Chapter 80: The Tea
The dilapidated courtyard sprawled under a sky choked with gray, the air thick with the stench of rust and rot.
Thump, thump, thump!
Miu Tyanh staggered back, blood streaming from gashes that crisscrossed his flesh, his indigo robe shredded to tatters. He reeled over ten yards, boots scraping the cracked stone, before his legs buckled. A sharp pang stabbed his chest—his body swayed, then crashed to his knees with a dull thud.
He clawed at the ground, hands trembling, and forced his head up. His eyes blazed—twin infernos of rage—his brows knit with defiance. "Lordi Payne slaughtered my brother—shattered my peace, cracked my Dao Heart!" he roared, voice gravelly and raw, spitting blood with each word. "Without his death, my Inner Demon festers—my path to the Great Dao's fucked! This hatred's carved in bone, Lady Joanie—why hold back? Kill me, or I'll rip him apart myself!"
The courtyard lay transformed.
Where a towering rockery once stood, only empty space remained. The gazebo still stood at its center, but now bore jagged scars—its roof split asunder, fractured beams jutting like broken ribs against the sky.
Yet amidst this devastation, Joanie sat unmoved.
Perched gracefully on a crumbling bench, her slender fingers worked needle and thread with unhurried precision. The unnatural stillness around her seemed to swallow all sound, as if the very air held its breath in her presence.
A portrait of calm in a ruined world.
Her long hair—black as a raven's wing—floated behind her, unbound and alive, tendrils writhing like a storm of shadows that swallowed the sky. The courtyard dimmed under its weight, the light snuffed as if her presence drank it whole. An oppressive force radiated from her—silent, suffocating, a tide of dread that pressed on Miu Tyanh's chest like a mountain's fist, squeezing his lungs, his soul. Each breath felt stolen, his rage dwarfed by the sheer, unearthly pressure that pinned him to the earth.
She threaded the needle, her voice a soft, chilling murmur that cut through the gloom. "Your fate's a cruel jest. If Lordi Payne had failed to fuse that Dao Flame, I'd have left him to rot—your blade could've had him. But he's proven his worth now. How could I let you touch him?"