Inside the library there was an uncomfortable silence. Xiao Yun’s question regarding her most painful memory caused Xiao Lian to stiffen. Her eyes involuntarily darted to the scar on her face. After some contemplative silence, she started; “During my breakthrough attempt I saw, no… relived something from a long time ago.”

  “Go on.” Xiao Yun prompted her softly.

  After some hesitation and inner turmoil, she continued."…I was fifteen," her gaze became distant. "My talent was rather prominent. I was already at the seventh circle of Qi Condensation Realm, a stage most young talents reach at eighteen. The elders called me the Hope of Xiao Clan, my parents were so proud. I even had some fame within Fallen Star city." A bitter smile touched her lips. "I had friends. Or I thought I did. Hua Xing and Su Yi were my closest."

  Her voice softened at the second name. "Hua Xing was beautiful, popular, she was from a newly rich merchant family. But her talent was a step behind mine, she was in the sixth stage of Qi condensation despite all the expensive pills she’d consumed, and it grated on her. I was too naive to see the envy coiling behind her smiles. Su Yi… she was different. From a branch family in her clan, like me. She was quiet, with middling talent but a heart as clear as spring water. She was like my shadow, always there and always supportive."

  "We went on a hunt with a group of friends and acquaintances of similar age. It was a simple mission to clear out some young Sabertusk Boars. It was supposed to be easy, a bit of sport. Hua Xing was unusually enthusiastic. She kept suggesting we go deeper, towards a ravine she'd heard about, whispering of rarer beasts and greater glory."

  "I was arrogant. Drunk on my own potential. I agreed. Su Yi was hesitant… I dismissed her concerns. I told her I could protect them both, and so we went." A tremor entered her voice, the first crack in her iron fa?ade.

  "Near the ravine the air grew heavy and humid, with a sickly-sweet smell. That's when we saw it. Not a Razorback Boar but a Jade-Scaled Viper. It was a peak Qi Condensation realm beast, its venom capable of melting steel, it’s scales like armor. It was a beast strong enough to contend with Foundation Building realm cultivators. We were hopelessly outmatched. Panic set in. I drew my sword ready to fight, to create a diversion for them to escape.".

  Xiao Lian's hands clenched into fists on the table, her knuckles turning white as she continued. "But as I prepared to launch my strongest technique, I felt a sharp, brutal hit from behind. It was Hua Xing, she hit me with a palm technique. 'You're the 'hope of the clan,' Xiao Lian,' she sneered, her face twisted into an expression of pure jealousy I'd never seen before. 'Let's see you prove it! Maybe once you're gone, others will get a chance to shine!' I stumbled forward, directly into the viper's path." She clenched her fists.

  The scene played out behind her eyes, vibrant and horrifying. The viper, a flash of emerald and jade, lunged. Time seemed to slow. She saw the venom dripping from its fangs, the cold reptilian hunger in its eyes. She was off-balance, her Qi in disarray from the shock of betrayal. She was going to die.

  "No!" The word was a choked sob from Xiao Lian’s throat. "Su Yi… she screamed my name. She was weaker than either of us, only at the fifth stage. But she didn't run. She threw a low-level binding talisman, a pathetic thing that barely slowed the viper for a second. And in that second, she pushed me away from the viper's lunge."

  "I fell, rolling down the embankment. The enraged viper struck. But its target had shifted. I picked up my sword and made a move to strike it, but I was a step too late. Its attack missed my vitals, but its fang slashed across my face. The pain. It was like being branded with molten iron, and a cold fire spread through my veins instantly. But the strike that should have killed me, it hit Su Yi."

  Hot and unrestrained tears finally streamed down Xiao Lian's face, carving clean paths through the imaginary dust on her cheeks. "She didn't even have a chance to scream. The viper coiled around her. I couldn't watch. I crushed the emergency jade slip the elders had given me. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was Hua Xing, watching from the trees with a horrified, triumphant look on her face before she turned and fled."

  "When I woke up, I was in the clan infirmary. The venom was purged, but the scar, the scar remained. It needed a high-level rejuvenation pill to heal, the kind of expense the clan couldn’t afford. They told me Su Yi's body was recovered, alongside the bodies of some of our other friends. Xing Hua and her entire family had vanished from the city overnight. They took their wealth and disappeared without a trace, afraid of retaliation once the word of her actions got out. There was no one to punish. No one to direct my hatred at. No way to get revenge for Su Yi."

  She slumped in her chair, the story's telling having drained her completely. The raging sea within her was now a desolate, grief-stricken wasteland. "I was hailed as a hero who survived a vicious beast. But I knew the truth. I was an arrogant fool whose pride and ignorance got her friend killed. I was weak, betrayed by one friend and saved by the sacrifice of another. How can I build a foundation on such rotten ground? Every time I try, I hear Hua Xing's sneer and Su Yi's last, desperate cry. I feel the shame of my weakness and the impotent rage of justice denied."

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  The library was silent again, but the silence was different. It was filled now not with decay but with raw aching grief.

  Xiao Yun let the silence sit for a long moment, allowing her to feel the full weight of her confession. He didn't offer platitudes. He didn't say, "It wasn't your fault."

  "Your anger towards Hua Xing is righteous," he said, his voice soft but firm. "Your grief for Su Yi is a testament to your love for your friend. These feelings are not the poison. The poison is what you have done with them. You have allowed them to become your jailer."

