Liu Yiyi, Her Mind in Turmoil

In a secluded private room.

"Mm..."

A soft murmur, thick with discomfort and pain, broke the silence in the room.

Liu Yiyi's long lashes fluttered a few times. As if breaking free of a thousand-pound burden, she slowly opened her eyes.

The haze of waking lingered in her cool eyes for only a brief moment before the scene before her dispelled it.

Beside her lay Su Yan, still asleep, her delicate brows furrowed. Around them, the floor was in disarray.

At first, Liu Yiyi froze, her mind a blank, as though her memories had been forcibly severed.

Then, in the next instant—

Memories laced with sharp pain and suffocating humiliation flashed through her mind like bolts of lightning.

Hu Tian's false invitation and that cup of clear tea...

Zhang Xu's hideous, smug face...

The strange, unquenchable heat that had suddenly flared within her, the strength draining from her body, the collapse of her reason...

Then came that white-haired figure, bursting through the door like a divine soldier descending from the heavens, and the earth-shattering punch that sent Zhang Xu crashing into the lake.

After that... there was herself and Su Yan, utterly out of control...

In the end, she remembered only that icy water seemed to have been poured over her... dulling the heat within her...

What made her feel even more mortified was...

In her memories, it seemed that she and Su Yan had been the ones to take the initiative, while the white-haired elder had been passive the entire time.

What unbearable shame and disgrace!

If only she could, she wished with all her heart that everything had been nothing but a nightmare.

Once she awoke, it would all be over.

She would still be the cool and self-possessed Liu Yiyi, devoted to the martial path, the unattainable jewel of the Martial Academy, and the daughter her father took pride in.

But...

An agony of cruel intensity reminded her.

This was no dream.

It had all been so terribly real.

The memories in her mind were too chaotic.

She truly couldn't tell whether she had lost the most important thing of all.

At that thought, Liu Yiyi, whose will had always been as unyielding as iron, who had endured broken bones and fractures through sheer grit while training and had never shed a single tear, felt a torrent of despair, fury, humiliation, and boundless sorrow crash through the last dam in her heart.

"Ah—!!!"

A sob, suppressed to the utmost and finally impossible to contain, burst from her throat.

It was no longer a cool, quiet weeping, but a heart-rending wail, as if she meant to cry out her very insides.

Her tears burst forth like a river breaking its banks, streaming down her exquisite face, still tinged with an unnatural flush but now pale as paper.

She curled up, shoulders convulsing as she trembled with sobs, as if pouring out all her pain, all her grievances, all her hatred with those tears.

The cries rang like a funeral bell, finally rousing Su Yan from her sleep on the other side.

"Mm..."

Su Yan's eyelids twitched. She opened her eyes, dazed.

The first thing she saw was Liu Yiyi, on the verge of breaking down as she wept.

She was still groggy, her head heavy. Shattered images from the previous night flashed through her mind, but for a moment she couldn't piece them together.

However, when she tried to move—

A stab of pain, like a cold blade, instantly pierced through her confusion and wishful thinking.

"..."

Su Yan's body went rigid, her pupils contracting sharply.

At that moment, every fragment of memory slammed back into place, forming a complete picture just as unbearable, humiliating, and despairing as Liu Yiyi's.

She had lost...

The cherished eldest daughter of the Su Family, raised with loving care and admired and pursued by countless people, who had once dreamed of a beautiful future with the man she would marry; the Su Yan who always wore a gentle, gracious smile but had a pride of her own deep inside... just a short while ago—

She had lost the most precious thing of all.

"Whimper... ah..."

A low sob, as if forced out from the depths of her soul, escaped Su Yan's throat.

An overwhelming sense of absurdity, a devastating blow, and endless fear and bewilderment about the future swept over her like an icy tide, swallowing her whole.

Then there were two of them weeping aloud.

Liu Yiyi's sobs were those of someone shattered, pouring out her anguish with the despair of one ready to destroy everything.

Su Yan's weeping had begun as a restrained, muffled sound... but gradually, it too became a heart-rending lament.

The two girls who were usually as cool as snow or gentle as flowers now seemed like people abandoned in the wilderness, subjected to the cruelest of wounds.

They said nothing to one another. Only their endless tears streamed down their pale cheeks.

No one knew how long they cried.

Liu Yiyi's sobs gradually faded, becoming broken, intermittent gasps.

She raised her slightly trembling jade-like hand, still streaked with tears, and roughly wiped her swollen eyes. Her beautiful eyes, once cool as cold stars, were now bloodshot, but in the depths of her boundless sorrow, a cold and resolute flame slowly kindled.

The next moment—

She turned her hand into a palm, gathered her strength, and tried to strike her own head.

Fortunately, Su Yan noticed Liu Yiyi's movement at once. She lunged forward as fast as lightning, grabbed Liu Yiyi's hands, and cried out:

"Have you gone mad? You're trying to kill yourself!"

