Chapter 162

Liu Xunqin had never been one to meddle in others' affairs.

But she had lived her whole life in pride and solitude. Since her youth, she had few friends or relatives worth mentioning. The only ones she was remotely close to, and could exchange a few extra words with on ordinary days, were her junior sisters, Yue Changge and Yun Shuchen.

She rarely made decisions for others, for when one manages too many affairs of others, one invites unnecessary resentment.

Troublesome.

However, when it came to Yun Shuchen's very life, she weighed matters briefly and followed her heart's desire, making a unilateral decision for once.

Perhaps deep down, given the length of their time together, she still considered her junior sister more important than her junior niece.

Liu Xunqin went to Heyi Peak and made straight for Qing Zhouxue's door. Channeling all her spiritual power into her palm, she forced open the barrier on the door.

Qing Zhouxue was sitting in meditation inside, circulating her energy. The sudden backlash struck her like a blow, and she promptly spat out a mouthful of blood, doubling over and coughing uncontrollably.

Before she could catch her breath, she saw Elder Liu's solemn face. In the next instant, the back of her collar was yanked tight, and she felt her neck constrict as her whole body was lifted and sent flying.

Elder Liu said nothing, and with swift, decisive action, she dragged Qing Zhouxue out.

Qing Zhouxue felt like a half-filled wine jug rattling about, her mind bubbling with confusion. In a moment, however, the howling wind sobered her considerably. Setting aside her shock at the scene, she asked, "What's wrong, Shishu?"

"Yun Shuchen is undergoing tribulation. Her life hangs by a thread."

Liu Xunqin followed the direction where the drifting clouds gathered. Qing Zhouxue steadied herself, and the Qingshuang Sword obediently flew up from behind. With a swift step, she mounted it and pulled Liu Xunqin up alongside her, brow furrowed, speaking rapidly: "Where is she?"

"She went out." Liu Xunqin looked up toward the sky. The direction where the drifting clouds converged should be where Yun Shuchen was.

Qing Zhouxue, barely recovered her composure, grew anxious. She sped through the fierce wind, as if something were chasing her from behind.

She traced the tail of the drifting clouds to their head, finding that the sky had already turned dark with cloud cover. Like thick layers of ink in a landscape painting, the entire area was shrouded in deathly silence.

She could not see the light.

But in the brief gaps between lightning strikes, heaven and earth lit up as bright as day, and in that moment, Qing Zhouxue caught sight of a figure seated cross-legged atop a rooftop.

Master.

Her heart clenched. "Shishu, do not approach. Stay here."

Liu Xunqin naturally would not court death by rushing into the thunder tribulation. She nodded and landed a short distance from the Liuyun Sect. If Yun Shuchen still had a breath left after this, then perhaps there was hope.

Qing Zhouxue hesitated no longer. Braving the gale, she charged unhesitatingly toward that figure.

The wind here was too fierce; even ordinary wind-repelling spells proved useless. Gu Ruoshui had just been struck by a tile flung up by the gale and, caught off guard, had plummeted back to her original spot. Struggling against the wind to fly up once more, she caught a glimpse of a familiar white figure out of the corner of her eye.

Qing Zhouxue?

"What are you doing here?!"

Qing Zhouxue had no time to answer. She sliced through the turbulent gale like a sword blade.

The first thunderbolt was merely a probe, illuminating the line of heaven and earth, scorching the surrounding flora black.

When the next bolt struck, the main hall of the Liuyun Sect, which had stood for a thousand years and been renovated countless times, shattered into dust. With a crackling sound of breaking debris, tongues of flame licked along the eaves, bursting into the air before the great wind quickly smothered them into dimness.

Yun Shuchen was not thrown down; a barrier of light had already formed around her. Amid falling debris and dust, she sat unharmed atop the ruins.

However, it was clear this tribulation was far more arduous than previous ones. By the second bolt, she already felt a dull ache in her chest, a cloying sweetness suppressed at her throat, as if her organs might be coughed out at any moment.

Her vision grew increasingly blurred. Looking around, there was hardly any intact spot left. The thunder tribulation had shattered all the barriers of the Liuyun Sect, the protective formations all destroyed. This floating rock was riddled with holes, and the remaining treasures not yet moved were reduced to ashes in the lightning's glare.

Heaven and earth stretched vast and desolate, and humanity's insignificance was laid bare in that moment.

Yun Shuchen let the blood trickle from the corners of her lips, her brow furrowed slightly as she allowed the thunderfire to temper her entire body.

It hurt.

It hurt so much that she trembled all over. Her fingers even dug into the roots of the Crimson Heart Lotus, and the vermilion leaves and blood together sank into her flesh.

The Crimson Heart Lotus could indeed heal wounds. As long as she stayed close to it, the places where her skin had been seared felt as if covered with a layer of fine snow, cool and soothing.

But such healing power was far too slow compared to the swift descent of the tribulation.

Yun Shuchen could still feel her internal organs splitting apart. Each bolt that fell was like a violent strike against a porcelain vase, the intricate cracks spreading like sprouting branches until they covered the entire vessel.

She was just rejoicing that Qing Zhouxue would not see her in such a sorry state, when through the bloodshot haze before her eyes, a white figure flickered indistinctly.

Was this an illusion?

It must be.

A familiar face drew close, still with that delicate and moving beauty. Yun Shuchen's eyelashes were too heavy with blood to lift fully. She blinked with lowered lids and saw only a hand, startlingly white in the fleeting light, gripping her arm, then gently cupping her cheek, brushing aside strands of hair matted with blood and salt.

