Feng Jiu’er’s words were like a razor-sharp knife, plunging straight into the deepest recess of Madam Butterfly’s heart.

That was the place she despaired of most right now — the matter she dared not face.

A’Jiu… if A’Jiu were to see how she looked now, would he be frightened? Would he… would he be unwilling to spare her even another glance?

No. Her A’Jiu. Her A’Jiu could not be frightened away from her — how could he possibly be?

But this face of hers… this face was already destroyed…

“Feng Jiu’er — it is all your doing! All of it!” Madam Butterfly no longer knew how she was to go on living. Every shred of resentment, every scrap of fury, came crashing down upon Feng Jiu’er.

“Go and die!” She thrust a kick forward — this time, she truly intended to send Feng Jiu’er into the pool.

“Ah—” Several of the surrounding women could not suppress their screams.

Even without having witnessed with their own eyes the horrifying sight of Feng Jiu’er being torn apart by the Gu worms, they seemed to be able to imagine it all too well.

This was the first time since the Gu pool had been built that anyone would be thrown in — the very first time…

“Urgh—” Some even dry-heaved at the thought; a mere imagining was more than they could bear.

Jiu’er’s body was sent flying by the kick — yet at the very last critical instant, she grabbed hold of Madam Butterfly’s leg with both arms.

Hmph. To have been brought here at all was already to have accepted that she would not leave alive. But this woman was vicious to the core, and with her face now ruined by Feng Jiu’er’s hand, who could say whether she would go after Feng Jiu’er’s family and friends to exact revenge in the future?

Since she was to die regardless, she might as well drag this woman down with her!

That kick had been driven into her body, but because she had actively seized hold of Madam Butterfly’s foot, the force of it was even more devastating than it would ordinarily have been.

In the moment she grabbed hold of Madam Butterfly’s leg, Feng Jiu’er had already sunk into a state of semi-consciousness — but she still clung to Madam Butterfly with an iron grip, clinging on with everything she had!

Madam Butterfly could never have imagined in a thousand years that a person so gravely injured could still possess a force of will this indomitable.

In no more than a single instant’s hesitation, she found herself seized by the legs. Together with Feng Jiu’er, she was dragged away from the pool’s edge — plummeting down toward the bottom of the Gu pool.

“Ah—” Even the high and mighty Madam Butterfly could not contain a shriek of terror this time.

Below was a pit of terrifying Gu worms — creatures whose true power even she herself did not know!

Yet no matter how many additional kicks she drove into Feng Jiu’er, no matter how hard she struck until blood poured from the girl’s lips again and again, that wretched girl clung to her and refused to let go — even in death.

“Ah—” Another anguished cry rang out. Madam Butterfly was helpless to reverse her fate. Dragged by Feng Jiu’er, the two of them plunged together into the Gu pool.

Hu Shuang had only just arrived. From a great distance, she saw the two figures fall in — she rushed forward desperate to rescue them, but it was already too late.

The distance was too great. Far too great!

Good heavens! How could this have happened? How could something like this possibly happen?

“Madam—!” Hu Shuang’s cry tore from her throat until it was ragged, yet she was powerless to change anything before her eyes.

As everyone stood in a panic-stricken, horror-struck daze, a grey figure suddenly swept across the top of the pool — and dove headfirst straight into the Gu pool.

No one knew who it was. Her figure moved fast as a lightning flash, with an unbelievable swiftness!

Even Hu Shuang was struck speechless with shock. She had never in her life seen speed like this — such extraordinary skill and agility! It surpassed even Madam’s level of power and depth of cultivation!

“Ah… ah…” From the depths of the Gu pool rose Madam Butterfly’s anguished screams — screams so terrible that every person present went utterly weak in the knees.

A gust of wind swept past, and two figures emerged back above the pool. One was Feng Jiu’er, now unconscious and unresponsive. The other was—

Her face was covered entirely in wrinkles and bore the appearance of a deeply aged woman — and yet the hand that steadied Feng Jiu’er, while not as fine and smooth as fresh snow, had skin clearly far better than what that face conveyed.

