Chapter 133

By the time Yun Shuchen reached the border of the Taichu Sect, a thunderclap split the sky, and a torrential downpour slammed down, stinging her skin.

She did not seek shelter. She let the rain wash the blood from her face until it was clean.

Slowly, Yun Shuchen walked toward her master's grave. The rain had turned the earth to mud, making the path treacherous.

Her hands trembling slightly, she dug a shallow pit before the tombstone and buried the Spirit Root—now dim, having been separated from its owner for too long—in the soil, beside Xu Xiangjun.

She had no desire to return just then.

There seemed to be nowhere in the world she could go.

She leaned against her master's tombstone, pressing her cheek against the cold stone.

When the next bolt of lightning struck, it illuminated the thin film of tears in her eyes.

Gradually, they welled up, her throat tightening until it felt swollen, and not even a faint sob could escape.

She wept silently before the grave. Though her great vengeance had been exacted, no joy rose in her heart—only the exhaustion of a long journey.

The rain lasted until dawn. Near sunrise, Yun Shuchen, having caught a chill, developed a high fever. Lin Qingya, leading several disciples, searched for her for a long time, finally finding her before Xu Xiangjun's tombstone.

When Lin Qingya learned that she had colluded with the Demonic Race and wiped out an entire family, his first reaction was shock and anger, but then a wave of grief rose in his heart.

Because he knew who she had done it for. In the end, he had still failed Xu Xiangjun's trust—she had said, never let Chen'er know of this matter, lest she be unable to move past it and commit slaughter.

For cultivators, every bit of karmic sin made tribulation harder to endure. Those with blood on their hands might very well die in a ninefold Thunder Tribulation.

Yun Shuchen had expected her master to cleanse the sect's name, and she had not planned to survive. But instead, Lin Qingya punished her with ten years of reflection and suppressed the rumors spreading through the cultivation world. Until his death, when he returned to dust, he never mentioned it again.

Those ten years of reflection—wandering through the centuries—were now glimpsed by Yun Shuchen's own disciple, uncovering this bloody, painful past.

* * *

Xuan Wu stopped speaking. He noticed that the girl before him had been silent for a long time, uttering not a single word.

After a long while.

"Master, she must have suffered greatly back then."

Qing Zhouxue did not quite understand that feeling—after all, when her parents had died, she had not yet known much of emotion.

Now that she thought of it, it was fortunate.

"It's all in the past."

Xuan Wu's aged sigh echoed in her ears: "It's been so many years. One dies, another is born. No matter how deep the hatred, no matter how inseparable the bond, carved in stone and weathered by wind and sun for millennia, it fades until no trace remains."

Carved in stone?

That seemed right.

Qing Zhouxue did have some things she wanted to say—but not to her master as she was now.

Rather, to Yun Shuchen at the age of twenty-nine.

Qing Zhouxue felt around her own body but found nothing to carve with. However, holding up her lamp, she searched the stone chamber for a long while and finally, beneath a cushion, her hand closed around something hard.

Most likely a small knife her master had left behind, perhaps forgotten when she went out.

Xuan Wu burst into a fit of coughing, shouting at her, "No! No more wrinkles can be carved on my face!"

"Your face is already covered with Master's carvings."

Qing Zhouxue held the knife in her hand, smiling faintly. "I'll carve on the other wall. Is that acceptable?"

Xuan Wu snorted coldly, as if greatly disdainful of such impolite behavior.

"Just like master, like disciple."

A mark was scratched into the wall. Qing Zhouxue used some force, tracing over it repeatedly to deepen the lines. Her brushwork was elegant and upright, clean and crisp—showing some resemblance to her master's handwriting, yet distinctly different.

What she carved was also eight characters, facing the eight large characters Yun Shuchen had left across from her.

【The past is gone; a new chapter begins.】

Just as she finished the last stroke, the surroundings suddenly brightened. Qing Zhouxue, squinting against the light, looked toward the glow, and in the midst of the white brilliance appeared a graceful figure.

She froze for a moment, setting the knife aside.

"Qing'er?"

A familiar voice sounded—only a few days apart, yet it felt like a lifetime.

"Come out now."

Qing Zhouxue kept her eyes tightly shut, not yet adjusted to the dazzling light outside. She groped her way toward the cave entrance, but someone tugged at her sleeve, pulling her forward, and she tumbled into a gentle embrace.

She felt dizzy for a moment, but her master held her tightly, then slowly steadied her. Qing Zhouxue could not open her eyes, but she could feel Yun Shuchen's gaze upon her.

A hand rubbed her cheek, passed over her shoulder and waist, and then Yun Shuchen hugged her again, letting out a relieved breath. "I waited a long time. Seems you've lost a bit of weight."

"Master, why are you here?"

The confinement room here—except for the Sect Leader himself, even elders could not enter or leave at will.

"You'll know in a moment."

Qing Zhouxue's eyelashes, trembling for a long while, finally cracked open a slit amidst the light.

A Sect Leader's token forged from dark iron appeared before her eyes.

"With this, of course I have the right to let you out for a walk."

She looked up, meeting Yun Shuchen's eyes, which held an air of sheer entitlement.

