Chapter 21:

In the battle of the Dharma Manifestation, Xie Xuechen did his best to intercept the self-destruction of the Dharma Mirror Sovereign. However, the city of Yongxue still suffered significant damage. It took the Immortal Alliance three days to recover from their injuries, and on the fourth day, they convened a grand assembly to decide the fates of the Obsession Demon, the One-Thought Sovereign, and Mu Xuanling.

There was no objection regarding the handling of the Obsession Demon. After realizing they could not extract any valuable information from it, everyone agreed that the demon should be permanently imprisoned in Yongxue City. Even if they destroyed it completely, its demonic energy would return to the Void Sea and reform after a hundred years, giving rise to a new Demon God.

As for the One-Thought Sovereign, during the assembly, news arrived stating that he had taken his own life in a stone chamber, leaving behind a golden core infused with his entire cultivation power. A Dharma Manifestation Golden Core is an extremely powerful weapon, and this was his way of expressing remorse and apology.

Thus, the only remaining point of contention was the handling of Mu Xuanling.

When Fu Lansheng arrived outside the Hall of Righteousness, he saw Nan Xuyue standing quietly beneath a snow-laden pine tree. Nan’s tall, slender figure exuded a faint loneliness. His refined, handsome face bore a hint of melancholy, and his bright, clear eyes gazed distantly, lost in thought. Snowflakes fell silently onto his shoulders without him noticing.

Fu Lansheng sighed inwardly, stepped forward, brushed the snow from Nan’s shoulders, and brought him back to reality.

“Nan Xuyue, are you worried about Miss Ling?” Fu Lansheng’s mood was complex. “Actually, I had long suspected she was hiding something, but I never imagined she was the Holy Maiden of the Demon Race and a disciple of Sangqi. Did you… did you know beforehand?”

Fu Lansheng was unsure whether Nan Xuyue had also been deceived or had deliberately concealed the truth.

Nan Xuyue smiled faintly. “Of course I knew.”

“Then why—” Fu Lansheng frowned slightly.

“I trust her,” Nan Xuyue simply replied, silencing Fu’s many questions.

Fu Lansheng found himself momentarily at a loss for words.

Nan Xuyue took out a spatial pouch from his sleeve and handed it to Fu Lansheng. “This is what Ling asked me to give you.”

“What is it?” Fu Lansheng had barely asked when the pouch was suddenly torn open from inside. A round head popped out, along with two half-circular golden ears. He exclaimed in surprise, “Aobao?”

Aobao climbed out of the pouch and clung to Fu Lansheng’s palm. His large black eyes were filled with tears as he whimpered, “Brother, is Sister going to be okay?”

Nan Xuyue explained beside him, “On the day Ling was captured, she secretly threw the pouch to me. Later, when I visited her in the dungeon, she asked me to entrust Aobao to you, so that you could bring him to Bixiao Palace in the future to find Father.”

Fu Lansheng’s expression turned strange. “Then why didn’t she ask you for help?”

Nan Xuyue glanced at him. “Probably because she trusted you.”

Upon hearing this, Fu Lansheng felt that Mu Xuanling’s judgment of people was indeed quite accurate.

Actually, Mu Xuanling thought that Fu Lansheng possessed many treasures, and it would benefit Aobao’s cultivation to follow him. Moreover, the whereabouts of Fu Cangli were likely to be found in Bixiao Palace, so it was most appropriate to ask Fu Lansheng for help. Naturally, Fu’s character was also somewhat trustworthy, being someone Nan Xuyue had acknowledged.

Fu Lansheng gently pinched Aobao’s ear tip and said, “Your sister is probably going to face some difficulties this time.” Seeing Nan Xuyue looking at him, Fu sighed, “A couple of days ago, I saw Su Ningzhen come to visit my parents regarding the matter of Mu Xuanling. I don’t know what they discussed, but when Su Ningzhen left, she looked satisfied. I believe she must have received a promise from my parents to deal with Mu Xuanling together.”

Nan Xuyue furrowed his brow, showing concern. Currently, only four factions remained in the Immortal Alliance. Mirror Flower Valley and Bixiao Palace had formed an alliance, while Lingju Island was more likely to remain neutral. Thus, Xie Xuechen would have to face the pressure from the others alone.

