The commotion from Si Wan'ning's quarters quickly drew the attention of the others on Tianjian Peak.
Lin Ya was the second to arrive, followed by Yue Zhao and Yu Songnian. One after another, they gathered outside her door.
Lin Ya's expression was grim. After piecing together what little they knew, he offered a quiet conclusion. "Wan'ning may have encountered a heart demon."
A heavy silence fell over the group.
Heart demons—second only to Heavenly Tribulations during the Tribulation stage—were among the most feared calamities cultivators faced.
Those with unsteady resolve were more prone to them. Once seeded, heart demons would manifest a cultivator's greatest fears and regrets, dragging their soul into a vortex of illusion. If one faltered for even a moment, the consequences were dire. At best, they would lose their cultivation. At worst, they would fall into madness, or be torn apart—body and soul.
And worst of all, heart demons could only be faced alone. No one could help.
"Second Senior Sister has strong spiritual foundations," Yue Zhao muttered, teeth clenched. "She's not someone with a fragile heart, and nothing serious has happened lately. Why now?"
Lin Ya shook his head, brow furrowed. "Heart demons don't follow any set logic. Sometimes, it's just fate."
He recalled his own brush with a heart demon, nearly a century ago.
If not for his steady will, he would have vanished without a trace.
Now, it was Si Wan'ning's turn to face that darkness.
Yun Jin stood silently beside them, fully aware that what Si Wan'ning was facing wasn't a heart demon, but a soul fusion.
Still, she said nothing. Whatever the true cause, this tribulation had to be endured alone.
After exchanging a few low words, the group fell into uneasy silence, their expressions tense. The air around Tianjian Peak grew stifled.
~
Inside the room, Si Wanning was trapped in the most harrowing nightmare of her life.
She dreamed of a world grotesque yet achingly real.
In this dream, Xiao Jin had never come to Tianjian Peak.
Her eldest brother wasn't the man he was now.
Their master never recovered his cultivation.
After Master's injury, the three of them remained on Tianjian Peak, too afraid to step outside.
Senior Brother, timid and anxious, was so shaken by the situation that he couldn't even maintain his cultivation.
Third Junior Brother stayed as quiet as ever, but his face carried far more sorrow than in real life.
She tried to stay cheerful, putting on a brave front. But each night, she sat silently in the dark, staring into nothing.
Their fear changed nothing. The Grand Sect Assembly still came.
Before the assembly, Master had attempted to use forbidden arts to forcibly recover his strength. But years of worry and sacrifice for them had left him too drained. The forbidden techniques failed. He had to face Luo Yi at only the Divine Transformation stage.
The outcome was inevitable. Master lost, and the title of Tianjian Peak Lord was passed to Luo Yi.
The three of them failed to make any impression during the disciples' duels. That year, Tianjian Peak ranked dead last.
From every angle, they were complete failures.
Afterward, Master and his disciples were expelled from the peak and relocated to a remote hillside.
They thought about leaving.
But Zhao Wuji had his men watching them closely. Leaving the sect was impossible.
When the three Grand Elders tried to intervene, Zhao Wuji brought in Li Heng to seal them in their own cave residences.
Senior Brother, gripped by terror day and night, died when his spiritual energy spiraled out of control.
Later, to protect her and Third Junior Brother, Master knelt before Zhao Wuji. He handed over every last spiritual stone, admitted he was a cripple, and begged for mercy.
Zhao Wuji laughed. "Where is the proud Lin Ya now? Spend your last days groveling like the dog you are."
With a flick of his sleeve, Zhao Wuji lost interest. But his orders remained: they were to rot here, dying slowly in their despair.
In the dream, Master looked a hundred years older than in reality, his hair pure white, his face lined with despair. He clutched her and Third Junior Brother's hands tightly, as though they were the only things grounding him.
Though just a dream, every emotion struck her with unbearable clarity.
She and Third Junior Brother did everything they could to remain invisible.
Then, one night, she stumbled upon Ye Danxia and a man she'd never seen before.
The man wore black, his smile crooked and dangerous, but he treated Ye Danxia with surprising gentleness.
They whispered sweetly beneath the moonlight, locked in intimate conversation.
Si Wanning, afraid of being seen, held her breath and suppressed her presence.
And yet, she heard something that left her chilled to the bone.
"How fares your recovery?" Ye Danxia asked.
"Only twenty percent restored," the man replied.
"Patience," she purred. "I'll bring more elixirs. You'll regain your strength soon."
At first, Si Wanning assumed this was a secret tryst—until the man's next words turned her blood to ice.
"Once my power returns, I'll unite the demonic realms. You'll be my Demon Sovereign's consort."
Her mind reeled.
Demon Sovereign?
This man was—
A gasp escaped her. The stranger's head snapped toward her hiding spot. She fled before he could act.
Though he didn't pursue her within the sect's bounds, he soon identified her.
What followed was a relentless campaign of torment. Ye Danxia framed her at every turn. Worse, Si Wan'ning realized the "man" was none other than the child Ye Danxia doted on.
Driven to desperation, she exposed the child's true nature publicly.
No one believed her.
Zhao Wujie took the lead in condemning her. "You slander a fellow disciple. This crime must be punished."
She was imprisoned.
Then, one day, without fanfare, she died from a poisoned cup of wine.
She never learned who had given it to her.
But by then, her will had already been shattered.
She drank it, and the nightmare ended.
No—it hadn't ended. The dream looped again, forcing her to relive the same hell, over and over.
~
The dream felt so real that Si Wanning's body trembled, drenched in sweat. Was this the truth? Had Xiao Jin been the dream all along?
Without her, wasn't this the natural course of events?
The nightmare looped, trapping her in its relentless cycle—until a flicker of memory surfaced.
A figure she'd overlooked before: a woman handing Lin Ya a jug of wine. He accepted it with a smile before she turned away. Si Wanning had only caught a glimpse of her profile.
But now, an unshakable certainty gripped her.
In the dream, she chased after the woman—and saw.
Xiao Jin.
Yun Jin was there too.
She wasn't just a dream.
Even if the events followed the same path, even if she couldn't change anything else, just seeing Yun Jin's face changed everything.
Somehow, knowing Xiao Jin was there gave her courage.
Xiao Jin wasn't an illusion. She was real.
The dream was a path not taken—one Yun Jin had already defied.
If she could break free…
Why can't I?