God-Tier Awakening: The Dead Can Still Level Up

Chapter 43: The Why?!

Yun Xia remained on the ground without answering, her trembling hands pressed against the blood-covered floor while she avoided Xingluo’s gaze.

Xingluo waited for several breaths, but the silence only made the anger inside her rise further.

"Why?" she shouted again, her voice echoing through the ruined factory. "Why did you betray me?"

Yun Xia’s body flinched, then something inside her finally broke as she raised her head and stared back with red eyes. "What else was I supposed to do?"

Her frightened expression twisted as all the fear, humiliation, and resentment she had held back suddenly erupted.

"He came to me first, he offered me money, resources, and opportunities I could never obtain on my own, then he threatened my family when I tried to refuse."

Yun Xia pushed herself up from the ground, her voice growing louder with every word.

"He could destroy everything we had with a single order, but he also promised me a future I had never even dared to imagine, what choice did you expect me to make?"

Xingluo stared at her without speaking, but Yun Xia mistook her silence for judgment and became even angrier.

"If you had simply accepted Qin Haoran and stayed beside him, none of this would have happened. You would have gained his protection, and those of us around you could have benefited as well."

"But you were too busy acting like the proud and untouchable Luo Xingluo, the pure campus beauty who would never lower herself for anyone."

Her face twisted with bitterness as she pointed toward Xingluo.

"You always had the face, the talent, and everyone’s attention, yet you threw away something that could have changed all our lives just because you wanted to protect your pride."

Xingluo’s fingers tightened around her sword, but Yun Xia no longer seemed capable of stopping.

"Do you know how many people would have done anything to receive the offer you rejected? You only needed to become his woman, but instead you offended him and dragged everyone around you into his anger."

"Your father’s company was destroyed, your family is drowning in debt and now all these people are dead because you could not bend even once."

Yun Xia laughed bitterly, though tears had already begun running down her face.

"And now you are standing there looking at me like some merciful saint. Are you sparing me because we were friends, or because you want me to understand how far above me you have become?"

Her voice cracked, but the hatred inside it remained clear.

"Stop pretending you are better than everyone. Beneath that beautiful face, you are only a stubborn fool who never thinks about what her choices will do to the people around her."

The factory fell silent after her final words.

Xingluo had expected fear, desperation, or perhaps even an apology, but she had never imagined hearing this much resentment from someone she had known since childhood.

Yun Xia had not betrayed her only because Qin Haoran threatened her, somewhere beneath that fear, jealousy and hatred had already been growing for years.

Wuxia watched Xingluo’s expression change beneath Yun Xia’s words and released a quiet sigh.

Before Yun Xia could continue, he sent a command through the soul mark.

The Panther moved beside her and struck the side of her head with one controlled paw, knocking her unconscious before she collapsed against the floor.

Xingluo immediately turned toward Wuxia. "Why did you knock her out? I still have things to ask her."

Wuxia met her eyes without avoiding the anger inside them. "What else were you hoping to hear?"

"She has already told you everything, continuing to question her will not change her answer, it will only give her more chances to hurt you."

Xingluo looked toward Yun Xia’s unconscious body, but Wuxia continued before she could argue.

"You are refusing to face what is already in front of you. Holding onto a burning bridge does not save the people standing on it, it only ensures that you fall with them."

His voice remained calm as he moved closer. "Some people are not meant to continue walking beside you. That does not always make them completely evil, but it does mean trusting them again would make you a fool."

Xingluo’s eyes trembled, and the anger she had been holding finally broke as tears began running down her face. "I... I do not know what I am supposed to do anymore."

She lowered her sword and looked toward the blood-covered floor.

"Maybe this face really is a curse. Qin Haoran underestimated me this time, but next time he could send the Qin family’s elites or manipulate the authorities into arresting my parents."

Her voice weakened as she continued, "He could threaten anyone close to me and I would not even know whether they were truly on my side."

Wuxia understood that Yun Xia’s betrayal had struck harder because of everything Xingluo had learned about her father only moments earlier.

Still, this was a truth she needed to understand before her trust carried her somewhere she could no longer return from.

The world did not become safer because she refused to see what people were capable of.

Wuxia looked across the factory and summoned the Brood mother and one of the Flood Dragons.

The spider emerged from dark soul power and spread its legs across the floor, while the dragon coiled through the large production hall without touching the surrounding walls.

"Remove every trace of the bodies and blood," Wuxia ordered.

The Brood mother released a corrosive poison over the corpses, dissolving the remaining flesh, while the Flood Dragon gathered the residue and damaged materials into one place before destroying them with concentrated mana and cleaning the spot

Wuxia carried Yun Xia to an unused room on the upper floor and left her there unconscious.

When he returned, Xingluo was still standing in the same place with tears on her face, Wuxia extended a part of soul force and touched her shoulder. "This is not the time to collapse."

Xingluo looked toward him, and his voice softened slightly.

"If you allow this to break you now, people like Qin Haoran will continue using everyone around you to control your choices."

"You are not alone, you have your parents, you have people who may still deserve your trust, and whether you like it or not, you also have me."

Xingluo wiped her eyes and released a weak, wet laugh. "Yeah... I suppose I should at least trust my golden-finger grandpa."

Normally, Wuxia would have immediately argued that he was neither old nor her grandfather but this time, he only remained beside her without correcting anything.