Chapter 63

Lin Xunzhen and Qing Zhouxue waited outside for a long time before they finally saw movement in Ruan Mingzhu's silk cocoon.

She kicked away the tangled threads, only to come face-to-face with the eight-eyed Dreamweaver Spider. Startled, Ruan Mingzhu nearly kicked it, but Lin Xunzhen and Qing Zhouxue grabbed her arms and pulled her aside.

"Don't kick it—Bai Su is still inside!"

Lin Xunzhen asked, "What did you see? Why did it take so long?"

Ruan Mingzhu tore the sticky silk from her face and clapped her hands disdainfully. "Some things from when I was very young. It replayed them so vividly, like it was real—I had to live through that hardship all over again. That thing is truly sinister. I heard someone calling my name, and then I saw—"

"Tell us later," Qing Zhouxue interrupted. "You said you heard someone calling you?"

"Yes. Huh? Did you two call me?"

Lin Xunzhen and Qing Zhouxue exchanged a glance, realizing the method wasn't entirely useless. They hurried over to Bai Su and began calling her name in unison.

Ruan Mingzhu caught on and joined in.

Unlike Lin and Ruan, who had dreamed of childhood memories, Bai Su groggily opened her eyes to find herself in a strange place.

To be honest, she wasn't particularly brave. Walking alone through a deep, dim place with no one ahead or behind, her heart felt like a small bucket of water sloshing uneasily.

Where was this?

She clutched her sleeve, looked around, and cautiously moved forward toward a patch of light ahead.

When the light stung her eyes, Bai Su couldn't help but tear up. When she blinked and took in the shifting scene before her, she froze in place.

Battle raged across the sky, blood and flesh flying.

Before she could react, a warm, wet mass—something like an organ—slapped onto the ground in front of her, rolled through the dirt, and let off a faint demonic aura before coming to a stop several paces away. She jumped back with a shriek, stumbling several steps.

Bai Su treated the sick and saved the wounded; she had seen terrible things, but she had never been on a battlefield herself, let alone a scene like this. Blood gushed from wounds in thick streams, organs and body parts fell to the ground, only to dissipate into spiritual energy or demonic qi and vanish into the world. Cries of agony and roars of fury pierced her ears like a hundred broken-stringed pipas.

She hid behind a pile of corpses in this ancient battlefield, observing her surroundings. This seemed to be a great war between immortals and demons. High-level demons and cultivators clashed in the sky with spells, while demon soldiers and young generals fought on the ground below.

Immortal magic enveloped the entire scene, trapping the demons in a formation like caged beasts.

This was not a battle between equals.

It was a slaughter of one side by the other.

Bai Su was powerless to stop it. She was only a healing cultivator, and in such peril, she could only protect herself.

The thick stench of blood pervaded the air, and screams echoed around her like death knells. Bai Su covered her mouth, nearly vomiting from the smell. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a demon general fall nearby, struck in the heart meridian, writhing in agony on the ground. In desperation, he grabbed her wrist.

"Hah..."

Bai Su hurriedly lowered her eyes and met the demon's hideous face—green-skinned, fanged, ugly beyond compare. But his eyes were filled with despair, a terror of death.

His rough voice wheezed weakly, already fading.

Bai Su steadied herself, forcing calm, and dragged him with effort to a secluded spot away from the chaos. She was about to channel her spiritual power into his vital points to heal him when an ethereal voice sounded in her ear.

"What are you doing?"

Bai Su's heart tightened. She looked around but saw no one, only the scattered demon corpses.

"Saving a life," she answered softly.

A mocking laugh. "Is that a human?"

Her wood spiritual root's gentle, nurturing force had already enveloped the wound where blood flowed, and the gash began to close.

As she healed him, she found time to reply to the bodiless voice. "Though he is not of my kind, he is still a life. Who are you?"

"Who I am doesn't matter. I have nothing better to do today, so I thought I'd discuss the Dao with you, little friend. Since you are a healing cultivator, let us speak of the healing arts."

Bai Su's unease eased slightly. She sensed no ill intent, so she asked, "What would you like to discuss?"

"A healer saves lives—that is only natural, is it not?" the voice said with a smile.

"Yes."

"But what if the person you save goes on to kill many innocent people? Would you still save him?"

Bai Su hesitated. "...What do you mean?"

The scene before her dissolved and shattered layer by layer. Instinctively she closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she beheld another vista of corpses and rivers of blood.

Her gaze locked onto one spot, and her eyes widened in shock. She watched demons rise up, gnaw off cultivators' heads, devour their inner cores, their arm muscles swelling inch by inch as they grew even more ferocious.

"If you save something like that—bringing ruin to all living beings, causing endless calamity, then you," the voice suddenly sharpened, "the healer, are the one holding the butcher's knife in the end. Have you truly not betrayed your original intention? Do you not feel the slightest guilt seeing the souls who perished under demon claws?"

