Ling Qingyue hadn’t expected that besides herself, there was actually someone else who wanted to kill this good disciple of hers. However, a single thought was all it took for Ling Qingyue’s expression to shift from mere interest to utter seriousness.
“I truly can’t imagine who else would want to kill a powerless child like you…”
“Right? I haven’t provoked anyone, have I? Could it be that an enemy from my past life has come looking for me~ Hahaha…”
Seeing Ling Qingyue suddenly turn serious, Meng Li wanted to crack a joke to lighten the mood. But when she raised her head, she met Ling Qingyue’s gaze filled with killing intent. Meng Li also sensed something and guiltily turned her head away.
“Disciple, it was merely a joke. Shizun, please don’t take it seriously…”
“A joke, right. Who knows, maybe it really is an enemy from your past life…”
“Shi… Shizun, why are you joking about this too…”
Normally, Ling Qingyue would have found this absurd notion of hers surprising. But now, she herself had become the best example of that absurdity. Ling Qingyue looked at the pink orb carrying memories in her hand.
She merely sent out a strand of Divine Soul and it burrowed inside. If anyone else had tried this, let alone probing the memories, they probably wouldn’t have even been able to preserve the integrity of this small orb.
“Since you’re afraid to watch, then let me watch for you and see who wants to kill you…”
“Ah, th-this… Then I’ll trouble you, Shizun…”
Just as the words finished leaving Meng Li’s mouth, the pink orb carrying the memories in the other’s hand instantly burst apart. Meng Li stared blankly at Ling Qingyue, whose face had darkened somewhat, and cautiously tried to ask her what she had seen.
“Shi… Shizun…”
Ling Qingyue’s expression was icy cold, and she did not speak. What she had seen was merely a single image: in a dim, murky room, Ling Qingyue could feel the despair within that memory. Just that one fragmented scene was enough for Ling Qingyue to instantly crush the orb in her hand.
“Shizun, why aren’t you saying anything? How did my incarnation die?”
“Does it matter if you know or not…”
Ling Qingyue had considered many people. Before seeing that memory, she had even suspected it was her eldest disciple who, for the sake of amusement, had accidentally caused it. In the end, she never imagined it would be someone she had never once suspected.
“Junior Sister, forgive me… I’m sorry… Junior Sister, I… I really can’t help it. I can’t stop…”
In the image Ling Qingyue saw, Situ Xue was on the bed, clothes disheveled, her hand tightly choking Meng Li’s neck. What seemed like traces of tears flickered in her eyes, but the light was too dim, making it impossible to clearly see what their closely pressed bodies were doing.
Just that one image was enough for Ling Qingyue to directly crush the orb carrying the memory in her hand. After all, matters of disciples harming each other always brought back unpleasant memories. It was the last thing she wanted to see.
“To think that Xue’er, so infatuated for the sake of beauty, has finally remembered something. She would actually be willing to kill you…”
“Xue’er? Senior Sister Situ! She! She wants to kill me?! What did I do?!”
Looking at the other’s shocked expression, Ling Qingyue ultimately couldn’t figure it out either. In her previous life, Situ Xue—the one she considered the most rational among those she knew—had also been the one she felt the most regret for in the end.
“Why does she want to kill you? If she has truly remembered something, then the reasons are plentiful…”
“Shi… Shizun… Wh-what are you saying? I’ve never done anything to wrong Senior Sister. I’m soft-hearted. Let alone harming my Senior Sister, even to a stranger, I couldn’t bring myself to do it…”
Listening to her good disciple’s defense, if this were the present, she might have actually believed it somewhat. After all, her natural cuteness made her seem utterly harmless. But Ling Qingyue had witnessed the dark side of this good disciple after she had grown.
“If you truly believe that yourself, then you should know best…”
The Spiritual Energy in the surroundings began to turn cold. Ling Qingyue could no longer imagine any reason Situ Xue would kill her Junior Sister other than having remembered something. After all, Situ Xue’s infatuated devotion was something even she could see.
Feeling as if everything before her eyes had returned to that day in her previous life… Situ Xue’s expression was still cool and aloof, but the warmth in her eyes had increased considerably. Ling Qingyue had merely asked casually that day, yet the other admitted it without any hesitation.
