Wen Qiwu sighed inwardly.
She only hoped that her senior sister would truly obey and stay put.
But the chances of her senior sister obediently remaining in the sect to recuperate were probably only… fifty percent? Even though she had already lowered her expectations, Wen Qiwu still felt uneasy.
Were there really fifty percent odds?
Wen Qiwu stood beneath the tree, allowing her senior sister to hold her. She knew that her senior sister still lacked a solid sense of her return, so she quietly stayed by her side.
Fine, Wen Qiwu was ultimately a bit soft-hearted. If her senior sister failed to comply, she wouldn’t have the heart to do anything to her in her current state. At most, she would ensure her senior sister couldn’t touch the phoenix for the next few months.
Perhaps Yun Heng sensed the shift in her junior sister’s emotions, for the arms around her tightened slightly.
Wen Qiwu took her hand and placed it over her own heart, letting her senior sister feel the strong, steady heartbeat.
“I’m right here. This isn’t a dream, nor is it your heart demon.”
Yun Heng felt the powerful, rhythmic pulse beneath her palm, and the illusory sensation of floating in the clouds finally gained a touch of reality.
To let someone glimpse hope only to shove them back into despair was far more painful than leaving them in despair from the start. She knew she couldn’t endure a second time.
“A Que, won’t you stay here and not go to the Phoenix Lord Tomb?” She would reestablish the sect-protecting grand array and turn this place into the safest spot in the Cangwang Realm. A Que only needed to stay by her side—as long as she remained here, neither the Demon Domain nor the Demon Race could harm her.
“I’ll stay and accompany you once I return from the Endless Tree Sea, until you’re fully recovered,” Wen Qiwu said softly, patting her senior sister’s back to soothe her.
Why wait until she recovered? What did A Que mean? Did she plan to leave once she was healed?!
“Can’t you skip the Phoenix Lord Tomb?” Yun Heng murmured softly. On one hand, the place was dangerous; on the other, she wanted to stay ill a little longer.
What if her body healed and her junior sister left right away? Yun Heng began to spiral into wild thoughts.
“It’s not just for your sake. There might be clues about my origins in the Phoenix Lord Tomb, so I must go,” Wen Qiwu explained. Of course, the former was more important, and the latter could be investigated anytime, but with this reasoning, Yun Heng no longer objected.
Her junior sister had been picked up by their master with nothing from her birth parents. Who could be so heartless as to abandon a newborn infant in the desolate wilderness, clearly intending to let the babe die? If their master hadn’t passed by, her junior sister would have been devoured by wild beasts.
But if her junior sister’s background was unusual, it was natural for her to want to investigate.
“Then…” Yun Heng’s words hadn’t left her mouth when a transmission interrupted their conversation.
Yun Heng frowned slightly. She merely wanted to swat the paper crane away.
The paper crane flew right up to Yun Heng—it had come for her.
“Lin Shu of the Dry Moon Sword Sect requests an audience with the Immortal Venerable,” Lin Shu’s voice transmitted from the crane.
So it was her from the Dry Moon Sword Sect. Yun Heng understood. To revive her junior sister, she had caused such a commotion, and now Lin Shu undoubtedly wanted to know the outcome. If she had succeeded, Lin Shu could proceed with reviving that Jade Xi Sect Saintess.
Yet she had failed. Her junior sister had returned on her own, so Lin Shu was bound to be disappointed.
“What happened between Lin Shu and Zuo Lan? And how did Zuo Lan…” fall?
Wen Qiwu had experienced almost no passage of time inside the phoenix egg, as if she had awakened from a single sleep to find everything changed. Zuo Lan’s words about picking her up from the Ask God Sect after the immortal-demon war felt like yesterday, yet that bright and radiant girl was gone forever.
“The place she was guarding was ambushed by the Demon Domain’s assembled forces, so…” Yun Heng felt deep regret about Zuo Lan’s matter too. Back then, she often received scolding letters from her. This forthright saintess restrained herself somewhat in front of an Immortal Venerable, but her letters could fill pages without repeating insults. Since her intent was concern for her junior sister, Yun Heng hadn’t held it against her.
But after Wen Qiwu’s incident, Yun Heng numbly pulled out those letters from Zuo Lan and read them word by word in self-torment, as if confirming the “prophecies” Zuo Lan had already written. Zuo Lan had said she couldn’t see her own heart clearly and would regret treating A Que this way one day. Yes, she regretted it—truly regretted it…
Thank goodness heaven took pity, and her junior sister had returned to her side.
But Lin Shu hadn’t been so fortunate.
What did ruined dao and reconstruction matter? A missed chance was missed forever.
“A Que, earlier I took one of her soul transfer grasses, so I gave her a letter from Zuo Lan,” Yun Heng recalled. In her haze, she vaguely remembered holding the bird cage and mentioning it to her junior sister once, but it wasn’t clear, so she confessed preemptively.
“I only took the one mentioning Lin Shu’s letter to her. I didn’t touch the others.”
