The silence was now deafening.
None of them dared speak, their minds overwheld by the shocking revelation. Chen Wuji, the most calm and composed strategist, could not decide what to believe and what not to…
He noticed San Ji's confusion and the doubts and disbelief in the eyes of Qiuan Yu, but what shocked him the most was Hong i's reaction.
Despite how much they fought and hated each other, Hong i imdiately rushed to deny the possibility of XianJing's betrayal.
"What is the aning of this, Emperor?" Hong i slamd her hands on the table and stood up from her seat, pointing at him with no respect for his position and fear of his strength.
"No matter how infuriating and a pain in the ass this woman is," XingJian looked at Hong i as she stood up to defend her, but the words coming out of her mouth made her eyebrows twitch. "There is no way she is compromised, or you would not have revealed all of that information without checking."
Chen Wuji felt bolt after bolt of thunder striking his mind. Not only did Hong i disrespect the emperor, who could wipe them all out, but she suddenly gained a sharp mind that ca up with very reasonable argunts.
'I am really surprised and amazed that you can use your mind like that, i i, but can you not talk to the emperor in that tone?' He thought with sweat trickling down the back of his neck as one of his eyes was fixed on the silent emperor.
XingJian didn't falter, seeing Wuhan staring at her blankly, ignoring Hong i's argunts. Instead, she stood up with a straight posture and an unnerving calmness. "So this is how it ends?" Her voice, laced with bitterness, echoed. "A shadow in a mirror condemns ?" She looked around at the others, whose stares ranged from disbelief to dawning horror.
"I have given my life to my sect, to the empire. Now this farce?" She scoffed, her shoulders shaking slightly.
But Wuhan's eyes did not flinch.
If she was acting, Chen Wuji was sold, as were the others. But they still could not understand why the emperor would do sothing like this in the eting.
"Why are you silent?!" Getting no answers, Hong i was enraged; the energy around her body pulsed, but Chen Wuji reacted fast and appeared beside her, placing a firm hold on her shoulder.
"i, don't be rash." He tried to calm the woman down, but his actions only enraged her.
She swatted his hand and bellowed at him, "Are you seriously taking his side? I never knew you were so spineless! He is bullying us all, and you are telling to stay calm? What right does he have?!"
"I have the rights of the strong and the authority of an emperor." With chilling words and a domineering aura that made Hong i's flaring aura disappear, Wuhan stood up.
The soft rustle of his robes seed louder than thunder in the hushed room.
His hand rose, and a golden ripple of energy surged forth, instantly freezing XingJian where she stood.
A do of silvery light encapsulated her, containing her power before she could retaliate. As she was about to retaliate, golden chains rose from the ground and wrapped themselves around her arms.
The subtle glow on her storage ring vanished as another set of chains appeared, restraining her feet.
"Stop this—!" Chen Wuji shouted, moving towards the emperor to stop him, but Wuhan silenced him with a single raised palm.
Boom!
A burst of energy was conjured from his palm, rushing towards the leader of the Spirit Lotus Sect. Caught off guard, Chen Wuji was struck by the palm attack and sent crashing into the wall behind him.
"Wuji-!!!" Hong i panicked watching the glassed sect leader crash against the wall and cough up a mouthful of blood. She turned around, ready to attack Wuhan, letting out an enraged battle cry. Two powerful and intimidating cauldrons appeared, floating by her side. "Argh!"
The other two n were also ready to attack when they froze, seeing Wuhan suddenly appearing before their chained friend. Reaching into his storage ring once more, Wuhan retrieved a small obsidian prism laced with silver runes.
As he activated it, it floated above his hand, casting a gentle glow that pulsed with a soothing rhythm. A warm light clicked at the tip of the prism and moved through the trapped woman's body, searching for sothing on her or within her.
"She's not fully gone," Once the prism was done with the scanning, he turned to look at the stunned Hong i and said flatly. "Only a part of her soul is affected. Which ans we can still save her, destroying the part of her soul."
