Inside the Yun Clan ancestral hall courtyard.
Yun He's petite body remained prostrate on the ground, utterly motionless.
Though that terrifying pressure had weakened greatly with the announcement of the rewards, it still lay upon her like invisible shackles, making it impossible for her to move in the slightest.
She clearly heard every reward proclaimed by those two vast, authoritative voices.
The fear and despair in her heart gradually receded like a tide.
In their place came a thread of relief, along with excitement she could scarcely suppress.
The clan was safe.
Not only was it safe, but it had also received unimaginable, heaven-sent benefits enough to alter the clan's fate!
Yet beneath that indescribable relief and excitement, the humiliation and unwillingness she had forcibly buried in the deepest recesses of her heart had not vanished like seeds deeply planted beneath the earth.
Instead, set against the backdrop of such dazzling heavenly favor, they became even more glaring, even more deeply etched.
Why?
Why did the Yun Clan have to suffer such humiliation—being handled at others' whim and having its dignity trampled without restraint?
Was it because the Yun Clan had once been weak?
Was it because they lacked the strength to resist?
Her pearly teeth bit tightly into her lower lip. A faint taste of blood spread through her mouth, stinging her tongue and her nerves alike.
Her eyes, once dimmed by fear, were now tinged with irrepressible joy over the clan's immense good fortune.
Yet deep within that joy, the coldness and stubbornness in her gaze were like tempered steel, growing all the more intense and resolute.
Slowly, deeply, she drew in a breath, as though she wished to inhale this tangled air of humiliation, resentment, joy, and hope into her lungs and carve it into her soul.