Chapter 16: Master, you lied to me. You're lying to me too, aren't you?

“It was those two, father and son, who destroyed your family and stole your life!”

Sun Jin's voice echoed incessantly in Jiang Qingyi's ears.

“Impossible, impossible...” Jiang Qingyi retreated continuously, her face deathly pale.

“You must be lying to me! You must be lying! It must be!” Jiang Qingyi's mind was in utter chaos; she dared not believe anything she was hearing.

She could not believe her Master was the son of her enemy.

And it was at this very moment that Sun Jin found an opportunity, hurling a concealed weapon toward Jiang Qingyi!

But Jiang Qingyi merely tilted her head, and the weapon grazed a strand of her hair.

Almost simultaneously, Jiang Qingyi pressed her fingers together, using them as a sword, and slashed toward his throat.

“Ugh...”

Sun Jin clutched his neck, blood spurting through the gaps in his fingers.

“Save...” Sun Jin reached out toward Jiang Qingyi, his pupils gradually dilating.

Jiang Qingyi looked at him with eyes like stagnant water, devoid of even the slightest ripple.

A few breaths later, Sun Jin's hand fell completely to the ground, his eyes wide open staring forward, his blood staining the soil red.

“Qingyi! Are you alright?”

Xiao Mo finally arrived.

Seeing the silhouette of his disciple safe and sound, along with the corpses of the Blood Butterfly Pavilion cultivators beside her, Xiao Mo finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Hearing her Master's voice, Jiang Qingyi's delicate body trembled, and she slowly turned around.

The moment Xiao Mo saw Jiang Qingyi's eyes, his footsteps involuntarily halted.

Xiao Mo had never seen such an expression in his disciple before.

Qingyi's eyes held no color at all, as if her entire being had died and her soul had been shattered.

“Qingyi, what happened?”

Xiao Mo took a step forward, but Jiang Qingyi unleashed a wave of sword qi that slashed in front of him.

“Master... did you know?”

Jiang Qingyi spoke slowly, her voice sounding as if it came from an abyss, filled with despair.

“Actually, when I was very young—I should be able to remember things from when I was one year old.

I remember having a very happy family.

My father was a merchant with some modest wealth. My mother was ordinary, but she was very gentle; she loved me very much, and she loved my father very much.

When I was two, Mother gave birth to a younger brother.

My brother was very cute.

When he was a year and a half old, the first name he could clearly call out was 'Sister'...

From the moment I was born, I did not know what worry was.

But when I was four, everything changed.

A few people burst into our home, and as soon as they entered, they began a wanton massacre.

Whether it was the guards, the servants, or the maid sister who looked after me—everyone died.

At that time, the stone paths were flowing with blood, and the pond in the courtyard turned a deep crimson.

My parents stuffed me and my two-year-old brother into a cabinet.

They told us not to make a sound, and no matter what happened outside, we were not to come out.

Inside the cabinet, I held my brother tightly, covering his eyes and ears.

Before long, there was movement outside.

Through the crack in the cabinet, I saw with my own eyes as my parents were killed by those people!

Finally, they found my brother and me.

Right in front of my eyes!

They killed my brother!

Master, do you know the feeling of watching your family die one by one before you, no matter how much you beg for mercy?

They even killed my two-year-old brother!

Master, do you know this kind of despair?”

Xiao Mo: “...”

As Jiang Qingyi brought these things up, Xiao Mo knew that she had discovered everything.

“My entire family was killed; not a single soul survived. I was taken to a courtyard.

In that courtyard, I saw many people.

They tied me to a bed, took a knife, cut open my back, and extracted one of my bones.

It hurt so much, it truly hurt so much.

I fainted from the pain.

When I woke up, I was surrounded by corpses.

Later, I learned that the place where I woke up was called a mass grave...

I don't know how my wounds healed, nor how I survived.

Perhaps Heaven saw my misery and allowed some immortal to heal me as they passed by.

But I know that I lived!

At that time, I swore to the heavens that I would live on, and that I would avenge my parents and my brother!

If they killed my whole family, then I would kill their whole families!

No matter if the enemy's family was innocent, I would not let them go!

I would kill his son and his daughter in front of him, and then I would slice him into a thousand pieces!

Everyone must die!”

Jiang Qingyi raised her head, her eyes filled with endless hatred.

“All these years, your disciple has been secretly investigating who killed my family, but I could never find a lead.

That house had already turned to ash.

But Master...

Just now, when I killed that man...

He said...

He said that your father, Master, is the enemy who killed my entire family.

That it was all to transplant one of my bones into you.

Master, is it true?

Is everything he said true?”

Xiao Mo: “...”

“Master! Is he lying! Is he trying to trick me!”

Xiao Mo: “...”

Tears blurred Jiang Qingyi's eyes. Her right hand gripped the Profound Frost Sword tightly as she screamed almost hysterically

“Master! Answer me!”

“Master! Speak!”

Xiao Mo sighed, lifted his head, and looked directly into Jiang Qingyi's gaze: “The man you killed was named Sun Jin; he was one of the strategists of the Prince Xiao Mansion. Everything he said is the truth.

It was the Prince Xiao Mansion that killed your family, and I am the son of Prince Xiao Jing.

Your sword bone is inside my body.”

Hearing her Master's words, Jiang Qingyi shook her head: “No, none of this is real... none of it is real... Master, you are lying to me, you are lying to me, aren't you...”

“Qingyi, this is the reality.”

“Liar!” In an instant, the young girl raised her long sword and pointed it at Xiao Mo's eyes, “Then why did you save me back then! Why did you bring me back to the mountains! Why did you teach me swordplay! Why did you treat me like a brother and a father! Why! Why!”

“Because I owe you,” Xiao Mo spoke calmly. “I reached the Nascent Soul stage at eighteen. I thought it was because of my extraordinary talent, but it was actually because I had a young girl's sword bone transplanted into me. One day, a woman told me that the girl had not died, so I left the Prince Xiao Mansion to find you and make amends.”

“Make amends... the son of the enemy who killed my entire family saved me! Taught me swordplay! Raised me! Rather than doing that, you might as well have killed me!” Jiang Qingyi roared.

Xiao Mo slowly closed his eyes: “Then kill me. Fulfill your vow. This was something I owed you from the start.”

Looking at the man before her, the long sword in Jiang Qingyi's hand trembled uncontrollably, and tears rolled down her cheeks to the ground.

Finally, Xiao Mo only felt a gust of sword wind whistle past his side.

Xiao Mo slowly opened his eyes. A piece of the girl's skirt, which she had sliced off, drifted upward before his eyes.

Holding her long sword, she turned to leave, her voice drifting from behind her

“From this day forward, you and I have no further relationship...”

(End of Chapter)