Chishui Village
Outside the barrier, Nangong Ya forcefully pounded on the invisible barrier.
"Yunwei! How are you! Answer me quickly!"
Xie Lanchen crossed his arms and leaned against the earthen wall. His handsome face was calm and expressionless, even his usual gloom had faded, revealing an almost indifferent look.
He glanced at the anxious Nangong Ya outside the barrier, his thin lips parted slightly, his voice so calm it was unreadable: "She has always acted this way, doing things her own way, never caring about the lives of others. If her life is truly in danger, I will break this barrier myself."
Nangong Ya couldn't help but turn her head and glare at him angrily: "Her soul is unstable right now, and she suffered a great loss of cultivation just now to protect us! And you just stood by and watched?"
Xie Lanchen pursed his lips and remained silent.
What was this inexplicable unease in his heart? He quickly suppressed this unusual fluctuation and resumed his nonchalant demeanor.
"Worried?" A very soft chuckle escaped his throat, his voice still devoid of warmth. "Since she dared to take this risk alone, she must have planned it all along. My meddling would only annoy her. Her life is what she values most; why should anyone else worry about it?"
Nangong Ya felt a tightness in her chest from his harsh and heartless words. Just as she was about to retort, she saw the young man raise his right hand, and a faint light flashed between his fingertips.
At the same time, Yi Mei's laughter suddenly pierced through the barrier and entered their ears.
“Who am I? I am Yimei.” She repeated her name in a low voice, her tone filled with self-mockery and bitterness. “Yimei, Yimei… it sounds like a destiny of being abandoned and forgotten.”
“Being born in Chishui Village is my original sin. My father treated me like dirt, and being beaten with bamboo sticks was a daily occurrence, simply because I was not a male. As for the villagers... watching them indifferently was already merciful; kicking them when they were down was the norm.”
Chishui Village, an impoverished village steeped in the obsession with male heirs.
Here, a girl's fate is sealed from the moment she is born.
Zhang the butcher's chubby son stole eggs that Widow Wang had saved up. His father grabbed him by the ear and scolded him in the street, but the matter was over. Some people even joked, "It's good that the boy is a bit tough."
But if it were a widow's younger sister...
"If a girl like this has such a dirty hand, what will she be like when she grows up? With such a wicked heart, being thrown into a pig cage would be too lenient!" Widow Wang warned her fiercely.
Here, discrimination against women is like the air, omnipresent, suffocating her.
The only faint, condescending warmth came from the blind Granny Li.
Sometimes, when her parents weren't looking, Granny Li would secretly slip half a cold, hard cornbread or a small bowl of leftover soup with a few rotten vegetable leaves floating on it and a faint sour smell through the crack in the door.
She had naively thought that Granny Li was different.
In the spring of the year I was eight, a wandering fairy came to the village.
Unlike the villagers, the immortal did not cast disgusted or pitying glances at her. She walked straight to Yimei and slowly squatted down.
Yimei will always remember that moment: the immortal's eyes were clear and bright, without a trace of disdain, only genuine pity.
"Does it hurt?" she asked softly. She took out a warm, smooth jade bottle, dipped her fingertips in the cool, fragrant ointment inside, and gently applied it to her sister's swollen wound.
The immortal gave her soft, sweet pastries she had never tasted before; she described the vast world beyond the mountains, telling her that there were many girls like her there who could study, learn skills, and have different lives.
The immortal even gently stroked his sister's withered hair, his eyes filled with pity: "Come back to the Cloud Sect with me. There are many children your age there. You can read and write, and learn whatever you want to learn. No one will beat or scold you anymore."
From then on, Guiyun Sect became the place she had always dreamed of.
When the immortal solemnly asked her parents to take her away, he was met with a vicious shoo-out: "Get out! My girl, she'd rather die at home! It's none of your business!"
Helpless, the immortal could only secretly slip her a delicate sachet that exuded a faint fragrance of orchids.
The immortal said something, but Yimei didn't hear it clearly.
In the late autumn of the same year, on a chilling evening, her parents used thick, stiff hemp rope to tightly bind her as she struggled and cried out.
"That Granny Li... gave me half a cold cornbread and a few mouthfuls of stale soup, and I thought it was a sign of warmth. How ridiculous! It wasn't until she told my parents herself: 'This girl is cursed and will bring misfortune to her brothers! Offer her as a sacrifice to the God of Pregnancy, burn her clean, and the next child will definitely be a boy!'" My sister laughed as she spoke.
Her cries and her fears were insignificant in the eyes of her parents, who were blinded by their obsession.
They dragged their small daughter like livestock towards the already erected, blazing pile of firewood on the back hill.
Those familiar faces: Widow Wang who used to lecture her on the rules, Granny Li who had given her food, they stood at a distance, their eyes filled with the indifference of spectators, and even a hint of secret expectation, hoping that her sacrifice would truly bring a male offspring to the silent village.
Yunwei listened quietly, her grip on Yimei's arm loosening almost imperceptibly before tightening it again.
How could she not know the pain of being harmed by her own family? Her father, the high and mighty sect leader of Guiyun Sect, didn't he also smear her as a demon for the sake of his adopted son Xie Lanchen and for the sake of the so-called "righteous reputation"? He personally activated the Xuantian Demon-Slaying Seal, causing her to perish in both body and soul.
