My Love Vanished When Senior Brother Killed My Spirit Beast

Draven killed the spirit beast that had been with me for a thousand years, cut out its inner core, and gave it to our junior sister.

The fellow disciples exchanged glances and said cautiously:

Senior Brother, this little beast and Senior Sister Seraphina are as close as flesh and blood!

Isn't this the same as killing someone's own family?

Draven considered it for a moment, then smiled without a trace of guilt:

"Junior Sister Rufina's tribulation is almost upon her. She's been afraid of lightning and pain since she was a child. The inner core of a thousand-year spirit beast can hold off the lightning tribulation, so it's perfect for her."

One of the senior sisters couldn't hold back and said coldly:

"The spirit beast has a fate-bond contract with Seraphina. Killing it is bound to leave her gravely weakened."

"Seraphina has her own tribulation to cross next month. How do you expect her to survive?"

Draven only smiled, unconcerned.

"Seraphina has always been strong. She can bear it. There's nothing wrong with her giving way a little to Junior Sister Rufina."

I stood at the back of the crowd, watching the spirit beast's body go completely cold, its fur stained crimson with blood.

Tears slowly blurred my vision.

They still didn't know that a hundred years ago I had already taken on great merit and ascended, together with my spirit beast.

I simply couldn't bear to part with Draven and everything in the sect, so I sealed my divinity and stayed behind for a while longer.

The retribution for slaying a godI only hoped they could bear it.

...

The moment I drew near the core-extraction altar, my senior brothers and sisters all crowded around me.

"Seraphina, what are you doing here?"

Senior Sister Marguerite hooked her arm through mine, her smile not quite natural.

"Good timingI'm badly stuck at a bottleneck. Come take a look at this technique for me."

The others pressed in too, chattering about this and that.

Watching them try so obviously to cover things up, I nearly lost hold of my tears again.

Draven suddenly stepped out from the crowd.

He looked at me and launched straight into an interrogation:

"Junior Sister Rufina's tribulation is nearly here. Why aren't you off standing guardian for her? What are you doing here instead?"

The sight of my spirit beast dying with its eyes still open surged into my mind.

I jerked my head up and glared at him:

"She's crossing her tribulationwhy should I be the one to guard her?"

Draven froze for a moment, then frowned. "What's gotten into you?"

"Since you've already taken its inner core to shield her from the tribulation," I said, one word at a time, "what guardian rite could she still need from me?"

He caught himself short, clearly not expecting me to know so soon.

But in an instant he took on that righteous, high-minded air again:

"As the sect master, I naturally have to value the safety of every person in the sect."

"And what about me?" I asked him. "Am I just supposed to be left to live or die on my own?"

Draven's brows knotted tighter, and a layer of impatience surfaced on his face:

"You are my wife, so you should be of one heart and mind with me and give of yourself selflessly."

Selflessly?

I let out a cold laugh. "If you want to talk about giving, Sect Master, why not give up your own cultivation to refine a life-preserving pill?"

"You were generous enough disposing of my spirit beast."

He seemed struck in a sore spot, and said through gritted teeth:

"Do you think the sect is some child's game? Every decision I make is carefully weighed!"

He paused, then went back to that tone that brooked no argument:

"Your spirit beast's corpse works even better as medicine."

"Since you already knowyour alchemy is the finest in the sect, so you'll refine the pill with your own hands and send it to Junior Sister Rufina, to make certain nothing goes wrong when she crosses her tribulation."

With that, he swept his sleeve and left.

The crowd broke apart. The spirit beast's small body lay in a pool of blood, the split wound in its belly turned up toward the sky.

I crouched down and gathered it into my arms.

Just then Rufina's voice drifted over, an unhidden smile in it:

"Senior Brother is so good to me. I'll be sure to repay you well one day!"

I couldn't make out what Draven saidprobably some gentle, low reply.

I looked down at the spirit beast in my arms and wept until I could no longer make a sound.

That night I coughed up a mouthful of blood.

My spirit beast and I had been soul-bound for a thousand years. The moment it died, my soul felt as if it were being torn apart, flesh from flesh.

