The cold blade sliced through the rain, trailing a string of agonizing blood blossoms.
Kai’s body collapsed heavily.
The last remnants in his eyes were unbelievable shock and a hint of relief.
Ling Xiya leaned on her blood-stained sword, panting violently.
Rainwater mixed with sweat and blood from an unknown source slid down her pale cheeks, dripping onto the muddy ground beneath her feet and blooming into dark, dull flowers.
Her chest heaved violently, every breath sounding like the roar of a wild beast.
The moment she killed Kai, a massive sense of emptiness surged in like a tide, briefly dispersing the heart-burning, bone-corroding hatred, only to be immediately replaced by even deeper anxiety.
“It’s not enough…”
She muttered to herself, her voice as raspy as a worn-out bellows.
“It’s not enough! Vivya! That hypocritical woman! She deserves to die too! She must pay for Master’s life!”
Ling Xiya snapped her head up.
Her eyes now held nothing but crimson madness and obsession.
She stumbled, dragging her heavy footsteps as she began to search the ruins of the battlefield they had just fought across.
She kicked away rubble, scanning every corner like a lioness who had lost her cub—anxious and fierce.
“Vivya! Get out here! You coward! Come out and face your death!”
She roared, her voice echoing across the empty battlefield, only to be met by the monotonous sound of raindrops hitting debris.
Vivya seemed to have evaporated, vanishing without a trace.
Ling Xiya’s movements grew slower, and her breathing shifted from rapid to heavy.
The rain intensified.
The freezing water soaked through her thin maid uniform, and a bone-chilling cold spread through her limbs to her very core.
Yet, it could not cool the frenzy in her heart.
‘How… How can I not find her?’
She clearly remembered that before the battle began, Vivya was still here, watching everything with those hypocritical eyes!
When did she escape?
Was it during the gaps in her struggle with Kai?
That cunning woman!
A massive sense of powerlessness and frustration suddenly hit Ling Xiya.
She had failed to protect her Master, letting her “die” right before her eyes.
She had finally managed to kill one of the murderers, Kai, only to let the true mastermind escape.
‘What am I? What am I, Master’s most loyal maid? I can’t even avenge her!’
“Ah — !!!”
Ling Xiya let out a roar of despair and rage, violently hurling the longsword from her hand.
The sword whistled through the air and slammed into a giant boulder in the distance.
The blade trembled violently from the massive impact, emitting a humming wail.
She collapsed into the mud, cold rain and filth splashing all over her.
The neatness and elegance she once took pride in were gone.
At this moment, she looked like a pathetic wretch abandoned by the whole world.
The rain grew heavier, with pea-sized drops pounding down as if trying to wash the entire world clean.
The sky was terrifyingly dark, with leaden clouds hanging low, creating an oppressive atmosphere that made it hard to breathe.
Ling Xiya slowly lifted her head, staring blankly into the torrential rain.
The water blurred her vision and washed the blood from her face, revealing the pale and fragile skin beneath.
After the flames of hatred burned themselves out, only cold ash and bone-deep exhaustion remained.
She suddenly remembered something.
Her body stiffened, and then, as if jolted awake, she scrambled toward the only home left in her heart.
At the edge of the battlefield was the figure she had carefully placed in a relatively dry corner — Isayat!
“Master…”
Ling Xiya’s voice instantly became incredibly gentle, a world apart from her previous madness.
She threw herself beside Isayat’s “unconscious” body, carefully lifting her from the cold ground.
Her movements were as delicate as if she were handling a priceless treasure.
“Master… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
Scalding tears finally burst forth, mixing with the cold rain as they surged from Ling Xiya’s eyes.
She hugged Isayat tightly, as if trying to pull her into her own flesh and blood.
“I failed to protect you… I let you suffer… I killed Kai, but Vivya ran away… I’m so useless… I can’t even avenge you…”
She wept and pleaded incoherently, like a wronged child, venting all her fear, anxiety, guilt, and helplessness in this moment without reservation.
“Master, please wake up… Please wake up… Don’t leave me alone… Without you, what am I supposed to do…”
Her voice choked, filled with a pathological dependency and despair.
The rain soaked her hair, plastering it stickily to her cheeks and neck.
It was ice-cold, but she didn’t care.
She simply used all her strength to hold the person in her arms, as if that were her only source of heat and her only driftwood in this freezing world.
Her body trembled slightly from the cold and agitation, and her cries sounded exceptionally shrill and tragic in the empty curtain of rain.
That twisted love, having experienced the shock of “death” and the frustration of revenge, became even more obsessive, more pathological, and more desperate.
She placed everything on the “unconscious” woman in her arms.
Isayat was all that remained of her world.
Held tightly in her embrace, Isayat still kept her eyes closed “peacefully,” her long eyelashes casting a small shadow on her eyelids.
No one saw that beneath her facade of “unconsciousness,” the nearly imperceptible, satisfied, and cold smile at the corner of her mouth was like a poisonous flower quietly blooming after the rain, silently exuding its fragrance in a hidden corner.
The rain continued to fall, washing away the blood on the battlefield.
It also seemed to be cleansing the excessive madness and sorrow within “The Drama” she had directed herself.
And her Female Lead, Ling Xiya, had perfectly walked into the deeper, more twisted abyss of madness that she desired — an abyss that belonged only to her.
Everything was according to her plan.
A perfect performance.
Isayat sneered in her heart, feeling the girl’s suffocating embrace and scalding tears.
She was filled with the pleasure of being in total control.
Her Ling Xiya, her most perfect masterpiece, was finally complete.