Bai Su was stunned for a moment, her fingers clenching. Her scalp prickled as she opened her mouth. "But humans and demons are only distinguished by birth, not by nature. In this world, there are cultivators who kill to reach the Dao, and also demons who are upright and commit no slaughter. How would you explain that?"

"The blood of demons is inherently bloodthirsty, more or less. Are you willing to bet human lives on it? Can you afford such a gamble?" The voice lowered, as if seducing. "If you are unwilling to gamble, then let him go. How about that?"

While Bai Su had been lost in thought, her spiritual power had slowed. She felt the life draining from him, the blood cooling, and the eyes still open, full of pleading and fear.

A creature's eyes are a universal channel; all words are unspoken within them.

Should... she continue?

For an instant, the suffocating guilt of the dilemma nearly overwhelmed her, threatening to choke her. But in such a situation, there could be no solution that satisfied everyone.

Bai Su closed her eyes, and the faint moans beside her seemed to recede far, far away.

The entire illusion fell silent, as if she were alone again.

She remembered how Liu Xunqin had once refused a patient, her expression indifferent as she shut her door against cries and curses, showing not a trace of regret afterward—as if she had merely brushed away a speck of dust.

At that time, Bai Su was young and had asked her master how she could remain so resolute.

Liu Xunqin had only said, "Having lived this many years, I've seen life and death countless times—they are but common occurrences, so naturally I am unmoved."

Little Bai Su hadn't understood. "When I reach your age, Master, will I be like that too?"

The room was quiet. A wisp of white smoke curled from Liu Xunqin's lips like a soft sigh, then was caught by her spiritual power and carried out the window, vanishing without a trace.

"I am not a great healer, merely skilled in the art. You are too kind-hearted. Each person has a different path; follow your heart. So in any dilemma, you need not imitate me, nor anyone else."

Bai Su had not understood her master's words back then. In her mind, if the famous Medical Immortal could not be called good, then who in the world could compare?

But she told her not to imitate anyone.

Her thoughts slowly pieced back together. Bai Su steadied herself, deciding to hold fast to her heart. To her, a dying creature was a living life, and she saved it out of a healer's nature; that was where fate's bond ended. Just as one walking along a beach might toss a beached fish back into the water without considering which way it will swim.

In a flash of thought, the illusion shattered in accord with her will.

Like waking from a dream, she heard her fellow disciples calling her. A white expanse dissolved before her eyes, and the blue sky came into view again.

The Dreamweaver Spider ultimately left disappointed, having captured not a single person. Once a person fell into its illusion, memories would be scrambled and they would naturally blend into the scene. One had to wake up within it, break free of the puppet strings, and make one's own choices to awaken.

Perhaps the Sect Leader had set this up specifically to test the disciples' hearts.

Ruan Mingzhu pulled the threads off Bai Su and hauled her to her feet. "Are you alright?"

She shook her head and smiled. "I'm very lucky. I came to and suddenly felt my cultivation loosening."

"So powerful?" Ruan Mingzhu exclaimed. "So getting wrapped up by that thing has great fortune after all."

"We should go now," Lin Xunzhen said, handing the jade marker to Qing Zhouxue. She spread the map and ran her finger across it.

Inside the Sect Leader's Chunqiu Hall.

The images on the Sky Reflection Mirror rippled briefly before settling back into calm.

The competition would be long, perhaps spanning a full week. The elders did not need sleep, but maintaining such intense focus for so long would inevitably tire them.

Yun Shuchen had been resting with her eyes closed for some time. When she opened them again, she did not see her disciple in the mirror, and her interest waned. She let her gaze drift elsewhere.

The other elders had already begun chatting about other matters. The Sect Leader nodded absentmindedly, giving no indication of his opinion; Liu Xunqin stared straight ahead, occasionally giving her teacup a slow turn; and Yue Changge rested her chin on her hand, watching Liu Xunqin twirl the cup, utterly bored.

Indeed, it was dull.

In the past, before Qing Zhouxue came into her life, Yun Shuchen abhorred sitting here for seven whole days to watch such proceedings. She would always claim illness and shut herself away on her peak. But this year was quite different.

Even the Sect Leader noticed that since taking on a disciple, Junior Sister Yun had become far more agreeable and accommodating. She was even willing to go through such formalities.

That Qing niece was hardly some calamity spirit reborn—she was the auspicious star of Taichu Sect, having dragged that sickly junior sister out of her chambers and into the light.

"Having a disciple truly changes things. I recall you used to say you didn't like children. Now that you've tried it, you seem to get along quite well."

That was one thing that had never changed about her.

But Qing Zhouxue was the one the hexagrams had pointed to, and she was special by birth, so Yun Shuchen had grudgingly taken her in. At first, she could only say she didn't dislike her, but she had never imagined they would reach a point like this.

Yun Shuchen frowned slightly and instinctively denied it. "She's grown up."