Uncanny Immortal 20

Chapter 20

“I will not teach you anything.”

Upon hearing these words, a mix of confusion, grievance, disappointment, and helplessness flashed across Xie Qingzheng’s face, finally settling into a kind of blind trust.

Master must have her reasons for doing this!

Xie Qingzheng didn’t ask for a reason, only saying softly, “It’s alright. I’ll just learn in three years. I can wait.”

They were already master and disciple now. She was her only disciple, and in this lifetime, she would only have her as a disciple.

At this thought, an inexpressible joy filled her heart.

Mo Jiangxue’s expression was as usual. “In two days, I will be going into seclusion in the Sword Pavilion. For the next three years, you will be the only one on Ethereal Peak.”

“Is Master going to remove the malevolent energy from the Tianxuan Sword?”

Mo Jiangxue: “Mm.”

The matter of the Tianxuan Sword injuring someone was thus closed. The Sect Master and the three elders had handed Xie Qingzheng over to her, on the condition that she remove the malevolent energy from the Tianxuan Sword.

She was the one who had retrieved the Tianxuan Sword. Given her nature, even without the incident with Xie Qingzheng, she would have taken the initiative to remove the malevolent energy.

Xie Qingzheng: “To be in seclusion for three years, that’s so long…”

No wonder she said just now that she wouldn’t teach me anything for the next three years…

That sentence should be considered an explanation. Although she would have trusted her master unconditionally even without an explanation, hearing it with her own ears did make her feel a little happy.

Xie Qingzheng then asked apprehensively, “Will you be in danger? Can I go to the Sword Pavilion with you? I can serve you.”

If Mo Jiangxue hadn’t brought her back to Ethereal Peak, she would probably have had her entire cultivation crippled by now.

She was grateful to her, yet she also felt a sense of guilt, afraid that she had implicated her and put her in danger again.

Mo Jiangxue shook her head. “I can handle it. You just stay on Ethereal Peak.”

Her tone was light, but it brooked no argument.

To think that they would have to be separated for three years right after she had become her disciple, a wave of sorrow and reluctance surged in Xie Qingzheng’s heart. Her eyes were filled with an unconcealable attachment and reliance. She said softly, “Master, I will definitely miss you very much. I will go to the entrance of the Sword Pavilion every day to pay my respects to you…”

Mo Jiangxue’s features were cool, and her tone was also cool. “That won’t be necessary. I won’t be able to hear you.”

Her heart full of tender feelings was doused by her coldness. Xie Qingzheng was speechless for a moment before letting out a low “oh.”

Fine, I won’t go then!

The next day, Xie Qingzheng personally cooked a bowl of plain noodle soup and respectfully presented it to Mo Jiangxue. “Master, I don’t know how to repay your kindness… From now on, you can leave all the chores like feeding the cranes, sweeping the snow, and brewing tea to me. I can also cook. Please try the noodles I made!”

Cultivators who had formed their Golden Core had already achieved Bigu and did not need to eat, only occasionally tasting the delicacies of the mortal world.

Mo Jiangxue took the chopsticks Xie Qingzheng handed her and, without a word, ate the entire bowl of noodles.

Xie Qingzheng looked at the empty bowl, then at Mo Jiangxue’s expression.

Her expression still looked cool, but… she should be satisfied, right?

Xie Qingzheng diligently handed over a handkerchief and tea, her tone cheerful. “Master, after you come out of seclusion, I’ll make you delicious food every day.”

Mo Jiangxue took the handkerchief, wiped her lips, and said expressionlessly, “You have no talent for cooking. Don’t try it so easily in the future.”

After saying that, she glanced at her sideways, and for once, said a few more words, but they were not kind ones:

“To have survived eating such food, it truly was not easy.”

No wonder she was so thin in Wen Family Village…

Her heart, devoted to cooking for her master, was shattered. Xie Qingzheng clutched her chest and took the remaining noodles in the pot to feed the spirit fox.

The spirit fox sniffed them, gave her a disdainful look, and stalked away.

Her meridians were damaged, and she couldn’t circulate her energy to resist the cold on the mountain. The medical cultivator senior sister said it would take at least a month to recover.

Last night, when she slept, she had hugged the fox tightly for warmth. The little fox, while being squeezed until its eyes rolled back, had transferred true qi to her.

Now the fox had gone out to play. Xie Qingzheng was once again shivering from the cold, yet she persisted in picking up the broom to sweep the snow in front of the hut.

Mo Jiangxue sat in the bamboo pavilion, quietly reading a scripture.

All around was a profound silence, so quiet it was like being back on West Mountain in Wen Family Village.

For the past year, Xie Qingzheng had laughed and played with her fellow disciples on Weiming Peak. She had grown accustomed to the lively atmosphere. Being in such a quiet environment again, she was truly a bit unaccustomed.