“Just a casual kindness easily seen, and you gave your true heart. Have you ever regretted it~”
“No regrets…”
Ling Qingyue hadn’t expected at the time that her two disciples would actually become Dao Companions. She had wanted to sincerely offer her congratulations, but unexpectedly, in the mere fleeting span of a snap of the fingers, when Ling Qingyue once again stood before Situ Xue, this most proud disciple of hers—
Yesterday felt like a lifetime ago. But looking at Situ Xue, whose Dao Heart had long since shattered, Ling Qingyue seemed to understand something within her heart, yet it became even more obscured. Situ Xue, who should have had hair as black as silk, a prodigy of the cultivation world, a genius of her generation, was now full of white hair, a great half of her lifespan lost, her Dao Heart shattered again and again.
“You truly are worthy of being my disciple. After all your cultivation, your hair is even like mine now…”
Ling Qingyue had wanted to tease her, but looking at her disciple, now full of white hair, and then at the silver strands in her own hair—similar in color yet different—words spoken aloud lost their shade. Situ Xue didn’t speak; she only slowly stood up.
Watching her figure wanting to leave, Ling Qingyue hesitated again and again, but still, toward that silhouette that had long since walked far away, she softly asked a single question. She didn’t know if the other had gone too far, if she could still hear. Yet when the words had already been spoken, the response that came back was still those two words.
“Have you ever regretted…”
“No regrets…”
In the end, when Situ Xue last met her, the only thing she left were those two words. Ling Qingyue’s heart was in turmoil, yet she couldn’t sort it out. Watching the other’s figure gradually fade into the distance, until she descended the mountain and was no longer visible, Ling Qingyue merely sighed.
“Wandering among flowers, I rarely glance back; half for the path of cultivation, half for you…”
It was only at this moment that Ling Qingyue felt just a sliver more apprehension toward this little disciple of hers. She had merely assumed that Meng Li was fickle and had wronged someone, that Situ Xue was overly infatuated—simply a play of fate. She had never considered that it was intentional.
“As expected, removing you is still the better choice…”
“No way, Shizun. That’s not funny…”
Meng Li watched Ling Qingyue before her adopt an expression of serious contemplation. Instantly, Meng Li felt terrified inside. Every time the other finished deliberating, she would make a decision disadvantageous to her.
The two incarnations beside her, seeing this situation, also decisively merged back into the True Body. Meng Li wanted to run, but this vast Cave Abode had no exit. Where could she flee? Yet just as she turned around, a long sword was placed horizontally against her neck.
“Half a life of infatuation, half a life of fate. If you had even a shred of soft-heartedness, Xue’er wouldn’t have ended up like this…”
Meng Li slightly turned her head and discovered that the Ling Qingyue incarnation who had been playing cards and chatting with her just moments ago was now standing beside her, sword raised, face full of fury. Meng Li didn’t understand what she had done wrong. Why did she suddenly want to kill her again?
“Dying at Shizun’s hands is rather a beautiful death. I just wonder if Senior Sisters will kindly help collect my corpse~”
“Ah, I’ve barely appeared a few times, and in the end, I’m still going to be buried along with the True Body…”
“……”
Inside Meng Li’s body, the incarnations were all chattering away. Evil Self and Good Self were also exchanging glances. Apart from the stone-cold True Self beside them, Meng Li’s consciousness also arrived in their midst, her face frantic as she questioned them.
“Stop chatting, you two! Think of something quickly! If you don’t, we’re really going to die!!”
“You’re asking me for a solution? You might as well ask the little bell beside us~”
“Little bell?”
Following the direction Evil Self pointed within her body, Meng Li indeed discovered something extra inside her, as if an object had appeared. Upon closer approach—black-gold material, purple-red patterns, its entire body emitting a dazzling crimson light. With just one glance, Meng Li immediately understood she was definitely saved.
“The… the Great Void Bell?”
Looking at the complex and magnificent patterns upon it, Meng Li didn’t understand. This was a treasure belonging to He Xian’er. How could it be inside her body? But in this situation, there was no time to dwell on it.
“Shizun, you can’t blame your Disciple for this~”
