Bai Ying looked at the scene before her and suddenly smiled.
That smile was like a spring breeze sweeping across an icy plain, instantly melting away the gloom in everyone's hearts.
The crowd was stunned for a moment, then erupted in deafening cheers. The disciples of the Lingyin Sect and the Lingxiao Sect could no longer contain themselves and surged towards Bai Ying like a tidal wave, surrounding her completely. Some hugged her shoulders tightly, some held her hands excitedly, and some wept with joy, burying their faces in her clothes.
"That's wonderful! That's really wonderful!" Xuan Yuan Chen's voice choked with emotion, and his fingertips trembled slightly.
Surrounded by the crowd, Bai Ying could clearly feel the burning joy in every gaze. These sincere emotions flowed gently through her weathered heart like a warm stream.
She gently hugged her trembling fellow disciple, and suddenly felt her eyes getting hot.
Outside the jubilant crowd, the Huayang Sect disciples who had already fled far away were struck dumb.
They stood frozen in place, their faces filled with disbelief. Some collapsed to their knees, their legs giving way; others clutched their clothes tightly at their chests; still others shook their heads and muttered to themselves, "Impossible... How could the Ancestor..."
Bai Yinghua's fellow disciples from the Huayang Sect all wore expressions of frustration. While the system was controlling them, the Lingyin Sect members had taken pills and were not controlled. Yan Chiling had resisted with her own willpower, but they had been controlled again...
They wanted to help Bai Ying, and had even sworn never to be controlled by the system again, but in the end, they were still controlled...
Su Yu stood at the front of the crowd, looking at Bai Ying, who was being fawned over by everyone, with a complicated expression.
The junior sister who used to follow him around calling him "Senior Brother" in his memory has now reached a height he can never reach. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
Yan Chiling's fingernails dug deep into his palms, and he was completely unaware that blood was seeping out between his fingers.
He stared intently at Bai Ying's profile, as if trying to etch this moment into his heart forever. It wasn't until his junior brother beside him gently tugged at his sleeve that he snapped out of his reverie and looked away.
"Let's go." Yan Chiling's voice was hoarse beyond recognition. He took one last look at their fifth junior sister, the one he had once sworn to marry... A tear fell into the dust and vanished in an instant.
His fellow disciples followed silently behind him, each of them exuding an indescribable sense of loneliness.
The setting sun cast their shadows long and long, like those bygone days that can never be returned to.
However, at that moment, Bai Ying's voice suddenly rang out:
"Blazing Feather".
These three seemingly casual words struck everyone like a thunderbolt. Yan Chiling froze, almost unable to believe his ears, his whole body trembling uncontrollably. Su Yu and his fellow disciples also turned around abruptly, their eyes filled with shock and disbelief mixed with hope.
Bai Ying stood calmly, surrounded by the Lingyin Sect members. She looked at them, her eyes devoid of resentment, yet the former intimacy was gone. She knew better than anyone that these fellow disciples from the Huayang Sect were puppets manipulated by the system, and that the harm they had caused might not have been their intention.
But damage is damage after all...
Some cracks, even after healing, will leave permanent scars.
With a wave of her hand, a bottle of shimmering pills flew toward Yan Chiling.
He caught it instinctively; it was cool to the touch, and the bottle still retained the warmth of her fingertips.
"For healing," she said calmly, as if she were talking to a complete stranger.
Then, she turned and returned to the cultivators of the Lingyin Sect and Lingxiao Sect, her back view resolute, never looking back again.
Yan Chiling gripped the medicine bottle tightly, his knuckles turning white. Countless words surged in his chest, but in the end, he couldn't utter a single one.
She showed them final mercy, but also personally severed the last glimmer of possibility.
Su Yu opened his mouth, but ultimately lowered his head in dejection. The other fellow disciples also silently withdrew their gazes.
Bai Ying returned to the Lingxiao Sect and Lingyin Sect, where the cheers continued, but those cheers had nothing to do with them...
—
Amidst the watchful eyes of the crowd, the Lingyin Sect's mountain gate was finally rebuilt. A plaque made of golden nanmu wood hung high, and Bai Ying stood with a brush in hand. Her brushstrokes were sharp as swords, her ink as white as snow, and she wrote the three characters "Lingyin Sect" in one breath. A subtle spiritual energy flowed between the characters, as if they contained the sect's ambition for revival. The disciples watching held their breath, and only when the last stroke was completed did they erupt into a deafening cheer.
From that moment on, Bai Ying's name resounded throughout the cultivation world.
The sect leader of Lingyin Sect looked at this young legend with eyes full of satisfaction and determination.
After several discussions, the Lingxiao Sect and the Lingyin Sect officially merged into the new Lingyin Sect, with Bai Ying as the link. The two sects shared resources and their disciples cultivated together. As soon as the news came out, the cultivation world was shaken, and countless rogue cultivators came from far and wide, just to catch a glimpse of this legendary woman.
Rumors spread like wildfire. Some said she slew the Huayang Patriarch with a single sword strike, others said she had already ascended to immortality. Those who had once looked down on her and betrayed her were now filled with remorse.
The young master of the Lin family stayed indoors all day long, and the elders of the clan beat their chests in frustration. The failed marriage from back then had become their biggest joke.
The Bai family has become the subject of gossip in the cultivation world. People ridicule them, saying they are "a pearl covered in dust and a fish eye mistaken for a treasure." They abandoned their own bloodline for an adopted daughter, and now their attempt to climb the social ladder is nothing but wishful thinking.
However, Bai Ying remained calm and composed in the face of all this commotion.
Her steps never stopped.
In the upper realm, Senior Bai Li is still waiting; within the stone tablet of the Bai family ancestral land, Bai Ni Chang's remnant soul has yet to be redeemed; and most importantly...
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