“Let me tell you this, Wang Xie, it is already a heaven-sent blessing that you could be accepted into the sect. Do not push your luck.”

Defiantly staring back into the cool eyes of his senior brother, Wang Xie had nothing to verbalize, only bitter curses in his mind. There was no helping it, the cool metal blade held against his neck was pressed so firmly it had almost drawn blood.

With a completely even tone, his senior brother continued, “I did not say anything when you entered the sect. I did not say anything when you obtained the good fortune of becoming our master’s disciple. I did not say anything when you acted behind our Master’s back, scheming for small benefits. I did not even say anything when you took the treasure Master had prepared for me.”

His senior brother paused, staring off to the side. Wang Xie knew where he was looking: Six Crane Peak. He didn’t want him to continue.

“S-so what?” Wang Xie squeezed out, breaking the silence, “So what if you did that? I earned everything you said! Chang Yue, you’re angry because I took your treasure? I didn—”

Wang Xie was forced to stop, Chang Yue had pressed the blade firmer against his neck, breaking the skin. Feeling the warm trace of blood on his neck, he immediately shut up.

“I am not angry because of that.” His senior brother coolly stated, “I am not a petty person.”

“So what then?” He spat out. Wang Xie already knew, but he wanted to hear his senior brother say it directly.

Chang Yue gave him a meaningful look before responding, “In truth, I can understand. I can even sympathize. Do you think that Master and I do not know your ambitions?”

Wang Xie was silent once more.

“Master knows very well how much your hatred burns. You want your Wang Clan to hurt as much as they’ve hurt you. You want to kill them.”

Still silent, Wang Xie gave his senior brother a steely gaze.

“That’s fine.” Chang Yue continued, unabated, “You could have done that. You could have killed them all, on your own. You consider yourself more than justified. They killed your pare—”

This time, Wang Xie cut off his senior brother, “Shut your dog mouth! You’re not worthy to speak of them!”

Immediately, Chang Yue ruthlessly slapped Wang Xie’s face to the side. Judging from the stinging sensation, Wang Xie didn’t need to have a mirror to know that his cheek now glowed red.

“Shut your dog mouth? You still have the gall to curse the sect that chose to nurture you? What justification do you have? What does your personal grudge have anything to do with our Great Eastern Sea Sect?”

Wang Xie’s cheeks now stung with the redness of pain as well as embarrassment.

Chang Yue’s even voice finally gained a scalding tone, “Not only did you implicate the sect by mobilizing other disciples to help you slaughter your clan, you even tricked them, telling them that it was a mission ordered by Elder Yan Tie! Even more damningly, you failed!”

Though indignant, Wang Xie did not resist as his senior brother took the opportunity to brutally slap his other cheek. Any resistance would just worsen his punishment.

“Yes, you failed!” His senior brother continued to scold, “You stormed Wang Clan’s village with more than a dozen loyal disciples to kill a group of mortals. But using a hatchet to kill a chicken, you failed! I am not sure whether to blame your stupidity or your bad luck.”

Finally, Wang Xie bit back, defending himself, “How was I to know that Wang Clan had submitted to the Demon Empire? Would you think that a clan of mortals would invite demons into their midst?”

“But they did,” his senior brother snorted, “It is not important why, but the fact that they did. Even after finding out this fact, you decided to persevere and kill them all. It was too bad for your fellow disciples that there was a demon stationed at the village.”

Chang Yue then kicked him directly in the stomach, forcing him to double over.

Chang Yue spoke directly into his ear, “This is your great sin. You single-handedly got seventeen disciples of our Great Eastern Sea Sect murdered in a short-sighted pursuit of vengeance and sparked an incident between us and the Demon Empire.”

Chang Yue signaled to the guards stationed behind the pair. Soon, Wang Xie was dragged up to eye level so that he could face his senior brother once more before Chang Yue doled out his sentence.

“Understandably, Master is far too disappointed to deal with you personally. The Sect Leader and Elders have already come to an agreement regarding your punishment. You will be expelled from the sect. Your Extreme Blazing Sun Physique will be harvested, and your cultivation will be permanently crippled and sealed. Additionally, you will be held in the Punishment Hall’s Dark Watery Prison until you pass from this realm.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Instantly, Wang Xie began wildly resisting with all his strength. However, although he flailed about with as much might as he could muster, he could not break the grasp of the guards holding him. His cultivation had already been sealed previously, rendering him unable to use even the most basic of techniques.

“Chang Yue! You are a lying rat! Master would never agree to such a cruel punishment! You are jealous of my potential, so you chose this opportunity to suppress me! Release me before Master finds out and punishes you instead!” He screamed.

Before he could spit out more, his lips were sealed by a gust of familiar qi. His eyes bulged, and his motions slowed as he made out a formerly translucent form materializing. The form was none other than his master, Fairy Bai Yun. She stared at him sadly, the regret evident behind her somber eyes.

