Bai li yue stumbled and fell to one knee. Her bloody face turned up to stare at Shen duyi with defiance. He was still cautious. The battle had tipped too quickly in his favour. Two swords hurtled straight at her. They struck her before she could avoid them and throwing her backwards in the air. She whimpered from the ground.

"Shen duyi, i will kill you!" 

She protested weakly, reaching weakly out for her sword. It was just out of reach of her fingers. She crawled toward her sword, leaving a bloody trail behind her. 

"I- I can't die while you still live! I refuse!" 

She cried. 

Shen duyi drew closer. his confidence surging with each breath she struggled to take. Her protests were those of a dying calf. A few more seconds of futile struggle before death. Shen duyi landed close to her and put away his sword. The gold receded from his body and he became a person made of flesh again. 

"You ended up dying by my hand after all. You should have been more obedient, li yue. You would be alive now if you had only accepted my love."

He said with no hint of arrogance or joy or pain. He crouched down to whisper a few words into her ear. This would be his final goodbye to Bai li yue. her hand came and lay against his heart. 

"Shen… Shen duyi…did you really love me?"

"I did. I still- ghuh... do- guh...guh."

Shen duyi looked down at the hand sticking inside his chest as he choked on his blood. Her hand had pierced his chest in a violent motion. There was the crack of breaking bones. Deep inside his chest, her hand clutched onto his heart before he could register what was happening. She had used a similar move on the sect leader of the Purple wind sect.

Shen duyi stared at her in confusion. How was this possible? Wasn't she on death's door a second ago?

Bai li yue watched the flashes of different emotions and thoughts run their gamut in his clear eyes. 

Of course he couldn't believe it! He'd never expected that she was pretending. She gave him a bloody smile that promised retribution. Little white had given her a hint about the soul sword formula that had caused her to revise her plan. His sword were obstacles that she couldn't surmount so the only way was for him to come to her. Drawing the enemy to his death by showing weakness. That was all she had to remember. It hadn't taken much effort for him to fall into her trap.

He'd fallen to his knees under the force of the hand around his heart. She now stood over him, watching blood spill out of his chest and mouth. 

"The souls of the evildoer shall be washed clean. By my hand. The crimes of the sinner shall be wiped from memory. By my hand. All acts of evil shall be erased. By my hand. Evil doers and sinners alike will thus be punished and eradicated. By my hand." 

She recited the words as she injected a wave of the soul sword intent into his body. The energy ran amok through his body. 

"Aaarrrggghhh!"

His scream resounded in the space around them sending a flock of roosting birds into flight. It was heard across the entire sect. 

The flowing energy assaulted his meridians, leaving shredded channels in its wake before heading toward his dantian. A molten shell made of golden energy wrapped around the core to protect it from the external assault. But before the soul sword formula, it was a flimsy crust standing in the way of a swinging scythe. It tore the shell apart and rampaged through his dantian. His screams rang out for minutes. They were a song to her ears, but still her hatred remained. Shen duyi was still breathing. He was now a cripple, a wastrel who would no longer have a place in the cultivation world. His life was over. A kind soul would close the chapter and let him be, but Bai li yue was unwavering in her hatred. He and Meixiu had seen to that. 

She swore as she looked at him that nobody will ever have the chance to put her at a disadvantage. If the world was filled with sharks, she'd become the most ruthless of them. If this world was filled with people who had little respect for the lives of others, then she would become a person who could strike fear into their hearts. Her new path would begin here: in a place that had taught her a precious life lesson about the world of cultivation. Never more will she be a pawn in someone else's game. Never more. And it'll begin with Shen duyi's death.

She withdrew the sword energy from his body and watched him gasp for breath. She gathered sword energy around her hand and penetrated his chest a second later with renewed vengeance. It rampaged through his body with destructive energy. His heart gave out under the assault. Bai li yue felt his heart stop and life leave his eyes. 

Minutes went by before she let go of the still organ to pick up her sword with a blood covered hand.

Bai li yue felt cold.

It was over.

The whole sect had fallen silent following the sudden turn of events. She heard a voice in her ear and turned in the direction of a courtyard near the river.

"You were too cruel."

The voice said.

"I will become even more cruel in the future."

She said.

The voice returned after digesting her answer.

"Now that you've had your revenge, you no longer need to hold us hostage. Bring down the shields and be on your way."

