Mei Ling's POV
I watched from behind the oak tree as my perfect sister took the Sect Master's hand, and rage burned through my veins like poison.
This wasn't how it was supposed to happen.
Lin Yue should be in chains right now, being dragged to the Extraction Chamber to have her Golden Core drained drop by drop. She should be screaming and begging while I watched with a smile. That was the plan Mother and I worked out so carefully.
Instead, she was standing there with Shen Qinghan—the most powerful, handsome, untouchable man in the entire cultivation world—looking at her like she was something precious.
It made me want to vomit.
"Mei Ling," Mother whispered from behind the next tree, "we need to leave before they see us."
"No." My fingernails dug into the bark. "I want to hear what he says to her."
Shen Qinghan was leading Lin Yue toward his white spirit horse, his hand still holding hers protectively. The disciples parted for them like water, and Elder Zhao looked like he'd swallowed a frog.
"Lin Yue will stay at my personal residence in the sect," Shen Qinghan announced to everyone. "She's under my direct protection. Anyone who harms her answers to me personally. Is that clear?"
His personal residence? That was where sect masters only brought their most honored guests or—
My stomach twisted with sick realization.
Or potential marriage candidates.
"Sect Master," Elder Zhao protested weakly, "the elders should discuss this—"
"The elders will discuss what I tell them to discuss." Shen Qinghan's voice could have frozen fire. "And right now, I'm telling them we're reforming our recruitment policies immediately. No more furnaces. No more forced cultivation extraction. We're not slavers."
The disciples murmured in shock. Some looked relieved. Others looked angry at losing their easy power source.
Lin Yue said something too quiet for me to hear, and Shen Qinghan actually smiled at her. Smiled. The Ice Prince of the cultivation world who supposedly never showed emotion was smiling at my idiot sister.
I'd been trying to catch his attention for three years. Three years of attending sect events, wearing my best robes, practicing my cultivation desperately to get noticed. He'd looked through me every single time like I was invisible.
But one day with Lin Yue and he was holding her hand and making promises?
"Come on," Mother tugged my sleeve urgently. "We're leaving now."
We slipped away through the forest as the sect disciples mounted their spirit beasts. My mind raced with plans and backup plans, but they all crashed against the same impossible wall: Shen Qinghan's protection.
A Sect Master's personal protection was absolute. No one could touch her now without starting a war.
Unless...
"Mother," I said slowly as we emerged from the forest near our house, "what if we could prove Lin Yue is actually dangerous? Not just a rogue cultivator, but something worse?"
Mother's eyes sharpened with interest. "What are you thinking?"
"The demon cores she collected—they're still in her cave, right? What if those cores weren't from demons she killed?" I spoke faster as the idea formed. "What if we make it look like she was working with demons? Trading with them? Maybe even summoning them?"
"That's a serious accusation." But Mother was smiling now. "Demon sympathizers are executed on sight, no trial needed. Even a Sect Master's protection wouldn't save her from that."
"Exactly." My heart pounded with excitement. "We just need evidence. Plant some demon summoning arrays near her cave, maybe some blood contracts with demon signatures—"
"I know someone who can forge those." Mother's mind was already working. "My cousin in Azure Cloud Sect deals in... questionable documents. For the right price, he could create demon contracts that look centuries old."
"How much time do we need?"
"Three days to get the forgeries. Another day to plant everything perfectly." Mother grabbed my shoulders. "But Mei Ling, if this fails, if anyone discovers we framed her—"
"We'll be executed," I finished. "I know. But I'm not letting her win. I'm not letting her steal everything that should be mine."
Father was waiting in the house when we got back, and he looked ten years older than this morning.
"She's gone," he said hollowly, staring at his tea cup. "My Lin Yue. The sect took her."
"They didn't take her, Father," I said sweetly, sitting beside him. "The Sect Master is protecting her. Apparently she saved his life years ago, and now he's her hero."
Father looked up with desperate hope. "She's safe then?"
"For now." Mother poured him more tea, her voice dripping with false concern. "But husband, we need to discuss something serious. The evidence I found suggests Lin Yue might have been involved in activities far worse than simple rogue cultivation."
"What are you talking about?"
"The demon attacks on our village these past months—what if they weren't random?" Mother let that poison sink in. "What if someone was attracting them here deliberately? Someone who benefited from collecting their cores?"
"That's insane," Father said, but doubt flickered in his eyes. "Lin Yue would never—"
"Wouldn't she?" I pressed. "Think about it, Father. The attacks started six months ago. That's exactly when Lin Yue began her 'late night patrols.' She was always conveniently there to 'drive them away,' but what if she was actually summoning them and then killing them for their cores?"
"No." But Father's voice was weak. "She's my daughter—"
"She lied to you for five years about being a cultivator," Mother interrupted gently. "What else might she be lying about?"
I watched my father's world crumble behind his eyes. The doubt we planted would grow like weeds, and when we revealed our "evidence" in three days, he'd be ready to believe his precious daughter was a monster.
