she couldn’t help but feel that Senior Sister’s brain might have been frozen by sword qi.

Then, upon hearing the final phrase, “temporarily reside at Frostbright Abode, under Senior Sister Gu’s strict supervision,” she let out a “Pfft!” A mouthful of hot wine she had just sipped, not yet swallowed, nearly spluttered out.

“What? Say that again!” Shen Zhaoqing asked, disbelieving.

“The elders said you are to temporarily reside at Frostbright Abode, under Senior Sister Gu’s supervision, and are not to step half a pace outside the peak…”

‘No way, they want me to live here? And be “strictly supervised”?’

Shen Zhaoqing’s mind instantly crashed.

She finally understood.

This wasn’t about latching onto the Chief Disciple’s leg at all. She had merely crawled out of one fiery pit, only to tumble headfirst into another, an eternal ice cellar!

Ling Shuangjue’s “protection” meant turning her into a specimen and locking her in a cage.

Gu Chang’an’s “protection,” however, meant treating her like a personal power bank, keeping her confined nearby to constantly absorb her cold aura!

‘What the hell… is there even a difference?!’

‘One would take my life, the other would take my very essence!’

Seeing the junior sister’s complex gaze—a mix of “envy, jealousy, and hatred” alongside a hint of “so you’re that vixen”—Shen Zhaoqing felt like crying but had no tears left.

She slowly lowered her head, looking at the cold wine gourd in her arms, then lifted her gaze to the Frostbright Abode, which radiated an eerie chill under the moonlight.

‘This was no immortal’s dwelling.’

‘This was clearly a prison, tailor-made for her, the most magnificent yet also the coldest of cages.’