  She looked up, confused.

  "Think of it this way," Xiao Yun continued, leaning forward. "Hua Xing wanted you gone so she could shine. For twenty years, you have stagnated. You have denied yourself the future Su Yi died to give you. In your grief and anger, you have inadvertently handed Hua Xing the victory she sought. Every day you remain at Qi Condensation realm her betrayal continues to bear fruit. She chained you with her actions that day, and your unresolved rage has kept that chain locked tight."

  Xiao Lian's eyes widened. She had never, ever considered it from that perspective. The idea that her stagnation was a victory for her nemesis was a profoundly jarring thought.

  "And Su Yi," Xiao Yun's voice softened further. "You say you dishonor her by being weak. I ask you, what is the greater dishonor? The memory of a mistake made in youthful arrogance, or wasting the precious life she bought for you with her own? She didn't die so you could mourn forever in a cage of your own making. She died saving her friend. She died so you could live, so you could cultivate, so you could reach the heights she could only dream of. The greatest tribute you can pay to her sacrifice is not to wallow in guilt, but to live the life she saved. To become so powerful that no Jade-Scale Viper, no jealous friend, could ever harm you again. To carry her memory forward not as a burden of guilt, but as a banner of strength."

  He wasn't using fancy techniques or spiritual jargon. He was using logic. Reframing. It was the kind of talk a therapist might use, cutting through the emotional fog to reveal the core truths beneath.

  "The past cannot be changed," Xiao Yun concluded, his voice resonating in the quiet library. "Hua Xing is gone. Su Yi is gone. But you are here. The scar on your face is not a mark of weakness. Let it be a reminder. Let it remind you of the cost of blind trust, the price of betrayal, and the depth of a true friend's love. Stop fighting the maelstrom. Stop trying to crush the memories. Accept them. Your anger is fuel, your grief is a reminder of what's at stake. Use them. Forge them into the foundation of your Dao. Show Hua Xing she failed. Show Su Yi her sacrifice was not in vain."

  Xiao Lian was weeping freely now, but the tears were different. They were not the hot tears of rage or the cold tears of despair. They were tears of catharsis, of a dam breaking after twenty long years. She looked at the scar not in a mirror, but through her mind's eye. For the first time, it didn't feel like a brand of shame. It felt like a vow.

  A subtle shift occurred in the room. The unstable, agitated Qi that had radiated from her began to calm, to coalesce. The chaotic maelstrom in her spiritual sea did not vanish but the rage, the grief and the shame began to separate and settle. The roaring storm became a deep powerful ocean, its currents still strong but no longer self-destructive.

  She looked at Xiao Yun, truly looked at him for the first time. The mediocre young master was gone. In his place was a man of uncanny wisdom. He had not given her a pill or a technique. He had given her something far more valuable. A key to her own mind and emotions.

  "Thank you," she whispered, the words heavy with two decades of unshed pain and newfound clarity. The path to Foundation Establishment was not yet walked, but for the first time in fifteen years, Xiao Lian felt like she could see it once more.

  After calming down a bit she felt flustered again, a wave of heat flooded her face, entirely separate from the grief. She had just confessed the deepest and most shameful wound of her life. She, Xiao Lian, who always projected an image of stoic strength had just crumbled, weeping and baring her soul like a frightened child. The vulnerability was terrifying. She abruptly looked away from Xiao Yun’s steady gaze, her hand flying up to her scar as if to hide not just the mark but her entire, mortifying confession. An uncharacteristic flush crept up her neck, a flustered heat that battled with the icy chill of her memories. She had spoken the truth, and now she felt utterly exposed.

  Xiao Yun on the other hand was as calm as a transmigrated cucumber. This whole story, and Xiao Lian’s emotional state was a minor proof of his theory, but he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure, not until she managed to breakthrough anyway. After contemplating for a short while, he spoke up.

  “Xiao Lian.” which startled the already flustered woman.

  “Y-Yes?” she answered, forcefully composing herself.

  “I think we’ve made decent headway in regard to overcoming your heart demon. A few more conversations like this might be required to…” he was silent for a few seconds, trying to find the right words “to stop blaming yourself, to fully realize that the fault wasn’t yours. Memorizing something and fully understanding it are completely different things after all. Until you’ve regained confidence in yourself, we will have to a few more session- ahem, a few more conversations like this every week, but I have high hopes!” he gave a slight smile that radiated cautious confidence.

  Seeing him act so uncharacteristically mature and confident felt displacing yet calming for Xiao Lian. Him not saying anything frivolous, not looking at her with pity or disdain also helped her quite a bit. “Uh yes, I think you might be right Xiao Yun. I should go and practice, we shall speak later.”

  She left the library with quick steps, disappearing from view in a flash, the wind caused by her departure shaking the branches of the weeping willows. She was after all warrior at the peak of Qi condensation stage, who’s also been in countless dangerous battles against beasts and other cultivators alike. If she wanted to leave, no mortal force could hope to stop her. It was lucky she hadn’t slammed the Iron doors on her way out, otherwise Xiao Yun’s new hideout might have collapsed.

  Xiao Yun, happy with his minor success, and at the prospect of gaining a future Foundation Establishment realm ally, went back to gathering data from the pile of old scrolls, most of which was barely eligible due to the excessively flowery language filled with metaphors.