It was unmistakably the hand of a middle-aged woman — nothing at all like the extreme age that face projected.

A middle-aged woman wearing a human-skin mask had saved Feng Jiu’er. Then that meant…

Hu Shuang flew to the edge of the Gu pool. Below, Madam Butterfly’s screams had faded to silence by degrees; her body had been swallowed entirely by the Gu worms. That white gown was smothered in them — the woman herself was no longer visible at all.

Hu Shuang pressed her hand over her lips and sank to her knees at the pool’s edge. Tears fell without a sound, and her limbs had gone so weak she could not even pull herself to her feet.

The dozen or so white-robed women standing around had barely regained their wits before, one by one, they screamed and scattered in all directions — vanishing without a trace in moments.

Xue Gu fixed her gaze on Hu Shuang kneeling at the pool’s edge and gave a cold harrumph: “Bearing in mind that you were reasonably loyal to Hu Xiaodié — today, I will spare your life!”

She turned to leave. But from behind her, Hu Shuang called out: “Ancestral Master — why… why did you not save Madam? She is your disciple!”

That was right — Xue Gu was none other than Hu Xiaodié’s master, Ye Feixue. In the moment she had pulled Feng Jiu’er back above the pool, Hu Shuang had already recognized her.

Hu Shuang had grown up at Hu Xiaodié’s side from childhood, and in those early years had spent a period of time in Ye Feixue’s company.

Xue Gu narrowed her eyes and studied her closely. When her gaze fell upon the birthmark on her neck, Xue Gu gave a faint start: “You are… little Shuang’er?”

Hu Shuang gave a nod. The tears continued to stream down her face.

Ancestral Master had returned — but why, oh why, had Ancestral Master simply stood by and let this happen? Madam was her disciple. Why would she do this?

“Ancestral Master, Madam—”

“She deserved everything she got.”

“Ancestral Master…”

“Little Shuang’er — she deceived you for so many years, and still you do not know the truth even now.”

Xue Gu gave a cold harrumph and looked down at that Gu pool, her eyes holding not a single trace of pity: “Back in those days, Hu Xiaodié betrayed and disgraced her master and brought ruin to her fellow disciples. I myself very nearly lost my life to one of her treacherous schemes!”

“Master — how could Madam possibly have—” Hu Shuang was struck with shock, her face filled with disbelief. “All these years, Madam always spoke of you with such longing…”

“She deceived you! Hu Xiaodié was wicked to the core — how could she have been a person of good intentions?”

Xue Gu did not harbor a bone-deep hatred for Hu Xiaodié — Hu Xiaodié simply was not worthy of it. But as for the sort of person Hu Xiaodié truly was, she knew better than anyone.

She looked at Hu Shuang, and a measure of pity surfaced in her eyes: “You were deceived by her for so many years. Think back to when you first came — to get you to follow her with wholehearted devotion, it was she herself who killed your ailing mother with her own hands.”

“Ancestral Master, you — what are you saying?” Hu Shuang’s eyes flew wide open — she would sooner have died than believe it!

“It was precisely because I discovered all these wicked deeds of your Master that I sought to cast her out of the sect. Yet your Master joined forces with outsiders, stole my secret cultivation manuals, and arranged for me to fall from a cliff.”

She gave another cold harrumph. As for the events of those years, truthfully she harbored no great hatred — still those same words: Hu Xiaodié was simply not worthy of it.

“Had it not been that I had urgent matters requiring me to return to the imperial capital at the time, merely on account of that alone I would have torn her apart with my bare hands ten thousand times over, long ago.”

She was not incapable of seeking revenge against Hu Xiaodié. She simply had more important matters to attend to.

Who could have foreseen that after so many years, Hu Xiaodié was still wreaking evil upon the world? And now — could this not be called reaping what one has sown?