She turned her eyes to Mo Jiangxue.

Master spends her days on the ethereal peak, all alone. I wonder if she ever feels lonely and desolate?

Probably not…

Her master was devoted to cultivating the Dao and loved quiet. Perhaps she had only taken her as a disciple out of circumstance and a sense of responsibility.

As Xie Qingzheng swept the snow, she secretly resolved: From now on, I must learn to be quieter, even quieter…

The rime was vast and white, the mountains frozen, the clouds still. The wind and snow seemed to grow heavier, and the world was all white.

The cold wind howled in her ears. Fine snow fell on her cheeks, a bit chilly.

Mo Jiangxue suddenly put down the scripture, glanced at Xie Qingzheng, and said, “Come here.”

Xie Qingzheng trudged through the snow, one deep step and one shallow, and obediently walked to Mo Jiangxue. “Master… do you have any instructions?” Her voice trembled slightly from the cold.

Mo Jiangxue: “A little closer.”

Master and disciple, one sitting and one standing. Xie Qingzheng moved a little closer.

Mo Jiangxue reached out, her fingertips brushing across her cheek, melting the snowflakes on her face.

The cool, delicate touch swept across her cheek. Xie Qingzheng held her breath, motionless.

Her fingertips paused between her brows. A warm stream of true qi flowed in, passing through her Yintang, heart, and dantian in sequence. Her cold hands and feet warmed up accordingly.

She was taken aback and met Mo Jiangxue’s eyes.

Those eyes were like the fine snow and gentle breeze on the mountain—clearly bone-chillingly cold, yet they stirred an inexplicable flutter in one’s heart.

Xie Qingzheng had no time to dwell on the strange feeling in her heart. She grabbed Mo Jiangxue’s wrist and stopped her. “Master, you’re about to go into seclusion. Don’t waste any more true qi on me.”

Mo Jiangxue stopped her movements, her light-colored eyes looking at her, saying nothing.

The Xuanji Sect placed the utmost importance on respecting one’s master and the Dao, and on the distinction between superior and inferior. Xie Qingzheng realized her transgression, quickly let go of her hand, took half a step back, and said apologetically, “Disciple has overstepped.”

Mo Jiangxue pondered for a moment, stood up, and left on her sword, leaving behind a single sentence: “Wait for me for a moment.” Then she was gone.

Xie Qingzheng was left standing there, not even having time to ask, “Where are you going?”

Just now, her only thought was to stop her master from transferring true qi to her, nothing else. Now that it was quiet, she remembered her master’s wrist, like cold suet jade—white, cool, and soft.

In an instant, the strange feeling in her heart intensified.

But the next moment, she suddenly realized, what kind of disciple would think about how their master’s wrist felt? That was too impolite!

She patted her own burning cheeks, stopped her wild thoughts, and looked in the direction her master had left, quietly waiting for her return.

Mo Jiangxue flew to Zixiao Peak on her sword and borrowed a crane-feather cloak and a hand warmer from Xiao Wangqing.

Xiao Wangqing and Pei Shuxue lived together on Zixiao Peak. Pei Shuxue was frail and often ill, so Xiao Wangqing had prepared many things to ward off the cold on Zixiao Peak.

“Only my Zixiao Peak would have these things.” Xiao Wangqing smiled and handed the items to Mo Jiangxue. “You certainly don’t need them. They must be for Zheng’er. I also have a bottle of qi-replenishing pills here. Take them back with you.”

Mo Jiangxue took the cloak and hand warmer and said, “Thank you.”

Xiao Wangqing’s smile then faded, and she said seriously, “By the way, Shuxue asked me to tell you that she has found some clues about the heat and cold poison in Zheng’er’s body. It is indeed a curse, as you guessed. And,” her expression grew even more grim, “even if it is temporarily suppressed, if it acts up in the future, it will still be life-threatening…”

Hearing this, Mo Jiangxue pondered for a moment and said, “After I come out of seclusion, I will personally go and consult Vice Sect Master Pei.”

Before Mo Jiangxue went into seclusion in the Sword Pavilion, she only taught Xie Qingzheng one thing—on the summit of Ethereal Peak, to quietly listen to the blooming and falling of the plum blossoms.

All she left for Xie Qingzheng was a sentence from the Tao Te Ching: “Attain the utmost emptiness, maintain the deepest stillness. All things arise in unison, and thereby I watch their return.”

The meaning was: clear the mind of attachments and delusions, maintain tranquility, and repeatedly observe the cycle of life and death of all things in the world.

This was the method of enlightenment.

Xie Qingzheng would wake up at the hour of the Rabbit every day, hold her sword, stand under a plum tree, and quietly listen to the sound of each flower blooming and falling. She would stand until the sun set, and only then would her day’s lesson be complete.

