Chapter 166

The next evening.

When the promised kiss came, Qing Zhouxue turned her head away.

She kept her eyes down, but it wasn't shyness. Her hands were clenched tightly in her lap, crumpling the fabric of her robes.

A gentle hand tilted her chin up.

Yun Shuchen had just bathed. She studied her for a moment, then asked softly, "What's wrong?"

"I won't use Starfire."

Her tone was calm, but the words came slowly, as if dragged out of her.

She had heard fragments of her master's past from others, but as an outsider, she couldn't truly grasp how deep Yun Shuchen's obsession ran. Intuitively, that past must have been one of the most vivid, defining marks on her life.

Once doubt takes root, the mind spirals into dead ends. If that was a large part of why Yun Shuchen had taken her in, would her master be disappointed now?

These days, Qing Zhouxue often judged others by her own heart—that was a kind of growth, but it also churned what had once been pristine emotion into a tangled mess.

She thought for a long time, then made a somewhat selfish decision: she would rather stubbornly hold on to her.

Seeing Yun Shuchen remain silent, brows slightly furrowed, Qing Zhouxue said bluntly, "I don't want you to go back."

Her grip tightened. A surge of grievance hit her. "Even if taking me in was really because of this..."

Yun Shuchen reached to touch her cheek, but Qing Zhouxue dodged again. Her hand paused mid-air, and she raised an eyebrow. "What if I insist? What would you do?"

Without her sincere cooperation, this couldn't succeed. Qing Zhouxue shook her head, thinking, Kissing me won't help.

But Yun Shuchen turned sideways and sat directly on her lap.

A tingle ran up Qing Zhouxue's thigh. She realized their time together recently had been so warm and tender, as if they'd returned to a distant era. Plus, the recent upheaval had kept them apart—it had been a while since they'd been intimate.

Warm and soft, through the thin underclothes, the sensation clearly climbed up her thigh.

"Why not? I can still bring you back."

Yun Shuchen said lightly, but she wrapped her legs around Qing Zhouxue, tightening her hold.

"But the current me"—Qing Zhouxue felt a hand slip into her clothes and tried to steady her breathing—"would never meet another you."

"Either way, I wouldn't know." Yun Shuchen lowered her lashes, brushing against her ambiguously, yet her words were cold. "Since I've gone back, I wouldn't remember any of this, would I?"

She seemed at ease, as if none of it concerned her, her mind already set on another Qing Zhouxue who had never met Yun Shuchen.

Qing Zhouxue looked into those beautiful eyes, and for a moment, annoyance rose in her heart. She pulled out the hand resting on her lower abdomen, gripping it firmly to stop its movements.

But her master was still smiling, eyes curved in a slight arc. Qing Zhouxue caught something amiss, loosened her grip, and asked, "What are you smiling at?"

Yun Shuchen turned her hand over, interlacing their fingers. She raised an eyebrow, her smile like snow-laden branches suddenly bursting into bloom.

"Nothing." Yun Shuchen laughed, softened her waist, and with a hint of emotion, said, "Being clung to feels pretty good."

Qing Zhouxue was taken aback for a moment. She knew her master's subtle expressions and tones intimately. Her mind turned, and suddenly she understood. "You did that on purpose?"

Yun Shuchen said innocently, "I was just following the conversation to pry out what you were really thinking."

Her voice trailed off lazily. "Turns out Qing'er had nothing else in mind—just especially misses me."

"..."

Qing Zhouxue let out a sigh of relief, but somehow, being tricked for no reason made her feel wronged.

Qing Zhouxue wasn't one to compete over wins and losses, and how her master teased her... she had never taken it to heart.

But this time was different.

The earlier tension had been real, so the current displeasure was real too.

Her Emotion Root was more complete than before; tension, worry, fear—though sharper, it felt like the thick shell outside was being chipped away piece by piece, leaving her fragile.

She turned her head away, brows slightly furrowed.

Yun Shuchen turned her face back, but Qing Zhouxue twisted away again, even pushing her off.

Angry?

Qing Zhouxue's face was full of coldness.

"You were the one who started overthinking." Yun Shuchen picked up a strand of her hair, unhurriedly turning her back, and asked softly, "So why would you think that?"

Yun Shuchen was still thinking: recently she had been especially gentle with her—that contained some selfish intent, as she was unsettled by Taishang Wangqing's phrase "until we meet again."

She feared more trouble would arise.

That woman seemed to want to steal her disciple. This anxiety, and the relief of surviving the ordeal, both found an outlet in Qing Zhouxue—namely, a hundredfold pampering.

She had no idea how Qing Zhouxue connected that to "going back."

"Though I don't know why you suddenly thought of Starfire." Yun Shuchen's smile gradually faded, and she looked at her intently. "Years ago, it might have been an obsession to me, but now..."

Her words paused, and a sentence flashed through her mind.

