Heavenly Sword Peak, Embracing Guard Cliff.
That night.
Xiao Qingxuan sat cross-legged at the edge of the cliff, staring blankly at the deep purple little flower in her hand, lost in thought.
Her expression was tinged with distress, as if regretting a decision she had made.
She shouldn’t have agreed to A-Qing so easily last night.
“Ah…”
Ten whole days. She clearly didn’t want to wait even a single minute, a single second.
Xiao Qingxuan, oh Xiao Qingxuan, how could you compromise over mere lust?
Even though A-Qing was truly adorable—no, cuter than adorable.
But impulsive urges eventually fade. After calming down, she couldn’t help but feel a trace of regret.
She stood up and looked toward the direction of Azure Sky Peak, a flash of determination in her eyes.
Yet, the instant before she moved to fly over, she found herself unable to move, as if bound by something.
She had already promised A-Qing. How could she go back on her word?
Xiao Qingxuan sat back down in her original spot. But as soon as she settled, an inexplicable irritability rose in her heart.
She had repeated this process dozens of times already.
Yet not once had she truly made up her mind.
However, just as Xiao Qingxuan was about to repeat it once more, a spatial fluctuation suddenly appeared behind her.
She subconsciously looked back, and what entered her eyes was a pair of proud, long legs. The crimson sword robe symbolizing the Sect Master’s status was casually draped over her shoulders. A face marked by a yawn carried a lazy air.
Sect Master of the Profound Firmament Upper Sect, Feng Linyi.
After emerging from seclusion last night, she had only briefly shown her face before everyone, then vanished again without a trace.
Looking at Feng Linyi’s figure, Xiao Qingxuan felt her heart inexplicably calm down slightly.
“Shizun.”
However, as Feng Linyi stepped closer, she realized it was just an illusory projection.
This was only a sliver of her power evolved into a split spirit. Feng Linyi’s true body was elsewhere.
“Good disciple, why haven’t you gone to rest so late at night?”
“Thinking about matters.” Xiao Qingxuan’s eyes lowered, toying with the deep purple flower in her hand.
Unless they had expended a great deal of physical energy, cultivators at the Golden Core Stage no longer needed sleep, let alone someone already at the Half-Step Spirit Transformation Stage.
But her Shizun, as a Dao Integration Realm Great Cultivator, must have some deep meaning in asking this way.
“Still about little A-Qing?” A teasing curve played at the corner of Feng Linyi’s mouth.
Xiao Qingxuan remained silent.
As expected.
Shizun had already seen through her problem. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have come to find her at such a time.
She pursed her lips slightly and spoke:
“Shizun…”
“What… should I do now?”
She poured out her heart, explaining the agreement she’d made with Ye Luqing last night to Feng Linyi.
Looking at the bewildered Xiao Qingxuan, Feng Linyi stroked her head and sighed.
“Silly child, you’re fixating on appearances.”
“In our Emotionless Sword Lineage, our own goal is always paramount. We don’t agonize over keeping or breaking promises.”
“Besides, a promise—something that hasn’t happened yet—isn’t it just meant to be altered?”
Xiao Qingxuan pursed her lips, eyes lowered:
“But… I don’t want to deceive A-Qing.”
“Foolish disciple, I’m not telling you to deceive her.”
Feng Linyi shook her head, raised a delicate brow, and chuckled softly:
“Since it hasn’t happened yet, just go and make a new agreement. It’s simply a matter of whether you can find a way for little A-Qing to accept your issue.”
“The sword path is straight, even more so for us sword cultivators of the Emotionless Sword Lineage. If your goal can be obstructed by such a trivial thing, it just means your goal was never that significant to begin with.”
Xiao Qingxuan lowered her head, silently digesting Feng Linyi’s words.
Her Shizun, though usually unreliable, could always come up with truly profound things.
