The Price of Obsession

“Please, don’t do this to me… Lin Mo, I!”

Her desperate plea gradually transformed into a mournful sob, like that of a beast driven to its last resort.

Qiu Yue felt as though a thousand-pound stone pressed against her chest, a chilling void swiftly spreading through her entire being.

Yet, Lin Mo did not even furrow a brow, his calm gaze sweeping over her as if she were an insignificant ornament.

“Thank you for the invitation. Since you have no appetite, I shall take my leave.”

Lin Mo’s voice remained as placid as ever, utterly devoid of inflection.

He gently brushed away Qiu Yue’s hand, his movement swift and decisive, completely unhindered.

As Qiu Yue succumbed to a moment of utter collapse, Lin Mo took a step back, rose, and turned towards the grand entrance.

The heavy door swung open soundlessly, its superb craftsmanship ensuring not the slightest creak.

The door was left ajar, and Lin Mo’s figure had already vanished.

Only a deathly silence remained within the room. Qiu Yue knelt numbly in place, her eyes fixed intently on the direction Lin Mo had fled.

Tears fell silently, dripping onto the floor.

She extended a trembling hand, tracing the tear stains on the ground, and the world seemed to drain of all color—her former power, the glory of the Qiu family, her lofty pride, all now appeared pale and ridiculous.

‘Ten years of nurturing, ten years of love, could it truly… vanish just like that?’

Qiu Yue collapsed weakly to the floor, her cheek pressed against the cold tiles.

Tears streamed uncontrollably, yet she could not even produce a sob.

She pressed herself against the spot where Lin Mo had stood moments before, yearning to grasp his lingering aura, but found nothing.

Qiu Yue clenched her fists, then released them limply.

Her consciousness gradually blurred, leaving her feeling like a walking corpse.

“Why… why has it come to this?” she murmured to herself, her voice hoarse as if echoing from the depths of a tomb. “Did we not love each other? Were we not… deeply in love?”

Despair, like a potent venom, permeated her very bones.

She curled into a ball, trembling like an abandoned stray cat huddled in a corner.

Time trickled away, second by agonizing second, and Qiu Yue felt her very life force ebbing—without Lin Mo’s love, she, Qiu Yue, would be nothing.

Amidst this utter desolation, she experienced true fear for the first time: not the dread of life and death, but the annihilation of her very soul.

After an indeterminate period, the faint glow of dawn seeped through the window, illuminating Qiu Yue’s face, pale as parchment.

She slowly lifted her head, and a strange glint appeared in her hollow eyes.

A spark ignited within her mind, and a possibility began to surge forth, frantically, like a gushing fountain!

The despondency dissipated in an instant, and despair suddenly vanished without a trace.

A question without an answer… that meant the premise itself was flawed.

The question itself was wrong!

It wasn’t that Lin Mo no longer loved her, nor that his love had abruptly vanished; no, someone… someone had tampered with Lin Mo’s consciousness!

They had altered Lin Mo’s love for her!

They had brainwashed Lin Mo!

How else could he have suddenly become so heartless?

Within that bone-deep, icy despair, a sharp pang suddenly pierced through her! Qiu Yue’s hollow eyes abruptly constricted, her consciousness, on the brink of shattering, frantically clawed through the mire of her memories! A clue… like a poisoned arrow, instantly pierced through her muddled mind—the Xuan Nv Sect!

“The Xuan Nv Sect! How could I have forgotten the Xuan Nv Sect!?” Qiu Yue’s hoarse voice exploded in the deathly silent room, sharp and piercing like a clanging gong, as if tearing at her own throat!

She remembered, she remembered everything!

That damned disciple-acceptance ceremony! Wasn’t Lin Mo forcibly abducted by the Xuan Nv Sect Master that day, and compelled to cultivate the Bright Jade Profound Yin technique?!

It was Mu Qingli! This thought erupted like boiling lava, scorching her nerves—that lofty, self-proclaimed aloof Sect Master of the Xuan Nv Sect was her!

It was her!

It must be her!

It could only be her!

All her fury, all her doubts, instantly found an outlet! Qiu Yue’s contorted face was rife with savage hatred, every cell roaring: “It was her! She was the one who interfered, who tampered with Lin Mo! She used her wicked demonic arts to erase Lin Mo’s love for me!!” Once this thought took root, it coiled around her last vestiges of sanity like a rampant vine.

“Mu Qingli… she must have set her sights on Lin Mo! Beneath that sanctimonious facade, she harbors such depraved intentions!” Qiu Yue cursed hysterically, her voice distorted by extreme malice. “She doesn’t want Lin Mo to leave her side either! So she used her authority as Sect Master to seize Lin Mo, wresting him from my control! With the Xuan Nv Sect’s sorcery, she forcibly stole Lin Mo from my world!”

