1952 Reason

The First Elder felt her head swirl as nausea overtook her. She started seeing colors all around her despite the lack of any. Her eyes were bloodshot, with blood leaking from her nose and ears.

Then, they began leaking from her mouth as well.

She collapsed onto the ground, unable to hold herself up. She laid on her back, looking up at her disciple in disbelief.

"You… you poisoned me?" she asked. She couldn't remember when or understand why. Remembering anything was difficult for her at the moment. She didn't even have the strength to get angry at her disciple.

Hei Tingxie removed a ring she wore on her fingers and threw it onto the ground. A single sharp tip stuck out from the side of the ring, with some sort of purple-colored liquid on its tip.

The First Elder looked at it. Only now did she realize how she had been poisoned.

But why? She still wasn't sure.

Hei Tingxie moved around her master, arriving next to the scythe that belonged to her. She held onto it, showing some expression of anger upon touching the whole thing.

"Was this what you used to kill my parents?" she asked, looking at the large scythe, hatred very much audible in her voice.

The First Elder turned her head towards her, straining to do anything at all. "Your…" she struggled to speak. "Your parents?"

"Yes! You killed my parents," Hei Tingxie said. "Don't you remember? They were owners of a shop in Oldcrow city, primarily known for selling various alchemy and talisman resources."

The poison made it hard for Hei Tingxie to see if the First Elder had registered her words, but her next words made it clear she had.

"Th-the Fang couple?" the First Elder asked.

"Oh, so you do remember them," Hei Tingxie said. "That's right, I'm their daughter, Fang Yuxie."

She stepped back and began laughing happily. "Oh, you have no idea how long I waited for this day. Since all those years ago, I have always envisioned the image of your corpse lying at my feet. And finally, I have you at my feet."

The First Elder struggled to speak, her body dying at a very fast rate. She tried to pull a pill for herself, but Fang Yuxie swung the large scythe, cutting the First Elder's hands.

The old woman screamed.

"No moving," she said. "Although, you shouldn't be able to use any Qi for now."

Alex watched from the distance, unsure as to what exactly was happening. He could see that the First Elder was poisoned and betrayed by the girl for revenge, but beyond that, he hadn't managed to hear much.

Fang Yuxie sat on the ground, sighing softly. "All I have to do now is make sure you die without anyone saving you."

"Th-they killed… my husband," the First Elder barely managed to speak after a long time.

"My parents?" she asked. "I know. Your husband deserved to die for trying to attack my parents. But then you went and killed them, so now it's my turn to kill you."

The First Elder's eyes were fully red. She couldn't see anything else at all.

"Honestly, I didn't think I would kill you so soon. I've tried for so many years, but… it's really hard to get my hands on a poison as powerful as this one."

She turned to look at the ring that was not far away from her. "I only got it a few years ago, and have since then been planning on when I could use it. I was waiting for some sort of trip we could both take outside the sect, but that didn't come up at all. So I only had to wait."

"Thankfully, I didn't need to be that careful with your son."

The First Elder fidgeted on the ground, trying to raise her hands toward the girl.

"Oh, you can still hear? If so, then die learning that your son also died because of me," she said. "It was so easy to kill him too. All I had to do was give him a clearly fake pill recipe and then rank above him while consuming a poison just below the pill I gave him the recipe for."

She turned her head toward Alex close by. "I didn't mean to get you caught up in it. I'm sorry you did."

Alex moved in closer. "So Bai Wanzhao's recipe came from you?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "It was actually a pill recipe for a poison stronger than the Nether Ice Immortal poison, but something that wouldn't fundamentally work on that poison."

"I knew that idiot was too proud of himself to ask his mother for anything directly, so as long as I said that I got the recipe from his mother, he took the recipe without question."

Alex was both shocked and surprised. "And you killed him because of revenge?"

"Yes, but not exactly. I had problems with that man but not enough to kill him. I killed him because it would make her unhappy. I couldn't stand the sight of this bitch being so happy so I had to give her some grief."

"She lost her husband first, so killing her son next would give her the most pain. Then, after she had finally gotten over her son's death, I planned on killing her."

"Only, things never happen as you hope they do, do they?" she asked. "I was going to wait for at least another decade before killing her, but fate forced me to kill her tonight."

She looked back toward the First Elder whose struggles were coming to an end. "I hoped she would suffer some more, but the poison truly is quite strong. She's already done for."

She stood up, holding the scythe in her hand. "It's not a bad line. You reap what you sow," she said and turned down toward the old woman who finally stopped struggling. "Your reaper has come as well."

Then, she swung the scythe and cut off the First Elder's head.

The First Elder's head went flying away, and the rest of her body remained on the ground.

She was finally, fully dead.

Fang Yuxie threw away the scythe, making sure the blood didn't splatter onto her. Given how strong the poison was, she wanted nothing to do with the woman's body at all.

She began laughing out loud in celebration, finally happy that she managed to kill the person she had been wanting for centuries.

How long ago was it that her parents had died? She had been away at the time and hadn't managed to save them. She wouldn't even be able to.

But, even if it was just revenge instead, she had finally done it. She had avenged her parent's death.

Fang Yuxie's laughter slowly turned to cries as tears streamed down her face. She had accomplished what she had sought to do, and now that she was done, it was both a moment of celebration and sadness.

She had avenged her parents, so a part of her felt as though she had let go of them, and that they would forever be gone from her.

Maybe, it truly was time for her to say let go of her parents.