4: 4
4.
"Grand Patriarch Ruochen!"
"My parents entrusted me to your care before they ascended. I beg you, save the Qilin!"
"Grandfather!"
My cry for help overlapped with Joanna's voice.
She threw me one scornful glance, then arranged her face into a look of someone at death's door and rushed to meet him.
"Grandfather... my granddaughter's meridians are all shattered. Unless I ascend, I cannot escape death..."
"Senior Sister clearly has the ascension treasure the Immortal Sovereign left behind, yet she refuses to lend it to me... Perhaps today Joanna and Grandfather will be parted by death itself!"
The Grand Patriarch turned and murmured to her a while, soothing her, before he had time to look at me.
His face changed sharply.
"I don't have any ascension treasure."
"If this ends here and the Qilin is revived, I can pretend none of it ever happened."
I offered him a way out. He answered with silence.
A moment later he lifted his eyes and looked at me with an air of aggrieved sorrow.
"Evelyn! Your father left behind a treasure. Why can you not bring it out and share it with the sect?"
"True, the Immortal Sovereign did not ask me to look after you before he ascended. But as your elder, I will give you one last chance."
"Hand over the ascension treasure, and I can spare your life."
There was no evasion in those eyes. Only greed, and no attempt to hide it.
I stared at him, unable to believe it.
"If my father had such a treasure, why did he never bring it out to share with the sect before?"
"Adrian Mercer is a vicious man."
A cold light flashed in the Grand Patriarch's eyes. He would say no more.
He settled into the high-backed chair and waited, calm and unhurried, for me to break.
"Adrian Mercer and Rose Cooley haven't contacted you once since they ascended. It seems they abandoned you long ago."
"Rather than put up this hopeless resistance, better to hand it over now and spare yourself the torture."
Then he gave a soft laugh.
"And if you truly refuse to speak, no matter. It makes no difference."
"As the child of Adrian Mercer and Rose Cooley, you've been raised since birth on divine pills and elixirs. Even your blood is of the finest grade."
"Put to good use, it will surely be enough to let Joanna ascend."
At those words, the senior brother's face twisted.
The Master did not so much as blink. He raised a hand, and a hundred blades of wind sliced open my flesh.
Precise, every one of them.
Blood poured down.
Joanna's eyes went wide. She stopped clutching her chest, stopped gasping for breath.
She even pointed at several disciples and ordered them to carve up the Qilin's corpse.
"A divine hound this large—once its blood and flesh are refined, it'll make a superb spirit artifact."
The disciples set their blades to work.
I lay on the ground, desperate to stand and stop them.
But I had lost too much blood. It left me utterly weak, without even the strength to push my upper body upright.
Joanna hauled me up by the hair, dragged me aside, and swung a slap across my face.
"Look how wretched I am, and you still won't save me!"
"Evelyn Mercer, everyone says you're kind. I say it's all a lie! You're a hypocrite!"
"You aren't hurt at all."
I bowed my head and spat out a mouthful of bloody foam.
My voice was calm, yet my eyes had turned a startling crimson.
Joanna didn't see it. She was still nodding and laughing.
"That's right."
"Do you think no one can see through you?"
"If you'd just brought out the treasure and saved me, none of this would have happened, would it?"
Slap.
Another loud blow landed on my face.
The corners of her lips split wider and wider. "Senior Sister Mercer, this is just how the world works."
"Your temper's too good, and you're too weak. You deserve to be a stepping-stone. If you'd been a little more obedient, the way you act out there in front of everyone, you'd have suffered less."
"But you're too disobedient... You can meet the demands of so many people. Why refuse me?"
"If I had it, I wouldn't hoard it for myself."
I said it word by word.
"Hypocrite!"
"Evelyn Mercer, no matter how convincing your act, I'll never believe you."
The senior brother sighed and, feigning tenderness, stroked my face. "If you have some real ability, you could bring it out too, couldn't you?"
"All right. I'll grant your wish."
I nodded, and suddenly I smiled. "Then don't blame me."
The next instant, every person who had laid a hand on me froze mid-motion.
Out of nowhere, as if a great hand had seized their hearts and was wrenching them outward with all its force.
At the sound of my laugh, every one of them went wide-eyed and spat out a mouthful of foul blood.
"You! You... what did you do!"