I could barely hold back the pain. Bracing myself against the wall, I made my way outside, meaning to go to the Apothecary Hall and ask Senior Sister to help steady my pulse.

The door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

Rufina stood in the doorway. She hadn't knocked, and her steps were bold and self-righteous.

Draven stood a step behind her.

Rufina swept a glance at me, her eyes arrogant. "Didn't Senior Brother tell you to refine the pills for me? Why are you dragging your feet?"

I couldn't be bothered to answer and turned to shut the door.

"Senior Sister!" Rufina suddenly dropped to her knees with a thud and clung tight to the hem of my robe.

"I know you blame me for being ungrateful, and that's why you're taking your revenge like this. I understand you feel wronged, but I really only want to live!"

As she spoke, the tears began to fall, and her body tilted to one side, as if she might faint at any moment.

Draven finally spoke, his brows drawn tight. "Seraphina, I'm the one who made the decision. Why are you taking your anger out on Junior Sister Rufina?"

He walked over, his tone domineering. "Where are the pills?"

"My spirit beast," I said, looking into his eyes, spelling out each word, "has already been buried in the Back Mountain. I will never let anyone defile its body!"

Draven's face darkened.

But before he could speak, the fury and grief surged up in me, and I spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

Rufina screamed in fright.

Draven froze.

He rushed over to hold me up, his arm circling my back, lifting me.

In that instant his palm pressed against my shoulder, and it suddenly overlapped with some far-off scene in my memory.

Long ago, when I was hurt, this was how he used to hold me too.

Back then we hadn't yet come to loathe the sight of each other.

Before my consciousness blurred, I faintly felt a trace of peace.

But when I opened my eyes, everything around me was pitch black.

Wind poured in from every direction, carrying the stench of rot.

I stirred and found myself lying on a cold stone slab, with talisman-wrapped iron chains above my head.

Suddenly

A wild ghost shrieked as it shot out of the shadows and lunged straight at my face.

This was the Forbidden Ground the sect used only to punish those who had betrayed it!

I rolled to the side, and the wild ghost's claws swept past my ear.

The iron chains at the entrance to the Forbidden Ground rattled twice, and Rufina's voice drifted in from outside.

"Senior Sister, Senior Brother the sect master says you didn't follow the sect rules, so he's locking you in the Forbidden Ground to reflect. You'll be released the moment you admit your fault."

I braced myself against the stone wall and stood up. From that roll, blood trickled from the corner of my mouth again.

In that one instant of distraction, the wild ghost lunged at me from behind.

Its teeth sank into the side of my neck, and the pain turned my vision black.

I raised my palm and blasted it away, then pressed my hand to my neck, blood filling the gaps between my fingers.

Rufina must have heard the commotion, because she let out an "Oh dear!"

"Senior Sister, how did you get hurt? It breaks my heart just to hear it."

"Why put yourself through all this? If you'd only backed down early, apologized to your senior brother, and refined the pills, you'd never have had to suffer this ordeal."

I held my wound and paid no attention to her cold, mocking words.

A few little ghosts were nothing. What was truly deadly was the demonic energy that had built up in this place for a thousand years.

My Divinity was sealed now, and my Spirit Meridians had been drained by more than half after White Marsh's death. With this scrap of cultivation, I couldn't hold out more than a few days.

The demonic energy was already seeping in through the wound on the side of my neck, cold enough to cut to the bone.

I leaned back against the stone wall and closed my eyes.

Before the heavenly thunder came, these things would likely devour me clean first.

The demonic energy seeped from the wound on the side of my neck into my bones, icy cold, as if something had taken root in my blood and was crawling inch by inch toward my heart.

I staggered back toward the stone wall, and two more wild ghosts sprang out behind me, clamping onto my arms from left and right.

The thin bit of spiritual energy in my Spirit Meridians had long since run dry. I couldn't break free, and they dragged me toward the edge of the deep pit.

Black mist churned at the bottom of the pit, hiding its depths, yet countless pairs of eerie green eyes lit up within the mist.