—"Child, in the future, remember to be good to yourself. No matter how hard life gets, learn to love yourself, dress up pretty, taste the foods you like, and see the beauty of the world. Understood?"

Yes.

After realizing that revenge didn't bring much joy, only the weariness of a long journey over her shoulders, Yun Shuchen had slowly let it go.

But every day with Qing Zhouxue was especially good, whether idle or busy. She closed her eyes; now she couldn't remember her childhood, only the days with her: a quiet courtyard, the two of them together with a cat, time both short and long.

"Now it's no longer so." Her voice gradually lowered.

Qing Zhouxue looked at her with confusion. Yun Shuchen came back to her senses and joked, "Go back for what? To raise someone all over again, watching her get entangled with some junior sister while I can only pine in secret and reluctantly accept her filial piety."

"That wasn't ambiguous," the disciple retorted seriously, her expression finally easing a little.

Yun Shuchen gave a casual "mm." She wrapped her arms around Qing Zhouxue, hugging her this time without being pushed away.

"In the future... don't tease me like that," Qing Zhouxue said quietly. "It's not fun."

But Yun Shuchen clearly held a grudge. She shot a glance. "What goes around comes around. Now you know it's not fun to string someone along? How you treated me before."

"Huh?" Qing Zhouxue blinked. Her master's little quirks had never been hers.

"Once, there was a young woman who declared with absolute righteousness," Yun Shuchen said darkly, "that her master was her family. And at that time, the two of them had just kissed."

"..."

Years later, bringing that up, Qing Zhouxue felt embarrassed. She coughed lightly. "Back then, I truly... tended to confuse those terms."

"Do you know what I thought?"

Qing Zhouxue blinked and smiled, while Yun Shuchen said the fiercest words in the gentlest tone:

"I wanted to strangle her."

*

In the following days, Qing Zhouxue felt much better, even though Yun Shuchen placed Starfire on the bedside every day, using it as a lighting ornament.

Ever since the kidnapping incident, whenever Qing Zhouxue had free time, she would sit cross-legged on the bed to cultivate.

Without realizing it, she absorbed the tribulation pill, and with her daily diligence, her cultivation had now smoothly crossed the Nascent Soul stage and stepped into the threshold of the Void Refinement stage.

The several elders of Taichu Sect had higher cultivation, making her seem mediocre. But such cultivation would be more than enough to hold an elder position in a small or medium sect.

Liuyun Sect had suffered successive setbacks recently, and the balance of power in the cultivation world had shifted somewhat. Since Sect Leader Guan's death, many had sensed the changing fortunes of the Sword Soul and turned to gather at Taichu Sect.

Who was first or second now, it was hard to say for now.

After Taishang Wangqing emerged from seclusion, apart from repairing the sect, she had taken no major actions. But her presence was like a powder keg about to ignite at any moment, enough to cause drastic changes in the entire situation.

Yun Shuchen once wanted to uncover the past, at least to learn the cause of her two mothers' deaths. That matter had long been buried under dust, with Shenshan Shu staying silent, and the whole Liuyun Sect going through changes and transitions over many years.

And Taishang Wangqing had witnessed Liuyun Sect grow from a small sect to the number one in the world—she was naturally a witness to these events.

So, she couldn't be bypassed.

In earlier years, Qing Zhouxue indeed had that use, because Taishang Wangqing valued her, and Yun Shuchen could even use the Sword Soul as a bargaining chip.

But now her mindset had changed a lot. If learning the truth were to threaten Qing Zhouxue's safety, she would rather leave it aside.

Cherish the person before her.

Since Yun Shuchen had quietly returned to the sect, given her relationship with the Demon Realm, she naturally wouldn't wander beyond Heyi Peak.

Conveniently, she could also openly skip her senior brother's morning lectures.

But ever since Heyi Peak had inhabitants again, Qing Zhouxue had not descended the peak either.

She devoted herself to cultivation, occasionally being lured by her master into dual cultivation... but in the end, that was also a form of cultivation.

In the daily cultivation, her mind grew calmer, gradually returning to the tranquility she had before coming down the mountain.

When spring was in full bloom, Heyi Peak brimmed with life, half the snow melted, and small flowers blossomed everywhere.

The color of flowers drifted in through the window.

Just as the two were lazily entwined after dual cultivation, a sudden fluctuation stirred the barrier of Heyi Peak.

Yun Shuchen opened her eyes in bed, feeling irritated. Glancing to the side, she saw that Qing'er had been exhausted and had accidentally fallen asleep.

She quietly got out of bed, picked up the scattered clothes from the bedside one by one, changed into fresh ones, and tucked Qing Zhouxue securely under the blanket.

As she adjusted the blanket, Qing Zhouxue turned over, her lashes fluttering, but she soon sank back into deep sleep.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

Yun Shuchen withdrew her gaze, sighed, and walked over slowly to open the door. To her surprise, the Sect Leader himself had come.

Seeing her, her senior brother seemed puzzled. "Where's your disciple?"