"Master."

The voice seemed to come from the edge of the sky, its tail faintly trembling.

Yun Shuchen seemed not to hear. In the chaos, she only felt her waist go soft as someone tackled her to the ground. White gauze, like true snow, shrouded her.

With the next thunderbolt, her vision brightened for an instant.

That electric light passed easily through Qing Zhouxue, yet it still struck Yun Shuchen. A tremendous roar sounded, and she let out a pained groan. At that moment, it felt as though countless vengeful spirits and malicious ghosts were dragging her down—people she had killed before, people who came to claim her life—all wandering across her vision, hideous and fierce.

After that flash of clarity, she felt a warm trickle slide down her face, and she could no longer see anything.

It was not only her own blood; somehow, there were also scalding tears, drop after drop, splashing onto her face.

Yun Shuchen was momentarily stunned. She had the feeling this was no illusion.

Qing'er seemed to be real... she had been there all along. The moment this thought arose, Yun Shuchen lacked the strength to consider whether it made sense. She instinctively lifted her hand, sticky with blood from between her fingers, and brushed it across Qing Zhouxue's back, weakly embracing her.

Qing Zhouxue knelt on the ground, feeling that faint, almost absent return of the hug.

Qing Zhouxue desperately tried to raise a barrier to block the thunderbolts, but for some reason, the bolts easily struck through to Yun Shuchen, not at all like the time when her master had shielded her from tribulation.

The more frantic she grew, the more the salty wetness on her face streamed down. Qing Zhouxue wiped at it haphazardly, using every trick she knew, wishing she could press Yun Shuchen into her embrace to avoid the thunderbolt—

But it was almost useless.

Attempt after attempt, failure after failure.

She could only watch helplessly as her master bled from all seven orifices, her whole body drenched in crimson, like shattered porcelain ground to powder by a millstone, leaving no path for survival.

Qing Zhouxue nearly choked, her mind gone numb. Just then, Yun Shuchen tremblingly raised a hand to cover her eyes, whispering, "Don't... look."

Her breath grew fainter and fainter. The Crimson Heart Lotus, pushed to its limit, began to wilt. Qing Zhouxue could feel her life—like that lotus—being silently drained away with each successive thunderbolt.

Her master was going to die.

This realization struck her like a spring thunderclap echoing through a thousand ravines, leaving her stunned.

Qing Zhouxue's spiritual power was in turmoil, not the usual imbalance, but a wild, chaotic surge that threatened to force open her meridians.

She knew that if she forcibly circulated her energy any further, something terrible might happen.

Just like that day in the Sword Tomb, when the condensed sword intent swept through her whole body again, Qing Zhouxue gripped the Qingshuang Sword tightly, her nails nearly drawing blood.

She shut her eyes tightly, then opened them again, no longer trying to chase full clarity of thought.

She let the spiritual power run wild within her, like releasing a paper kite held taut by the string—allowing it to snap its last bond and soar high into the sky.

She was, of course, well aware of the consequences.

The moment the kite was free, it would also be torn apart by the fierce winds.

The Qingshuang Sword stood upright in her hand, pointed straight at the heavens. At that very instant, the swirling thunderclouds halted for a brief moment.

Qing Zhouxue suppressed the last thread of rationality in her thoughts and spoke in a low voice: "If this thunder does not stop today..."

Her pupils turned cold-white like moonlight, and frost climbed from her palms to cover her whole body.

The very edge of the Qingshuang Sword seemed to grow a little longer.

Her eyes met the massive eye of the thunderclouds from afar, crossing a distance of a hundred thousand li.

"I will strike at you as I did before."

"I will cut down each of these nine-fold heavenly thunders."

"From then on, I will let all cultivators under heaven... have no tribulation to cross, and no one to judge them!"

Thunder roared from all directions, but it did not strike down—seemingly warning her that even the Sword Soul beyond the Heavenly Dao would not be allowed such presumption.

Qing Zhouxue laughed into the fierce wind. "Do you think I will die?"

Her spiritual power surged ever more violently. The Liuyun Sect was near the Sword Tomb, and her call into the void seemed to summon a host of old friends again.

"If I die, so do you."

She still pointed her sword at the sky, with a resolve to shatter jade and stone together.

This response only made her power grow stronger, but it also pushed her closer to a perilous brink. With the slightest misstep, she could easily lose herself in this chaotic frenzy and fall into demonic possession.

The thunderclouds continued to rotate slowly. Although they no longer descended, they did not retreat in cowardice either.

The two sides remained locked in a standoff.

The Liuyun Sect was now a heap of ruins. The main hall had crumbled into dust and rubble, the once-tidy bonsai and immortal ponds now reduced to pits and hollows, hastily buried beneath broken stones and splintered wood.

And yet one room stood completely intact.

Inside, a lamp burned warmly, steady and peaceful, as if it belonged to a different world from the surrounding devastation.

A woman's silhouette was cast on the window screen. She sat upright, and with each flicker of the candle flame, the shadow swayed askew.

She seemed to be pouring tea, unhurried, as if savoring the quiet pleasures of an ordinary day.

Gu Ruoshui braved the wind, pounding desperately on the door, nearly beating her palm bloody. Her voice urgent, she called out, "Master, Master! Could you please go drink tea somewhere else? This place... is dangerous! The heavenly thunder could strike directly at any moment!"

A clear female voice came from within, still calm:

"It's fine. You may go."