Chapter 3
Qin Zhiyue threw herself to the side, dodging a wave of sword energy unleashed by the gray figure. At the same time, she flung a golden talisman behind her with a backhanded toss.
The talisman collided with the second wave of sword energy released by the figure, and the residual spiritual energy struck Qin Zhiyue, causing her expression to change drastically.
So powerful!
The talisman she had thrown could withstand a full-force strike from a late-stage Golden Core cultivator, yet this person still had strength to spare afterward. Their cultivation had to be at least at the Nascent Soul stage, a level no inner disciple had yet reached…
Qin Zhiyue leaned against the corner, her back throbbing from the impact, but her fingers remained tightly clenched around her mustard-seed pouch. She suppressed the metallic sweetness rising in her throat and stared intently at the gray figure slowly approaching her.
Just when she thought the gray figure was about to attack again, the hand gripping the sword trembled ever so slightly.
How could a sword cultivator fail to hold their own sword steady? Qin Zhiyue narrowed her eyes slightly and placed her hand back on her sword. If this person was not at full strength, perhaps she could…
Boom!
After rolling and scrambling out of the way, Qin Zhiyue’s lips twitched, and her heart pounded wildly. Forget it, forget it. She would already be fortunate enough if she managed to escape!
A massive hole had been blasted through the spot where she had just been standing. Mountain winds howled through it, leaving Qin Zhiyue’s heart just as cold as the air.
Damn it, her dormitory! How much effort and money would it take to repair this?!
All right, now she was truly angry. Two flames seemed to ignite in Qin Zhiyue’s eyes, while her delicate face appeared indistinct in the darkness.
She raised her sword, but before she could retaliate, the gray figure suddenly dropped to one knee before her, one hand tightly gripping the sword hilt. Although Qin Zhiyue could not see the person clearly, she could sense the killing intent spilling from them—and it even felt somewhat familiar.
Qin Zhiyue: “…It’s too late to kneel and beg for mercy now!”
The gray figure answered her with a vicious wave of sword energy, their trembling hand still unable to hold the sword steady.
Qin Zhiyue dodged to the side. She clearly saw tiny flecks of white light flash across the silver sword hilt. Her scalp went numb, and in her panic, she nearly dropped her sword. A tearing pain shot through the web between her thumb and forefinger, twisting her face in agony.
While she was still reeling in shock, the person suddenly vanished from the spot. Even the barrier they had erected disappeared at the same moment. Standing in the room with a massive hole blasted through it, Qin Zhiyue felt as cold and despairing as her heart.
It was only a love gu. Did Xiao Weimian really have to kill her?!
After shivering in the wind for a long time, Qin Zhiyue miserably searched her mustard-seed pouch for materials to patch the wall. The already meager spiritual energy in her dantian became even more depleted.
She had recognized the sword she had designed at a single glance.
Heaven knew she was only at the Qi Refining stage and still had an early shift tomorrow. Qin Zhiyue shed a handful of bitter tears, feeling thoroughly dejected.
In a flash, she suddenly realized something, and her spiritual energy fluctuated violently for an instant.
That was right! She was still only at the Qi Refining stage!
Suppressing the love gu required three drops of blood from her heart. Extracting heart’s blood directly from a Qi Refining disciple would, at best, damage her cultivation foundation and, at worst, cost her life. The First Sword Sect would never openly commit such an unconscionable act and take her life.
But if the alternative was allowing Xiao Weimian to remain under another person’s control, Xiao Weimian would probably rather kill her.
The mountain wind made Qin Zhiyue feel a little cold. She had been so foolish. She should have realized it sooner.
As dawn began to break, Qin Zhiyue stood beside the repaired wall with dark circles beneath both eyes. Fortunately, she lived in a remote area, and all the surrounding land belonged to her, so none of her fellow disciples had noticed her renovating her room throughout the night.
Even more fortunately, her vegetable patch had not been damaged. Since she was already awake, Qin Zhiyue tended to her fields as usual before casting a spell on herself.
This was one advantage of the cultivation world. In her previous life, no matter how much sleep she sacrificed, she could never save the time needed for a shower. But with this spell, everything was different—it restored her radiant appearance in a single second.
Sunlight gradually broke through the clouds and spilled across the mountain peaks, enveloping Lengxue Peak, where Qin Zhiyue lived. She yawned and stretched with sleep-clouded eyes. It was time to report for her duties.
She took a deep breath and sensed that the spiritual energy in her dantian had recovered by seventy or eighty percent. Tossing her mustard-seed pouch into the air, she pressed two fingers together and drew a golden sigil in the void. A sword wrapped in golden light swiftly flew into the sky.
Qin Zhiyue sighed with an ugly expression. She put away her mustard-seed pouch, then reluctantly stepped onto the still-rusted sword.
