The deathly stillness in the cold secret chamber lingered.
Tian Feixue sat upright on a jade chair, her slender fingertips curling slightly. Her gaze drifted in turmoil as scattered fancies and tremors in her heart spread unchecked, stirring ripples across her steadfast Dao Heart.
The next instant, her mind jolted, and she suddenly came back to herself, sternly rebuking herself inwardly.
No, no! Tian Feixue, what nonsense are you thinking?!
The moment that sober thought arose, a tempest abruptly surged within the depths of her sea of consciousness.
A scarlet, sinister phantom slowly rose from the abyss of memories sealed away for ten thousand years. Its outline was cold and sharp, its aura chilling to the bone, carrying the pain and obsession accumulated over countless eras as it tightly entrenched itself within her sea of consciousness.
The red phantom's voice was shrill and icy, like a biting cold wind whispering endlessly beside her ears. Every word pierced her heart, viciously tearing at the long-sealed scars of her past:
"Have you forgotten? Was the irredeemable ruin that love once brought you not painful enough?"
"Those heart-rending wounds have endured through endless years without ever fully healing. Are you going to repeat the same mistake, let love shackle your Dao Heart again, and destroy your own cultivation?"
With those words, countless fragmented scenes from the past instantly flooded her mind.
The sincerity that had been betrayed, the despair of betrayal, the miserable past where love had dragged down her cultivation and nearly caused her death and the dissipation of her Dao—everything surged like a raging tide.
The old pain bored into her bones and heart, instantly suppressing all her earlier fluttering thoughts and fancies. Tian Feixue's mind turned cold, and a layer of frost once more covered her eyes.
This was the