Wen Qiwu’s fine brows arched. She had exchanged letters with Zuo Lan for years and knew that whenever it concerned Lin Shu, Zuo Lan dropped all pretense of composure. Anything about Lin Shu, Zuo Lan would never say a good word.
Wen Qiwu could almost guess the contents of that letter. Handing it to Lin Shu was like twisting the knife in her wound and meticulously rubbing salt in it.
Had her senior sister done it on purpose?
Wen Qiwu looked up suspiciously. Her senior sister’s eyes reflected her own image, as if she filled her entire world.
Regarding the letter, her senior sister’s deep, affectionate gaze held a trace of innocence.
Hmm, had she overthought it?
However…
“Well done,” Wen Qiwu praised softly.
To put it bluntly, Lin Shu’s current plight was no one’s fault but her own. Aside from Zuo Lan’s untimely death, everything else was of her own making. Wen Qiwu had some awareness of Zuo Lan’s experiences over the years, but the true bitterness in Zuo Lan’s heart was something she wouldn’t share with outsiders. Thinking of Zuo Lan’s past, Wen Qiwu felt that giving her the letter was exactly right—Lin Shu deserved to see it!
Yun Heng’s eyes brightened, filled with unbridled joy.
“Don’t keep her waiting. Go see her,” Wen Qiwu said, patting the back of her senior sister’s hand.
The joy in Yun Heng’s eyes dimmed slightly, and reluctance was written all over her body.
She only wanted to be alone with her junior sister right now—whoever came was a nuisance.
“If you don’t see her, she’ll probably come pestering every few days,” Wen Qiwu said helplessly.
That was true. Desperate to revive Zuo Lan, she would have stormed the mountain herself in Lin Shu’s shoes.
Yun Heng understood and could only reluctantly allow her up the mountain.
It was Wen Qiwu’s first time meeting Lin Shu. This was the famed prodigy who had risen young, the Sword Protector of the Dry Moon Sword Sect. In some senses, her status even surpassed the Dry Moon Sword Sect Sect Master’s.
A century ago, she had ruined her dao for reconstruction, and in just a hundred years, she had returned to the Golden Immortal Realm. Her talent was second only to her senior sister’s.
Watching the woman approach from afar, her sharp aura fully restrained, the curve at Wen Qiwu’s lips drooped a bit. Yun Heng, familiar with her, knew this was a sign of her junior sister’s displeasure.
Lin Shu endured the scrutiny of a flock of birds along the way. Cloud Mist Mountain had changed greatly—the raging blizzard outside had vanished, and the entire mountain brimmed with vitality. But there were too many Feather Race members. Did this mean Immortal Venerable Yun Heng had succeeded?
She quickened her pace, ultimately using a shrinking-earth technique to reach Yun Heng directly. There was someone new beside the Immortal Venerable, but it didn’t seem to be her junior sister.
Lin Shu’s heart sank.
She approached Yun Heng and paid her respects. Yun Heng didn’t mince words, stating outright that all her methods had failed.
“That Demon Clan’s secret technique… can only produce a monster with a fragment of her soul and memories. You’re a smart person—you should know it’s meaningless and would only disturb her soul’s peace,” Wen Qiwu said. In the days caring for Yun Heng, she had specifically researched the Demon Domain’s resurrection secret technique, and the results matched her suspicions.
Yun Heng said nothing, but the look in her eyes toward Lin Shu held a faint, fracturing light—like her own past self.
She had come with hope, only to receive despair.
If even Yun Heng had failed, did she still have a chance? Fatigue showed on her face, yet she stubbornly sought the Demon Domain secret technique from Yun Heng.
Yun Heng merely glanced at her before her gaze fell on her junior sister. Her junior sister was angry, and having made the same mistake, she didn’t dare speak.
“Even knowing this secret technique would disturb Zuo Lan’s soul’s peace, does the Immortal Lord still wish to try?” Wen Qiwu spoke, her voice colder than Cloud Mist Mountain’s thin snow.
Struggle flashed in Lin Shu’s eyes.
“Even if the Immortal Lord is willing, I’m afraid Fellow Daoist Zuo wouldn’t be. How could such a proud person consent to becoming an ugly monster?”
“‘You and I are strangers on the path; henceforth, pursue the Dao separately without looking back’—these were the Immortal Lord’s own words. Fellow Daoist Zuo always remembered them; I hope the Immortal Lord does too. We’re neither kin nor close—don’t meddle in others’ karma so casually. Fellow Daoist Zuo also said she never wanted to see you again. Please respect her last wish.” Wen Qiwu was good-tempered, not incapable of harsh words. When angered, she could stab repeatedly at someone’s heart.
She simply pitied Zuo Lan a little. Alive, her pride had been shattered before Lin Shu; dead, to be revived into that form and entangled with her again—Zuo Lan would blame her if she didn’t block it.
Seeing Lin Shu’s face drain of color, Yun Heng quietly took Wen Qiwu’s hand and squeezed it gratefully. She realized just how gentle her junior sister had been with her—even at her angriest, her junior sister had never said truly harsh words. If she had spoken to her as she did to Lin Shu, she feared she wouldn’t have lasted two sentences before collapsing.