How distasteful. Even if it was only a means of transportation, her sword was far too shabby. How was it any different from scrap metal? Forget it. Qin Zhiyue felt like crying. Since the sword did not despise her for being poor, she would stop complaining about it. Once she had money, she would replace it sooner or later!
As though it had sensed Qin Zhiyue’s thoughts, the rusty sword rapidly shook twice. Before Qin Zhiyue could steady herself, it shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring.
“Aaaaah!” Qin Zhiyue’s face turned pale as she circulated her spiritual energy to stabilize herself, the fierce wind distorting her entire face. What a petty sword! She ought to melt it down and forge a new one!
Her screams cut across the sky. Qin Zhiyue had no idea how many outer disciples she had overtaken as she charged at the very front. She gritted her teeth. Why was this damned sword making her so eager to get to work? Had it gone mad today?!
Thud—
Qin Zhiyue was flung from the rusty sword high above the ground. She had no choice but to circulate her spiritual energy to steady herself. When she recovered her senses, her delicate, pale face looked both exhausted and bewildered.
“Oh, isn’t this Junior Sister Qin?”
The familiar female voice made Qin Zhiyue inwardly groan. Sure enough, when misfortune struck, even drinking cold water could get stuck between one’s teeth.
She had always treated others kindly. There were ten thousand outer disciples. Apart from the seventy or eighty percent who had never interacted with her, she was at least on nodding terms with most of the rest. Only Senior Sister Zhong was on bad terms with her, yet even Qin Zhiyue felt she had been unfairly dragged into their feud.
“Long time no see, Senior Sister Zhong.” Qin Zhiyue greeted her awkwardly.
“Who? Which Junior Sister Qin?” Before Senior Sister Zhong could speak, a disciple beside her asked first.
“Who else could it be but that useless, lazy good-for-nothing who was assigned to tend the spiritual fields with us last time?” The speaker’s voice was filled with resentment.
“Oh, it’s her! During the final evaluation, she received the highest grade and leaped past Senior Sister Zhong! Elder Liu even praised her…”
“Stop talking. Senior Sister Zhong became so angry over that matter that she fell ill…”
It was not because of the evaluation, Qin Zhiyue retorted inwardly. The real issue was that single word of praise from Elder Liu, even though it had only been one sentence! After that, Qin Zhiyue had learned her lesson even more thoroughly: never speak or interfere unnecessarily and never draw the slightest attention to herself.
“Hmph. There are tens of thousands of outer disciples. So what if a disciple as mediocre in both aptitude and cultivation as her occasionally receives a top grade? Could she possibly become an inner disciple?”
The thoroughly unremarkable Qin Zhiyue dusted off her backside and stood up. She gave the group of outer disciples two dry laughs, then swiftly slipped into the crowd and vanished without a trace.
“That woman! She sure runs fast.”
…
The outer disciples followed an extremely regular morning routine. After checking in, they would generally begin their assigned duties. Qin Zhiyue, however, was an exception. She seemed to have been born knowing how to slack off.
Qin Zhiyue maintained a solemn expression as she repeated the same mechanical motions. In reality, the spiritual field around her remained overgrown with weeds.
But Qin Zhiyue was moving. She blended seamlessly into the crowd without attracting attention, and most cultivators in the cultivation world did not understand the concept of cutting corners. In the eyes of sword cultivators, weeding, carrying water, and cleaning were all simply forms of cultivation.
Slacking off? Unthinkable.
“That woman! I must teach her a lesson today!” Zhong Yunyue could no longer tolerate Qin Zhiyue’s blatant slacking. She put away what she was holding and strode toward her.
“Wait, Senior Sister Zhong!”
“Yunyue!”
Her face twisted with fury, Zhong Yunyue reached out and blocked Qin Zhiyue’s swaying figure. “Qin Zhiyue, can you still call yourself a sword cultivator when you behave like this?”
Caught off guard by being stopped, Qin Zhiyue glanced at the mud covering Zhong Yunyue’s hand and silently stepped back twice with a look of disgust. Tilting her head, she said, “I don’t understand what Senior Sister Zhong means.”
She did not understand? Zhong Yunyue could not help rolling her eyes. As she looked at the innocent yet indolent woman before her, an inexplicable fire surged from her dantian. Enraged, she drew her sword and pointed it at Qin Zhiyue, a faint black aura radiating from her body.
“Senior Sister, I didn’t provoke you, did I?” Qin Zhiyue looked stunned. She hugged herself in terror and took another large step backward.
“Yunyue!”
Zhong Yunyue’s two friends immediately rushed forward to stop her. Causing trouble during morning duties would inevitably result in punishment from the elder!
Qin Zhiyue was momentarily bewildered. The next second, someone pushed her into the mud. Feeling something beneath her hand, her expression stiffened. That spot just now seemed to have contained… a spiritual plant.