When Bai li yue did not give a reply, he continued.

"I know you are concerned that the sect will pursue you for retribution. I am willing to give you my word as sect protector of the Sword river sect that we will let you go in peace. The Heavens decided his fate. We won't go against it."

"Your promise means nothing to me. I learned that from you all. You knew what he did yet you closed your eyes to my suffering."

Her voice broke. The pain was still fresh. Indeed killing Meixiu and Shen duyi was not enough to wipe away her pain. She wished she could wipe away those memories too. 

"The sect failed you. For that I apologise."

The man's voice sounded sincere. But she was no longer a naive fool to take his apology at face value. Her eyes were open to the ruthless world and she wasn't closing it anytime soon. 

"I have no intention of punishing the sect for the actions of a few. I have had my revenge. Though inadequate, it shall suffice. Although I don't plan to punish the sect, I won't be bringing down the shields. The arrays will dissipate over time. I hope you understand."

"The sect will fall!"

A new voice interjected.

"I doubt it."

She ran an indifferent eye over Shen duyi's corpse. His body was pristine apart from the bloody gaping hole in his chest. Her sword rose instinctively to vent her remaining anger on his corpse but she stopped herself halfway. 

He was already dead. 

He was dead.

It was over.

Sovereign Divine eyes watched Bai li yue from the peak of his mountain. She was currently walking down the street to one of the smaller gates. He wanted to say something but he held his tongue. He didn't know what to say. The thread that linked her to the sect was broken. Maybe it would be better to just forget it. 

He returned his attention to Ma hua who was asking for his opinion on the light barriers. 

'Maybe this might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.'

"What do you mean?"

"At the end of the day, we still had a hand in this tragedy. We should take the opportunity to reflect on ourselves."

"Are you saying that we should allow her leave just like that?"

Bei yang asked.

"She said that the array will dissipate on its own in time. I believe her."

"You sound so relaxed, but this problem affects us all. This isn't a blessing. We are her prisoners. What do we do while waiting for the barriers to dispel on its own? Huh? Answer me!"

"Sovereign Bei yang, you've not made any progress in half a century. During this time, why don't you enter into seclusion and cultivate hard? Maybe by the time you come out, you'll have some good news to share with us for once."

Sovereign Hai long cut the communication leaving Sovereign Bei yang fuming. Sovereign Ma hua chuckled seeing his partner's mood.

"He has a point."

"You too?"

"Forget it. It's none of my business. Just don't complain to me once Hai long progresses to the emperor realm and you are still stuck in the sovereign realm."

Bai li yue no longer had anything tying her to the Sword river sect. She'd crushed her student badge. The red witch was still ranked at the tenth position on the leaderboard and there was nothing she could do about it. In time, she hoped people would forget her name and her face. She wondered if she was hoping for too much as she sent an instruction to the onyx figurines to return to her. They came back in a matter of minutes looking worn out. Shen duyi's protector wasn't dead yet. When he saw his dead ward, he sank to his knees and renounced all ideas of retaliation. Bai li yue put the figurines away and opened a small pathway in the barrier. It sealed seamlessly behind her as she walked out of the sect. 

On the other side, heavy fog obscured the buildings behind her. No one will be able to leave the two sects until the fog cleared. It wasn't a lie when she'd told Hu an how long she'd have to stay inside the sect. 

She activated the teleportation amulet and felt her body being pulled and dragged in countless directions. A howling wind hit her body sucking her into a spatial hole that had formed behind her. She disappeared from the spot she stood in. 

Five hundred miles away, a spatial hole opened in the sky and dumped its contents. A disoriented Bai li yue fell from the sky. With no way to reduce her velocity, she tumbled toward the ground like a bird that had lost its wings.

Boom!

A dust cloud rose around the site of impact. She groaned making an inventory of her injuries. Her recent injuries from the fight were serious. The fall jostled her entire frame leaving her off kilter. She could barely move, not to talk of dragging her body out of the hole. 

Several hours later, the dizziness subsided substantially. She was then able to drag herself out the hole. Around her were trees as far as the eye can see. Too weak to walk, she cleaned up after herself and chose to enter the mystical abode of the woman in red. 

The sky was bright and the wind gentle and cool. She stumbled into the abode leaving the past behind and hopefully her painful memories too.