Bing Qing Fairy collapsed to the ground, limp. The sheer veil covering her face had fallen away in her struggles, revealing a countenance that was once exquisitely beautiful, captivating half the Jianghu. Now, however, it was twisted by extreme fear and resentment.
She tilted her head back, staring up at the figure who had shed all pretense. He stood with his hands clasped behind him, a silhouette like a god or a demon. "Why?" she rasped. "You clearly have this kind of power—enough to overturn everything. Why did you pretend to be a useless weakling? Why target my Xuan Nu Palace? Why did you have to ruin me?"
Xia Wuyang gazed down at her, his expression cold and distant, as if observing an ant. He paid her no mind. "Why the disguise? To survive, of course. To wait for this very day, so I could give enemies like you a monumental surprise."
His voice was calm and steady, yet it carried a bone-chilling cold. "As for Xuan Nu Palace... when you coerced Yun Liyue, did you ever stop to ask yourself why? When you kept your male concubines, practiced your Evil Techniques, and treated human life as worthless, did you ever wonder why? I am merely cleaning up a den of filth. Is there anything wrong with that?"
Xia Wuyang paused for a moment before continuing, "You meticulously plotted to seek me out for revenge, thinking that by killing this ’old good-for-nothing,’ you could make Yun Liyue suffer? You had no idea that your so-called vengeance was nothing more than a laughable attempt at walking right into a trap, at least in my eyes."
A mocking smirk graced the corner of his mouth, the ridicule palpable.
Every word was like a poison-coated icicle, plunging viciously into Bing Qing Fairy’s heart. A chill wracked her body, and she felt as if she were plummeting into the Forest of Hell.
All her schemes, all her hatred, that sliver of malicious hope she’d felt after snatching victory from the jaws of defeat—it all seemed so laughable, so pathetic now.
Not only had she failed to get her revenge, but she had also hand-delivered her last chance at survival to her greatest enemy. If word of this ever got out, she wondered how long the world would mock her.
A year? Two? Three? Or perhaps ten, twenty, thirty years... She would become the laughingstock of the Jianghu, finding no peace even in death.
Despair, like the deepest, coldest abyss, swallowed her whole.
She remembered the numb, pleading eyes of the men in the Jade Warm Pavilion. She remembered the flames that had engulfed Xuan Nu Palace, soaring into the sky. She remembered the scorn and curses of the Jianghu... In the end, it all coalesced into the indifferent face before her now—the very face that had sent her plummeting from her peak into the abyss.
"Haha... HAHAHA... Xia Wuyang, you are ruthless! Such a brilliant scheme! I, Bing Qing Fairy, will not let you go even as a ghost! Kill me if you have the guts!" she suddenly shrieked with laughter, her voice filled with madness and despair.
Xia Wuyang didn’t spare her another glance. He raised a hand and pressed down through the air.
An invisible wave of Spiritual Power, as vast as a starry sea, invaded Bing Qing Fairy’s undefended Sea of Consciousness and began to wreak havoc.
He activated the Soul Enchantment Technique. In that instant, Bing Qing Fairy felt herself plunge into a boundless Illusion Realm, with no sense of where she was.
She saw her most secret shames exposed for all the world to see, earning the contempt of everyone. She saw the concubines she had toyed with and tormented transform into vengeful spirits, tearing at her Soul day and night, never allowing her a moment’s peace. She saw the broken ruins of Xuan Nu Palace, where countless disciples lay in rivers of their own blood, screaming the most vile curses at her...
Reality and Illusion intertwined. Tormented by fear and regret, her Spirit rapidly collapsed. Her eyes lost focus, and meaningless, hoarse gurgles escaped her lips. She seemed to have been reduced to a drooling imbecile.
Xia Wuyang watched it all unfold, his expression impassive, without a flicker of emotion.
’For a duplicitous, black-hearted person like her, death isn’t the most severe punishment. In fact, it would be letting her off too easily.’
’Letting her clearly perceive her life’s work turning to dust amidst endless fear and regret, having all her ugliness laid bare, and finally experiencing the complete annihilation of her Spirit—that is the most fitting reward. The best revenge.’
He didn’t kill her immediately. Instead, he used his Spiritual Power with exquisite control to make her relive every detail of Xuan Nu Palace’s destruction within the Illusion Realm—forcing her to experience its most painful moments again and again.
She experienced the accusations of her concubines, the condemnation of the Jianghu, the utter ruin of her reputation... Time stretched within her consciousness. Every moment felt as long and agonizing as a year, until she could barely breathe.
An unknown amount of time passed. When Bing Qing Fairy’s pupils had lost all light, when her breath had become as faint as a gossamer thread and the flame of her Soul was on the verge of being extinguished, only then did Xia Wuyang flick a finger.
A sliver of fine, yet condensed, Sword Qi pierced the vital point between her eyebrows.
Bing Qing Fairy’s body shuddered once. Her last spark of life was extinguished. She breathed no more.
Those eyes, which once shone with every glance and were as cold as frost, were now forever frozen in boundless fear and emptiness. They reflected the cold light of the Luminous Pearl on the ceiling of the Practice Room, and in their depths, regret and despair.
Thus, the Mistress of the Profound Lady Palace, once renowned throughout the Jianghu but in reality utterly corrupt, met her end. In the very place she had chosen for her meticulously planned revenge, before her greatest enemy, she concluded her sinful and laughable life in the most desperate and ironic way imaginable.
With a wave of his sleeve, Xia Wuyang sent an invisible force to wrap around Bing Qing Fairy’s corpse, carrying it to a corner of the Practice Room designated for disposing of refuse.
A splash of Corpse-Dissolving Water descended. The body that once held a thousand charms, the "jade-like" form that countless men of the Jianghu had lusted after, melted into a putrid puddle. Soon, even that evaporated, dissipating along with all her clothing, vanishing from the world without a single trace.
It was as if no one had infiltrated Wenhua Hall tonight. As if nothing had happened at all.
Xia Wuyang walked to the window and pushed it open a crack.
The post-rain night breeze, carrying cool moisture, rushed in. It washed away the last faint traces of blood and resentment in the room, leaving the air fresh once more.
He gazed in the direction of the palace where Yun Liyue resided. His eyes softened for an instant, then returned to their usual impassive stillness.
’The Deep Palace is a prison, and the hearts of men are like ghosts,’ he thought. Another specter who sought its own demise had silently dissipated into the endless night of the palace grounds, never to appear again.
And the true hunter remained cloaked in the guise of a decrepit fool, lying in wait within the abyss, anticipating the next prey... or the moment he would bare his fangs and tear the entire cage asunder.
Xia Wuyang was in no hurry. He was still hidden, yet his retribution continued. His vengeance proceeded apace. He could remain in the shadows and savor the agony on his enemies’ faces. ’This is far more gratifying than revealing myself outright.’
’Besides, it minimizes my risk. After all, the current Emperor Xia and the old ancestor of the Great Xia Dynasty are no simpletons.’
’This is for my own safety. And besides, torturing them for a while longer will be enjoyable. How could I let them die so easily?’
Outside the window, the crescent moon emerged from behind the clouds, its pale face coldly observing the Imperial City—a place that had buried countless secrets and lost souls. It, too, seemed to wear a mocking sneer.

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