The more the colorful butterfly... wants to show you its heart

"In the sect, everyone said he was my dog, a piece of trash who climbed up the ranks relying on my connections."

"But I told them he was my younger brother, my most trusted right-hand man."

At this point, the mockery in Lan Caidie's eyes grew even more intense; it was a ruthless dissection of her own past foolishness.

She crouched down, her fingertips tracing across Li Qingzhe's face, which was twisted in fear, before finally stopping on his bobbing Adam's apple.

"But alas... Young Master."

"An ingrate is an ingrate, no matter how much you feed them."

"He didn't just want to be treated as a human; he wanted to be the master. He even wanted to... ride on his master's head."

Lan Caidie's fingers applied a slight pressure, her long, slender nails piercing the skin of Li Qingzhe's neck until beads of blood seeped out.

"Three days ago, he said he had found a 'Seven-Star Begonia' and invited me to harvest it with him. I believed him."

"And the result?"

Lan Caidie's voice abruptly turned cold, carrying a chilling hostility—the monstrous hatred born from betrayal.

"There was no begonia at all. There was only a pre-arranged 'Spirit-Scattering Array' and a cup of spirit wine laced with 'Muscle-Softening Powder'!"

"Even at that moment, when all my spiritual energy had dissipated and I was paralyzed on the ground like a dead dog, I was still asking him why."

"Young Master, what do you think he said?"

She took a deep breath, her voice trembling and carrying a hint of a sob, yet remaining incomparably ruthless:

"He said... I shouldn't have been so good to him."

"He said that every time I rewarded him, it looked like charity to him; every time I protected him, it felt like humiliation!"

"He said he was sick of looking up to me, sick of being the shadow that could only stand behind the Holy Maiden."

"He said..."

Lan Caidie closed her eyes, and two lines of clear tears rolled down, dropping onto Li Qingzhe's contorted face.

"He said that only by turning me into a mindless, obedient puppet..."

"Only then would I truly belong to him forever. I would never look down on him again, and I would forever have to rely on him to live."

"How ridiculous..."

In the corner, Gu Yang listened to this melodramatic yet incredibly real tale of betrayal, his face as placid as an ancient well.

Give a bowl of rice and make a friend; give a bushel and make an enemy.

This kind of thing was far too common in the cultivation world.

Inferiority taken to the extreme often twisted into a sick sense of pride.

People like Li Qingzhe were typical rats in the gutter; they couldn't stand the sunlight, nor could they bear even the slightest bit of "charity."

Because the light was too bright and would scorch his moldy heart.

Lan Caidie opened her eyes.

In that instant, all her weakness, sentimentality, and tears were completely withdrawn.

Replacing them was the ruthlessness and decisiveness befitting the Holy Maiden of the Southern Frontier.

She stood up and raised her long, beautiful leg high into the air.

The crimson snake tattoo on her leg seemed to come alive in the dim light, flicking its tongue.

There was no flashy Gu magic.

Nor did she use any spiritual energy.

It was just the most primitive, most pure form of action—trampling.

"I am your master."

Lan Caidie's voice was bone-chillingly cold, like a judgment from the Nine Netherworlds.

"I was in the past, I am now, and in the future... you have no future."

"Squelch!"

That foot stomped down viciously.

It was the sound of a bare foot ruthlessly crushing a throat bone—crisp, muffled, and teeth-grindingly gruesome.

"Hrk... hrk..."

Li Qingzhe's eyes bulged, bloodshot and nearly popping out of their sockets.

His charred hands desperately gripped Lan Caidie's ankle in a final attempt to struggle.

But he could only open his mouth in despair, letting out a sound like a leaking bellows, mixed with the gurgling of blood bubbles.

Blood gushed wildly from his mouth and nose, staining Lan Caidie's snow-white jade foot red.

At this moment, the fear in his eyes finally froze.

Remaining within them was the last trace of regret from his life, and... a hint of a twisted sense of release.

...

Lan Caidie turned around to face Gu Yang.

Tear stains still hung on her stunningly beautiful face, while her foot was stained with warm blood. This extreme contrast gave her a breathtaking, bewitching beauty.