Held down, Liu Yiyi struggled, but the combined exhaustion of her body and spirit left her unable to break free.

Her face was pale as paper. She shook her head, eyes vacant, neither quite crying nor quite composed. Her voice was so faint it sounded like a murmur in a dream, yet it carried a despair that broke the heart. "My chastity is gone. What meaning is there in staying alive..."

At her words, Su Yan paused.

Then she drew a deep breath, forcing herself to reclaim a sliver of reason from the crushing grief and shame.

She raised a sleeve and forcefully wiped the tears from her face. Fixing Liu Yiyi with a steady gaze, she spoke clearly and firmly, one word at a time:

"Yiyi, listen to me! This isn't our fault! That beast Zhang Xu plotted against us. We were the victims! We were innocent people caught up in this!"

Her voice gradually steadied, her reasoning growing clearer, as though she was trying to convince not only Liu Yiyi but also herself, who had nearly been swallowed by despair just moments earlier.

"If we throw away our lives because of a villain's scheme, because of a moment of humiliation, that would be an awful waste! Especially when it comes to that beast Zhang Xu!"

"Even if he's dead, if he knew we'd killed ourselves because of this, he'd probably be laughing in the underworld! Why should we use our lives to make his wickedness triumph?!"

"And besides..." Su Yan glanced around the sealed private room. Her voice dropped, but her conviction rang firm as a nail driven into wood. "Heaven and earth know, and you and I know!"

"As long as we don't tell anyone, no one else will ever find out! Our reputations won't suffer any real harm!"

She paused, seeming to reach a decision. Her tone even took on a stubborn, almost petulant note. "At worst, we just won't get married in the future..."

"In this world, women don't necessarily have to rely on men to survive!"

As one would expect of a wealthy young lady, Su Yan's thoughts moved quickly, and her words were well-reasoned.

A few short sentences not only stopped Liu Yiyi, but also persuaded Su Yan herself.

After all, when she had cried out in despair, she too had thought of ending it all.

The resolute wish for death in Liu Yiyi's beautiful eyes began to waver and fade beneath the force of Su Yan's clear, firm words.

The strength gathered in her palm dissipated like air escaping a punctured ball.

Still, the heaviest, most unspeakable stone in her heart continued to press down on her until she could barely breathe.

Her lips moved soundlessly for a long while before she finally managed to utter a few words in a voice barely above a whisper. "Then... that person..."

Liu Yiyi stopped short, but Su Yan already understood who she meant.

The white-haired elder who had appeared like a divine soldier descending from the heavens and shattered Zhang Xu with a single punch. He was also the most crucial figure in their unbearable memories.

And the person they least wanted to speak of at that moment.

"Yiyi..." Su Yan's gaze grew deep and cool as she carefully recalled the fleeting glimpse she had caught the previous night. "That person's strength is definitely at least at the Dark Strength level, possibly even higher. My father has kept close track of almost every renowned Dark Strength expert in and around Anxi County, and I've heard of most of them or seen their portraits. But that man... his features were old, yet his movements were so fierce. I don't recognize him at all."

She pondered, then slowly analyzed the situation. "I think he was probably just passing through, or perhaps he's an expert hiding in Anxi County. He's no ordinary person."

"Besides... if he really meant us harm, given his strength and what happened earlier, there's no way we'd still be sitting here, safe and sound, talking."

Her gaze swept over herself and Liu Yiyi. "He... doesn't seem to have taken advantage of us or crossed any lines. It was more like... we..."

She was too ashamed to say the rest, but the meaning was clear.

"So..." Su Yan drew a deep breath and arrived at her conclusion with a strikingly levelheaded look. "I think that man was a stranger we happened to meet. Perhaps he stepped in because he couldn't stand seeing injustice, or maybe... he had some other reason. Afterward, he quietly left, without trying to threaten or blackmail us. He has nothing to gain by revealing this, and he could only invite trouble for himself. He... probably won't tell anyone."

Hearing this, Liu Yiyi gave a quiet sigh of relief and silently lowered the jade-like hand she had nearly used to take her own life.

She agreed with Su Yan's reasoning and reassurance.

After all, in those unbearable memories, the white-haired elder seemed more like someone they had forced.

"Yiyi, we have to keep living!"

Su Yan clasped Liu Yiyi's icy hand and said solemnly:

"Didn't you say before that your lifelong dream was to reach the pinnacle of the martial path and become the first female Martial Saint in the Zhou Kingdom?"

At that, a glimmer of light gradually appeared in Liu Yiyi's tear-reddened eyes.

That was right. Her martial path had only just begun. How could she end it here?

The next moment—

For some reason, the indistinct figure of that white-haired elder flashed through her mind again, accompanied by a faint, unsettling sense of familiarity.

"Who could you be?"