Lin Yue's POV
I ran.
My feet slammed against the stone paths as I fled from the main hall, my newly formed Golden Core burning hot in my chest. Guards shouted behind me, but I didn't look back. I had to get out. Had to escape before sunset. Before they came for me.
"Lin Yue, stop!" Mei's voice cut through my panic. She grabbed my arm, pulling me into a storage room between buildings. "What are you doing? Where are you going?"
"They're going to take my core, Mei." I was crying so hard I could barely breathe. "Chen Hao's engaged to Bai Shuang. They're going to rip out my Golden Core tonight and give it to her. I have to run. I have to—"
"Okay, okay, breathe." Mei held my shoulders, forcing me to look at her. "Listen to me. You can't just run out the front gate. They'll catch you in seconds. But I know a way."
"What way?"
She bit her lip. "The waste tunnel. Behind the kitchens. It leads outside the sect's barrier, but it's narrow and dark and full of rats. Most people don't even know it exists."
Hope sparked in my chest. "You'll help me?"
"Of course I will. You're my best friend." Mei squeezed my hand. "But Lin Yue, you need to understand—once you leave, you can never come back. The sect will mark you as a traitor. They'll hunt you."
"Better hunted than dead." I wiped my tears. "When can we go?"
"Now. While everyone's at lunch. Come on."
We snuck through the sect like thieves, keeping to shadows and empty corridors. My heart hammered so loud I was sure someone would hear it. Every corner, I expected guards to jump out and grab me.
The kitchen was blessedly empty when we arrived. Mei led me to a small grate in the floor, hidden behind sacks of rice.
"This is it," she whispered, pulling the grate open. A dark hole yawned below, smelling like rot and waste. "Follow the tunnel straight. Don't take any side paths. It'll take about an hour to reach the forest outside."
I hugged her tight. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
"Go," she said, crying now too. "And Lin Yue? Don't let them make you think you're worthless. You're the strongest person I know."
I climbed into the tunnel. The darkness swallowed me whole.
The tunnel was worse than Mei described. Water dripped from the ceiling. Things skittered in the dark—rats, probably, or worse. The walls pressed in so tight I had to crawl on my hands and knees, my new disciple robes getting filthy with mud and things I didn't want to think about.
But I kept going. Forward. Always forward. Toward freedom.
I'd been crawling for maybe twenty minutes when I heard voices echoing from behind me.
"—check the waste tunnel. She might have—"
My blood turned to ice. They were searching for me already. They knew about the tunnel.
I crawled faster, my hands slipping in the muck. The tunnel seemed endless. How much farther until the exit? My lungs burned. My muscles screamed. But the voices behind me were getting closer.
"I see light ahead!" someone shouted. "She's almost out!"
No, no, no! I could see it too—a circle of gray light in the distance. The exit. So close. I scrambled toward it desperately, not caring about the pain anymore.
Ten feet. Five feet. Almost there—
Hands grabbed my ankles and yanked me backward.
"Got her!"
I screamed, kicking and clawing, but they dragged me back through the tunnel like a sack of rice. When they finally pulled me out into the kitchen, I saw Chen Hao standing there with Master Qingfeng and a dozen guards.
"Well," Master Qingfeng said sadly, "I suppose that answers the question of whether you'd donate voluntarily."
"You can't do this!" I shouted, struggling against the guards holding me. "This is murder! You're killing me for her!"
"We're saving the sect," the Sect Master said, entering the kitchen. His face was cold as stone. "One life for thousands. It's a simple calculation."
"Chen Hao, please!" I begged, looking at him desperately. "You said you tried to warn me. You said you felt bad. If that was true, help me now! Tell them to stop!"
He opened his mouth, then closed it. His hands clenched into fists.
"Chen Hao," Bai Shuang appeared behind him, leaning on her maid. She looked weak and pale, playing the dying patient perfectly. "Don't let her manipulate you with tears. She's just trying to save herself, even if it means I die."
"That's not—" I started.
"I'm pregnant," Bai Shuang announced.
The kitchen went dead silent.
"What?" Chen Hao spun to face her, his eyes wide.
Bai Shuang smiled weakly, touching her stomach. "I was going to surprise you tonight, but... yes. I'm carrying your child, Chen Hao. Our child. But if my core isn't fixed soon, the pregnancy will kill us both. The baby needs my spiritual energy to survive, but my damaged core can't provide it."
Lies. It had to be lies. I could see it in her eyes—the way they flickered to me with triumph. She was manipulating him. But Chen Hao's face crumbled.
"A baby?" he whispered. "We're having a baby?"
"If I survive," Bai Shuang said, letting tears roll down her cheeks. "But without a proper Golden Core, I won't last the week. Neither will our child."
Chen Hao turned to me, and his expression was no longer conflicted. It was determined. Final.
"I'm sorry, Lin Yue," he said. "But I can't let my child die. I won't."
"She's lying!" I screamed. "Can't you see she's lying?!"
"Take her to the preparation room," Master Qingfeng ordered. "We'll perform the extraction immediately. No point waiting until sunset."
They dragged me out of the kitchen, my screams echoing through the halls. Disciples peeked out of rooms, watching with pity or indifference. No one helped. No one tried to stop it.
They threw me into a small room with a stone table in the center, surrounded by medical instruments. Formation symbols covered every wall, glowing with spiritual power—sealing formations to prevent escape.
"Strip her of the disciple robes," the Sect Master commanded. "She lost that privilege when she tried to run."
Guards tore off my new robes, leaving me in the thin servant's clothes underneath. Master Qingfeng began preparing the surgical tools, his hands shaking slightly.
"Master, please," I whispered one last time. "You were the one who found me. Who said I had potential. Did I mean nothing to you?"
He wouldn't meet my eyes. "You meant something. But she means more."
The door opened. Bai Shuang entered, no longer leaning on her maid. She stood perfectly straight, walked perfectly steady. The "dying patient" act was gone. She came right up to me, leaned close, and whispered so only I could hear:
"I'm not pregnant, you stupid girl. But he believes I am, and that's all that matters. Did you really think someone like Chen Hao would choose a servant over me? You were always just a tool. A backup plan. And now you've served your purpose."
She stepped back, smiling sweetly at the others. "Thank you all so much for saving my life. I promise to lead this sect to greatness, in honor of Lin Yue's noble sacrifice."
They strapped me to the stone table. Master Qingfeng approached with a glowing knife—a spiritual tool designed to cut through flesh and energy.
"This will hurt," he said quietly. "I'm sorry."
The knife touched my chest, right above where my Golden Core pulsed with warmth and life.
And then—
The entire room shook violently. Dust fell from the ceiling. The formation symbols on the walls flickered and died.
"Earthquake?" someone shouted.
"No," Master Qingfeng's face went pale. "That's not an earthquake. That's—"
The wall exploded inward.
Stone and dust filled the air. Through the chaos, a figure stepped into the room, surrounded by crimson energy that made the temperature drop like winter had arrived.
He was tall, dressed in black robes, with long dark hair and eyes that glowed red like fresh blood. His spiritual pressure crushed down on everyone in the room, making them gasp and stumble.
A demon cultivator.
But not just any demon cultivator. Even I, a lowly servant, recognized him from the stories disciples whispered in fear.
Shen Yifeng. The Demon Lord of the Northern Wastes. The monster who destroyed entire sects that crossed him.
What was he doing here?
His red eyes scanned the room and locked onto me—strapped to the table, knife against my chest, tears on my face.
His expression went from cold to absolutely murderous.
"Which one of you," he said in a voice like ice cracking, "dares to harm my betrothed?"