"Si Nansheng still has some things to do. Please, Senior Li, help me keep this jade pendant for a while."
"Very well." Li Tianhen looked at the jade pendant, then at Si Nansheng, and put the pendant away into his Storage Ring.
Si Nansheng walked to the center of the grand hall, knelt down, and looked up with tear-filled eyes at Feng Zeyan, who remained high and mighty upon his seat. She raised her hand to remove the hairpin from her hair and placed it on the floor. Her dark hair cascaded down, draping behind her.
She untied the Storage Bag from her waist, took out her personal disciple identity token, and wiped away the trace of her soul power from it, placing that on the floor as well.
Next, she stripped off her Shengtian Sect uniform.
Beneath it, she wore only a thin inner garment, leaving nothing else.
Since she was severing ties, she would naturally make a clean break of it.
Everyone watched Si Nansheng's actions in silence, completely clueless as to what she was trying to do.
"Whatever I owed the Shengtian Sect, I paid back long ago. What belongs to me, I will not let go of; what does not belong to me, I will not keep. I return it all to you!" Si Nansheng said as she stood up. Channeling her Spiritual Energy into her hands, she grabbed fiercely at her chest!
"Si Nansheng, you wouldn't dare!" Others might not know what this action signified, but he knew all too well.
"Ah—" Si Nansheng let out a miserable, piercing scream. Cold sweat broke out instantly across her forehead, and pain distorted her entire face.
Immediately afterward, everyone watched as she extracted a golden Divine Bone from within her body.
"Pfft—" Si Nansheng spat out a mouthful of blood, her legs turning to jelly as she collapsed onto the ground. The Divine Bone fell with a dull thud.
Seeing this, Feng Zeyan froze for a split second, the expression on his face blank. Had this Si Nansheng lost her mind?
"Si Nansheng, are you trying to rebel?" Feng Zeyan roared.
"This is the Divine Bone Sect Master Feng made me cultivate. Today, at the cost of my life, I have torn it out. Sect Master Feng, I, Si Nansheng, owe your Shengtian Sect nothing!"
Si Nansheng stubbornly struggled to her feet, her gaze resolute as she met Feng Zeyan's eyes.
"A Divine Bone? Truly a Divine Bone?"
Staring at the Divine Bone on the floor, Su Heng looked at Si Nansheng in shock.
Shen Jingyuan went a step further, demanding of her, "Why is there a Divine Bone inside you? And why are there so many cracks on it? What is your intention in pulling it out now?"
"Su Heng, Shen Jingyuan, have you ever considered that your junior sister—the good-for-nothing you've always despised—actually possesses the aptitude of a Supreme-grade Heavenly Spirit Root?"
A faint smile curved the corners of Si Nansheng's blood-stained lips, her eyes filled with mockery.
"How is that possible? Si Nansheng, you truly have no shame! To avoid punishment from Master, you'll say any lie that comes to mind. Unfortunately, we aren't fools. We've known for a long time that you're no good, and we'll never believe your ghost stories!"
Su Heng glared viciously at Si Nansheng, the disgust in his eyes deepening.
"I knew you wouldn't believe me. And fair enough—over the years, my cultivation hasn't improved by even an inch, so every single one of you treated me like useless trash. You can't really be blamed for that either. The truth is, even before I entered the sect, Sect Master Feng had already concealed my Spirit Root."
"How can this be? Master, why would Master do such a thing? Si Nansheng, speak! Why are you trying to frame Master?"
Shen Jingyuan grabbed Si Nansheng by her clothes, glaring at her with eyes split at the corners, veins bulging in rage!
"I'm framing him? If you don't believe me, go ahead and ask him. Ask him if I entered the Foundation Establishment Realm at the age of eight, and whether he placed this Divine Bone inside my body the moment I broke through."
Si Nansheng looked up at the lofty Feng Zeyan, who was returning her gaze as if looking at a dead person.
"Si Nansheng, a Divine Bone is hard to come by. Even if—even if Master placed the Divine Bone inside your body, he must have done it for your own good. How can you slander Master?" Su Heng looked at Si Nansheng with an air of absolute righteousness.
