196: In Chapter 196, Xiao Nianyin reappears and for the first time feels guilty towards Xu Ruyu.

Just as Xu Ruyu looked at the silver-haired Little Girl, left speechless by her words "The position has been vacated" and not knowing how to respond—

A sudden change occurred.

In the sky above the Law Execution Platform, the Void Realm that had been cleansed by the Intent of Ten Thousand Swords suddenly rippled almost imperceptibly.

At first, the ripples were extremely faint, like the subtle wrinkles on a lake's surface broken by a dragonfly on a spring day, noticed by almost no one.

But soon, silvery-white points of light began to emerge at the center of the ripples. Initially, there were only a few scattered points, like faint stars in the night sky, but in an instant, the points multiplied exponentially, converging and spreading...

They were not scattered randomly but followed some mysterious trajectory, as if reconstructing a broken puzzle, or as if time were reversing, reweaving and gathering together an existence that had been "slashed away" bit by bit.

The points of light grew denser, gradually outlining a blurry human silhouette.

The silhouette became clearer—ice-blue hair, a slender and graceful figure, the familiar Sect Master robes...

It was Xiao Nianyin!

She wasn't dead! Her Physical Body, after being completely "penetrated" and "purified" by the Intent of Ten Thousand Swords, was actually beginning to reaggregate within the Void Realm!

Everyone in the Hehuan Sect stared fixedly at the light and shadow currently being reshaped.

Wild joy instantly surged onto Elder Kumu's face, which was streaked with old tears, yet it was mixed with unbelievable horror: "Sect... Sect Master?! It's the Sect Master's Aura!

But this... how is this possible..." He had clearly sensed that the Sect Master's Aura had been completely extinguished just now, her life force severed, so how could...

Venerable Youming gripped Elder Kumu's arm tightly, his fingertips turning white, his sinister eyes also filled with shock and confusion: "Physical Body reconstruction? No... that's not right! This isn't simple physical repair! It's... it's something deeper that is 'returning'!"

Madam Qingli tightened her grip on Xu Ruyu's hand slightly and whispered, "Look, I told you. One Sword of Emotional Heaven slashes delusions without destroying the root.

The 'demon' in her heart has been slashed away, but 'she' herself is returning."

Xu Ruyu held his breath and focused, fully activating the perception of the True Explanation of Taixu Source Energy.

In his "vision," the energy composition of the light and shadow being aggregated was completely different from the previous Xiao Nianyin.

Before, Xiao Nianyin's Aura was violent, sharp, and filled with a predatory sense of aggression, like burning ice flames.

But the body currently being condensed had energy fluctuations that were exceptionally "clean," or one could even say... "calm."

There was no hostility, no Evil Qi, and none of that overbearing Saint Realm pressure, only a stillness like a deep pool or an ancient well, along with a trace of the weakness and daze of someone recovering from a major illness.

Finally, the last silvery-white point of light merged into the silhouette.

The light and shadow solidified.

Xiao Nianyin's figure reappeared intact in the sky above the Law Execution Platform.

Her eyes were tightly closed, her ice-blue hair cascaded down like a waterfall, and her originally magnificent Sect Master robes appeared somewhat loose. Her exposed skin was lustrous white like jade, without a single scar to be seen.

She floated there quietly, without any spiritual energy fluctuations around her, looking just like a peerless mortal woman fallen into a deep sleep.

She was a completely different person from the previously overbearing and obsessively crazed Hehuan Sect Revered Master.

"Sect Master!"

"Sect Master, are you alright?!"

"Wonderful! Heaven bless our Hehuan Sect!"

After a brief dead silence, heaven-shaking cheers and sobs erupted from around the Law Execution Platform.

Many Disciples wept with joy, and the Elders also breathed a long sigh of relief, as if they had returned from Hell to the mortal world in an instant. Since the Sect Master had not fallen, the sky of the Sect had not yet collapsed!

