Chapter 165 - 164: Humiliation
Su Yin walked down the terraced steps with the measured grace of a true Saintess. Her pale blue-white robes fluttered gently in the high-altitude wind.
Unlike the pathetic, trembling illusion that had knelt on the floor moments ago, the real Su Yin radiated a grounded, pragmatic strength. Yet, beneath that familiar warmth, there was a new, freezing clarity in her eyes—the look of a woman who had just witnessed the absolute lowest depths of the people she had been raised to trust.
She stepped onto the floor. She walked past the broken, groaning form of Elder Yan. She ignored the disgraced male disciple still drowning in her robes.
She stopped directly in front of Mu Tianyang.
The Senior Disciple of the Pure Cloud Sect was still on his knees. He looked up at her, his eyes wide, bloodshot, and completely frantic. His flawless, handsome features were contorted into a mask of pathetic desperation.
"Su Yin," Mu Tianyang gasped, his voice a hoarse, broken rasp. He reached out a trembling hand toward the hem of her robes. "Junior Sister, please. You must understand... I did it for the sect. I did it for us. The alignment had to remain pure..."
Su Yin did not step back, but she did not reach out to comfort him. She looked down at him, her expression completely devoid of the familial affection she had held for him just yesterday.
"For us," Su Yin repeated. Her voice was not loud, but in the absolute silence of the amphitheater, it carried with the clarity of a tolling bell. "You speak of purity, Senior Brother. Yet you wove a tapestry of lies so vile it choked the very air of this summit. You used the Ancestor’s name to exile me. You forced a junior disciple to wear my face on this floor. You weaponized my honor to slaughter an innocent man’s reputation."
"I was protecting your future!" Mu Tianyang pleaded, his composure shattering entirely, spit flying from his lips. "He is a peasant! A Foundation Establishment insect trying to dirty your name!"
"The only one who dirtied my name today is you, Mu Tianyang," Su Yin stated, her tone dropping into a register of cold, absolute finality.
She turned her gaze away from the pathetic figure on the floor and looked up at the northern zenith, directly at Patriarch Yun. The ancient Ancestor of the Pure Cloud Sect sat frozen, his white eyes wide with a mixture of grief and boiling rage. He had loved Mu Tianyang like a son, and that son had just humiliated their three-thousand-year lineage in front of the entire province.
"Ancestor Yun," Su Yin spoke, bowing respectfully, but keeping her spine perfectly straight. "For the past three years, the inner council of elders has quietly brokered discussions regarding my future. It was the sect’s quiet intention to officially announce a betrothal between myself and Senior Disciple Mu. We were to be the twin stars that carried the Pure Cloud Sect into the next era."
A ripple of shock washed through the terraced seating. Secret betrothal talks between the sect’s two greatest prodigies were monumental political news, and Su Yin was laying it completely bare in the open air.
"I trusted the wisdom of the elders," Su Yin continued, her voice unwavering. "I believed Senior Brother Mu was a man of honor, discipline, and orthodox righteousness. But today, under the light of the heavens, I see the absolute rot at the core of his Dao."
She turned back to look at Mu Tianyang, whose eyes were now brimming.
"I will not bind my Dao to a coward," Su Yin declared, her voice ringing out across the Celestial Summit. "I will not tether my soul to a man who requires illusions and bribes to fight his battles. As a Saintess of the Pure Cloud Sect, I publicly and unequivocally sever all betrothal arrangements with Mu Tianyang. I would rather shatter my own meridians than call you my Dao Companion."
The declaration struck Mu Tianyang like a physical blow. He slumped forward, his hands pressing against the floor, letting out a hollow gasp. The twin stars were dead. His perfect alignment was completely annihilated.
Having delivered the devastating verdict, Su Yin turned her back on her former Senior Brother.
She walked across the floor, moving toward the center of the arena where Bai Chen still knelt.
Lord Zhao Shenming, sitting upon his throne, waved a single, casual hand.
Clatter.
The heavy, glowing suppression cuffs binding Bai Chen’s wrists instantly shattered into harmless fragments of light.
Bai Chen slowly rubbed his raw wrists, looking up as Su Yin approached. The young cultivator was physically exhausted, but his eyes were bright, searching her face for any lingering trace of doubt.
Su Yin stopped in front of him. She did not speak immediately. Instead, she gathered the front of her pale blue-white robes and sank into a deep, and incredibly sincere bow. It was not the brief, polite nod of a high-tier Saintess to a lesser cultivator, it was a profound gesture of absolute contrition.
"Young Master Bai," Su Yin said softly, raising her head, her eyes meeting his with sincerity. "I am so incredibly sorry."
Bai Chen scrambled to his feet, entirely flustered by the formality of the gesture, his earlier exhaustion momentarily forgotten. "You—you don’t have to apologize. You didn’t do anything!"
"I am a Saintess of the sect that tried to destroy you," Su Yin corrected gently, refusing to shy away from the blame. "My name and my supposed honor were used as the blade pressed against your throat. You are an honest, earnest man. You showed me nothing but kindness, and in return, you were dragged into a nightmare of our making. I am profoundly ashamed that I was not here to defend you when the accusations were first spoken."
Bai Chen looked at her. He saw the genuine distress in her eyes, the sheer, pragmatic bravery it took for her to stand before the entire province and dismantle her own sect’s prodigy to clear his name.
The embarrassment and fear of the past twelve hours completely melted away. In its place, a quiet, undeniable warmth bloomed in his chest.
"You’re here now," Bai Chen said softly, a small, genuine smile touching his lips. "That’s all that matters to me. And for the record... I still think that making a good impression on you was worth all this trouble."
Su Yin blinked, a faint, beautiful flush of pink touching her pale cheeks. A small, involuntary smile broke through her solemn composure. Amidst the political fallout, and the crowd, a genuine connection had just been forged on the floor.
Lin Yuan, sitting quietly on the eastern terrace beside his wife, watched the exchange. A faint smile touched his lips. Good boy, he thought.
But the quiet romance of the moment was violently interrupted by a desperate scream.
"IT WASN’T JUST ME!"