“My dear disciple Wang Xie,” She murmured, barely audible, “Stop resisting. You are wrong, your senior brother Chang Yue only wanted the best for you. I agree with this resolution. It is better than what the Elder Yan Tie wanted. Stop resisting and it will be over soon.”

Wang Xie wanted to yell, but no air escaped his hoarse throat.

---

A constant dampness permeated the atmosphere of Dark Watery Prison. It was an intentional design by its creator to serve as a demoralization tactic. Just standing guard one shift made the guards feel like they had to serve hard labor knees-deep in a cold swamp. The formation that operated the prison made it so, slowly draining its inhabitants of their energy—not just physical, but spiritual as well as mental. As a result, despite the high payment the position offered, guarding the prison remained a deeply unpopular position.

Disciples in the sect joked that the only difference between the guards and the prisoners was the length of their sentence. And although conditions were quite poor for the guards, the state that prisoners had to endure was truly miserable.

Wang Xie had by now long adjusted to the enduring cold and moistness by perpetually shivering under the equally damp blanket the sect had provided him. He was destitute of almost everything. Besides a thin straw cot to rest upon, the aforementioned raggedy blanket, and one trinket he had to entertain himself with, he truly had nothing.

There was a shallow pit in the corner of his cell that served as the designated space to relieve himself. He had not been allowed to exit the cell to use a public latrine or restroom in his entire duration here. He doubted he ever would be allowed to. Thankfully, the pit magically emptied itself each morning, else he would have to adjust to the permanence of stool as well.

Aside from this, his small cell was entirely bare. He was treated with the same dignity as a rat.

He sneezed. He was used to that too. There had not been a day that passed without at least one sneeze. Stripped of his cultivation and powers, he was as susceptible to the elements and sickness as any mortal. He had lost track of the number of times he had contracted a cold or even pneumonia.

Before his imprisonment, Wang Xie had heard a curious sermon by a passionate mortal preacher. The mortal declared that the cost of being unrepentant was damnation and an eternity in a burning hellfire. At the time, he had dismissed it as some ludicrous rambling, but now he desperately wished it were true.

There was nothing he would not give to experience warmth once. Not that there was anything he could offer besides his soul. He was tired now, and perhaps even old.

Imprisoned at the bottommost layer of Dark Watery Prison, where no sunlight escaped into, there was no way to tell the time. Meals were irregular, perhaps once a day at seemingly random intervals, and there were almost no visitors. Worse still, any markings engraved into the wall would simply heal with the interference of the prison formation. His fingers and skin were wrinkly, but they had been that way almost as soon as he had entered his cell due to the humidity of the prison.

As a result, Wang Xie only felt that a long, long time had passed.

With no ability to cultivate, he could only passively sit and wait for anything to occur. He could not even converse with his fellow prison mates, as the formation prevented that as well. Given the chance, and with the gift of hindsight, Wang Xie would readily admit he had made a mistake he would never again commit.

When he first entered the prison, he denied his wrongdoing, crying injustice and railing against his punishment every day. After he yelled himself to sleep the umpteenth time, he eventually learned that no one would respond. Then, he gave himself to compromise, asking for understanding and a second chance to repent his wrongdoings. Still, there came no respite. After another period of time, he came to wallow in self-pity, crying rather than screaming himself to sleep. Eventually, something within him snapped.

He came before the bars of his cell and kneeled, repeatedly kowtowing before the entrance over and over until his head bled and he felt numb.

Perhaps someone had felt moved, or perhaps it was routine, but he had received a jade slip.

But what was detailed in it truly broke him.

His former senior brother, Chang Yue, had written it to him. In short, curt sentences, Chang Yue explained that his extracted Extreme Blazing Sun Physique had successfully been refined into a powerful sword and was now wielded by Elder Yan Tie. His former position as Fairy Bai Yun’s sixth disciple had been filled by another talented new cultivator. But what truly hurt Wang Xie’s soul was the fact that the Wang Clan was prospering like no other time under the supervision of the Demon Empire.

Chang Yue did not include mention of a pardon or any mercy, so he could only assume that it meant that his original sentence remained the same.

This jade slip was the one “trinket” he had in his cell.

It would not be a lie to say that Wang Xie was well and truly devoid of hope of ever fulfilling his revenge or succeeding in life. That was, until a glimmer of brightness appeared in the corner of his eyes.

Glancing over, he saw a small lotus that would almost be inconspicuous if it were not for its bright golden glow. At this moment, he did not even think about the myth of the Golden Lotus. He only thought that this was something the sect had delivered.

Making his way over, he was only disappointed it did not radiate any heat before he picked it up.

The very next instant, the glow intensified, encapsulating Wang Xie’s sorry form in its radiant light before blinking out of existence the very next moment.

In its aftermath, Wang Xie’s body dropped like a sack of potatoes.