I'll Show You What Empathy Really Means

"Return it to its original owner?"

Xia Lengyue froze, the mad red glint in her eyes stalling for a brief moment.

The next moment, Ye Xuan did something so unexpected it completely shattered the worldview of everyone present.

"Riiip!"

The crisp sound of tearing silk was exceptionally piercing before the dead silence of the Zixiao Palace.

Raising his hands, Ye Xuan tore his own top to shreds without a moment of hesitation!

The priceless moon-white brocade robe turned into a flurry of fragments, falling like a desolate snowstorm.

Beneath the fragments, his lean, fair upper body was revealed, its muscle lines as smooth as a jade carving.

This was the Pure Yang Body.

It was also the physique Xia Lengyue dreamed of and treated as her most precious treasure.

Then, right before everyone's eyes, at the grand and majestic entrance of the Zixiao Palace, behind a barrier as transparent as paper yet utterly indestructible, Ye Xuan fell backward, lying directly on the bone-chilling white jade floor.

His black hair spread out, hands resting behind his head. He looked with a lazy, hazy gaze at Ying'er, who was already stunned silly beside him. A wild, uninhibited smile that could captivate all living beings tugged at the corners of his mouth:

"Ying'er."

"Come, ruin me."

Boom!

This scene, these words, were like world-destroying thunderbolts that instantly exploded in Xia Lengyue's mind, shattering her rationality and tearing her soul to pieces.

"No... No!"

Xia Lengyue's pupils quaked, her eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets as she let out a scream of absolute misery.

As for Ying'er, after a brief moment of shock, she looked at the god-like figure on the ground, and a sick, fanatical smile slowly crept onto her face.

She understood her master's intention.

This was also the moment she had been waiting for.

She turned her head and looked at the woman outside the barrier who was on the verge of madness.

Her eyes were full of provocation; it was the most vicious revenge a lowly ant could inflict upon someone in high authority.

"Sect Master Xia, watch closely."

As Ying'er spoke, she slowly and crudely untied her own belt right in front of Xia Lengyue.

The coarse cloth garments slipped off, revealing a body that, although thin and slightly sallow, carried a heavy aura of mortal vulgarity.

She slowly crawled on top of Ye Xuan.

Her fingers, calloused from hard labor, trailed frivolously across Ye Xuan's chest before finally stopping at his firm waist.

"Ye Xuan's Primal Yang..."

Ying'er stuck out her tongue and greedily licked her chapped lips. Her voice was bone-meltingly seductive, carrying a sickeningly boastful tone that transmitted clearly through the barrier:

"...belongs to me now."

"Even though I am the filthy, promiscuous woman you say I am."

"Even though I am dirty."

"But... your husband, he is willing to be slept with by a filthy woman like me."

"No! Stop!! You bitch, stop it!"

Xia Lengyue went completely insane.

Bleeding from her eyes, she recklessly slammed her body against the barrier, even beginning to burn her lifespan to launch attacks, each strike bringing up large mists of blood.

"Ye Xuan! You can't do this to me!"

"I am your wife! Your first time belongs to me!"

"Ahhhhhh!"

Outside the Zixiao Palace, astral winds raged, and the colors of the world changed.

Xia Lengyue was like a mad demon. Her natal spirit sword, Frostchill, was already letting out overwhelmed whimpers due to the excessive infusion of spiritual energy, its blade fracturing with countless fine cracks.

Time and time again, she slashed at the palace emitting a faint purple glow.

Sword qi crisscrossed; every strike was enough to level a mountain peak, and every strike contained terrifying power that would make a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator pale.

However, the Zixiao Palace did not budge an inch.

This connate spirit treasure left behind from ancient times was like a wall of sighs stretching across heaven and earth, coldly and ruthlessly looking down upon her madness and ugly state.

It greedily devoured the piles of burning supreme-grade spirit stones inside the palace. Those were all the stones Xia Lengyue had painstakingly scavenged over the past ten years, intending to give them to Ye Xuan for his cultivation.

Now, her belongings had become the copper walls and iron bastions blocking her way.

Her blood, sweat, and tears had become the heavenly chasm separating her from her beloved.

"Open! Open for me!"

Xia Lengyue's hair was disheveled, looking like a vengeful ghost, her eyes as crimson as blood.

Her ten fingers were dripping with blood from madly scratching the palace's protective shield. Her nails were peeled back, revealing the stark white bone beneath, smearing bloodstains across the pristine barrier, yet she felt no pain.

Compared to the physical pain, the sounds transmitting from inside the palace at this moment were the true torture, slicing her soul apart inch by inch.

The grand doors of the Zixiao Palace were wide open, but a transparent barrier blocked the way.

Xia Lengyue could clearly see every detail of what was happening inside.

Outside the doors, Xia Lengyue completely broke down.

She watched with her own eyes.

She watched the man whose hand she couldn't even bear to squeeze too hard being pinned beneath that filthy, lowly woman.

This dual visual and auditory impact made Xia Lengyue feel as if her heart had been dug out alive, thrown on the ground, viciously stomped into a pulp, and then fed to wild dogs.

"Kill me... Ye Xuan... just kill me..."

"Don't do this to me... I'm begging you, don't do this..."

She slid weakly to the ground, her hands clutching the dirt. Her nails were all broken, blood mixing with the soil.

She stopped attacking.

She had no strength left to attack.