At this moment, a barrier had been set up around the Hall of Righteousness, and no one knew what was happening inside. However, the assembly lasted nearly two hours, indicating that the process was not amicable.

Nan Xuyue had stood outside for two hours. When the doors of the Hall of Righteousness finally opened, he moved his feet and felt a dull ache from standing too long.

Although Su Ningzhen’s face bore a hint of displeasure, her mood was quite stable. It seemed that the result, while not exactly what she had requested, was close enough.

Gao Qiumin rushed to Su Ningzhen and anxiously asked about the decision regarding Mu Xuanling.

Su Ningzhen replied, “The Sect Leader has ordered that her demonic powers be stripped away, and she is to be imprisoned in Yongxue for three hundred years.”

Nan Xuyue’s heart sank. He turned his gaze to Xie Xuechen, who met his eyes with a cold, snowy stare and gave a slight nod.

Xie had witnessed the pain of demonic energy dispersing before. Forced power removal was even more agonizing—like having one’s bones sawed apart slowly with a blunt knife, experiencing the torment of having one’s tendons ripped out while fully conscious, enduring a pain akin to being pierced by a thousand arrows.

Imprisonment for three hundred years for a half-demon was essentially a death sentence.

Su Ningzhen said discontentedly, “Actually, given her status as the Holy Maiden of the Demon Race, executing her publicly on the battlefield to inspire the human race would be most effective.”

He Xianwo frowned. “How is that any different from the actions of demons?”

He Xianwo also believed that cultivating demonic techniques should not be tolerated, but executing someone in cold blood was inhumane. Moreover, Mu Xuanling had saved Xie Sect Leader’s life, so it was both morally and emotionally unacceptable to be so cruel. The two nearly clashed again inside the Hall of Righteousness, but Xie Xuechen merely released a bit of his pressure, calming them down.

In the end, Xie Xuechen agreed to strip her powers but refused to execute Mu Xuanling, instead sentencing her to three hundred years of imprisonment. Mirror Flower Valley and Bixiao Palace reluctantly agreed.

“Master Xie, now that the order has been given, why not carry out the punishment today?” Su Ningzhen glanced at the sky. It was midday, the snow had stopped, and the weather was clear and bright.

Nan Xuyue stepped forward and said solemnly, “Master Xie, she hasn’t fully recovered from her injuries…”

Xie Xuechen clenched his fists and said indifferently, “Bring her here.”

When Mu Xuanling emerged from the dungeon, the glaring sunlight caused her to shed tears. She lowered her head, and her tears slid down her slender chin, soaking into the gauze around her neck.

Mu Xuanling kept her eyes closed as guards led her by chains from the dungeon to the Hall of Righteousness. She counted each step—1,300 in total. Each step was agonizing. The scorching sun felt like hot oil pouring over her head. She clenched her palm to endure the burning pain, her knuckles turning white as blood seeped from her palm.

Mu Xuanling felt many eyes upon her—eyes filled with suspicion, hatred, concern, and pity.

Suddenly, someone forcefully pressed down on her shoulder, causing her to kneel involuntarily.

She kept her head lowered, and in her line of sight appeared snowy white robes. A familiar, cool aura enveloped her.

“The Holy Maiden of the Demon Race, Mu Xuanling, has cultivated demonic techniques and brought calamity to humanity. After deliberation by the Immortal Alliance, she is to have her demonic powers stripped and be imprisoned in Yongxue for three hundred years.”

She heard Xie Xuechen’s voice from above—calm and cold, yet with a hint of hoarseness barely perceptible.

She lifted her face slightly, opening her eyes a crack, but Xie’s face was blurry.

Beside her, Su Ningzhen sharply asked, “Demon girl, do you have anything to say?”

Mu Xuanling slightly furrowed her brow. Her pale lips parted slightly.

“Yes.”

Everyone held their breath, watching her.

Mu Xuanling tried hard to see Xie Xuechen clearly, but the noon sunlight stung her eyes, making them red and sore.

“Xie Xuechen…” she softly asked, “Has your wound healed?”

Under his wide sleeves, Xie Xuechen clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. He forced himself to steady his trembling voice. “It has healed.”

Mu Xuanling smiled faintly. “Then I can rest assured.”

No one expected her question to be so gentle. They exchanged shocked glances. What should have been a cold, cruel execution scene unexpectedly carried a hint of tender emotion. Su Ningzhen and Gao Qiumin glared darkly at the scene before them.

