"Yang Qing, thirty-ninth-generation disciple of the Ancient Tomb Sect, have you made up your mind?"
Yang Qing looked at her aunt, seeing the reluctance and disappointment in her eyes. She felt her blood surge, as if she could hardly bear it. Still, she held firm, stubbornly clinging to her first act of defiance. "Auntie, Qing'er has betrayed all the lessons you've taught me over the years. I have no regrets."
"You foolish child. Your mother abandoned you at the foot of the mountain and never looked back. If I hadn't happened to pass by, you'd have ended up as food for tigers and wolves. Now he's come to claim you, and he surely means you no good."
"The kindness of giving me life is still kindness. Qing'er cannot turn my back on it."
Yang Xue looked at Yang Qing kneeling before her, her back ramrod straight. This was the child she had raised with such painstaking care. Tears streamed down her face as she tossed the bundle she had prepared for her. "So be it. Go!"
Yang Qing knocked her head against the ground three times, picked up the bundle, and walked away without ever looking back.
"All members of the Ancient Tomb Sect, hear this! Yang Qing, successor of the thirty-ninth generation, has defied discipline and disobeyed her master's orders. From this day on, she is expelled from the sect, struck from the rolls, and never to be accepted again!"
At the foot of the mountain, Yang Qing finally let the tears fall.
It feels pretty good. Come on~~