“One month…”

This span of time struck her heart like a heavy hammer, hooking her, her nails digging deep into the cold floor tiles as the disruptive implications of this duration churned repeatedly in her mind.

“One month! A whole month! What does that time signify for a cultivation grandmaster wielding the Xuan Nv Sect’s supreme secret techniques and possessing boundless magical power?”

“Enough time to make Lin Mo cultivate a technique only women can practice!”

How could Lin Mo possibly cultivate a technique exclusively for women? He must have been deceived, his very being manipulated!

“One month, enough time for her to do whatever she pleased!”

The more Qiu Yue pondered, the more convinced she became, fear and hatred intertwining and boiling within her.

“A Sect Master wielding immense power could, in a single month, control, twist, and destroy things beyond imagination! What seems incredible to ordinary people is, for her, Mu Qingli, merely a flick of the wrist!”

“There’s no need to even think about it!”

Qiu Yue’s conclusion, tinged with a suicidal madness, rooted itself deeply in her heart—the ultimate culprit was the Xuan Nv Sect! It was Mu Qingli! They had stolen the “love” that was her very sustenance, forcing her to endure a desolation more agonizing than death itself!

Despair instantly transformed into a raging inferno. Qiu Yue’s expression twisted, her former obsession finding a new outlet.

She stumbled towards the window, gazing down from the open view at a portion of the Xuan Nv Sect—the fortress, once a symbol of power, now appeared as a tomb.

“The Xuan Nv Sect seeks to seize everything from me…”

Qiu Yue whispered, her fingers savagely digging into her own thigh, nails piercing her flesh, forcefully drawing out trickles of crimson liquid.

The flames of rage burned ever fiercer as Qiu Yue whirled around and stormed towards the center of the room. She raised a trembling hand, as if delivering a divine proclamation.

“Fine—!”

Her voice, like a thunderclap, exploded in the deathly silence, imbued with unprecedented malevolence. “I will annihilate the Xuan Nv Sect! I will root them out, leaving not a single one alive!”

Every word was steeped in icy venom.

Qiu Yue’s face twisted into a bloodthirsty, maniacal grin:

“I will find Lin Mo, and I will snatch him back! This time, no one will take him… my Lin Mo!”

‘I will recover every single bit of the love you’ve lost for me… not one drop will be left behind!’

‘Lin Mo… you are mine…’

‘You can only be mine!’

‘Forever mine!’

‘Forever mine—’

A low, continuous laughter gradually escalated into a frantic, maniacal cackle, echoing through the dead silence of the private room.

Lin Mo, who had already reached the corridor, the spiritual energy covering his body surged silently, his speed instantly skyrocketing, leaving streaks of afterimages as he darted towards the exit!

‘Run!’

‘Damn it.’

‘It actually worked!’

‘This is how you deal with a devil like Qiu Yue! You can’t show her any emotion, any fluctuation in your feelings!’

‘That scared me senseless…’

Although he appeared expressionless on the surface, composed and nonchalant, in reality, had it not been for the Bright Jade Profound Yin technique and his exceptionally strong psychological fortitude!

Lin Mo would have long since wet himself from fright!

He even had to emulate a certain 17-year-old high school student, using spiritual energy to suppress his rapidly pounding heart.

Those vacant pupils weren’t indicative of a lack of emotional fluctuation towards Qiu Yue; rather, they reflected a genuine brush with death!

If he hadn’t acted that way, Lin Mo didn’t know how he would have been treated.

The disparity in power… was simply too vast.

Lin Mo leapt into the teleportation array, and as the blue light transported him to the pavilion, he finally noticed his hands—no, not just his hands, but his entire body was trembling.

If he hadn’t been vigilant just now, how long would he have been humiliated by Qiu Yue?

Would his ‘first time’ have been taken by Qiu Yue as well?

Before cultivating, he only knew there was a significant gap between himself and Qiu Yue.

Only after cultivating did he truly realize the immensity of that disparity.

Even now, he was still too weak before her…

Without power, although he had temporarily repelled Qiu Yue using psychological tactics this time, what about next time? Would she be even crazier? Even more indifferent?

Lin Mo’s breathing grew heavy, his heart still pounding with lingering fear.

He had to become stronger.

Now, immediately… he had to become stronger.

Only by reaching Foundation Establishment, only by reaching Foundation Establishment… would he possess the strength to fight back…

Qiu Yue, I will reclaim the humiliation you bestowed upon me, sooner or later.

This visit to the Hall of Clarity was the crossroads of his life.