"Make way! Make way!"
A guard's voice came shouting from the sect entrance.
Everyone froze as the assembly turned toward the commotion, and I stopped my steps, Elder Han's hand on my shoulder pausing too and we both turned to look.
Guards were rushing through the gates moving with desperate purpose, and behind them came the stretchers, carried in with urgency.
The first stretcher came through carrying Yang Kai, unconscious and his face pale as death, and where his leg should have been was wrapped in bloodied bandages, the stump ending at mid-thigh.
The second stretchers followed carrying Liu Chen and Mie, yet a piece of cloth covered their faces, the kind of cloth you put over corpses. The other outer disciple Zhao Wei walked beside the stretcher, his face streaked with tears and sobbing openly.
And then came Chen Wu's stretcher, unconscious too with bandages wrapped around his torso, his breathing shallow but visible — and finally, walking under her own power, Su Ling, her face sad and exhausted.
They stepped into the training grounds and everyone gaped at them in disbelief, hundreds of disciples watching this procession of casualties.
A mission that should have taken a month yet they came back in two weeks looking like they had just walked out of hell. An elder on the platform, an old man I did not recognize, suddenly moved by using a movement skill and jumped off the platform, landing next to Yang Kai's stretcher in a single leap.
He stared at Yang Kai's unconscious face for a second before his gaze moving down to the wrapped stump, his expression crumbling.
This was Yang Kai's master, it had to be.
I also came down from the platform after the other elders. Elder Yun moved straight to Chen Wu's while Elder Han knelt beside Yang Kai, his spiritual energy already flowing from his palms into the boy's body.
Right then Su Ling dropped to one knee in front of Elder Yun, her head bowed. "Master," her voice hoarse and shaking, "the village is completely destroyed by the Iron Fang Wolves, there was an Alpha too, we fought but we couldn't..." she took a shaky breath, "Chen Wu killed it in the end, yet the cost…"
Yang Kai's master, the elder who had jumped down, spoke without looking up from his student."Drop this bullshit act of yours.. bitch."
Elder Yun's head snapped toward him, his expression hardening. "Elder Ming, that is—"
"SHUT UP" Elder Ming still didn't look away from Yang Kai. "My student is missing a leg, that boy and girl are dead, and she—" he finally looked at Su Ling, his eyes red and filled with rage and pain. " Don't take me as a fu**ing fool."
Su Ling's face went pale. "I—"
Elder Tian stepped forward, his expression having gone cold and hard. "Su Ling, get in line with the separated disciples."
Su Ling's head jerked up. "What?"
"You heard me, join the others awaiting."
"Master?" she looked at Elder Yun desperately "what's happening, why—"
Elder Yun started to speak. "Elder Tian, she just returned from a mission. She also needs medical attention—"
"She needs to be detained," Elder Tian interrupted,"Immediately."
"On what grounds?!"
"On grounds of conspiracy to falsely imprison a fellow disciple, on grounds of orchestrating false accusations, on grounds of—" Elder Tian's eyes moved from Su Ling to Yang Kai's unconscious form, to the covered corpse and then back to Su Ling's uninjured state, "—and..." he stopped as if he didn't want to talk about it right now.
The words hung in the air.
Su Ling stood slowly as her expression shifted to pure shock and disbelief. "Master, I didn't, I fought, I tried to save them, I did everything I could—"
"We will confirm that," Elder Tian said coldly.
I stood there silently watching it all unfold, and then turned my gaze to Su Ling.
She was looking around wildly at the elders, at the assembled disciples, at Yang Kai's master still kneeling beside his broken student, yet no one was sympathetic or defending her. Even Elder Yun had already gone quiet.
"I..." Su Ling's voice broke. "I don't…understand…What conspiracy?"
"Guards," Elder Tian said, "take her to the detention center, she will be held there until formal questioning can be conducted." Two guards moved forward hesitantly, for this was an inner disciple.
They reached for Su Ling's arms, but she made no effort to pull away. Instead stood like a statue as if her whole world had shattered and she couldn't understand why.
"Master?" She looked at Elder Yun one last time, his expression pained, yet he didn't intervene.
They led Su Ling away toward the detention center — and then, just for a second, our eyes met. Hers widened enough ready to pop out while a small smile on my face was enough for her to burst into.
"NOOOOOOOOOO."
Before I turned toward where Chen Wu was.
Elder Han was still working on Yang Kai, spiritual energy pouring into the poor boy's body, trying to stabilize the catastrophic damage while Elder Yun was examining Chen Wu, checking his wounds and his cultivation, making sure his student was alright.
Chen Wu's face was pale yet still radiating a charm, and seeing it something inside me stirred, a voice rising like a cry, like a desperate plea —
( GET that neck.. choke him to death, it's the right MOMENT….)