“You’re finished,” Qin Zhiyue said coolly. This was Elder Lu’s medicinal herb!!
Sure enough, a familiar fluctuation of spiritual energy appeared in the air, and Qin Zhiyue’s face turned ashen.
“What is all this commotion?” An elder dressed in pale blue robes flew over. When she saw the spiritual plant crushed beneath Qin Zhiyue, her eyes nearly split with fury. “My Blood-Coagulating Grass!!!”
The disciples around Qin Zhiyue immediately fell silent, not daring even to breathe loudly. Only Qin Zhiyue remained staring helplessly at the sky. Would someone please pull her up?
In the end, Qin Zhiyue and Zhong Yunyue were punished with cleaning the Scripture Pavilion for three days after completing their morning duties.
For outer disciples, this was an arduous task. After all, it could not even be considered cultivation.
The Scripture Pavilion was divided into inner and outer sect sections. The disciple jade tokens belonging to Qin Zhiyue and the others only permitted them to enter the outer section to clean. The inner sect’s cultivation techniques were not something disciples at their current level were allowed to access.
Qin Zhiyue idly flipped through the miscellaneous book in her hands and thought, So this is the difference between core employees who have signed confidentiality agreements and temporary staff.
Zhong Yunyue had originally been checking the book catalogue mechanically with a cold expression. Her spiritual energy had been sealed by the elder, and when she saw Qin Zhiyue still looking so calm and unbothered, old and new grudges surged into her heart all at once. Yet she could only glare helplessly at Qin Zhiyue.
At that moment, both of them could only check the books one by one. Prohibiting them from using spiritual energy was purely a waste of their time, and the repetitive work made Qin Zhiyue’s temples throb.
The culprit stood beside her, her shoulder even repeatedly “accidentally” striking Qin Zhiyue’s arm. Qin Zhiyue gritted her teeth and forced a dry smile. “Senior Sister Zhong, why go to all this trouble?”
She simply did not understand. They were both already so old, yet Zhong Yunyue had developed a grudge against a direct colleague over a single compliment from their superior. Wasn’t that simply playing into the superior’s hands?
“Hah.” Zhong Yunyue’s hands slowed. “I have nothing to say to a petty person.”
Qin Zhiyue’s eyes widened. She raised a trembling finger and pointed at herself in disbelief. “Me?”
No response was an answer in itself. Qin Zhiyue’s lips twitched continuously. Forget it. She would not lower herself to argue with an idiot.
With that thought, Qin Zhiyue suddenly felt relieved. She raised her leg and prepared to walk in the opposite direction. The corridor on the second floor of the Scripture Pavilion was not particularly well lit, and Qin Zhiyue failed to notice a sword manual Zhong Yunyue had left on the floor. She tripped over it and pitched forward.
Fortunately, there was a wooden railing in front of her, so Qin Zhiyue was not overly alarmed. She expected to brace herself against the handrail and turn around, but the instant she touched it, the wood creaked—and suddenly split apart!
Qin Zhiyue’s eyes widened in terror. Directly below her was the killing array connecting the inner and outer sect sections. Momentum sent her plunging forward from a height of approximately seven or eight meters. With no foothold inside a killing array protected by restrictions, a fall like this would cost her a layer of skin even if it did not kill her.
Qin Zhiyue clenched her fists as she felt her body plummeting rapidly. She closed her eyes and gauged how far she remained from the array. Just as she was about to touch the spiritual energy rippling from it—
Smack—
Her waist slammed hard into something icy. Qin Zhiyue’s face twisted, and it felt as though all her internal organs had been displaced. She desperately wanted to vomit…
There seemed to be a sword beneath her. Cold air seeped through her sash and into her flesh and bones, making her shiver involuntarily before raising her eyes.
A tall, straight figure slowly descended to where she had fallen. The familiar cloud-patterned disciple robes looked exceptionally elegant and aloof on this person. Hovering lightly beside Zhong Yunyue, she looked down at Qin Zhiyue, her expression frosty. Her jade-white fingers pressed together and lifted slightly. Qin Zhiyue’s body rapidly ascended, carried straight upward by the sword beneath her until she stopped at the place from which she had originally fallen.
Sprawled awkwardly on the sword with all four limbs spread wide, Qin Zhiyue met Xiao Weimian’s gaze—or rather, it would be more accurate to say that Xiao Weimian looked down at her.
The noble and unblemished Senior Sister had never held anything in the world within her eyes, yet Qin Zhiyue’s disheveled figure was reflected in those clear, glass-like black pupils.
Xiao Weimian’s enchanted robes stirred slightly with the fluctuations of spiritual energy. Her long black hair was tied as neatly as it had been in the cave that day, making her appear utterly flawless and unapproachable.
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