At the foot of the mountain, the bodies of Blood Butterfly Pavilion disciples lay scattered across the ground.
Xiao Mo sat on a rock with his head lowered, a scrap of cloth pinched between his fingers, and no one could have said what he was thinking about.
How long he sat there, no one knew. At last he said slowly, "Did you come to laugh at me?"
Xiachan walked toward him step by step, stopped three meters away, and tilted her head. "Is it funny?"
Xiao Mo shook his head with a smile. "No. No, it isn't."
Xiachan swept her eyes over their surroundings, then let her gaze settle back on Xiao Mo:
"Was it worth it?"
"You were a sword cultivator with a boundless future ahead of you. You threw away your own Dao just so she could cultivate, and wrecked yourself body and all—and in the end she still learned the truth and cut all ties with you."
"The moment she learned you were the son of her enemy, her state of mind nearly shattered."
"Everything you did over these ten-odd years has come to nothing."
"Was it worth it?"
Xiao Mo picked up the strip of skirt cloth in his hand and could not help but smile. "Who knows..."
Xiachan: "..."
Xiao Mo lifted his head and looked into Xiachan's cold eyes. "Where has she gone now?"
"She flew straight off toward the Liang Kingdom. Where do you think she's gone?" Xiachan looked at the young master she had once served. "The shortcut Qingyi took toward the Myriad Demon Kingdom actually runs right along the Liang border. She's a Golden Core cultivator—barring accidents, she'll be at Prince Jing's Manor within a day."
"Cough, cough, cough..." Xiao Mo coughed violently, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and pushed himself up on his longsword. Then he walked on.
Xiachan turned and watched his back. "It's a miracle the young master is alive at all. With a body like that, even if the young master does reach Prince Jing's Manor, what could he possibly do there?"
Xiao Mo shook his head, his voice level and steady. "Qingyi is only at the Golden Core realm. Her cultivation may be of decent quality, but Prince Jing's Manor has a Nascent Soul cultivator, and a retainer at the Jade Unpolished realm besides. If she goes there, she's asking to die. I can't let her die just like that."
"The young master still means to look after her?" Xiachan did not understand. "It was the Prince who killed her whole family, not the young master. Even if the young master feels responsible, the young master saved her, raised her, taught her to cultivate—the debt between the young master and her is already settled."
"Settled. Yes, that's true."
Xiao Mo walked on, one step at a time, his voice carried away on the wind.
"But Xiachan—she is my disciple, after all..."
Prince Jing's Manor.
Xiao Jing, Prince Jing of Liang, was in the courtyard teasing his birds.
"Father..."
A boy of thirteen or fourteen hurried into the courtyard. The boy's eyes had double pupils.
"Oh, it's Han'er! Han'er, what are you doing back from the sect?"
Seeing his son come home, Xiao Jing felt both surprised and delighted.
"I was out on training recently and happened to pass through the Liang Kingdom's capital, so I thought I'd come see Father. Look, Father."
Xiao Han opened his mouth, and a dazzling golden core flew out from his throat.
After showing it to his father, Xiao Han swallowed the golden core back down.
"Good boy! Good boy!" Xiao Jing was overjoyed. "I never imagined that at fourteen you'd already reached the Golden Core realm! Your future knows no limits, Han'er—once you reach the Immortal realm, and even the Ascension realm, who in all the world would dare not bow down before you!"
"Heh heh heh." Xiao Han rubbed his nose. "As long as Han'er hasn't disappointed Father."
"Disappointed? Han'er, you're the qilin of our Xiao clan—I say my son has the makings of a Great Emperor!" Xiao Jing clapped his son hard on the back. "Come on! Let's go find your mother. She'll be overjoyed to see you too. We'll have a proper meal together."
"Yes, Father." Xiao Han nodded.
But just as Xiao Jing was about to lead his son out of the courtyard, a servant came scrambling over, lost his footing, and pitched forward onto Xiao Jing.
Xiao Jing's brows knitted, and he kicked the servant away.
Ignoring the pain, the servant crawled forward and shouted in a panic, "Master! Master! It's terrible—something terrible has happened!"
Xiao Han stepped up and said loudly, "Whatever it is, just say it straight! What's all this about good or bad?"
"Replying to Grandpa, replying to the young master,"
the servant hurried on.
"A woman came to our manor just now. Zhang Han at the gate went up to ask her business, and she cut his head off with a single sword strike.
That woman smashed through the gate and started killing without a word to anyone, killing all the way in! Whoever she sees, she kills. Several of the cultivators in our manor are already dead at her hands!"
"A woman?" Xiao Jing's brows drew together.
"Insolent! Does she take my Xiao estate for empty?" Xiao Han cupped his hands to his father. "Father, wait here. Your son will go cut off her head and present it to you."
"No need. You and I will go together, father and son." Xiao Jing smiled and patted his son's shoulder.
In truth, Xiao Jing had already begun to guess who she might be.
"Spare me, Immortal Lady!"
"Immortal Lady, you and I have no quarrel, no grudge—why kill me..."
"No, Immortal Lady, please!"
"Aaaah!"
"Run!"
"Madwoman! That woman is insane!"
Inside Prince Jing's Manor, maids and servants fled in every direction.
Within Prince Jing's Manor, not one living soul that the woman's eyes fell upon escaped with their life.
Bodies lay piled one after another in the courtyards, blood ran ceaselessly between the cobblestones, the earth soaked red, and the ponds in the manor turned the color of blood.
It was all exactly as it had been the year the woman was four.
"Insolent! Who are you, to come slaughtering your way through my manor, Prince Jing's Manor!"
And as the woman walked forward, step by step, Xiao Han came up before her at his father's side and shouted in fury.
"So it really is you."
The very first look at the woman told Xiao Jing who she was.
After all, Xiao Jing had seen her portrait—he had handed that portrait to the Blood Butterfly Pavilion himself.
Jiang Qingyi slowly raised her head, and the instant she saw Xiao Jing, the fingers clenched around her sword hilt cracked at the knuckles.
Found him. I've finally found him!
She would never forget: the year she was four, in that courtyard, when they took the bone out of her, this man had stood not far away, watching her the way one watches a farm animal.
"So Prince Xiao still remembers me!" Jiang Qingyi sneered, her eyes webbed with blood vessels, like a demon beast about to devour someone alive.
"Of course I remember." Xiao Jing nodded. "Your father, your mother, your little brother, and every last soul in your household—I'm the one who had them killed, after all."
"You beast!"
Jiang Qingyi lost all reason. Sword in hand, she charged, freezing sword qi merging into the Cursive Sword Formula, and brought her blade down in a single stroke!
"Your life for theirs!"