Yao Ling'er felt as though her soul had deserted her, her eyes clouded with redness and her steps burdened by an invisible weight. An ominous dread clung to her, as if foreboding an impending calamity.
She was certain of the demise of her two senior brothers, their bodies lost to an abyss from which they could never return. The unassuming martial arts hall before her concealed unimaginable peril, consuming lives without a trace left behind.
With a gasp, she expelled a mouthful of blood, her slender hand bracing against the nearby wall as her pallid complexion betrayed her inner turmoil.
Yi Feng, engaged in guiding Zhong Qing with the cleaning, noticed Yao Ling'er's distress and approached her with concern.
"Miss, are you alright?" His voice, laced with genuine care, sought to offer solace. Assuming she hailed from a neighboring family, he extended the hand of neighborly assistance.
As Yao Ling'er wiped the blood from her lips, her gaze shot up, meeting Yi Feng's gentle countenance. Yet, beneath his benign facade, she discerned an unsettling presence, shrouded in dread.
This was the man who commanded the boy to wield the swift cloak with lethal intent, who callously treated her senior brother's remains as mere fodder, and whose handiwork likely laid behind the weighty stones adorning the entrance steps.
A fiend.
Such was Yao Ling'er's damning verdict of Yi Feng.
"No, no, I'm fine." Recoiling in terror at Yi Feng's offer to enter his abode, she declined hastily, her features contorted with panic. Despite her grievous wounds borne of fury, she staggered away, desperate to flee this accursed place, to escape the specter of humanity, and hasten her return to Xuanwu Sect to relay the harrowing truths she had unearthed.
"Am I truly that fearsome?" Yi Feng pondered aloud, watching Yao Ling'er's hastened departure, his bafflement palpable.
As Yao Ling'er made her way back to Xuanwu Sect, her energy waned, the arduous journey taxing even her seasoned cultivation.
News of her return swiftly reached the sect's higher echelons, prompting their assembly in the main hall by the time Yao Ling'er returned, Ning Xuanwu among them, awaiting her report.