Yun Shuchen smiled slightly, tucked the token away, and took her hand. "Don't worry. The Sect Leader will turn a blind eye. If not for necessity, he wouldn't want you wasting three years in there either."

"But these three years, you certainly cannot remain in the Taichu Sect—it wouldn't do for others to see you."

Yun Shuchen tilted her head a little. "There's one thing I'm worrying about now. We have nowhere to go."

When they passed the two posts in the back mountain where disciples stood guard, Qing Zhouxue noticed several junior disciples staring straight ahead or looking up at the sky, as if wishing they could go blind on the spot—straining to pretend they had not seen Elder Yun leading her disciple out from inside.

Clearly, they had been alerted beforehand.

"Nowhere to go?" Qing Zhouxue shook her head. "Rather, I can go anywhere with you."

"The way you say it sounds like we're eloping."

But Qing Zhouxue paused, slowing her steps, and said seriously, "No... no, if that were the case, we couldn't just rush off."

Yun Shuchen had been teasing casually, but she hadn't expected her to frown. "Master, one who elopes becomes a concubine, with no proper standing. That doesn't seem right."

"...How is it that you remember such worthless sayings so clearly?"

* * *

On a stretch of emerald river, a fresh breeze met them.

Qing Zhouxue and Yun Shuchen sat in a small covered boat, letting the current carry them smoothly downstream. Yun Shuchen had announced to the outside world that she was in seclusion. They had packed their belongings, planning to wander for three years before returning to the peak.

On both banks stood green mountains, quiet as beauties admiring their reflections in the water, or like endless green clouds surrounding them.

The moon hung high in the sky, a white jade disc sinking onto the river's surface, pressing two inches from the prow—neither closer nor farther.

Yun Shuchen lounged against the prow, having slipped off her shoes and stockings, dipping her ankles into the river. She occasionally moved, kicking the moon to pieces, then watching it come back together.

Qing Zhouxue sat back-to-back with her. Then, as if tired from leaning, she slid down to Yun Shuchen's knees, pillowing her head there, gazing thoughtfully up at her.

"Master, what about Yu Ying's matter..."

"In the days you were reflecting, I took care of it all." Yun Shuchen interrupted softly.

"I just want to know, Master, why didn't you tell me?"

Qing Zhouxue's brow furrowed slightly.

Yun Shuchen had indeed known all along. Though Yu Ying concealed it well, in her occasional glances, a hint of fear and hatred could still be seen.

A well-formed Five Elements Spirit Root was indeed favored by heaven, and it wasn't easy for Yun Shuchen to see through her.

And back then, she had let that girl live.

All of it was too coincidental.

The Xu Family back then hadn't been completely wiped out—some distant relatives had survived and later reclaimed the family, which was the Xu Family that now barely clung to existence, no longer at its former peak.

Tang Jiaye, whether looking down on that piece of land or some other reason, hadn't even deigned to take it over.

Yun Shuchen had intended to keep the girl as bait, to flush out the remnants behind her.

All the food she brought, Yun Shuchen would take a small bite in front of her, then spit it out after she left, feeding the rest to A Jin.

That Demon Core had also been fake—she was always cautious. The real one was kept on her person, never leaving.

But despite all her schemes, the only one she hadn't accounted for was Qing Zhouxue.

Yun Shuchen racked her brains—her disciple had always been devoted to the Dao, without stray thoughts. How, by sheer coincidence, had she seen through the "junior sister's" scheme?

As she was lost in thought, her sleeve was tugged again. Qing Zhouxue frowned, this time asking more directly, "Don't you trust me?"

Yun Shuchen was startled. She looked down, and Qing Zhouxue's eyes were filled with bewilderment and disappointment. Those pitch-black pupils were especially clear, so any emotion within them was plainly visible.

"It's not that I don't trust you, Qing'er."

If there was one person in the world Yun Shuchen could trust, it was her.

"I..." Her voice kept steady. "This matter has little to do with you. Cultivation forbids excessive brooding. I thought of it that way—"

"How can you say that?"

Qing Zhouxue sat up, so close now, gazing at her quietly. "If you had told me beforehand, I wouldn't have been so eager to take her life. If not for that, the Sect Leader wouldn't have been put in a difficult position, nor would you, and I wouldn't have had to go reflect..."

"Mm." Yun Shuchen's voice grew soft, and she sighed gently. "I am but an ordinary person. I cannot think of everything."

Qing Zhouxue caught a clue in her subtle expression.

Today she was being unusually persistent.

"Actually, you did think of it, didn't you?"

"You know that telling me would be the safest." Qing Zhouxue looked straight at her. "But you deliberately didn't say it. That means you must have had something you were even more worried about."

Yun Shuchen met those clear eyes and found herself speechless. At this moment, Qing Zhouxue was unusually perceptive, her words like ice daggers, each one striking the heart.

Qing Zhouxue was met only with silence.

In truth, Qing Zhouxue knew—ever since Xuan Wu had spilled out the memories, she now knew all that had been sealed away. It wasn't that she needed her master to confess.

But she still wanted to hear it from her own lips.

This made all the difference.