Chapter 4: Severing the Meridians, Destroying the Spiritual Root

“Nansheng still has some things to do. Please, Senior Li, keep this jade pendant for me for the time being.”

“Very well.” Li Tianhen looked at the jade pendant, then at Si Nansheng, and tucked the pendant into his storage ring.

Si Nansheng walked to the center of the great hall and knelt down. With tear-filled eyes, she looked up at Feng Zeyan, who remained high and mighty above her. She raised her hand to remove the hairpin from her hair and placed it on the ground; her hair slid down, cascading behind her.

She untied the storage bag from her waist, took out her personal disciple token, wiped away the trace of her soul power within it, and placed it on the ground as well.

Next, she removed her Shengtian Sect robes.

Beneath them, she wore nothing but a thin layer of undergarments.

Since she was going to make a clean break, she would do it thoroughly.

Everyone watched Si Nansheng’s actions in silence, completely unaware of what she was trying to do.

“Whatever I owed the Shengtian Sect, I have long since repaid. What belongs to me, I will not let go; what does not belong to me, I will not keep. I return it all to you.” As she spoke, Si Nansheng stood up, channeled spiritual power into her hand, and plunged it forcefully into her own chest!

“Si Nansheng, how dare you!” Others might not have known what this action signified, but he knew all too well.

“Ah!” Si Nansheng let out a shrill, agonizing scream. Cold sweat instantly broke out on her forehead, and her entire face twisted in pain.

Immediately after, the crowd watched as she pulled a golden divine bone from her own body.

“Pfft!” Si Nansheng spat out a mouthful of blood, her legs giving way as she collapsed to the floor. The divine bone hit the ground with a dull thud.

Seeing this, Feng Zeyan’s expression went blank for a moment. Had this Si Nansheng gone mad?

“Si Nansheng, are you rebelling?” Feng Zeyan roared.

“This is the divine bone that Sect Master Feng ordered me to nurture. Today, I have risked my life to extract it. Sect Master Feng, I, Si Nansheng, owe your Shengtian Sect nothing!”

Si Nansheng stood up stubbornly, her gaze meeting Feng Zeyan’s with unwavering resolve.

“A divine bone? Is it really a divine bone?”

Looking at the bone on the floor, Su Heng stared at Si Nansheng in shock.

Shen Jingyuan questioned her even more sharply: “Why is there a divine bone in your body? It’s covered in so many cracks—what is your intention in pulling it out now?”

“Su Heng, Shen Jingyuan, have you ever considered that your ‘useless’ junior sister, whom you have always despised, actually possesses a top-tier Heavenly Spiritual Root?”

A faint smile curled the corners of Si Nansheng’s blood-stained lips, her eyes filled with mockery.

“How is that possible? Si Nansheng, you are truly shameless. To avoid punishment from Master, you’ll say any lie that comes to mind. Unfortunately, we aren’t fools. We’ve long known you aren’t a good person; there’s no way we would believe your nonsense!”

Su Heng glared at Si Nansheng viciously, the disgust in his eyes deepening.

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me. And why would you? All these years, my cultivation hasn’t progressed an inch, so you all treated me like waste, like trash. I don’t blame you for that. In fact, Sect Master Feng had already hidden my spiritual root before I even entered the sect.”

“That’s impossible! Master… why would Master do such a thing? Si Nansheng, tell us, why are you framing Master?”

Shen Jingyuan grabbed Si Nansheng by her clothes, glaring at her with eyes wide enough to split!

“I’m framing him? If you don’t believe me, you can go ask him yourselves. Ask him if I had already reached the Foundation Establishment stage at the age of eight. After I reached Foundation Establishment, he placed this divine bone into my body.”

Si Nansheng looked up at the high-and-mighty Feng Zeyan, who was looking back at her with the gaze one might reserve for a corpse.

