A hundred years after her death, Su Xuan entered the Tribulation Stage. Alone, he went to the Immortal Realm, to the back mountain of the Sword Sect. By then, the Sword Sect was abandoned, a desolate mountain.
[Su Xuan sat atop the mountain, holding a pot of wine, sipping slowly as he gazed at the distant, long-ruined bamboo house. At this moment, dark clouds gathered, thunder roared, and Shen Ciyu approached alone, the powerful heavenly lightning trailing behind him.]
[On the thirteenth day of the sixth month, the Lord of the Beast Realm, Su Xuan, fell to Shen Ciyu and the Heavenly Dao. From then on, the cultivation world knew no more war, and the Four Realms found peace.]
This was Su Xuan’s ending in the original story.
Two passages summed up his fate.
That day was the anniversary of Sang Dai’s death. She had been gone for exactly one hundred years.
Su Xuan had no intention of living by then.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t win—he had planned it all, choosing to die on that specific day.
He had given himself one hundred years to avenge Sang Dai, to dismantle the Sword Sect and severely damage the Immortal Realm.
And he gave the rest of eternity, thousands and tens of thousands of years, to the one who was already gone, accompanying her on the road to the underworld.
Yet back then, during the years Sang Dai had been alive, she had never even smiled at Su Xuan. Why did she deserve for him to go to such lengths?
The faint scent of grass and wood on Su Xuan lingered around her nose. Sang Dai’s hand slowly clenched onto his sleeve, while Su Xuan held her tighter and tighter.
He no longer cared about revealing his feelings, nor did he care that Ling Yin and Liu Lixue were still present.
He had to make sure she was still here.
Sang Dai inhaled the earthy fragrance on him and said in a muffled voice, “Su Xuan, I’m still alive.”
“You won’t die.”
“I won’t die.”
He said a sentence, and Sang Dai responded with another.
They held each other tightly. If this had been in the past, Liu Lixue would have been happy for Su Xuan.
But now, all he felt was an overwhelming bitterness.
Liu Lixue glanced at Ling Yin again. She sat on the swing, clearly looking at Su Xuan and Sang Dai, yet it seemed as though she wasn’t watching at all. Her gaze carried emotions, yet it was so hollow it seemed devoid of any ripples.
Her reaction alone was enough to confirm that everything Sang Dai had said was true.
Liu Lixue didn’t dare to imagine it—if the original destiny had unfolded, Sang Dai would have died, and Su Xuan would have been finished as well.
The mere thought filled him with dread.
Ling Yin suddenly spoke, “Everything you said is correct. On the thirteenth day of the sixth month, two months ago, I saw a new destiny.”
Sang Dai gently pushed Su Xuan and stepped out of his embrace.
As he straightened up, he quickly turned away, showing Sang Dai only the back of his head. All she could see was his silvery-white hair, nothing else.
But she knew—Su Xuan was crying.
The scorching sensation that had fallen on her neck earlier wasn’t just his breath; it was also his tears.
Sang Dai pressed her lips into a thin line, choosing not to expose him. She turned to look at Ling Yin instead.
“That day, I should have died. But I didn’t, and so the destiny changed. The new destiny you saw, Senior, is that I destroyed the Guixu Immortal Realm and was surrounded and killed by the Four Realms there, wasn’t it?”
Ling Yin nodded. “Yes.”
Sang Dai said, “But destinies can change. Didn’t the one you saw six thousand years ago change as well?”
“That’s why I don’t want to see you walk toward that kind of ending.” Ling Yin stood up and walked toward Sang Dai, gently touching her cheek. “In all these years, the destinies I’ve seen have always come true and never changed. You are the only exception. So, perhaps I can consider—you might be the turning point?”
“So you want to save me?”
“I have to save you. Someone in the shadows wants you dead.”
“Do you know who it is, Senior?”
“I don’t.” Ling Yin replied, “But that person’s identity is definitely not someone you can contend with.”
Sang Dai tilted her head and looked toward the heavens.
“It’s related to the Heavenly Dao, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Sang Dai remained calm, nodding. “Alright, I understand.”
Liu Lixue couldn’t understand why she was so composed. Even when she heard the Heavenly Dao wanted her dead, her expression remained tranquil.
Sang Dai, however, asked, “Senior, what do you want me to do?”
“Me?” Ling Yin smiled. “I want you to burn your bridges and fight for once.”
Sang Dai was taken aback. “…What?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Ling Yin’s smile disappeared. Her cold hand grabbed Sang Dai’s wrist, and in an instant, they vanished.
Liu Lixue blinked, a chill creeping into his heart. “San… Sang Miss…”
It was too fast. By the time Su Xuan turned back, Sang Dai had already been taken away by Ling Yin. The entire Red Sand Spring was now empty, leaving only him and Liu Lixue.
“Dai Dai!”
When they reached the entrance of the Red Sand Spring and saw the layers of ghostly flames rising, they finally understood what it meant.
The ghost flames were a trap, designed specifically to imprison them.