XingJian flinched hearing those words; her finger with the storage ring on it twitched, only to feel the restraints on her body tightening and the chains slithering onto her palm, covering her finger like a living snake.
"You want to warn others about this artifact?" Wuhan saw through her act and snorted coldly, "I have already covered the whole place; there is no way in or out. Even the space around us is locked down. So no matter what ans you use, you cannot send any intel outside."
Hearing those words, the look on XingJian's face twisted into sothing dark and sothing… not her.
"XingJian…" Hong i saw the changes in her expression and instinctively took a step back, not in fear but in sheer absurdity of what was happening before her eyes.
"How dare you interfere with the work of the great lord?" XingJian ignored others' reactions and snapped at Wuhan, lunging to bite him, but the several restraints around her and on her prevented her from doing so.
"Let go, and I will tell you what pain really is!" Seeing her actions failing once more, she started screaming at Wuhan.
"Now, do you believe it?" The emperor did not pay attention to her; instead, he looked at the others and asked blankly.
"Can we save here?" Chen Wuji slowly stood up with the help of San Ji, who had appeared by his side at so point. He took a healing pill before speaking.
Wuhan nodded and turned his attention to the prism in his hands once more. Under his control, it moved more. The artifact started spinning and approached XingJian, settling on her head.
"What do you plan to do?" She asked, thrashing in the chains, flailing her limbs, but the hold was too tight for her to shake off.
The prism glowed.
BuzzZZ!
It zapped a lightning-like attack and yanked the soul out of her body. The soul was pale green in color, but the black, curse-like hue had wrapped itself around her, slowly seeping deeper into her body.
A vague, feminine, human-shaped soul appeared before everyone.
"What—?" The soul body opened its mouth, and a voice, XingJian's voice, reached the hall, but it abruptly stopped as the XingJian in her soul form started screaming.
"Ahhh!!!" The scream echoed in the chamber, chilling every soul present to the marrow.
It wasn't just pain — it was a primal, soul-wrenching wail.
Her spectral form writhed midair, the black corruption latching onto her being like tendrils of mythical leeches, not willing to let go.
Cracks of dark light peered through the image of her soul. Through her pain, XingJian reached out to pull the darkness off her body, but her hands always passed through it.
Even San Ji — always brash, always aloof — could feel his knees falter.
"I will tear this corruption from her," Wuhan declared, his voice layered with force and steely resolve, "but she will have to bear the pain."
"Stop it!" Hong i cried in panic, "She is already in so much pain. Don't tornt her any more."
"Which is why we have to do this." But then Chen Wuji whispered hoarsely from the side, wiping the blood from his lips. He reached out and patted her back. "If there's even a chance… do it."
Hong i threw herself in his arms, not able to watch XingJian in pain anymore, and sobbed, holding on to his robes.
Wuhan looked at them and nodded seriously. The prism started rotating faster and sucked the blackened parts of her soul along with the curse into it.
This continued on for a while; even an hour passed before the cries of the wailing woman started to die down. A hum vibrated through the air, resonating with their very bones.
Then—
Shhhhrrrk!
A thread of black ichor was ripped from XingJian's soul with a sound not unlike tearing flesh.
The cursed fragnt shrieked in fury, morphing into a twisted specter before being absorbed into the obsidian prism. A flicker of resistance. A final screech. Then — silence.
Wuhan's face remained stern, but there was a flicker of strain as he raised his other hand, summoning a new item from his ring — a transparent crystal lotus, glowing with an inner white-blue light.
Several colorful drops of liquid could be seen directly from outside the lotus, which seed to be nothing but a carrier for the real treasure.
It pulsed in perfect harmony with the black prism.
"The Dew of Soul Rebirth," Qiuan Yu muttered with wide eyes, stunned. "A treasure from the past… It's said to heal fractured souls, but only if used within 48 hours of the injury."
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