Looking at this man who had reached the absolute peak of hypocrisy, Si Nansheng could only find it laughable. She truly wondered how blind she must have been in her past life to ever think he was a good person.
"For my own good? Do you know that when this Divine Bone was placed in my body, it was shattered? Do you know that for this Divine Bone to recover to the state it is in now, it had to be nourished and repaired by my Supreme-grade Heavenly Spirit Root and my Spiritual Energy? Do you know that for the past five years, no matter how hard I tried to cultivate, my cultivation never improved by even a fraction precisely because all the Spiritual Energy I cultivated was being used to nourish this rotten bone?"
As she spoke, a wave of profound sorrow filled Si Nansheng's heart and lungs, bringing tears to the brim of her eyes. She did not know whether this feeling came from herself or from the original owner of the body.
When Su Heng and Shen Jingyuan looked toward their master, they discovered his complexion was pitch-black, dark enough that water seemed ready to drip from it.
For a moment, they found it hard to believe. Could what Si Nansheng said possibly be true?
"Sect Master Feng, I return your Divine Bone to you. Whatever Cultivation Methods and cultivation I possess were learned within the Shengtian Sect; now, I cripple my own cultivation to return them to you. As for your claim that I injured Liu Xuewei, I do not acknowledge it. As for wanting my Spirit Root, keep dreaming—today, Si Nansheng would rather destroy her own Spirit Root than let her have the benefit!"
Si Nansheng formed hand seals, her movements clumsy and unpolished.
Watching her actions and recalling what she had just said, Li Tianhen instantly realized what she was about to do.
"Stop!" Before Li Tianhen's voice had even faded, a series of popping sounds erupted from within Si Nansheng's body.
With her Spirit Root destroyed, her Meridians severed, and the terrifying pressure generated by the violent backlash of her Spiritual Energy, Si Nansheng coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, her entire body reduced to a state on the verge of death.
Everyone stared at Si Nansheng in shock, none of them imagining that a twelve-year-old child could do something so merciless and absolute.
"Si Nansheng!" Feng Zeyan had never expected Si Nansheng to pull such a move. Rage filled his eyes to the brim, and he longed to rush forward and tear Si Nansheng to pieces.
Yet his fury was not born from the destruction of Si Nansheng's Spirit Root, but rather from the realization that without Si Nansheng's Water Spirit Root, it would be impossible to repair his precious disciple's Spirit Root.
"From this day forth, Si Nansheng severs all ties with the Shengtian Sect. My life and death have nothing to do with the Shengtian Sect, and the rise and fall of the Shengtian Sect are of no concern to me. The things I have gathered over these past few years, combined with discarding my own cultivation to repair the Divine Bone, are more than enough to repay Sect Master Feng for raising me. I owe you nothing."
Drenched from head to toe in blood, Si Nansheng stumbled, yet stubbornly forced herself not to fall, lifting her chin to gaze at the members of the Shengtian Sect.
They wanted to snatch her Supreme-grade Heavenly Spirit Root for Liu Xuewei, allowing her to advance further in power? Keep dreaming.
Even if she destroyed her own Spirit Root, she would never hand it over to serve as a stepping stone for Liu Xuewei!
Nor would she stay in the Shengtian Sect to be used like an ox or a horse!
Looking at the wild, frantic smile at the corners of Si Nansheng's mouth, a sudden chill crept from the soles of everyone's feet straight to the top of their heads.
Was this truly the kind of pressure a twelve-year-old child could inflict upon them?
The moment Si Nansheng collapsed, she was caught by Li Tianhen, who promptly drew out his cloak and wrapped Si Nansheng tightly within it.
"Senior Li... I seem to have... brought you trouble..." Si Nansheng managed a faint smile toward Li Tianhen before losing consciousness.
"Since she has now destroyed her Spirit Root, lost her cultivation, and been left with nothing more than this half-dead shell of a body, she owes your Shengtian Sect nothing more. From this day forward, she is the disciple of Li Tianhen. If I ever catch anyone from the Shengtian Sect bullying her again, don't blame me for being discourteous!"
Glancing at the members of the Shengtian Sect with a gaze of absolute frost, Li Tianhen uttered these words, scooped up Si Nansheng, and turned to leave. Only then did the others finally snap back to their senses.