Are you really trying to cultivate immortality? Something feels off.

A soft, seductive voice rang in my ears, layer upon layer, lingering endlessly—it was Su Boyu's voice.

"Xintang, you were born to sacrifice for me."

"You love me, you are the one who loves me the most."

"Your gentleness is fake, and your charming demeanor is fake too."

"You harbor selfish motives. You become obsessed with what you can't have and will stop at nothing to get it. You are not worthy of the position of the young master of Penglai."

The illusions before my eyes changed layer by layer.

He saw himself using a Taixu Realm talisman to blast open the Fenghua Sect's barrier, saw Feng Yu and Shen Chunri whom he had killed with his own hands, and saw that he had done all sorts of bad things and still wasn't satisfied, even setting fire to the entire mountain, causing countless villagers to perish in the flames.

Yu Xintang's fingertips trembled.

Is this him? How could this be him?

Su Boyu said calmly, "You deserve all of this."

"Guess what your master and senior uncles would think if they saw this scene? Feng Jilan cherishes his eldest disciple so much, and Feng Yu cares so much about Shen Chunri. Do you think they would let you off the hook?"

*

The Jade Serpent Palace was brightly lit.

"Quick! Grab that woman!"

"She's secretly learned the forbidden Azure Serpent Technique; we absolutely cannot let her escape!"

The damp snakewood, the ground covered with dark purple flowers and grasses, the perpetual cold mist over the tribe's territory—all so familiar yet chilling.

Shen Chunri suddenly woke up and looked around in a panic.

Scene change.

She stood in the middle of the room, above her on the bed lay the dying head of the Green Serpent family—her father.

The venom of the Moonlit Serpent is extremely insidious, corroding meridians and infecting spiritual roots. Once it enters the body, it binds to the bones and cannot be dispelled, and there is no cure in the Three Realms.

In the hall, a group of elders bowed their heads and sighed, while the mother's expression was both sorrowful and resolute.

"Only the blood of the Azure Serpent Clan can suppress the remnant poison of the Moonlit Serpent."

"Your Majesty, the head of the family is on the verge of death. Only you, with the purest bloodline, can extend his life by ten years."

The mother nodded slowly and resolutely.

Shen Chunri stared blankly at the scene before him.

The illusion surged silently, laying bare before her eyes scenes that she had dared not contemplate for ten years.

She saw her gentle mother gouging out her heart and drawing blood every night, her heart scarred with old wounds upon new ones, her clothes perpetually stained with an indelible pale red, layered with green, creating an indescribably eerie scene.

Despite her trembling fingertips from the pain, she turned around and hugged her young daughter, offering a pale smile and softly coaxing, "Don't be afraid, Chunri, Mother can handle it."

The entire Azure Serpent Clan placed all their hopes on her alone.

Her clansmen loved and protected her, never letting her suffer the slightest grievance, but from the time she could barely remember anything, she also knew very clearly—

Her father's life, her mother's pain, and the stability of her clan all rested on her shoulders.

Countless whispers drifted around me, both gentle and cruel.

"If you were stronger and reached the Tai Xu Realm sooner, why would your mother need to donate blood every year to prolong her life?"

"The patriarch shielded you from the Moon Serpent's venom, yet you could only watch helplessly as your loved ones suffered."

"You are the hope of the Jade Serpent, but you have been in the Wind and Flower Sect for ten years and have accomplished nothing."

Shen Chunri stood in the center of the illusion, her fingertips trembling slightly.

She felt guilty all the time.

Feeling guilty for being young and powerless, I could only watch my mother feed the poison with her own blood, enduring the years of suffering.

She felt guilty that the entire clan protected and cherished her, yet she was unable to completely cure the poison her father had contracted, and was unable to restore peace and tranquility to her family.

I feel guilty for bearing the title of the only daughter of the Jade Serpent.

"Why weren't you the one who was poisoned in the first place?"