From start to finish, Ling Yin’s sole purpose was to trap Su Xuan and take Sang Dai away.
—
Sang Dai was brought to a mountain by Ling Yin.
She didn’t feel panicked. When she landed, her expression remained composed. She straightened the hairpin disheveled by the wind and turned to face Ling Yin.
“Senior, what do you intend to do?”
Ling Yin’s face was icy. “Sang Dai, are you aware that the Immortal Alliance has issued a bounty on you?”
“It’s already issued?”
“It’s already issued.”
Sang Dai nodded. “Hmm, that’s pretty fast.”
Ling Yin countered, “Do you think you can withstand the Immortal Alliance’s bounty hunters? Every cultivator above the Golden Core stage, except those on missions, is headed to Bairen Alley. Can you handle that?”
“This time, you may withstand it. But what about next time? And the time after that? If the Immortal Realm summons the two secluded Dao Integration ancestors who have been in deep retreat, can you withstand them?”
“Sang Dai, can you?”
Sang Dai gazed at the forest in the distance, sensing a powerful presence. The one approaching was at the Nascent Soul stage, the same as her.
She said calmly, “Senior, do you want me to undergo my tribulation here today? But I’ve been poisoned, and my cultivation has stagnated.”
She understood Ling Yin’s intent. Ling Yin had brought her out of the Red Sand Spring, trapping Su Xuan and Liu Lixue inside.
Ling Yin knew that the Immortal Alliance had sent people to hunt her down. She wanted Sang Dai to undergo her tribulation here.
“Sang Dai, you should have undergone your tribulation long ago. If you do not fail me today and prove your worth, I will personally hand over Ying Heng’s Heaven-grade spiritual root to you.”
A chilling burst of spiritual energy struck her back. Sang Dai couldn’t endure it and collapsed to the ground, coughing up blood uncontrollably.
The spiritual energy surged through her spine, threading through her intricate network of meridians, and finally gathered around her spiritual root.
Ling Yin’s face was cold, her eyes heavy. She paid no heed to Sang Dai’s agony, relentlessly forcing the spiritual root—partially severed by the Sword Sect—back into her meridians.
The pain was excruciating, like a knife carving through her spine, slicing away the toxins that had corroded her spiritual root, only to force it back and fuse it with the surrounding meridians.
Blood continued to spill from Sang Dai’s lips, splattering the ground with crimson stains. Her disheveled hairpin swayed with her movement.
Ling Yin showed no mercy. Ignoring Sang Dai’s suffering, her expression was grim, as though completing a task of utmost importance.
The ghostly energy surrounding them was frigid, so cold that frost formed on Sang Dai’s eyebrows. Her entire body turned pale, as if she had been pulled out of a glacial abyss.
She didn’t move, gritting her teeth and enduring it, letting Ling Yin purge the toxins and fuse her spiritual root anew.
Ling Yin was helping her—this, Sang Dai understood.
Blood seeped continuously through her clenched teeth. The clean blue robes of the sword cultivator had long been stained a deep red.
In the distance, the Nascent Soul cultivator continued to approach, their presence growing more oppressive. The closer they came, the harsher Ling Yin’s movements grew.
Finally, with the last segment of her spiritual root cleansed and forcefully re-integrated, Sang Dai spat out a mouthful of black blood.
The blood was dark as ink, clearly unnatural.
Her face was deathly pale, sweat beading densely on her forehead.
Ling Yin said, “You’ve been stuck at the peak of Nascent Soul for twenty years. I’ve purged the toxins for you. Miss Sang, the Dao Integration stage tribulation lightning will descend shortly, but I believe you’ll need to deal with the one approaching first.”
With those words, she vanished.
On the towering mountaintop, the ghostly energy thickened and chilled, carrying a sound through the forest that resembled the wails of malevolent spirits.
Sang Dai coughed up nearly all the blood clogging her chest and lungs. A large pool of blackened blood lay before her—poison that had lingered in her body for years.
A figure descended gracefully.
The oppressive aura of a Nascent Soul peak cultivator was terrifying. The Sword Sect’s killing intent-filled techniques were impossible to ignore.
Sang Dai struggled to lift her gaze, locking eyes with the newcomer.
The sword cultivator wore white robes embroidered with the emblem of the Sword Sect at the collar. His black hair, tied high in a ponytail with a silver crown, was swept by the wind. His features were refined and ethereal, an exceptionally striking appearance.
It had only been a few days since they last met.
Suppressing her cough, Sang Dai rasped, “You’ve reached the peak of Nascent Soul?”
Shen Ciyu didn’t reply, his expression complicated as he looked at her.
Sang Dai stood up, casually wiping the blood from the corner of her lips. “Congratulations.”
As expected of the male lead. If she remembered correctly, in the original story, Shen Ciyu didn’t reach the peak of Nascent Soul until decades later. Now, it had happened years ahead of time.
It seemed that her survival had altered many things.
Shen Ciyu noticed the blood-stained ground and Sang Dai’s pale face.
