Hong Yao watched Lou Yunxiao's figure disappear into the distance.
She let out a soft sigh.
Then she dispelled the illusion.
The decapitated members of the Demon Clan in the snow vanished instantly, leaving not a trace behind.
With his cultivation completely destroyed, Ning Ke had no way to distinguish illusion from reality.
So he had no idea that Lou Yunxiao had not truly killed those members of the Demon Clan.
It was this ignorance that would lead to an even greater tragedy later.
Every day after that, Lou Yunxiao tied Ning Ke up outside and secured him to a chair.
He forced Ning Ke to watch him torture and slaughter the "Demon Clan" with his own eyes.
Ten, a hundred, a thousand...
The corpses piled up into a mountain.
Ning Ke broke down sobbing and bashed his head open, but it failed to stir even the slightest mercy in Lou Yunxiao.
Until one day, he threw himself and the chair to the ground, smashing his eyes against a sharp stone.
His ruined eyes finally lost their sight.
He could no longer see the living hell before him.
And amid the relentless rounds of torment, he finally found a sliver of clarity.
That sliver of clarity only made him more deeply aware of his current plight.
And of exactly what consequences his sins had brought about.
He stopped crying, stopped begging for mercy, and simply lay motionless beside the stone that had blinded him.
Like... a lifeless corpse.
Lou Yunxiao walked over, seized him by the hair, and forced Ning Ke to face him.
"Do you think blinding yourself will let you escape this torment? Ning Ke, you're far too-"
"I've... paid you... back..."
The faint words emerged in a hideously harsh voice.
They cut Lou Yunxiao off.
And