For the first month, she wore the crane-feather cloak and held the hand warmer. From time to time, her mind would wander. One moment she would wonder what her master was doing, the next she would wonder if Elder Mu was any better. Then she would guess at the cause of death of the people in Wen Family Village, and then she would wonder why her mother would consort with the demonic evils of the demonic cult.

In the second month, her internal injuries had completely healed, and she could circulate her qi to resist the wind and snow on the mountain.

She flew to Zixiao Peak on her sword, returned the cloak and hand warmer to the Sect Master, and then continued to stand under the plum tree on Ethereal Peak.

This method of enlightenment was truly torturous. Standing under a tree without moving, like a wooden post, and having to concentrate on listening to the blooming and falling of the plum blossoms—but it did indeed temper one’s mind.

Her master wanted her to be on Ethereal Peak for all four seasons, to attain emptiness and maintain stillness, to concentrate on listening to the flowers bloom and fall, to life and death, prosperity and decay. Besides enlightenment and tempering her mind, it was probably also to prevent her from having any killing intent.

She didn’t quite understand. Did it mean that even if someone wanted to kill her, she couldn’t have a killing intent?

That didn’t seem reasonable. Even a cornered rabbit would bite.

But now, even if someone really wanted to kill her, she wouldn’t dare to have a killing intent again.

Her master was in the Sword Pavilion with the Tianxuan Sword. If she had a killing intent, the first one in danger would be her master.

Mo Jiangxue had locked herself in the Sword Pavilion, and Xie Qingzheng had locked herself on Ethereal Peak.

By not interacting with outsiders and not getting involved in miscellaneous affairs, she could maintain a heart as still as water to the greatest extent.

The incident with the Tianxuan Sword at the Sword Discussion Assembly had caused a great uproar. It was also not suitable for her to appear in public for the time being.

By the third month, she missed Mo Jiangxue so much that she decided to go to the front of the Sword Pavilion every day to pay her respects.

Although her master might not be able to hear her, she would still stand in front of the Sword Pavilion and chatter on about what lessons she had done all day, how her internal energy cultivation was progressing, and whether the spirit fox had fought with the cranes…

Month after month, year after year, the plum blossoms on Ethereal Peak bloomed and fell, fell and bloomed again.

Three years passed in a flash. Xie Qingzheng could now stand under the plum tree all day without a single distracting thought.

She had hardly seen any outsiders in these three years. Only Min He, worried that she would be lonely, would come to chat with her when she had free time.

Mo Jiangxue was to come out of seclusion on the seventh of the third month.

On the fifth, Xie Qingzheng had already begun to prepare.

She swept the snow and fallen plum blossoms in front of the bamboo hut and placed a few beautiful branches of red plum blossoms in her master’s room.

The room was spotless; she cleaned it several times a month.

After cleaning the few huts on the summit, Xie Qingzheng flew to the pool at the foot of the peak on her sword.

She was going to bathe and change her clothes solemnly to welcome her master out of seclusion the day after tomorrow.

Three years had passed. Her swordsmanship had not improved much, and she was only roughly proficient in music, but she had already formed her Golden Core, and her appearance was frozen at the age of eighteen.

They hadn’t seen each other for three years. She wondered how her master had changed. She wondered what her master’s first words to her would be.

The closer it got to the seventh, the stronger her feelings of anticipation and longing became. She couldn’t wait to see her master.

She flew through the plum grove on her sword and landed on a stone by the cold pool.

The moment she landed, she froze.

The pool water was as green as glazed glass. A woman in a simple inner robe was bathing in it.

The woman’s head was slightly lowered, her wet clothes clinging to her body. Her back was graceful and slender, her long hair as black as ink, loosely gathered to one side. The skin on her neck was like snow and ice. The drops of water trickling down her neck did not seem like cold pool water, but rather like beads of sweat from the heat escaping her body.

It was a familiar yet strange back. After three years of separation, Xie Qingzheng was a little unsure.

She stared, unable to look away, not because she was attracted by the beauty, but because she heard the person let out a series of soft moans, as if in extreme pain, and more like… the symptoms she had when her heat poison acted up…

What’s going on?

The woman in the pool seemed to sense her arrival and tried her best to suppress her moans.

With a splash, the water rippled.

Mo Jiangxue turned around. Her wet, dark hair was messy against her temples. Her cheeks were slightly red, like a starkly blooming white plum blossom tinged with a very faint blush. Her gaze was cold and remote, staring straight at Xie Qingzheng.

Xie Qingzheng met that cool gaze. Her mind was in a turmoil, and her heartbeat instantly fell out of rhythm. “M-Master… you…”

Why did she have the same signs of heat poison acting up? Or was it that her poison had never been eliminated back then? Was it just… just…

Mo Jiangxue wiped a trace of blood from the corner of her lips, suppressed the trace of pain between her brows, and her red lips parted, uttering two words:

“Come here.”