"If you could take the poison for your father, why would your wife have to suffer for ten years?"

"You have failed the expectations of the Azure Serpent Clan."

The words were still being spoken when Shen Chunri crouched down and covered her ears: "No, that's not it..."

Her tears flowed slowly down her cheeks: "I tried so hard, I really tried so hard, I didn't hurt my father..."

The illusions layer upon layer, shifting once more.

The surrounding area is a quiet medicinal herb garden, both familiar and unfamiliar.

Her emerald eyes suddenly froze.

That was that day.

A mistake made out of youthful ignorance.

At that time, she was still young and a rare pure blood of the Azure Serpent, naturally close to poisonous herbs and knowledgeable in pharmacology. The elders of the clan praised her for her extraordinary talent and taught her basic pharmacology at a young age.

Everyone told her—you are a born medicine cultivator, medicine making and poison making are your talents, and also the glory of the Azure Serpent Clan's bloodline.

Unable to bear her mother's daily bowl of heart's blood, the young girl was eager to prove herself. So, she secretly hid in the herb garden behind the mountain, picking the Purple Snake Heart Grass and the Dew-Condensed Bone Flower. Based on her limited understanding of the ancient records, she randomly mixed the ingredients and privately concocted poison.

She thought she was the hope of her people, but she never expected to cause such a disaster.

A younger sister from a collateral branch of the clan, the same age as her, came to the back mountain. Seeing the smoke rising from her herb garden, she curiously approached to watch her refine medicine. Being young and playful, she was caught off guard and threw some herbs into the alchemy furnace.

She herself only had a vague understanding of what the child had added, which contained herbs with conflicting medicinal properties, causing the alchemy furnace to suddenly explode.

The poisonous mist, which was not yet fully refined, suddenly gushed out, and the purplish-black smoke swept across the entire herb garden, entangling the child's limbs and bones.

In the blink of an eye, the little girl, who had just been smiling and skipping around, suddenly turned pale, her fingertips turned purplish-black, and her body went limp and she fell straight to the ground.

The excruciating pain made her face contort in agony; her small body curled up and trembled, and faint bluish-black lines of snake venom were visible beneath her skin. Her breathing was weak, and her meridians were being gnawed away and damaged inch by inch by the potent venom.

At that moment, the world was deathly silent.

Young Shen Chunri stood frozen in place, her little hands covered in medicine residue, her fingertips still stained with undried poison.

She is a pure-blooded Jade Serpent, and most poisons in the world are ineffective against her, but that doesn't mean she can't take other people's lives.

Shen Chunri looked at the little girl who was lying on the ground convulsing and crying out in pain. He felt a chill run through his body, and his blood seemed to freeze instantly.

She wanted to save them, but she was a novice in the art of poisons and only knew how to concoct poisons, not how to detoxify them.

Her prized talent and the skills she had honed day and night had now become a deadly weapon.

"Help!" she cried, stumbling as she walked outside. "Help! Mother! Father!"

Fortunately, a member of the clan happened to be gathering herbs in the herb garden and provided timely treatment, saving the girl's life. However, she lost her voice and the ability to speak forever.

The sudden explosion of the oven, the image of the child who suddenly collapsed, and the heart-wrenching cries echoed repeatedly in the illusion.

The invisible whispers, layer upon layer, are the clan's hidden fears and the elders' silent sighs, which are twisted into sharp accusations by inner demons in the illusion.

"You are a pure-blooded Jade Serpent, how could you not save a child?"

"With his mastery of poisons, he's incredibly audacious and will inevitably harm everyone around him sooner or later."

"I think she was born an omen of bad luck, otherwise how could she have brought such misfortune to her own parents, and not content with that, she still wants to harm others."

"How terrifying! She's a poison woman, a witch! Let's stay away from her."

Shen Chunri stood in the center of the illusion, and for the first time, a strong sense of bitterness and panic welled up in her usually bright and charming eyes.