( PIERCE his chest with your sword, take his heart and eat it. You will never get this CHANCE…EVER AGAIN.)
( WHAT ARE YOU DOING, KILL HIM… KILL HIM… KILL HIMMM....)
"Fu Yang."
"Huh?" Elder Shen's voice pulled me out of it, my heart pounding and my eyes wide, as if waking from a dream I hadn't realized I'd fallen into.
"Come with me to the Medical Hall, this..." he glanced at the scene, at the casualties, at the grief, "this will be handled by the elders."
"Umm…What about Chen Wu? Will he be alright?"
"Elder Yun is the best healer after Elder Han, and Chen Wu will recover."
I nodded, letting relief show on my face.
We left the training grounds, away from the grief and accusations. Behind us, Elder Ming quietly sobbed, and the whispers of hundreds of disciples trying to process what they'd just witnessed.
******
The detention center..
The guards were leading Su Ling to a cell, their hands tightly gripped around her arms as though they feared she might try to escape.
They stopped and unlocked a cell, the iron door swung open with a harsh creak.
"Inside."
Su Ling stepped through and the door clanged shut behind her.
Inside the cell, there were already disciples. There might have been about fifteen of them, sitting on benches or standing by a wall. They all wore the same look but when they saw her enter some of those expressions changed—eyes burning with rage focused directly on her.
She recognised a couple of faces but it was better to ignore them for now and continued to stare until she saw Wu Lian who was seated on one of the wooden benches placed against the far wall. Her face was pale and streaked with what looked like dried tears.
Their eyes met — and Wu Lian flinched, shrinking back against the wall. Su Ling noticed that and walked over slowly as the other disciples watched but didn't interfere, just glaring at her silently.
She sat down beside Wu Lian. "Wu lian?" Su Ling kept her voice low, quiet enough that only Wu Lian could hear.
However, Wu Lian remained silent and kept her gaze locked on the floor. "Wu Lian, tell me what happened, please!" Su Ling had to urge. Eventually, there was a sound from Wu Lian's lips, barely audible.
"The elders... found out."
Su Ling's chest tightened after hearing just one sentence.
"They investigated and everyone, the patrol disciples, the guards, me." Wu Lian's hands were shaking….. "They kept asking me and I..." her voice cracked, "I told them it was you."
…..
Su Ling's mind went blank for a moment.
"You what?"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." fresh tears started running down Wu Lian's face, "I couldn't take it anymore and so I told him everything, that you asked me to accuse Fu Yang, that you said he was dangerous."
The words hit like physical blows.
"But..." Su Ling tried to keep her voice steady, controlling the anger rising in her chest, "I told you all to get him out after two days, did you forget that."
"I know!" Wu Lian's voice rose slightly, "I know what you said!" and Su Ling's anger flared.
She was about to shout when another voice interrupted.
"We tried!"
Su Ling turned to find one of the outer disciples already standing and walking toward them.
Shen Yu, a young man around twenty-one, someone she had asked to help with the plan, someone who had always been eager to assist her, too eager sometimes — yet the way he looked at her right now…
"We unlocked the door," Shen Yu said, his voice calm and almost casual like they were talking about the weather, "on the second day, just like you instructed, we even told him he could leave, that the charges were being dropped."
Su Ling stared at him. "And?"
"He stayed, what else."
"What?"
"He didn't leave, just sat there." Shen Yu shrugged.
Su Ling couldn't speak, couldn't process what she was hearing, and finally now that she was in the cell she understood why he had chosen to stay — her shout almost escaped, yet she caught it and turned it into a harsh whisper.
"You FOOL! Don't you understand what you've done? He stayed there deliberately making it look like we were torturing him!"
Shen Yu's expression didn't change, just looking at her with those devoted eyes, that stupid blind loyalty she had never asked for.
"But Su Ling, he is an evil person, dangerous to the sect?" His voice was gentle and reasonable, like he was stating obvious facts, "Hump, why are you shouting at me, we did a good job didn't we, we protected the sect from a dangerous element."
The other disciples in the cell were staring at Shen Yu, looking at him like he was the biggest fool they'd ever seen, a complete donkey, too stupid to understand the situation they were all in.
But Shen Yu just smiled like nothing was wrong, like Su Ling would praise him for his good work — yet Su Ling could only look at him in complete disbelief. Yes, she was the one who had told them Fu Yang was dangerous, that he needed to be dealt with.
But on what basis?
What proof did she have?
Nothing, just an irrational hatred she couldn't explain, an overwhelming urge to hurt him that made no sense.
And she had acted on those feelings and now…
Su Ling gritted her teeth, her hands clenching into fists thinking she shouldn't have left for the mission..she should have stayed at the sect and managed the situation personally.
But why regret now….