To win over a Vassal King from the court carries immense risk; one misstep could result in total failure. Yet, how could they resist when the Princess of Xiang had been decreed by the late Sect Hierarch as the Purity Saintess, bound by fate to marry and journey far to the Divine Sect?
"You... how did you know?"
Yin Tingxue's pale face grew ghastlier upon hearing these words. Her wide eyes stared at the other party in shock and disbelief.
"You not only intend to sever the Longevity Bridge... but also to kill me?"
Of course, Chen Yi could not reveal that he had learned this from the events yet to unfold.
The Prince Mansion had been raided; the Vassal King and all male members of the household sentenced to exile three thousand miles away, while the women were demoted to slave status. This was due to the secret police discovering the Vassal King's collusion with the Demon Sect, and solely due to that connection being uncovered.
Neither the Ming'an Divine Sect nor the Prince Mansion had ever revealed that Yin Tingxue was the Demon Sect Saintess.
If such a truth were exposed,
they would likely face complete and total extermination.
Thinking of this utterly hopeless predicament, Yin Tingxue trembled intensely.
She bit her lip and said in a quivering voice: "Then go ahead and kill me. I'm not afraid..."
Chen Yi looked at her mock heroic posture and sneered:
"Then, do you have any last wishes?"
The autumn wind swirled as the two stood atop the stone bridge, while the turbulent river coursed away into the distance. The eerie stillness was overwhelming, like the Samsara River in the legends of Tianzhu, carrying both the living and the dead, where people often knelt by its shores and prayed for blessings in the afterlife.
The wind was chilling, so cold it stung the bone.
She lifted her face to look at the person she'd dreamt of countless times, forcing a smile:
"Could you... let me visit Yintai Temple one last time?
Mother passed away there. When she left, I was beside her praying for her blessings. Now that my time has come, I wish to pray for her once more."
After a moment of thought, Chen Yi nodded slightly.
Crossing the stone bridge, they stepped into Yintai Temple—a place where the late Princess had retreated for purification and blessings. Within, the temple enshrined the Medicinal Bodhisattva, surrounded by deep courtyards where maple leaves fell. Before them lay the Treasure Basin, brimming with ashes from incense offerings.
She didn't know how many times she had prayed for blessings for her departed mother.
Chen Yi couldn't help but ponder whether this young girl, who had cruelly killed him in his previous life, was truly that kind of person in her essence?
Proximity to virtue, and proximity to vice—is it the environment of the Demon Sect that changed her?
Since entering Yintai Temple, Yin Tingxue had gradually stopped trembling, her fear subdued, leaving only grief on her face.
Each moment of her final hours stretched long and drawn.
The cold wind swept through the Brahma Gates of Yintai Temple, just like before.
In Yin Tingxue's memories, her mother was always gentle, her complexion always pale. On those cold days, her mother would hold her in her arms, never willing to let go, never holding her enough.
But in that winter, the emaciated woman could no longer sustain herself and had lain dazed on her bed, unable even to stretch her hands to hold her daughter one last time.
Her lips moved faintly, but only sobbing sounds came forth.
She harbored no grand hopes for her child, and in her dying moments, only left one sentence upon her sickbed:
"You must be good, be a virtuous person."
Afraid her daughter wouldn't understand, she wrote it again and again, until her strength waned, until the bedding beneath her hands frayed, until she fell asleep—never waking again.
Yin Tingxue looked at the familiar Yintai Temple, tears shimmering in her gaze, yet she still smiled.
"Bodhisattva, please tell her:"
She choked back a sob:
"Mother, Tingxue is coming to find you soon."
The temple was shrouded in a deathly silence, the Bodhisattva's gaze lowered in quiet contemplation.
For a long while, her lips trembled faintly, emitting a sound like splintering wood:
"Thus have I heard, once the Buddha resided in the Jetavana grove near Shravasti..."
Suddenly, Yin Tingxue broke free, rushing violently to the Bodhisattva statue as though about to hurl herself against the wall in suicide. Yet, she stopped before the incense burner, seized the fire-striker from the altar.
Chen Yi watched the young girl in green, momentarily dazed, as her entire being emanated an indescribable stubbornness and resolve.
She appeared as though she would kill someone.
Yin Tingxue intoned the Buddhist scripture, striking the fire-striker. Flames rose from the Treasure Basin on the altar, her visage obscured in the flickering firelight, as though consumed by the raging inferno.
Indeed, consumed by fire...
She seemed like the Zen temple's golden pavilion—a beauty destined to burn herself into ashes.
Yin Tingxue tore open her garments with both hands, releasing silver notes like a snowfall of goosefeathers. The distant cries of grief from the Prince Mansion faded further. Three thousand taels of silver—a fortune that could have redeemed her purity, her life's entirety—rolled into the flames. Crimson-black fire surged up as plumes of dark smoke leapt into the air.
The silver was useless now; better to burn it, burn it as an offering.
Yin Tingxue's lips quivered, her tear-streaked face sorrowful. The girl knelt before the Bodhisattva statue, her hands folded in prayer, head bowed. She repeated her blessings again and again.
Since that winter, the girl had often prayed for her mother's peace on the other side—just like before, just like now.
The stone Bodhisattva lowered its gaze, silent, as if mercifully looking down on the Princess of Xiang. Yet it remained silent, unresponsive to her prayers, endlessly mute.
Legends say the Medicinal Bodhisattva can heal all suffering in the world, yet in the end, it seemed unable to hear a single girl's prayers.
No one knew how much time had passed before a massive shadow loomed behind her. Yin Tingxue hung her head in a trance, her eyes long closed,
"Mother, I've come to find you."
Time passed, yet Yin Tingxue did not feel the blade fall upon her.
Chen Yi watched her, having made his decision.
He chose not to kill her.
Whether for his own Cultivation Technique, or because of her current nature...
He chose not to kill her, instead intending to take her into his mansion as a concubine. There, severing her ties to the Demon Sect, letting her endure his torment—she would have no choice but to silently bear it all.