"Thud."

Lan Caidie dropped to her knees and kowtowed heavily to Gu Yang.

The sound of her forehead hitting the ground was exceptionally clear in the silent tomb.

"My great vengeance is exacted, and my inner demon is eradicated."

"From this day forth, Caidie's life belongs to you, Young Master."

Gu Yang looked at the woman kneeling before him.

A scorching hot figure, peerless looks, and a temperament... that could be considered decisive.

A pretty good seedling.

What a pity.

"What do I want your life for?"

Gu Yang's voice remained flat, betraying neither joy nor anger.

He turned around, picked up Li Qingzhe's storage bag from the ground, casually wiped away the spiritual sense imprint on it, and hung it at his own waist.

This was the spoils of war; it couldn't be wasted.

"I'm taking the storage bag. You can leave."

"We are even."

Gu Yang waved his hand, turning to walk out of the tomb.

Karma, it's all karma.

Right now, there was still a serendipitous encounter he needed to intercept.

He had to go.

He had to go quickly.

He left very decisively.

Without the slightest bit of lingering attachment, nor a shred of hesitation just because the other party was a peerless beauty.

Lan Caidie, kneeling on the ground, was stunned.

She snapped her head up, staring in disbelief at the fading gray silhouette.

Even?

How could they possibly be even?!

In the Southern Frontier, the grace of saving a life was greater than the heavens, let alone this kind of life-rebuilding grace.

She pressed her hand against her chest.

There, her heart was beating thump by thump in rhythm with that man's footsteps.

That was the bond of the Heart-Binding Gu, a resonance on the level of life itself.

Ever since she was betrayed by Li Qingzhe, her world had long since collapsed.

She no longer believed in anyone, no longer believed in so-called "feelings."

But this man before her.

He clearly possessed absolute power. He clearly could have easily turned her into his captive plaything, just as Li Qingzhe had intended.

But he didn't.

There was no greed in his eyes, no lust, only that kind of indifference that treated all things as straw dogs.

This "disregard," to Lan Caidie who had just experienced betrayal and objectification, was actually a fatal temptation.

He doesn't think much of me.

He disdains to use me.

This realization made an inexplicable sense of unwillingness surge in Lan Caidie's heart, along with a... crazy desire to be "looked favorably upon" by him.

"Young Master!"

Lan Caidie suddenly stood up, ignoring the blood beneath her feet, and stumbled after him.

"I'm not leaving!"

She rushed behind Gu Yang, wanting to reach out and pull his sleeve, but in the instant she was about to touch it, she retracted her hand as if afraid of profaning something.

"Young Master... Caidie has nowhere else to go."

Lan Caidie's voice carried a hint of a tremble, but her gaze was terrifyingly persistent.

"Li Qingzhe is dead; the Eastern Gu Sect will definitely investigate."

"Furthermore... furthermore, although Caidie's cultivation is low, I am proficient in Gu arts and also know a little about the charm arts of the Southern Frontier."

She bit her lower lip, took a step forward, and thrust out her proud chest, seeming to want to display her final worth.

"I can kill for you, scout the way for you, and even..."

Her voice lowered, a shameful yet resolute blush spreading across her cheeks.

"If Young Master needs it... Caidie's body is still clean."

Gu Yang stopped in his tracks.

He turned around, his gaze sweeping up and down Lan Caidie.

He had to admit, she was quite the stunner.

But Gu Yang merely frowned.

"Women will only slow down my blade."

With that said.

Gu Yang did not look back again. His figure flashed, and he disappeared into the depths of the gloomy corridor.

He left Lan Caidie all alone, standing blankly on the spot.

She had been rejected.

A complete, merciless rejection.

But strangely enough, Lan Caidie did not feel angry; instead... she began to smile.

Leaning against the cold wall, she felt the faint, gradually fading sensation of the heartbeat transmitted by the child Gu insect inside her body.

"Does he find me troublesome..."

"Young Master..."

"The more you act like this, the more Caidie... wants to tear out her heart to show you."

...