Darkness.
Wet? Water?
Why is water running down my face?
"Arghhh!" Sui Li opened her mouth and screamed as she felt the sharp edge of a blade digging into her flesh.
A crimson red liquid slid down her forehead and covered her eyes.
The painful sensations and the dull aches of agony got even worse as a hoarse giggling noise echoed through the room.
"Ahh... don't go fainting on me now..." the strange voice whispered hoarsely.
Sui Li blinked her eyes rapidly and tried to get a good look around. She didn't understand what was happening.
The last thing that she remembered was leaning against Camilla's shoulders and feeling very sleepy.
Then... then... her memory was blank.
"What..." Sui Li's voice trailed off as a lamp in the corner of the room burst into flames.
The darkness was immediately driven away by the light and a man could be seen leaning over her body.
He was a devilishly handsome man who wore a long black robe that covered most of his body.
Sui Li furrowed her brows in confusion since his clothes bore a striking to resemblance to the clothing of the ancient Chinese era known as the Ming Dynasty Period.
The rest of the room was completely empty save for a flimsy wooden chair in the corner of the room that was covered in a thick blackish substance.
There were no windows, so Sui Li had no way of knowing where this place was or what was outside the room.
"The famous saintess of the Holy Sword Sect..." the man sucked in a deep mouthful of air and looked at Sui Li with a trace of hatred in his eyes.
"Such a pretty face..."
He took out a blade from his back pocket and gently traced across Sui Li's cheek leaving a thin line of blood.
"Sorry... I suppose... that it would be a lie to call your face 'pretty'," the man chuckled darkly and then spat on Sui Li's face.
Sui Li trembled in a mixture of rage and pain as she felt the thin dribble of saliva run down her chin.
"Those... eyes... how have you not broken yet?" the man cocked his head and looked at Sui Li with a mixture of puzzlement and disbelief in his gaze.
"Fuck you," Sui Li replied with gritted teeth.
The man's movements paused and the blade in his hand hovered mere inches away from Sui Li's eyes.
"I see you still haven't learned respect," the man's voice lowered, and a heavy pressure filled the room.
This energy...
Sui Li did not recognise it, but she knew that she needed to fight back. She tried to summon the sunlight aura in her body but...
Nothing happened.
What? But she was a Sun- born!
Even her old age... she was still a powerful warrior!
Wait... old age?
Sui Li tilted her head downwards and to her shock she discovered that her body was completely different.
It was impossible to get a good look since most of her body was covered in blood and horrific wounds, but she was definitely no longer an eighty-year-old woman.
Slap!
Sui Li's head whipped to the side as the man slapped her across the face and sent her flying with the sheer force of his blow.
She crashed to the ground with a heavy thump and coughed out a mouthful of blood.
"What? Still want to look at me like that?" the man growled darkly as cracks began to appear below his feet.
"Do you know who I am? I am an elder of the Blood Moon Cult. I have been cultivating long before you were born."
"Even if you are a talented youngster with an Ice Yin Root. I want you to understand one simple fact."
"You. Are. Nothing. Before. Me."
Sui Li groaned in pain as the man strode across the room and kicked her right in the middle of her stomach.
She tried her best to hold in the bile that came up in her throat.
The man did not seem to notice her discomfort or perhaps he was enjoying the sight of her suffering.
"Why? Why are... are you doing this?" Sui Li barely managed to speak before vomiting out a thick greenish substance on the floor.
"Why? Because your master pissed me off," the man said with a frown.
"Two hundred years ago that bastard killed my most promising disciple so... I want her to taste the same pain that I felt."
"But... I don't want this to end quickly."
A chilling smile flashed across the man's face, and he reached into his pocket to pull out a small glass bottle that was filled with an angry red powder.
With slow purposeful movements, he unscrewed the top of the vial and sprinkled the powder on the edge of his blade.
Sui Li willed her body to move... to fight or even run but... her body was far too damaged.
Just staying conscious was a challenge as the corners of her vision started to darken.
"That face of yours... I want to damage it permanently," the man's lips curved upwards as he knelt down and brought the dagger to Sui Li's face.
"Look... I... I think you have the wrong person..." Sui LI hesitantly spoke.
"I don't kno... ARGHH! FUCK IT BURNS! IT BURNS!"
Sui Li screamed so loudly that she felt as though her vocal cords were going to be torn apart.
Her face was on fire... a stinging sensation that was so painful that she could not think of anything except how to get it to stop.
The man slowly and methodically pressed the edge of the knife into her flesh and then carved it apart like how one would slice through butter.
Sui Li raised up her hand and attempted to push the man away from her, but it was like she was hitting a mountain.
Her strength was far too weak.
Everywhere that the knife passed... she would feel a fiery scorching sensation as if someone had poured gasoline on her face and then dropped a match.
"Just kill me! Kill me you son of a bitch!" Sui Li screamed in rage as her body shivered and begun to convulse.
The man chuckled lightly but his hand movements did not stop until he destroyed every inch of the saintess' once beautiful face.
He stood up from the ground and admired his handiwork.
No trace of the famous immortal beauty could be seen. Instead, the woman lying on the ground was battered, bruised, and broken.
Ugly wounds covered her body and her face...
Well... even the clan elder had to admit that he may have gone a bit too far. The mutilated flesh was extremely unpleasant to look at.
The only uninjured part of her face was her eyes since the clan elder wanted to save those for a later torture session.
"Good...now...I... huh?" the clan elder's voice trailed off in shock as a beam of sword qi neatly bisected his body in half.
Sui Li raised up her head with great difficulty and saw a gorgeous woman with ethereal beauty descending down from an opening in the ceiling as if she was a god.
Light surrounded her body and painted her in a golden glow. She wore a plain white robe with flower patterns printed on the lower areas.
"My apprentice..." the woman gently spoke.
Sui Li could feel her body react to the woman's words and immediately the tension and pain seemed to melt away.
"You..."
The mysterious cultivator floated over to Sui Li's barely conscious body and cupped her face in her hands.
Sui Li let out a sigh of relief.
She didn't know who this person was, but she felt oddly familiar as if she had known her for all of her life.
"You..." the beautiful female cultivator opened her mouth and the words that she said next sent a cold chill down Sui Li's spine.
"You look absolutely disgusting."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