Suddenly, Xie Xuechen knelt halfway, bringing himself to Mu Xuanling’s eye level.

“Xuanling, I will personally strip your demonic powers,” Xie Xuechen said. “It might hurt a lot.”

Finally, Mu Xuanling saw his clear, handsome face. Reflected in his deep phoenix eyes was her own weary image. She smiled faintly at him. “I’m not afraid of the pain.”

Xie Xuechen’s cool fingertips touched her cheek but quickly withdrew. He stood up, stepped back three paces, spread his right hand, and an unusual surge of spiritual energy emanated from his palm, as if a storm was gathering. The surrounding spiritual energy rushed toward his palm. His snow-white sleeves billowed, and a sudden gust of wind and snow arose. Those with lower cultivation instinctively retreated to avoid the overwhelming pressure, except for Nan Xuyue, who remained rooted to the spot, watching the kneeling Mu Xuanling intently.

Xie Xuechen’s right hand felt as heavy as a thousand catties as he slowly raised his arm. The immense spiritual energy followed his movement. When his palm faced Mu Xuanling, the spiritual energy, mixed with fine snow, tightly surrounded her. Her frail, delicate body floated amidst the storm, her lavender dress billowing wildly in the gale, like a purple butterfly adrift in the tempest.

Mu Xuanling’s face suddenly turned deathly pale, beads of cold sweat trickling down her temples. Xie Xuechen’s spiritual power felt like blunt knives slicing through her body, while the fine snow scattered like salt over her wounds. Invisible threads of spiritual energy seeped through her pores into her flesh and bones, forcibly extracting every trace of demonic energy she had absorbed over the years.

“Ahhhh——”

Mu Xuanling bit her lip until it bled, but in the end, she couldn’t hold back a heart-wrenching scream of agony. A mouthful of hot blood sprayed out, staining the snow beneath her crimson. Under the scorching sun, wisps of demonic energy visibly seeped from her body. She was battered by a storm-like surge of spiritual power, tearing through her limbs and bones as if being flayed alive—the pain so unbearable that her body convulsed uncontrollably. Cold sweat drenched her heavy robes as she arched her slender neck. The white gauze wrapped around it fluttered away in the wind, revealing a reopened wound from which thin trails of blood trickled down. Like a crane with a broken neck, she appeared fragile yet hauntingly beautiful—a sight too tragic to bear, yet impossible to look away from.

Xie Xuechen’s grip on the sword had always been firm and decisive, but at this moment, it trembled slightly.

Just a little bit more…

Through his spiritual power, he sensed the fluctuations of demonic energy within her. Those invisible threads of spiritual energy were extensions of his touch. It was as if he could see every inch of her skin and trace every bone beneath her flesh, until all the dark demonic energy was completely expelled from her body. Only then did he tremble and withdraw the power from his palm.

The purple figure gracefully tumbled from the sky, landing into an embrace carrying the crisp fragrance of snow.

Mu Xuanling had lost consciousness, her face devoid of any color, her breathing so faint it was almost imperceptible. Only by holding her could one detect her weak heartbeat.

“Elder Xie,” Su Ningzhen suddenly stepped forward and said coldly, “With her demonic powers completely dissipated, this is precisely when the witch is at her most vulnerable. I believe we should subject her to the Heart Inquiry!”

The Heart Interrogation is a human interrogation technique. When the prisoner is unconscious or mentally weak, it invades their mind to extract the truth, ensuring they cannot lie. However, this method is extremely cruel and may cause irreversible psychological damage to the victim—severe cases may result in lifelong coma, while milder cases can leave them mentally impaired.

Xie Xuechen cast a cold glance at Su Ningzhen.

“Valley Master Su, Mu Xuanling has lost her powers and is imprisoned. She is now just an ordinary half-demon, no longer the Demon Clan’s Holy Maiden. There is no need for her to undergo your Heart Inquiry.”

The chilling, murderous aura emanating from Xie Xuechen sent a shiver down Su Ningzhen’s spine. Steeling herself, she insisted, “She must know many of Sang Qi’s secrets—this will be crucial for our victory in this battle!”

Before Su Ningzhen could finish her words, a golden light sword suddenly appeared before her eyes, its sharp tip fully extended and pointing directly between her brows.

It’s the Jun Tian Sword!