I gritted my teeth and used the last of my strength to form a hand seal.

Only a single spark of light burst from my fingertip, striking the wild ghost on the left. It shrieked and fell back half a step, and the one on the right immediately pounced, biting into my shoulder blade.

The demonic energy grew fiercer, pouring in through the wound on my shoulder.

I dropped to my knees, palms braced against the cold, wet stone slab, feeling my Spirit Meridians snapping apart bit by bit.

In my daze, I seemed to see my little spirit beast again.

Its small body curled in a pool of blood, its eyes still looking at me.

I gathered all my strength to push my upper body up, but my right hand wouldn't rise anymore, and my left leg had gone numb. The demonic energy had sealed the meridians in half my body tight.

I closed my eyes and lowered my head, resigned to my fate.

I used to always tell myself that if I just endured it, it would pass; if I just gave way, it would be fine.

But now I didn't even have the right to endure anymore.

White Marsh was gone, my Spirit Meridians were shattered, my Divinity was sealed, the heavenly thunder refused to come, I was locked in the Forbidden Ground, and outside there wasn't a single person who wanted to save me.

The horde of ghosts in the abyss began to climb upward.

The sound of fingernails scraping against the stone wall was like countless needles stabbing into my ears, closer and closer, denser and denser.

I looked up at the sliver of light at the top of the Forbidden Ground and suddenly felt very tired.

Forget it.

Just as the muffled boom of spiritual energy bursting echoed from deep within the Forbidden Ground, Draven was fetching a Soul-Nurturing Pill from the Apothecary Hall.

His hand stilled, and the porcelain bottle rolled to the floor and shattered.

Rufina came hurrying over from the side, her voice sweet and soft. "Senior Brother, what's wrong? You look so pale."

Draven didn't answer her.

He turned and started toward the Forbidden Ground, the hem of his robe snapping in the wind, each step more urgent than the last.

He could feel itthe life-line on Seraphina's Spirit Meridians that connected the two of them was growing thinner and fainter, like a string about to snap.

Rufina jogged after him and blocked his path.

"Where are you going, Senior Brother?"

"The Forbidden Ground."

"You can't go!" She grabbed his sleeve.

"Senior Sister Seraphina is the best at putting on an act. She must be hiding her aura on purpose to lure you over. The moment you go soft and let her out, she'll throw another fit. How will the whole sect keep her in line then?"

Draven paused for a moment.

Rufina tilted her face up at him, her eyes red-rimmed, as if she were so upset she was about to cry.

"Senior Brother, think about itwasn't she always like this before?

"Every time she upset you, you'd just leave her alone for a few days, and she'd back down on her own. Right now she's playing you. If you actually go, she'll only grow more out of control."

Draven's brows loosened slightly.

Seraphina really had done this too many times before. After every quarrel, she'd come find him within a day or two, tugging at his sleeve and saying, Senior Brother, I was wrong, I won't do it again.

Over time he really had come to expect itthat she would always bow her head, always come back on her own.

Seeing him waver, Rufina let go of his hand at once and softened her voice further. "Senior Sister's Spirit Meridians are damaged, yes, but her foundation is strong. A few days locked up won't be anything serious.

"But if you go soft and let her out now, she'll only know less restraint from now on."

Draven stood there for a moment, then finally drew his hand back.

"Let's go back," he said, and turned to walk away.

Rufina followed him, her lips pressed together, then shifted into a gentle, obedient tone. "I've had the barrier around the Forbidden Ground reinforced. Senior Sister is perfectly safe inside, so you needn't worry."

Draven said nothing.

His pace wasn't slow, but after a dozen or so steps, he turned back and glanced toward the Forbidden Ground.

That sliver of daylight was blocked completely by the barrier door Rufina had sealed shut once more.

Inside the Forbidden Ground, it was pitch black.

I huddled in the corner against the stone wall, half my meridians already choked off by demonic energy, only the wound at the side of my neck still seeping blood.

I heard the humming of the barrier being reinforced overhead; the door was sealed off completely.

That aura had gone.

Gone far away.