Yijian Villa.
At dusk, Qin Suyi, "Ink Dye Fragrance," the seventh of the former Seven Swords of Tai Xu, stood with sword in hand, confronting a green-haired girl.
Beside them lay the silent body of Li Shen, "Young Master Chuan."
"Jiang Muyue... I never expected that after so many years, you'd still be the same." Qin Suyi held her sword level at the girl. "I knew it. There had to be something suspicious about what Senior Brother and Senior Sister did back then!"
"Huh? No way, no way. You're pinning all the blame on me already?" The girl called Jiang Muyue looked as though she had heard a joke. "I only moved my lips. You were the ones who struck in the end."
Qin Suyi gritted her teeth. "You must have driven a wedge between us!"
"Heh..." The girl sneered. "I drove a wedge between you? Doesn't that only prove that you never fully trusted Chi Yuan? Otherwise, how could I have succeeded with just a few words?"
Qin Suyi was speechless.
"Ah... what a pity. Even at the very end, she still worried about you and wanted to protect you." The girl revealed a sinister smile. "Her final strike was aimed at me. Otherwise, with Chi Yuan's abilities, you wouldn't have had any chance to survive when she kicked you away."
Qin Suyi's pupils contracted.
All these years, she had dreamed of that scene again and again. She had also wondered whether her master had held back then, but she did not dare admit it, afraid she would lose the courage to keep living.
She despised herself for being this way, yet she did not dare face—or even think about—the possible truth. She had numbed her heart. Had her daughter Li Sushang not been born, she might already have become a walking corpse, living for no reason but to live.
"After all, she was Chi Yuan. Even with her strength greatly diminished, dealing with you was still effortless." The girl shrugged. "But aside from when she fought me, when did she ever get serious with any of you?"
"Shut up!"
Qin Suyi's hands trembled. Her state of mind had suffered a devastating blow. Her shattered sword heart seemed to still be ravaging her body. Her heart was filled with fury, yet she did not know whether it was directed at the girl laughing wantonly before her or at herself, who had drawn her sword against her master all those years ago.
"I remember Sumei once told me, 'A teacher for a day, a parent for life.' Is this how you treated your master, Chi Yuan? I was even a little surprised back then~" The girl's voice continued to torment Qin Suyi's mind. "If I remember correctly, Chi Yuan picked you up, didn't she?"
"Shut up!"
"Ah, don't be so impulsive!" The girl caught Qin Suyi's slashing blade between two fingers. "Look at you. Even your swordsmanship has fallen apart. Can this still be called swordsmanship?"
The girl loosened the fingers gripping the sword slightly, then kicked Qin Suyi away. Qin Suyi drove her sword into the ground and slid back several meters before steadying herself, then spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Look, a casual kick from me left you like this, yet Chi Yuan's kick back then only gave you some superficial wounds." The girl let out a theatrical sigh. "Come to think of it, we were fated, weren't we? After all, I never expected Chi Yuan to save you. If not for Chi Yuan, who knew whether even a single bone would have remained of you and your parents?"
"What exactly did you do?!" Qin Suyi's reason finally snapped. Years of regret and pain overwhelmed her at that instant. All she could see now was the girl before her, and she swung her sword at her without regard for anything else.
"The Seven Swords of Tai Xu were nothing more than this in the end. Don't worry, no master will come save you this time." The girl mocked her. "Your Seven Swords of Tai Xu will soon reunite once more..."
Qin Suyi's sword never touched the girl in the slightest. The girl did not even need to become serious. As she effortlessly evaded Qin Suyi's attacks, she forced her to recall the past she least wished to face. "Come to think of it, I actually wanted to use you to block Chi Yuan for a moment back then. But I never expected Chi Yuan to merely kick you lightly, then turn around and hit me with Tai Xu Sword God. You were the ones who tried to kill your master, yet she struck so ruthlessly at me. Ah... do you think Chi Yuan had simply lived too long and become muddled?"
"Shut up!"
"Ah, are you so angry you're crying? You're an adult, aren't you? Why are you acting like a child?"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
"How rude. How did Chi Yuan teach a disciple like you? I have to say, she was rather a failure as a master. The disciples she taught do not even know the most basic etiquette. Oh, then again, you dared to kill your master. You never had any sense of propriety to begin with, did you?"
"Ahhh..."
Qin Suyi's mind completely collapsed. She dropped the sword in her hand, clutched her head, and fell to her knees.
"Ah, you really can't take much. Fine then, it's time for everything to end."
Under the cover of night, flames devoured Yijian Villa, burning everything here to ashes.
Leaning against the ruins, Qin Suyi, beyond saving, asked the girl, "...Who exactly are you?"
"Who am I?" The girl spread her arms. "I... am the last Fallen Angel. In the name of Midrash, I walk the world in the body of a puppet... the Fallen Angel of Calamity."
As she watched Midrash melt into the shadow beneath her feet, Qin Suyi finally understood the monstrous disaster the Seven Swords of Tai Xu had brought upon themselves.
Only moments after Midrash left, a familiar figure appeared before the dying Qin Suyi.
"Suyi... what happened here?" The voice was exactly as she remembered it, but compared to the indifference in her memories, Qin Suyi felt long-lost concern.
Master...
Tears flowed down her face. Even as her eyelids grew too heavy to keep open, she still tried to use the last of her strength to see clearly the person helping her up.
She wanted to tell her master that the demon had already gone to find her other senior brothers and sisters. But then... she thought, after making the shocking decision to kill their master, what right did they have to ask their master to save them again? What right did they have to call her "Master"?
Thus, the last words she left in this world were, "I'm sorry, Immortal Chi Yuan..."
Beneath the lonely moon, Midrash stood upon a rooftop, raised her head to gaze at the heavens, and murmured, "Chi Yuan, Chi Yuan... ah, no, I should call you Hua. Look at the ungrateful wretches you taught... But it's all right. I'll soon clean house for you. Still, I have always liked doing good deeds without leaving my name behind, so in everyone's eyes, it would be better if you were the one who did this."
Her expression turned grave again as she looked down at her chest. "I thought this body should have been immortal and indestructible. I never expected Tai Xu Sword God to truly be able to kill me... It seems that, to eliminate every possible danger, I must find the strongest of the Seven Swords of Tai Xu, Cheng Lingshuang, and then kill her."
The Moon Witch and the Fallen Angel of Storms had once promised her death. She had once faced the end alongside Dawn's Fallen Angel. She had once pursued death, yet over the long passage of time, within this puppet body, she had long forgotten her original wish and chosen to follow the most primal desire in her heart.
To bring calamity to the world, to bring conflict to civilization.
Yet from beginning to end, she still obeyed that one's command.
"Ah... Lord Lucifer, glorious star of dawn... why did you abandon me?" She did not know how many times she had asked the stars. "Like everyone else, I was willing to offer everything for you. But why was I the one who survived? Boss Yu Feng..."