Su Ningzhen stared in disbelief at the Jun Tian Sword before her. The esteemed leader of the Immortal Alliance was actually pointing his sword at her—all for the sake of a half-demon girl!

Xie Xuechen held Mu Xuanling tightly in his arms, his phoenix-like eyes sweeping over the crowd before his tall, imposing figure gradually disappeared into the distance.

“From this day forth, Mu Xuanling belongs to the City of Snow.”

Everyone watched as the white-clad figure vanished, and the oppressive pressure abruptly lifted, allowing them all to breathe a sigh of relief. However, their expressions quickly turned solemn once more.

Su Ningzhen fiercely flung the dust of the world, shattering a stone pillar in half with a resounding crash as it collapsed.

“So this is what Sect Leader Xie intended,” Su Ningzhen said with a livid expression. “Calling it imprisonment when it’s actually protection, huh… Can prisoners of Yongxue City truly be considered its people?”

If Fu Yuanting had any doubts before, they were all dispelled at this moment. Xie Xuechen would never allow anyone to kill Mu Xuanling, whether out of genuine affection or moral duty. Though he didn’t know what grudge Su Ningzhen held against Sang Qi, Su Ningzhen harbored an implacable hatred toward Mu Xuanling that demanded her death. With her powers dissipated, Mu Xuanling stood no chance against Su Ningzhen, and this was the only way Xie Xuechen could protect her.

“Who would have thought that Sect Leader Xie is also a man of sentiment,” murmured Fu Lansheng softly. Suddenly, he noticed an empty space beside him. Turning his head, he saw only the lonely and frail figure of Nan Xuyue, gradually disappearing into the endless snowstorm.

Xie Xuechen gently placed Mu Xuanling on the bed. Her body was already drenched in cold sweat, with stray strands of hair clinging to her pale cheeks, and her breathing was barely audible. Xie Xuechen sat on the edge of the bed, pressing the palm of his right hand against Mu Xuanling’s abdomen as a warm stream of spiritual energy slowly flowed into her meridians.

She had originally cultivated demonic arts, and the demonic energy clashed with his spiritual power. But now that the demonic arts had dissipated, his spiritual power could enter her body to nourish her severely damaged meridians.

However, dissipating his power would cause too much damage to his body, so he could only carefully divide his spiritual energy into countless fine threads, silently and gently mending her injuries. This was no easy task for anyone—it required splitting his focus into thousands of strands, monitoring the changes in each thread. After half an hour, Xie Xuechen began to feel a blockage in the flow of his spiritual energy and had no choice but to temporarily withdraw it.

Mu Xuanling’s face remained pale, her heartbeat seemed slightly stronger, but her breathing was still weak, and she had not yet fully passed the critical period.

Xie Xuechen noticed she was drenched and immediately cast a cleansing spell to remove the sweat and bloodstains from her body. His gaze then lingered on the wound at her neck.

Her sleeve was torn, and there was a sword wound on her arm. It seemed she had used some miraculous medicine, as the wound had already healed and scabbed over, leaving only a faint pink scar. The injury on her neck wasn’t originally deep, but since she hadn’t applied any flesh-regenerating powder, it had split open again today.

Xie Xuechen lifted the long hair at her neck and carefully applied ointment from a small bottle to the wound. The skin beneath his fingertips was pale and delicate, making the injury appear even more ghastly and horrifying.

He knew who had hurt her and who had bandaged her wounds. Was there truly not a trace of resentment in her heart?

Xie Xuechen’s gaze rested upon her sleeping face.

“You didn’t have to come into the city with me,” Xie Xuechen said unconsciously. “That day, you also didn’t need to deal with the Obsessed Demon.”

He naturally understood why Mu Xuanling did this. A person born with ten spiritual apertures hears and sees far more than ordinary people. Thus, he gradually realized that her seemingly playful confession was brimming with sincerity.

But he still could not understand where that sincerity came from.

His cool fingertips gently brushed over her delicate eyebrows and eyes. Xie Xuechen lowered his gaze and whispered, “Forgive me for being unable to reciprocate your sincerity.”

He had already decided to remain alone for the rest of his life, and any flicker of affection toward her would be suppressed at its inception.

“But… I will do everything in my power to protect you.” This was a vow made by a Dharma Manifestation Sovereign, sworn before his Dao heart.