Perfect.
[Meanwhile, at Heavenly Sword Sect]
Lin Yue's POV
Shen Qinghan's personal residence was beautiful in a cold, perfect way—like everything about him. White stone buildings with blue tile roofs, elegant gardens with ice sculptures that never melted, and silence so complete I could hear my own heartbeat.
"You'll stay in the guest house," he said, leading me through the gardens. "It has its own kitchen, training yard, and barrier formations. No one can enter without my permission."
"This feels like a really nice prison," I said quietly.
He stopped walking and turned to face me. "Is that what you think this is?"
"I don't know what to think." Exhaustion crashed over me suddenly. "This morning I was hunting bandits with my father. Now I'm a sect's honored guest? It doesn't make sense."
"You saved my life five years ago." His ice-blue eyes were intense. "I told you I searched for you afterward. When I heard you'd died, I—" He stopped, struggling with words. "I carried that guilt like a sword through my chest. Finding you alive today is a miracle I don't deserve. So no, this isn't a prison. It's me trying to repay a debt I thought I'd never get to settle."
Something in his voice made my chest ache. "You don't owe me anything. I just did what anyone decent would do."
"That's where you're wrong." He smiled sadly. "Most people wouldn't have helped a dying stranger. Most would have robbed me and left me for the demons. You're extraordinary, Lin Yue, and you don't even realize it."
Heat crept up my neck. No one had ever called me extraordinary before.
"I should let you rest," Shen Qinghan said, stepping back. "We'll talk more tomorrow about your situation and how to handle the elders. But tonight, you're safe. I promise."
He started to leave, then paused. "Lin Yue? That man who betrayed you—Zhang Wei. What do you want me to do with him?"
"Nothing," I said immediately. "He's not worth your time or mine. Let him go."
Shen Qinghan studied me for a long moment. "You're too forgiving."
"Maybe. But holding onto hatred just poisons yourself." Words my real mother taught me before she died.
After he left, I explored the guest house. It was bigger than my entire family home, with soft beds, warm baths, and more food than I could eat in a week. I should have felt grateful.
Instead, I felt trapped.
I walked to the window and looked out at the sect grounds below. Disciples practiced sword forms in the training yards, and spiritual energy hummed through the air like music. This was the world I'd hidden from my entire life.
A world that would have enslaved me if Shen Qinghan hadn't intervened.
A soft knock at my door made me jump. "Come in?"
A young female disciple entered, carrying a tray of tea. She couldn't have been more than sixteen, with nervous eyes and shaking hands.
"I-I brought refreshments, honored guest."
"Thank you." I took the tea, and my spiritual sense automatically scanned it out of habit.
My blood ran cold.
There was poison in the tea. Not enough to kill me, but enough to make me violently sick and cloud my cultivation for days.
Someone in this sect wanted me weak and vulnerable.
"Who sent you?" I asked the girl quietly.
She went pale. "I-I don't know what you—"
"Don't lie. Who gave you this poisoned tea and told you to serve it to me?"
Tears filled her eyes. "Elder Zhao. He said if I didn't do it, he'd fail me out of the sect. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't want to but I—"
"It's okay." I set down the tea carefully. "You're not in trouble. But I need you to do something for me."
"Anything!"
"Bring this tea back to Elder Zhao. Tell him I drank it all and that I'm feeling very dizzy and sick. Can you do that?"
She nodded frantically and grabbed the tray, running out.
I waited five minutes, then snuck out of my guest house using the techniques I'd learned from years of midnight demon hunting.
If Elder Zhao thought I was poisoned and helpless, he'd make his move tonight. And I was going to catch him in the act.
I slipped through the shadows toward the main sect building, my spiritual sense extended to detect anyone nearby. The sect was quieter at night, with most disciples in their quarters.
But voices echoed from an open window near the Elder's Hall. I crept closer, pressing against the wall.
"—certain the poison will work?" That was Elder Zhao's voice.
"Absolutely," a woman replied, and my heart stopped.
That was Mother's voice. Madam Qin was here, in the sect, talking to Elder Zhao?
"And the demon summoning evidence is ready to plant?" Elder Zhao continued.
"My daughter is placing it in the cave as we speak," Mother said proudly. "By tomorrow morning, we'll have proof that Lin Yue has been working with demons for months. The Sect Master will have no choice but to execute her, protection or not."
My hands clenched into fists. They were framing me for demon collaboration—a crime punishable by immediate death.
"Excellent," Elder Zhao chuckled. "The Sect Master's been too soft lately anyway. This will remind him that some traditions exist for good reasons. Rogue cultivators are dangerous, and this girl—"
A hand clamped over my mouth from behind, and I was yanked backward into the shadows.
I tried to scream, to fight, but then I heard a familiar voice whisper in my ear.
"Don't make a sound. It's me."
Shen Qinghan.