“You’re injured?”
Sang Dai chuckled softly. “This isn’t an injury. That blood? It’s from the poison the Sword Sect gave me.”
Shen Ciyu was stunned. “…What?”
Sang Dai’s smile faded. “Shen Ciyu, you know nothing.”
Her words struck like a blade, piercing directly into Shen Ciyu’s heart.
He stared at her pale face, her disheveled hair, and the emptiness in her emotionless eyes. His hand gripping the sword at his side began to tremble.
“…Sang Dai, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what? That I’m just a sword for the Sword Sect? That I’m not the Sword Sect’s eldest daughter, and that the real eldest daughter is Shi Yao?”
“Tell you that the Sword Sect poisoned me to strip away my spiritual root and give it to Shi Yao, squeezing every last bit of value out of me?”
“Tell you that I never did the things they accused me of?”
“After telling you, what could you do?” Sang Dai’s gaze shifted coldly to the jade token at Shen Ciyu’s waist, a flash of mockery passing through her eyes. “The Immortal Alliance sent you to hunt me down, didn’t they?”
Shen Ciyu’s breathing grew uneven. “Those things can’t be true. Come with me to find evidence—I swear I will protect you—”
“You can’t protect me,” Sang Dai interrupted. “With what will you protect me?”
Shen Ciyu’s face turned ashen. His tall, upright figure swayed as though a gust of wind might topple him.
“Sang Dai…”
“Years ago, when my master was convicted by the Immortal Alliance, I didn’t believe it either. I wanted to find evidence to prove his innocence. You now resemble the me from back then—just as foolish, just as naïve.”
Because sometimes, innocence doesn’t matter. The result is what matters.
And the result was that Sang Dai had to die.
Whether or not she was guilty didn’t matter.
Sang Dai summoned the Qingwu Sword, her hair flying wildly in the wind.
“Shen Ciyu, if you want to fight, then draw your sword.”
Draw your sword.
As a sword cultivator, Shen Ciyu had been exceptionally gifted since childhood, mastering the way of the sword with ease—until he met Sang Dai.
A Heaven’s favored son encountering someone even stronger. Her hand wielding the sword was incomparably steady; her sword intent, both fierce and gentle. Beneath her cold, composed face lay a heart so soft, it had led her step by step to this point of no return.
He once believed Sang Dai would become the strongest cultivator across the Four Realms.
He admired her, respected her, wished for her to grow even stronger, to walk the immortal path for eternity.
He had always considered her the goal he must strive to catch up to.
Yet now, the Immortal Alliance wanted him to kill her.
“Sang Dai… how could I possibly raise my hand against you…”
Sang Dai did not lower her sword. Her gaze remained as cold as ever. “Draw your sword, Shen Ciyu.”
He was the Sword Sect’s most righteous senior disciple, the personal protégé of Sang Wenzhou, and the Immortal Alliance’s widely recognized future leader of the Nine Provinces. Everyone believed he was the most fitting choice to execute a traitor.
To kill a traitor for his sect, to slay the murderer of his master, to pave the way for himself to ascend as the Immortal Alliance’s supreme leader.
But Shen Ciyu could no longer hold his sword.
He let it fall from his hand, closing his eyes as a single tear slid down his cheek. “Go.”
Sang Dai said, “If you let me go, the Sword Sect will never forgive you. You will never become the leader of the Nine Provinces Immortal Alliance.”
Shen Ciyu understood.
He opened his eyes, their emotions shattered.
“Sang Dai, I can’t do it.”
He couldn’t act.
From the moment he saw Sang Dai, his once steady sword hand trembled. His sword heart was shaken, and his killing intent dispersed.
But Sang Dai looked past him, her gaze fixed on something farther away.
She curled her lips into a mocking smile. “So even the Immortal Realm doesn’t trust you.”
Shen Ciyu’s long lashes trembled as he suddenly sensed something amiss. Turning abruptly, he looked behind him.
Across the vast heavens, more than ten warships lined up side by side, their decks filled with figures.
The wind howled, lifting their garments—cloaks and robes of varying styles, but all of them wore the same jade token at their waists.
At the forefront stood a man in elaborate robes, his black hair tied high. He was an enforcer of the Immortal Alliance, someone Sang Dai had seen many times before.
The man held a long blade in one hand, his cold, sharp eyes radiating killing intent.
“Traitor Sang Dai, who slaughtered her own father, killed three elders of the Sword Sect, and conspired with her master Ying Heng to destroy the Guixu spiritual vein, attempting to obliterate the Guixu Immortal Realm. Your crimes are grievous, and the Immortal Alliance has decreed your execution.”
“To all disciples of the Immortal Gate, upon sight of her—”
The enforcer slashed his long blade through the air, and a murderous arc of light swept toward Sang Dai atop the mountain.
“Kill!”
The next chapter is super sweet—Little Su and Dai Dai are the sweetest!
This part of the plot is pretty much wrapped up; we’re about to shift to the romance line.