Like a mangy dog with a broken spine, she lay paralyzed before the gates of the Zixiao Palace, only able to watch this execution helplessly.

As the movements inside the hall intensified.

A strange fragrance drifted out thread by thread through the gaps in the formation.

That was the special Primal Yang aura that only dispersed when a Pure Yang Body lost its virginity.

It was crisp, pure, and carried the ultimate temptation.

But right now, to Xia Lengyue's nose, this scent was fouler than the most lethal poison in the world, bringing her even more despair.

It was gone.

Truly gone.

The purity kept for a lifetime.

Just a wall away.

Ruined and defiled by a female beggar who would sell her body for two steamed buns.

"Haha... hahaha..."

Sprawled on the ground, Xia Lengyue spat bloody froth from her mouth and let out a neurotic laugh, her tears having long since dried up.

Her Dao heart, at this moment, completely collapsed and shattered into dust along with the dissipation of the Primal Yang aura.

An unknown amount of time passed.

The commotion inside the hall finally ceased.

Ying'er was like a well-fed cat, lazily resting on Ye Xuan's chest, her hair a mess.

She turned her head and looked provocatively at the half-dead woman outside the door, the corners of her eyes and brows filled with smugness.

"Smells so good..."

Ying'er sighed purposely, her voice lazy and hoarse:

"Sect Master Xia, you haven't tasted this before, have you? The flavor is truly beyond words."

Ye Xuan slowly opened his eyes.

The cold, otherworldly aura that originally lingered around him, like an exiled immortal, had vanished without a trace.

He pushed Ying'er away, walked barefoot, and casually draped an outer robe over himself. With his collar half-open, he walked step by step toward the door.

"Creak!"

The barrier was withdrawn.

The thin curtain of light disappeared, and Ye Xuan stood on the steps, looking down condescendingly at Xia Lengyue, who was paralyzed in a pool of blood.

At this moment, how could Xia Lengyue still possess even a shred of the majesty she once had as a Sect Master?

Covered in blood, her hair as messy as dead grass, her eyes unfocused and hollow, she looked just like a madwoman abandoned by the entire world.

"How does it feel?"

Ye Xuan asked lightly.

His voice was soft, yet like a harsh winter wind, it instantly froze Xia Lengyue's soul.

Xia Lengyue struggled to lift her head, her neck emitting a stiff, cracking sound.

She looked at the glaring hickeys on Ye Xuan's neck: they were intentionally left by Ying'er, vivid and red.

Every mark felt like a slap, striking viciously across her face and lashing at her heart.

"Why..."

Xia Lengyue's voice was hoarse and broken, sounding like two rusty pieces of iron scraping together. Her tears had long since dried up, leaving only tears of blood in her eyes:

"Ye Xuan... why would you treat me like this..."

"I just love you... I just wanted to be with you..."

"For you, I could slaughter everyone in the world, I could sacrifice everything... Why did you protect that slut... Why did you go to such lengths... just to humiliate me..."

Ye Xuan looked at her miserable state.

There was not a trace of pity in his eyes; there was only the fierce satisfaction of a profound vengeance fulfilled, along with a bone-chilling coldness.

He slowly crouched down, bringing his gaze level with Xia Lengyue's, admiring her agony from up close.

"Xia Lengyue."

"You ask me why?"

Ye Xuan stretched out a slender finger, pointing to the magnificent palace behind him, and then to the bloodstained, chaotic mess outside the door.

"The way you feel right now, does it hurt a lot?"

"Does it feel like your internal organs are burning?"

"Does it feel like a fate worse than death, making you wish you could die right this instant?"

Xia Lengyue nodded trembling, in so much pain that she could barely breathe. Every breath felt like swallowing a knife.

"Then that is exactly right."

The smile at the corner of Ye Xuan's mouth abruptly vanished, replaced by a hair-raising ferocity:

"In the past, I never believed in the concept of empathy."

"Because until the knife stabs into your own flesh, you will never know how much it hurts."

"But now, I believe it."

Ye Xuan stared dead into her eyes, his voice like an evil spirit from the Nine Nether Underworlds, pausing emphatically after every word:

"Xia Lengyue, do you remember?"

"In our previous life."

"Outside your immortal cave at the Supreme Oblivion Sect."

"That night of heavy, swirling snow."

Boom!

As if a bolt of thunder had struck the crown of her head, Xia Lengyue's pupils violently contracted, her body turning as stiff as stone.

Ye Xuan continued, his every word like a salt-soaked whip lashing mercilessly at her old wounds:

"That night, I was exactly like you are now."

"Crouching outside the door like a dog, shivering from the cold."

"Listening to you inside, making love with Zhao Wuji."

"Listening to you two mocking me for being a piece of trash, a nominal husband only fit to stand guard outside the door!"

"That night, my heart broke just like this."

"That night, I also wanted to die just like this."

Ye Xuan sneered, the depths of his eyes filled with a desolate chill.

"What? Are you, Xia Lengyue, allowed to commit arson, while I, Ye Xuan, am not even allowed to light a lamp?"

"For the resources you have given me over these ten years, I do indeed owe you."

"But for the humiliation of that night in our previous life, you owe me."

"And now..."

Ye Xuan stood up, spreading his arms wide, facing the sky full of wind and snow and the chaotic mess on the ground, laughing wildly:

"How does it feel? My dear wife."

"Can you experience... even a ten-thousandth of the despair I felt back then?"