“Si Nansheng, divine bones are rare. Even if—even if Master placed the divine bone in your body, it must have been for your own good. How can you slander him like this?” Su Heng looked at Si Nansheng with feigned righteousness.

Looking at this man, who was hypocritical to the core, Si Nansheng found it laughable. She truly didn’t know how blind she must have been in her past life to think he was a good person.

“For my own good? Do you know that when this divine bone was placed in my body, it was shattered? Do you know that for it to recover to its current state, it had to be nourished and repaired by my top-tier Heavenly Spiritual Root and my spiritual power? Do you know that for the past five years, I worked so hard to cultivate, yet my cultivation never improved, all because the spiritual power I cultivated was being used to nourish this rotten bone!”

As Si Nansheng said this, her heart and lungs were filled with such sorrow that tears welled up in her eyes. She didn’t know if this feeling came from herself or the original owner of the body.

When Su Heng and Shen Jingyuan looked at their master, they found his face pitch-black, so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water.

They found it hard to believe—could what Si Nansheng said be true?

“Sect Master Feng, I have returned your divine bone. My techniques and cultivation were learned in the Shengtian Sect; now, I destroy my own cultivation to return them to you. As for your claim that I injured Liu Xuewei, I do not admit to it. As for wanting my spiritual root, that is nothing but a dream. Today, I, Si Nansheng, would rather destroy my own spiritual root than let her benefit from it!”

Si Nansheng formed hand seals, her movements clumsy.

Li Tianhen watched her actions, and thinking back to what she had just said, he instantly realized what she was about to do.

“Don’t!” Li Tianhen’s voice had barely fallen.

A series of “pop, pop, pop” sounds erupted from Si Nansheng’s body.

With her spiritual root destroyed and her meridians severed, the immense pressure from the rampaging spiritual power caused Si Nansheng to cough up several mouthfuls of blood, leaving her looking on the verge of death.

Everyone watched Si Nansheng in shock. None of them had expected a twelve-year-old child to be capable of such a resolute act.

“Si Nansheng!” Feng Zeyan had not expected Si Nansheng to pull such a move. He was so furious his eyes burned with rage; he wanted nothing more than to rush over and tear her to pieces.

But his anger was not because Si Nansheng had destroyed her spiritual root, but because without her Water Spiritual Root, he could no longer repair his precious disciple’s spiritual root.

“From this moment on, Si Nansheng severs all ties with the Shengtian Sect. My life and death have nothing to do with the Shengtian Sect, and the survival of the Shengtian Sect has nothing to do with me. The things I found over these years, and the sacrifice of my own cultivation to repair the divine bone, are more than enough to repay Sect Master Feng for raising me. I owe you nothing.”

Covered in blood, Si Nansheng stumbled, but she forced herself not to fall, looking up at the members of the Shengtian Sect.

They wanted to steal her top-tier Heavenly Spiritual Root for Liu Xuewei to advance her strength? It was a dream.

Even if she destroyed her own spiritual root, she would never let it become a wedding dress for Liu Xuewei!

And she would never stay in the Shengtian Sect to be their beast of burden!

Watching the crazed smile on Si Nansheng’s lips, everyone felt a chill run from their heels to the tops of their heads.

Was this really the kind of pressure a twelve-year-old child could exert on them?

The moment Si Nansheng collapsed, she was caught by Li Tianhen, who took off his cloak and wrapped her tightly within it.

“Senior Li… I seem to have… caused you trouble…” Si Nansheng looked at Li Tianhen, smiled, and lost consciousness.

“She has now destroyed her spiritual root and lost her cultivation, leaving her with nothing but this half-dead body. She owes your Shengtian Sect nothing. From this day forward, she is my, Li Tianhen’s, disciple. If I find out that anyone from the Shengtian Sect bullies her again, do not blame me for being impolite!”

Li Tianhen looked at the members of the Shengtian Sect, his gaze icy, before he turned and left with Si Nansheng in his arms, leaving the others to finally snap out of their stupor.