However, the several Grand Elders with the highest cultivation and deepest experience, such as Kumu, Youming, and the reclusive Elders who had just recovered from their shock, showed little joy. Instead, their brows were furrowed, and their eyes darted suspiciously between the reappeared Xiao Nianyin and the silver-haired Little Girl.

They could feel that although the Sect Master had "returned," her Aura... was too weak!

So weak that they could barely sense the existence of any cultivation!

Moreover, that state of being calm to the point of being almost hollow was too different from the Xiao Nianyin who was previously overbearing and awe-inspiring, holding the power of life and death.

Elder Kumu stepped forward a few paces and bowed to Xiao Nianyin in the air, his voice urgent and worried: "Sect Master! How... how do you feel? Is there any serious problem?"

The floating Xiao Nianyin's eyelashes trembled slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes.

What kind of eyes were those?

They were still ice-blue pupils, but they no longer held the coldness and sharpness that seemed capable of freezing a person's heart, nor did they have the bloodshot craze and obsession from before.

In their place was a clarity and a faint, dazed calm, like freshly melted snow water reflecting the colors of the sky.

She seemed somewhat dazed as her gaze slowly swept over the familiar scenes of the Sect, past the faces that were filled with joy, worry, or confusion, and finally, her gaze landed on Xu Ruyu.

When she saw Xu Ruyu, Xiao Nianyin's eyes wavered slightly.

Deep within those clear eyes, extremely complex emotions seemed to surge up—confusion, memory, realization, and... a trace of clear, unconcealable guilt.

She remembered many things.

She remembered how, in order to stabilize the risk of Yin and Yang reversal and the collapse of her cultivation caused by the Mystic Maidens Sun-Stealing Art, she had spared no expense to activate a forbidden secret technique, forcibly tearing through the space-time barrier to summon this youth from that otherworld called "Earth."

He was a victim through and through, inexplicably dragged into this strange cultivation world, where his life and death were not his own to control.

She remembered in Ningyin Hall, when her cultivation was completely lost and she was incredibly fragile, it was he, this seemingly ordinary otherworldly youth, who did not kick her while she was down, but instead took meticulous care of her while she was unconscious, feeding her water and wiping her body without a word of complaint.

She remembered how, in order to restore her cultivation, she had half-forced and half-enticed him into "Dual Cultivation," using a certain mysterious power within his body to balance her own Yin and Yang.

During that process, she had only viewed him as a tool, a Cauldron.

She remembered even more how, just a moment ago, in order to maintain her so-called Sect Master's authority and to interrogate him for secrets, she had actually developed killing intent toward him and intended to have him beaten to death in public...

One by one, event after event, like cold tides, they crashed against Xiao Nianyin's currently exceptionally clear and calm inner heart.

After her obsession and arrogance were slashed away, her reason and emotions returned to their places.

She could finally examine her actions over the years and her attitude toward Xu Ruyu from a relatively objective perspective.

A sense of guilt sprouted quietly like vines, entwining her heart.

She understood that the distortion of her personality and her increasingly extreme behavior were rooted in that Mystic Maidens Sun-Stealing Art.

Years ago, her Revered Master, the Ice Soul Fairy Ling Suxin, had sternly warned her that although this method progressed rapidly and its power was overbearing, it easily eroded one's Heart-Nature, making one greedy, extreme, and viewing all living beings as straw dogs.

It was she herself who, blinded by the rapidly increasing power, insisted on practicing it, even to the point of having a disagreement with her Revered Master.

Looking back now, her Revered Master had been right.

This Cultivation Technique had indeed allowed her to take a shortcut, giving her Saint Realm cultivation and the authority to lead a Sect, but it had also caused her to unconsciously lose much of her true essence as a human, making her cold and selfish.

Xiao Nianyin's gaze lingered on Xu Ruyu's face, and her lips moved slightly as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, no sound came out.

That look of guilt flashed through her eyes before being submerged once more by deeper, more complex emotions.

At this moment, her thoughts were as tangled as hemp, and she did not know how to face this otherworldly youth whom she had harmed and used, yet who had, in a sense, "saved" her.