Chapter 22: Heart in Turmoil, Liu Yiyi

In the secluded private room.

“Mmm...”

A soft moan, clearly filled with discomfort and pain, shattered the room’s silence.

Liu Yiyi’s long eyelashes trembled slightly, as if shedding a thousand-pound burden, before slowly lifting.

The daze of awakening lasted only a fleeting instant in her cold eyes, then vanished at the sight before her.

Beside her, Su Yan still slept, her delicate brows slightly furrowed, while the floor lay in disarray.

She froze, her mind blank, as if her memories had been violently severed.

Yet the next instant—

Those agonizing, humiliating memories flashed through her mind like lightning.

Hu Tian’s deceitful invitation and that cup of clear tea...

Zhang Xu’s grotesque, triumphant face...

The sudden, unquenchable strange heat blazing within her, the loss of strength, the collapse of reason...

Then, the white-haired figure who burst through the door like a divine weapon, the earth-shattering punch that sent Zhang Xu crashing into the lake’s depths.

After that... her own complete loss of control, and Su Yan’s...

Finally, she remembered only icy water pouring in—slowing the fire within her.

What made her feel utterly humiliated was...

In her memory, it had been them who took the initiative, while the white-haired elder had remained entirely passive.

How shameful, how disgraceful!

If she could, she wished this were all just a nightmare.

When she woke, everything would end.

She would still be Liu Yiyi—the cold, composed, martial-arts-devoted girl, the unattainable pearl of the Martial Academy, her father’s proud daughter.

But...

A searing pain brutally reminded her.

This was no dream.

All of this was terrifyingly real.

The memories in her mind were too chaotic.

She couldn’t tell if she had lost the most important thing.

At this thought, Liu Yiyi—who had always been iron-willed, enduring broken bones and shattered limbs in training without shedding a single tear—felt a torrent of despair, rage, humiliation, and boundless sorrow surge and shatter the last dam within her heart.

“Aaaah—!!!”

A scream, suppressed to its limit, finally burst from her throat—uncontainable.

No longer a cold sob, but a heart-wrenching wail, as if she would weep out her very organs.

Tears gushed like a broken river, instantly smearing her exquisitely beautiful face—still faintly flushed, now as pale as paper.

She curled her body, shoulders heaving violently, trembling as she wept, as if pouring every pain, every grievance, every hatred into these tears.

This wailing, like a funeral bell, finally woke Su Yan on the other side.

“Mmm...”

Su Yan’s eyelids fluttered, then opened, dazed.

The first thing she saw was Liu Yiyi, weeping as if on the verge of collapse.

She was still disoriented, her head heavy; fragmented images from last night flickered in her mind, but she couldn’t piece them together.

Yet when she tried to move her body—

A sharp pain, like a cold blade, pierced through all her confusion and false hope.

“...”

Su Yan’s body froze instantly, her pupils contracting sharply.

Every memory fragment snapped into place, forming the same unbearable, shameful, despairing picture as Liu Yiyi’s.

She had lost...

The Su family’s eldest daughter, meticulously raised, adored by countless suitors, who had once dreamed of a noble husband—Su Yan, who had always worn a gentle, composed smile, yet carried quiet pride within—had just lost it.

The most precious thing.

“Wu... ah...”

A quieter sob, as if squeezed from the depths of her soul, escaped Su Yan’s throat.

A crushing absurdity, a devastating blow, and boundless terror and confusion flooded her like icy waves.

Then, two people were weeping.

Liu Yiyi’s weeping was shattered, cathartic, filled with destructive despair.

Su Yan’s cries began restrained... then gradually became just as heart-rending.

Two girls who had once been as cold as snow or gentle as flowers now resembled two abandoned creatures, brutally wounded in the wilderness.

They stared at each other in silence, only tears—like broken beads—rolling down their pale cheeks.

They didn’t know how long they cried.

Liu Yiyi’s sobs gradually faded into ragged hiccups.

She raised her trembling, tear-stained hand, clumsily wiping her swollen eyes; those once-cold, star-like eyes now bloodshot, yet deep within their endless sorrow, a cold, resolute flame slowly ignited.

The next instant—

She formed her hand into a palm, gathering strength, ready to strike her own head.

