Betrayal

Ji Yiren slowly looked up at the young woman before her... Mu Nansi's icy blue eyes were as cold and unmelting as thousand-year-old frost. They gazed at her without the slightest trace of warmth, devoid of all the tenderness they once held during the many years they had spent together.

Memories flashed through Ji Yiren's mind in a blur.

That day... the day she had been gravely wounded while being pursued by a spirit beast, lying near death deep in the mountains. Mu Nansi had risked her life to save her.

After that, she was brought into the Immortal River Sacred Land. Even though she had a marriage pact with Wu Zhao to be taken as his concubine, Mu Nansi personally annulled everything. She even went so far as to clean up her reputation, ensuring that no one dared lay a hand on her.

Everything Ji Yiren had now was because of the woman standing in front of her.

But...

Ye Lin... the disciple she had only recently taken in. There was something about him that stirred a deep, inexplicable fondness in her. Within him dwelled a fragment of the soul of someone very dear to her. And over the past seven days, Ye Lin had demonstrated a talent unlike any she had ever seen before. He was special... different. He was also the first man to come so close to her, and something inside him made her feel she could never allow harm to come to him.

And then... Ye Lin vanished without a trace five days ago. He had told her he was going out in search of an opportunity, but he never returned. Then, three days ago, a secret letter arrived for Ji Yiren.

There were no threats, no coercion... only a single sentence.

"If you wish to see him again... come to the Forest of Secrets."

Driven by overwhelming concern for Ye Lin, Ji Yiren departed immediately, without informing anyone.

Upon arriving there... she encountered Mo Yanshen, the Holy Son of the Immortal River Sacred Land, and Wu Wen, father of Wu Zhao.

At first, when she saw them, her eyes burned with fury so intense it felt as though her body would explode from within. But the moment Wu Wen pulled out the Spirit Jar inside which were the captured souls of the entire Ye Clan....

Her rage only intensified. And yet… she was forced to swallow it whole. Because if she acted, those souls would be destroyed on the spot.

After a long, tense silence, Wu Wen made her an offer.

"All you have to do is divert Mu Nansi's attention. Let Mo Yanshen enter a certain room within the peak. I'll return all the souls to you…"

Of course, she refused immediately. But then… Ye Lin was dragged out before her, his body battered and broken, his soul sealed and controlled by something she couldn't even begin to undo.

She tried to bargain. She tried everything.

But in the end...

She was left with no choice but to agree.

In her heart, she intended to return immediately to Mu Nansi once she had retrieved Ye Lin and the souls of the Ye Clan. She would reveal everything every detail of the betrayal.

But Wu Zhao was no fool.

Before she could act on her own plan, Wu Wen produced a Soul Oath and etched its binding force into her very soul, forbidding her from speaking the truth.

If she were to reveal anything about what happened be it through words, writing, gestures, memories, or any other form Ye Lin would die instantly.

Ji Yiren… had no choice.

In the end, she agreed.

She received half of the Ye Clan's souls and brought Ye Lin back. His memories, however, seemed to have been wiped clean.

And so, during the conflict between the Wu Clan and the Immortal River Sacred Land, she fulfilled her part of the agreement. She drew Mu Nansi's attention away, allowing Mo Yanshen to slip into the forbidden chamber undetected.

She had a plan of her own—she intended to ambush Mo Yanshen in secret to keep him from delivering any information to Wu Zhao. But what she hadn't expected… was that the room in question contained the secret coordinates and formation codes used to conceal this world.

That one mistake had triggered Suizimeng's appearance, instantly shattering the advantage held by the Immortal River Sacred Land.

A tidal wave of guilt crashed over her like a towering wall of water striking a cliffside. She knew full well that Mu Nansi possessed the ability to peer into the past and uncover the truth. Without a soul-protecting treasure, there would be no memory, no secret that could escape her eyes if she truly wished to know. And yet, Ji Yiren had made her choice—hoping that, deep down, Mu Nansi might still be able to forgive her.

After the war, though she had managed to save Ye Lin and remove the seal that had bound him, and though the souls of the Ye Clan were eventually returned to her in full, what she lost in exchange was something she could likely never recover.

That was… Mu Nansi's trust.

And now… those once-gentle blue eyes that used to look upon her with warmth were nothing but ice, as though ready to sever every tie between them.

But more than anything, what she had lost was not just the title of benefactor. It was the bond forged through sincerity over many years. And Ji Yiren knew no matter how justified her explanation might sound....

To Mu Nansi… betrayal was betrayal.

No excuses. No exceptions. No forgiveness.

At that moment, Ji Yiren lifted her head, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. Her voice trembled, barely more than a whisper.

"I'm sorry… I… had no other choice…"

The words were soft as a breeze, yet to Mu Nansi, they struck like thunder crashing down upon her heart.

"No other choice?!! More like you have no brain!!" Mu Nansi's voice roared out with such force it echoed through the hall like a violent blast.

Mu Nansi stepped toward Ji Yiren slowly, her icy blue eyes blazing with fury so intense it felt as if time itself had stopped within the grand hall.

"Instead of doing something so stupid all on your own, did it never once cross your mind that there are people in the sect with enough brains to help you?!!"

Her voice thundered through the chamber. It wasn't just anger that laced her words—it was deep, aching disappointment that stabbed like a blade into the soul.

"Why didn't you ask? Why didn't you seek help from anyone in the sect?! Huh?! Or even from me! You didn't say a single word about it!"