In recent years, when her relationship with A-Qing had repeatedly hit impasses, it was under Feng Linyi’s guidance that things gradually returned to their proper course.
She was still very grateful to her Shizun for her current achievements and for being able to come together with A-Qing.
Moreover, as a Half-Step Spirit Transformation sword cultivator of the Emotionless Sword Lineage, she naturally understood the sheer value of walking this path to the Dao Venerable level of the Dao Integration Realm.
Effort, talent, resources… and more importantly, being sufficiently emotionless. To achieve a partnership with Shishu Bai under such conditions meant Feng Linyi must have paid a price ordinary people could scarcely imagine.
Therefore, in her heart, she deeply respected her Shizun Feng Linyi, even viewing her as her own future goal.
“Many thanks, Shizun, for clearing up my confusion.”
“Don’t mention thanks. After all, you keeping an eye on little A-Qing also helped me out,” Feng Linyi said with a meaningful smile.
“Helped Shizun?” Xiao Qingxuan blinked, not quite understanding.
“Correct. Today, I thoroughly investigated your Shishu Bai over a dozen times, and actually discovered that a few days ago, she was teased by her two Direct Disciples.”
“And the mastermind behind it is your little A-Qing!”
Feng Linyi wore a deeply pained expression. The play she and Bai Yuhan had engaged in today was called “The Competent Husband.” The plot involved the husband going on a business trip to another sect, the beautiful wife being targeted by other home-wrecker fairies in the sect, and ultimately, the wife resisting temptation with unyielding virtue, after which the returning husband would reward the wife fiercely.
This scenario also perfectly fit the background of her long-term seclusion. And she believed that her Little Bai wouldn’t be stolen by other home-wrecker fairies.
Why? Feng Linyi’s Grand Sword Qi was simply too comfortable. This was something no home-wrecker could provide.
This was also evident in the case of the Illusion God Sect’s Sect Master, Ming Mengmeng.
Yet, during her interrogative kissing and deep investigation, she discovered that during her seclusion, her Little Bai had actually been intimately touched by someone else!
And those two people were precisely Little Bai’s beloved disciples, who knows how many generations younger than her. As Sect Master, she couldn’t make a move against those two. She could only endure it for now and vent her grievances—and other things—all onto Bai Yuhan.
Guiding Xiao Qingxuan to keep an eye on Ye Luqing, that disciple who dared flirt with her master, also saved her the trouble of that rebellious disciple harassing Little Bai further.
Hearing this, Xiao Qingxuan looked at Feng Linyi with the expression of someone looking at a fool.
A-Qing was the mastermind?
Her A-Qing was so innocent, so cute, so pure and untainted—how could she possibly tease Shishu Bai?
Her Shizun was probably loopy from shooting too much Sword Qi. How could someone just a few hundred years old, so young and sprightly, start spouting nonsense?
Seeing the faceful of skepticism on Xiao Qingxuan, Feng Linyi was about to explain when a flash suddenly darted before her eyes.
“Hm? Little Bai woke up?”
Her split spirit manifestation wasn’t specifically to find Xiao Qingxuan. It was because the interrogation process had been so intense that Bai Yuhan had been directly investigated into unconsciousness.
In the next instant, she grabbed Xiao Qingxuan. The Void-Severing Dao Law in her hand activated, instantly refining that Heart Devil.
“Disciple, take care of yourself. Your Shizun’s off to find your Shishu Bai now.”
Before her words faded, Feng Linyi’s split spirit sank into the void.
With a gentle breeze brushing her face, Xiao Qingxuan suddenly felt her Spiritual Platform clear. The inner gloom and irritability were swept away.
The Heart Devil born from the Death of Ye Luqing instantly dissipated by more than half.
She felt she could enter the “Desireless Emotionless” state at any moment. Without any hesitation, she directly switched into that state.
Now, Xiao Qingxuan had only one thought: to go to Azure Sky Peak and talk to A-Qing again in the most efficient way possible.