Fortunately, Su Yan noticed immediately; she lunged like thunder, seized Liu Yiyi’s wrists, and snapped:

“Are you mad? You want to kill yourself?!”

Liu Yiyi struggled, but exhaustion from physical and mental depletion kept her pinned.

Her face was paper-white, her gaze hollow; she shook her head, half-sobbing, voice barely a whisper, yet laced with heart-shattering despair: “My purity is gone... what’s the point of living?”

Hearing this, Su Yan paused.

Then she drew a deep breath, forcing herself to extract a sliver of reason from the crushing grief and shame.

She raised her hand, using her sleeve to fiercely wipe her tears, then fixed Liu Yiyi with a piercing gaze, speaking clearly and firmly:

“Yiyi, listen to me! This isn’t our fault! It was Zhang Xu’s vile plot—we are victims, innocent sufferers!”

Her voice steadied, her logic sharpened—as if she were convincing Liu Yiyi, but also herself, who had nearly been swallowed by despair.

“If we let an evil man’s scheme and a moment of humiliation drive us to suicide, that’s worthless! Especially Zhang Xu!”

“Even if he’s dead, if he knew we killed ourselves over this, he’d laugh in the netherworld! Why should we give our lives to fulfill his cruelty?!”

“And...” Su Yan’s gaze swept the enclosed room, her tone lowering yet firm with certainty, “Only heaven and earth know, you know, I know!”

“As long as we don’t speak, no fourth person will ever know! Our reputations suffer no real damage!”

She paused, as if making a final decision, her voice even carrying a touch of childish defiance, “Fine—if we must, we’ll never marry!”

“In this world, women don’t need men to survive!”

Su Yan, as a wealthy young lady, thought swiftly; her words were clear and logical.

In just a few sentences, she not only stopped Liu Yiyi, but also stopped herself.

After all, just moments ago, while weeping, she too had considered ending it all.

The resolute deathwish in Liu Yiyi’s eyes, under Su Yan’s clear, forceful words, finally wavered—and began to fade.

The strength gathered in her palm dissipated like a deflated balloon.

Yet the heaviest, most unspoken stone in her heart still crushed her breath.

Her lips trembled for a long while before she managed, in a voice barely audible, to whisper: “That... that man...”

Liu Yiyi hesitated, but Su Yan understood who she meant.

The white-haired elder who had burst in like a divine weapon and shattered Zhang Xu with one punch—the most crucial figure in their unbearable memories.

And the one they most dreaded mentioning now.

“Yiyi...” Su Yan’s gaze grew deep and calm; she recalled the fleeting glimpse from last night, “That man’s strength is certainly above Dark Force, possibly higher. In Anxi County and beyond, every known Dark Force expert, my father has noted; I’ve heard most names or seen their portraits. But that man... his face was aged, yet his skill was terrifyingly sharp—I have no memory of him.”

She paused, analyzing slowly: “I believe he was merely passing through, or a hidden master in Anxi County—not an ordinary person.”

“Moreover... if he truly meant us harm, with his strength and the situation then, we wouldn’t be alive and talking now.”

Her gaze swept over herself and Liu Yiyi, “He... didn’t take advantage of us. He seemed more like... we...”

The rest she couldn’t say—it was clear enough.

“So...” Su Yan took a deep breath, concluding with cold rationality, “I believe that man met us by chance. His intervention may have been righteous, or perhaps for other reasons. He left quietly afterward, leaving no trace of coercion or blackmail. Exposing this would bring him no benefit—only trouble. He... almost certainly won’t speak.”

Hearing this, Liu Yiyi sighed inwardly and quietly lowered the hand that had sought to end her life.

She agreed with Su Yan’s counsel and reasoning.

After all, in those shameful memories, the white-haired elder had seemed forced upon.

“Yiyi, we must live well!”

Su Yan grasped Liu Yiyi’s cold hand and said firmly:

“Didn’t you once say your dream was to reach the pinnacle of martial arts, to become the first female Martial Saint of Zhou?”

At this, Liu Yiyi’s tear-red eyes slowly glimmered with a faint light.

Yes—her martial path had only just begun. How could she end it now?

The next instant—

Unbidden, the white-haired elder’s hazy figure flashed again in her mind, carrying a faint, unsettling familiarity.

"Who, then, are you?"