This Mu Nansi was no longer the composed and serene Sect Master. Her eyes were bloodshot, her soul ablaze with turbulent rage. Because this wasn't the first time she had been betrayed by someone she trusted.

The last time… it was the former master of Pure Light Peak. He had selfishly led hundreds of thousands of disciples to their deaths in a desperate attempt to save his daughter. In the end, not only did he fail to save her and he became a sacrifice herself.

And now… it had happened again. But this time, it was far worse. Because this betrayal came from someone who had stood by her side for many years, a sister who had once faced life and death together with her. And that very sister had betrayed her with her own hands, placing the lives of everyone in the Immortal River Sacred Land upon a thread ready to snap at any moment… just to save a disciple she had known for barely a few days.

The pain of a broken trust had twisted Mu Nansi's heart into pieces.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" Ji Yiren's voice began to tremble, as though her mind were fraying at the edges.

She collapsed to her knees, her body trembling, tears streaming down her cheeks without end.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

Her heart shattered bit by bit, the weight of guilt devouring her sanity until she could barely stay upright.

Mu Nansi stood in silence, then suddenly her voice exploded.

"Shut up!!!"

The piercing shriek rang across the entire mountaintop. Her face was void of mercy, and her blue eyes blazed with an icy light sharper than ever before.

And in that moment...

Crack!!

A sound like something splintering echoed from Ji Yiren's body. Her cultivation began to shudder, then spiral into chaos beyond her control.

Half-Emperor, Level 8

…

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

Half-Emperor, Level 5

…

Half-Emperor, Level 3

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

Ji Yiren's body trembled violently. Her face turned pale as her cultivation crumbled, consumed by a sorrow too heavy to bear.

But just then, Han Ming darted forward, placing his hand gently at the nape of her neck.

Shhhk.

Her body was lulled into unconsciousness in an instant, collapsing limply to the floor, her breath faint and shallow.

"If she dies now, the Sect Master might never be the same again," Han Ming said softly.

Boommmmm!!

The doors to the meeting hall suddenly exploded into splinters, wooden shards flying everywhere, and a thick black mist billowed into the room.

The aura of a Great Emperor surged forth like a mountain crashing down.

But before the black mist could swallow everything...

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The combined aura of all thirty-nine Great Emperors within the hall erupted at once, slamming into the dark mist with overwhelming force, shattering it into nothing in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly, every gaze turned to the ground before them.

The body of a young man stood pinned to the floor, his head bowed low, radiating the unstable aura of a Great Emperor as though the power wasn't his own.

Before Han Ming could fully grasp what he was seeing, recognition struck—this man was Ye Lin, Ji Yiren's disciple.

His body was shrouded in a haze of flame mist that swirled around him. Yet his aura was strange, chaotic, as though borrowed from someone else.

Mu Nansi narrowed her eyes and looked down coldly at the scene before her. Her voice rang out, devoid of all emotion.

"Instead of admitting your mistake… you choose rebellion instead?!!"

"Fine... fine then. I truly admire your kind. If the trust I gave means nothing to you, then it no longer needs to exist."

Ye Lin's scream tore through the air just as a burst of blue light erupted from Mu Nansi's body.

"Let go of my master, you bast... Aaaaargh!!"

Han Ming stood motionless in the center of the meeting hall. His eyes swept across the room swiftly before his brow furrowed deeply, though he said nothing. Something was… wrong.

He closed his eyes briefly, extending his spiritual sense across the entire Holy Land of the Immortal River. In that fleeting instant, he sensed something more disturbing than anything before.

Luck... was falling.

The fortune of the sect's members was dropping. Not just gradually, but in a frenzy, as though destiny itself had forsaken them.

And the worst of it those closest to Mu Nansi, those aligned with her side their luck was plummeting like boulders cast from a mountaintop, without even the faintest thread to stop the fall.

But then, Han Ming's gaze shifted toward the horizon. His eyes suddenly widened in shock.

Beyond the borders of the Holy Land, the auras of more than two hundred Great Emperors were surging in all at once. Each one radiated an immense power far beyond the ordinary. None of them were weak. At the very least, all were at Level 7 or higher, and several were still concealing their true strength.

Yet that wasn't the end of the disaster.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion of spiritual energy erupted from another direction on the peak.

"What kind of cursed day is this?! Everything's gone insane!!"

Han Ming turned to face the sound, only to feel the shockwaves originating from within the Holy Land itself. Mere breaths later, shouting, roaring, and the clash of weapons rang out—chaos had broken out… from inside the Holy Land of the Immortal River.

Disciples had begun attacking one another without any clear cause. And worst of all… the Heaven Bamboo Peak.

The female disciples of Heaven Bamboo Peak were now clashing violently with disciples from other peaks. Blood sprayed, blades slashed, and destructive energy soared into the skies, spiraling out of control.

The luck of the people within the Holy Land was rapidly vanishing. Some patriarchs and core elders had already fallen into black luck.

And within, disciples and elders alike were slaughtering each other with no sign of mind control or coercion.

Before Han Ming, Ye Lin's power exploded upward, ripping through the oppressive aura of all thirty-nine Great Emperors in the room in an instant. An overwhelming Dao of Heaven radiated from his body.

Then, the rumbling roar of battle grew louder from beyond the Holy Land's boundary. At the same time, someone deactivated the sect's protective formation. The golden barrier that had sealed the land slowly began to dissolve.

And through the opening, the two hundred-plus Great Emperors surged in.

Their power blotted out the sunlight and shook the entire Holy Land to its core.