Good.

This confession, which should have been the sweetest in the world, now resembled the most vicious Curse, completely destroying Qian Renxue's last shred of support!

"Our teacher... she herself is struggling with immense pain and confusion... she doesn't know how to face it... she doesn't know how to handle this... this absurd relationship between the three of us..."

Lin Xia looked at Qian Renxue's face, which had lost all color and her eyes were completely empty. His heart ached terribly, but he had to finish what he was saying.

"But there's one thing she's absolutely adamant about! She believes you have an absolute right to know!"

"This relationship concerns you, her, and me... She can no longer hide it, and she can't keep you in the dark either!"

Even knowing the truth would bring immense pain... she insisted that I tell you the whole truth! Because... you are her daughter! And... and my lover!

"The right to know... the truth..."

Qian Renxue murmured these words repeatedly, each one as if she were chewing on her own flesh and blood.

An indescribable chill spread from the deepest part of her heart, instantly freezing her limbs and bones.

Lin Xia's face began to blur and spin before her eyes, and the magnificent palace furnishings around her seemed to turn into distorted, mocking ghosts.

The loud buzzing in her ears drowned out all of Lin Xia's subsequent words.

The whole world collapsed and shattered beneath her feet.

She could not feel the ground; the strength supporting her body was instantly drained away, as if her soul had left her body.

Before her consciousness completely sank into darkness, she only heard the dull thud of her knees hitting the carpet, and then her body slumped uncontrollably to one side.

"Bang... Crash..."

Qian Renxue didn't fall completely to the ground; half of her body knocked over the low table next to her.

An exquisite glass vase and a priceless jade tea set on the low table crashed to the ground with a dull thud, shattering into a mess of sparkling fragments and spilled tea.

Qian Renxue sat half-curled up on the cold carpet, between the broken glass and the warm tea, her long golden hair cascading down, obscuring most of her face.

Her body trembled slightly and uncontrollably, like a leaf withering in the cold wind.

Those golden eyes, once as proud as the blazing sun, now stared blankly, devoid of focus, as if their very soul had been ripped away, leaving only boundless bewilderment and emptiness.

She slumped there, motionless.

Shocking?

No, that's not enough to describe how she felt at that moment.

That was the complete collapse of faith!

The two most important pillars in her life—her blood-related mother and her lover with whom she had entrusted her life and death—collapsed before her eyes and became entangled in a way she had never imagined, the most blasphemous and twisted!

It was the nothingness beneath her feet, the very foundation of the world shattered into dust!

It's like your soul being frozen in the deepest, most desperate ice cave!

She opened her mouth, wanting to scream, to question, to roar, to tear this absurdity to shreds!

But her throat felt as if it were blocked by scalding lava, or Ice Seal by extreme cold; apart from extremely suppressed, broken gasps, she couldn't utter a single sound.

A million thoughts were clashing wildly in my mind:

Mother... Bibi Dong... the Pope who was so dignified, powerful, yet also deeply wounded and distant in her eyes... actually harbored feelings for her disciple... for Lin Xia...

Lin Xia... the Xiao Xia she entrusted her trust and feelings to... the Holy Son who promised to protect her and the future of the Spirit Hall... actually... also likes her mother?!

Healing? Heartfelt support? Support

It turns out that the occasional warm tenderness her mother had shown over the years, those moments she thought were due to the repair of their mother-daughter relationship, actually stemmed from this forbidden affection directed at Lin Xia?!

And she... her beloved and cherished love... had become a knife piercing the deepest part of her mother's soul?

Did it become the fuse that triggered the Rakshasa Divine Sense and nearly devoured the mother completely?!

The right to know... how ironic!

How cruel is this right to know!

She'd rather be kept in the dark forever!

I'd rather live in this false peace!

The overwhelming sense of absurdity, the tearing pain of being betrayed by both her closest relatives, the indescribable shame, and the unspeakable anger and disappointment towards her mother and Lin Xia... were like millions of red-hot steel needles, piercing every nerve in her body and then churning and churning wildly!

Her soul screamed and wailed, but it was frozen in that stiff, limp body.

The palace was deathly silent, save for the cold candlelight reflected off shards of glass on the carpet, and Qian Renxue's barely audible yet heart-wrenching gasps.

Venusaur paced anxiously outside the door, uttering low "Dana... Dana...", but dared not venture into the eye of the storm.

Lin Xia stood frozen in place, his outstretched hand hovering in mid-air, his fingertips trembling slightly. Looking at the noble angel who had fallen into the dust and debris, seemingly devoid of all life, a tremendous heartache and sense of powerlessness overwhelmed him like a tsunami.

Lin Xia's heart clenched violently, and a tremendous heartache and sense of powerlessness swallowed him up like the gaping maw of Abyss.

He looked at Qian Renxue, this proud angel who, at this moment, resembled a fledgling with shattered wings, huddled amidst the cold dust and heartbroken devastation.

She needed him, yet she was also pushing him away forcefully.

He understood that tearing pain, understood that the overwhelming wave of betrayal by both loved ones could drown anyone. He shifted his feet, his body instinctively leaning forward, wanting to pull her into his arms regardless of the consequences, even if it meant facing the most insane rage and hatred.

Just then, a faint light seemed to gather in those empty eyes, focusing on the feet he was trying to approach.

Qian Renxue's body trembled violently, as if pierced by invisible thorns. With the last of her strength, she buried her face deeper into her knees, her voice hoarse and broken, yet carrying an undeniable sharpness and resistance, like the final warning roar of a wounded beast:

"Don't come any closer! Let me... have some peace and quiet!"

Every word seemed to be forcibly ripped from a shattered throat, laced with blood and ice shards.

Lin Xia's steps seemed to be nailed to the spot.

The word "also" in the phrase "let me have some peace and quiet" struck him like a heavy hammer.

He instantly understood that Qian Renxue was echoing what he had said to his teacher earlier.

She knew. She knew everything.

She understood the urgency of needing to lick one's wounds alone, just as she felt at that moment.

He could no longer force her; any approach at this moment would be yet another slow torture of her broken soul.

Lin Xia slowly and heavily withdrew his foot, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, his nails digging deep into his palms, the slight stinging pain reminding him to stay awake.

He responded in a low, hoarse voice to Qian Renxue's blurry, refusal-to-face-the-world silhouette, his voice so soft it was almost drowned out by his sobs:

"... good."