If it weren't for a wisp of her remnant soul luckily attaching itself to the Lone Goose Sword, she would have long since vanished into nothingness.
She deeply understood the source of the resentment emanating from the small figure before her.
But this empathy is not a weak pity, but a cold-blooded understanding of the inherent malice in this world.
Her hatred lies with Guiyun Sect; her sister's resentment resides in Chishui Village.
They are of the same kind, but not of the same path.
"So, the entire Chishui Village was wiped out eighteen years ago, all killed by you?" Yun Wei spoke, her voice clear and cold, not as a question, but as confirmation of a fact she already knew.
She pondered: This vengeful spirit's power stems from boundless hatred; slaughtering an entire village would be no difficult task. However, feeding on hatred and drawing strength from resentment, while seemingly powerful, it has actually imprisoned itself forever in a cage of hatred, its soul gnawed at day and night by resentment, with no hope of escape. Such revenge, a mutually destructive act, is truly the worst possible choice.
The figure of the deceased sister, formed from black mist, twisted violently, emitting an even more piercing shriek: "Death? Death is too easy for them! I want their souls to never dissipate, to be forever bound to their bodies! Day and night, for all eternity, to relive the most painful, resentful, and desperate moments before their death! Let them taste what it means to be utterly helpless and unable to be heard from heaven or earth!"
"You're here, even better! Especially you, Yunwei..." She glared at Yunwei, her body churning with black energy. "I deliberately lured you into this mess, just to see how much 'kindness' you have for that blind old woman. Is it a genuine bodhisattva's heart, or just fake compassion for others to see?"
So that's how it is. Yunwei understood. That bit of "kindness" she felt because of Granny Li was nothing more than bait to be used.
She saw the malice churning in her sister's eyes and her heart stirred slightly.
This vengeful spirit has been completely consumed by hatred and has no way back.
"Being betrayed by one's closest relatives, it's only natural to feel boundless hatred. To imprison their soul and to condemn them to eternal torment—this is indeed the method of revenge you've found. Did you ever find a sliver of satisfaction in watching your enemy suffer?"
The younger sister's eyes were filled with an unyielding darkness. Yun Wei did not avoid her gaze and continued, "You locked their souls here, but what about yourself? You did indeed trap their souls, but you didn't realize that the first one to be bound was yourself."
"The word 'liberation' is already a luxury for you. The path of reincarnation has been severed by your own hands."
Outside the barrier, Nangong Ya gasped in shock, her face turning pale.
Xie Lanchen listened quietly, but a very faint, elusive glint of something else flashed in his cobalt blue eyes.
Is Yun Wei really that unafraid? With the malevolent aura of this vengeful spirit, even a cultivator with profound cultivation would have to be wary, yet she dares to face it directly, and even talks about "locking the soul and refining the spirit"?
A sense of irritation rose uncontrollably in his heart. Couldn't she be a little more careful with her life?
At this moment, Yunwei lowered her eyes to look at the surging black mist around her sister, her gaze paler than the moonlight, while her fingertips secretly formed the starting posture of the Heart-Cleansing Mantra in her sleeve.
She knew her words would sting the other person, but if she didn't speak up, this wisp of remnant soul would probably be completely devoured by the malevolent energy.
"Hate burns others, but also consumes oneself."
Yun parted her thin lips slightly, uttering words that were cold and aloof.
She thought that if she could transfer some of the Heart-Cleansing Mantra to her sister, she might be able to save her sister's last bit of clarity. She couldn't just watch her soul dissipate.
Upon hearing this, the younger sister's resentment deepened, as if those words had struck a nerve. "Stop with your fake pity!"
She roared fiercely, "Wait till I tear off your disguise, and let's see what kind of compassionate face you can still put on!"
The black mist clung to Yun Wei's clothes like a living thing, but she did not retreat a step, her gaze fixed intently on the other party.
The younger sister's obsession runs deep; she is hopelessly drowning in hatred. Pointing out her predicament is already the greatest act of kindness and compassion.
Words cannot awaken such a vengeful spirit; leaving it will surely bring calamity to the region.
Suddenly, the barrier around him made a crisp sound.
"Snap!"
The moment the barrier shattered, an incomparably sharp sword aura instantly severed the surging black energy around it, causing it to disperse to both sides.
The young man gripped the Lone Goose Sword, his gaze deep and serious: "What, you still have the leisure to lecture her?"
Yunwei stood up, showing no emotion whatsoever: "I know what I'm doing, you don't need to worry about it."
His hypocritical demeanor was no different from usual.
The important matter at hand is to focus on the task at hand; getting angry with him would be a waste of energy.
Upon hearing this, the boy's lips stiffened for a moment, but he couldn't help but glare at Yun Wei, as if he was angry at her arrogant demeanor.
Sense of propriety? Her idea of sensibility is to risk one's life? This person is always so annoying and...troublesome.
He turned to look at the vengeful spirit, raising an eyebrow slightly: "It's quite interesting that resentment has materialized."
"Unfortunately, you're in my way."
As soon as he finished speaking, the lone sword in the boy's hand suddenly gleamed with a cold light.
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