Su Yueli let out a long breath. “A hundred miles south of Fengling City, there is a continuous range called Black Wind Ridge. At the foot of those hills lies an obscure little mountain village.
“I wonder if you might know, Immortal Master, if any other cultivators have visited that area in the past five years?
“Or perhaps, if any immortal sect has taken anyone away from that direction?”
“This...” Xu Changfeng furrowed his brows slightly, pondering deeply for a good while before finally shaking his head.
“Miss Su, I truly do not know of such a thing.”
He sighed helplessly. “The cultivation world is vast and boundless, with countless cultivators falling every single day. As for the survival of a remote little mountain village, it is not even worth a speck of dust in the eyes of the immortal sects. If some cultivator happened to pass by and wipe it out on a whim, word of it would never get out.”
Su Yueli lowered her eyes, a trace of regret flashing deep within them.
It made sense.
Cultivators viewed mortals as mere ants. If they stepped on a few ants while passing by, who would go out of their way to publicize it?
It was only natural that she couldn't find anything.
“Thank you for telling me, Immortal Master Xu.”
Su Yueli composed herself and was just about to cup her hands in gratitude when Xu Changfeng suddenly stopped in his tracks, as if remembering something.
“Wait.”
Xu Changfeng looked at Su Yueli and murmured, “I haven't heard of any cultivators passing through there in the last five years, but I do recall an old piece of news. I heard that the Young Sect Master of the Blue Moon Sect originally came from a small mountain village near Fengling City.”
The Blue Moon Sect?!
These words instantly jogged Su Yueli's memory. Twenty-five years ago, during the bone-testing ceremony that changed their destinies, Shen Huai'an had been accepted into the Blue Moon Sect!
“What is... the Young Sect Master's name?” Su Yueli looked up, her gaze locked onto Xu Changfeng.
“Shen Huai'an.”
Xu Changfeng did not hide it, a look of admiration appearing in his eyes. “He possesses a Supreme Heavenly Bone. Such talent is a once-in-a-century occurrence even in the entire cultivation world. His cultivation progressed at a meteoric pace after joining the sect, and he was appointed Young Sect Master early on.
“Unfortunately...”
At this point, Xu Changfeng shook his head. “I heard he was tethered by mortal affairs, leaving a flaw in his state of mind. After reaching the early stage of the Second Realm, Foundation Establishment, his cultivation ground to a halt. However, word came from the Blue Moon Sect recently that this Young Sect Master seems to have broken through his mental barrier. He has entered death seclusion to charge toward a higher realm.
“That is all I know.”
Having finished, Xu Changfeng looked up at Su Yueli.
But he found that the young girl before him seemed to have been drained of all her strength. Her cheeks, which had been slightly flushed from the heat, were now deathly pale, and her expression was dazed.
Xu Changfeng's heart skipped a beat, and an ominous premonition suddenly washed over him.
To pursue the Great Dao and break through mental barriers, cultivators sometimes employed an extreme method... severing mortal ties!
Killing family, killing friends, killing lovers—they would slaughter anyone and everyone they had ever been connected to in the mortal world, as long as those people affected their Dao Heart. This was done to sever karma and clear their minds.
Xu Changfeng looked at Su Yueli. This face of hers—not to mention in the mortal world, but even in the cultivation world where beauties vied for supremacy—was of a caliber comparable to a goddess descending from the heavens.
Could the Young Sect Master's mortal tie... be this very girl?!
The moment this thought arose, Xu Changfeng felt his scalp go numb.
The Blue Moon Sect was a major sect, and Shen Huai'an was a famous Young Sect Master.
For the sake of a few kegs of beer, he had run his mouth to a mortal girl. If he actually got entangled in the karma of a top-tier genius severing mortal ties, he would be in deep, deep trouble!
Xu Changfeng's expression shifted slightly. He suddenly felt that even the night wind carried a bone-chilling cold.
“Ahem, well...”
Xu Changfeng coughed awkwardly and said, “Miss Su, now that I have the beer, I must return. My sect has urgent matters to attend to. I shall take my leave and return next time!”
With that, before Su Yueli could even snap out of it, Xu Changfeng hurriedly chanted a spell and took off on his flying sword. He transformed into a streak of light and fled into the night sky, as if staying for even a second longer would contaminate him with something lethal.
The night wind blew across the empty, long street.
Su Yueli stood alone beside the handcart. It took a long, long time before a sliver of sensation finally returned to her stiff body.
Grasping the empty handcart, she turned around and walked back with numb steps.
The night market of Qingzhou City was as bustling as ever, teeming with people. Yet as Su Yueli walked through the crowd, she felt cold all over, as if she had been plunged into an abyss of ice.
Shen Huai'an, the Young Sect Master of the Blue Moon Sect.
Twenty-five years had passed. The high-spirited boy from the bone-testing ceremony had now become the young master of an immortal sect, holding the lives of countless mortals in his hands.
But what truly suffocated Su Yueli were Xu Changfeng's last few sentences.
“Tethered by mortal affairs, a flaw in his state of mind, unable to break through... recently broke through his mental barrier...”
The timing was too coincidental—so coincidental that it was hair-raising.
Five years ago, the small mountain village at the foot of Black Wind Ridge was completely slaughtered.
Five years ago, the giant blue stone millstone was left with sword cuts from a flying sword.
Five years ago, her master, Lu Chen, took the blame for the massacre, ending his own life to erase all traces and hide her.
Severing mortal ties... Su Yueli's grip tightened on the handcart's handles.
“Was it because of the villagers?”
“Or... was it because of me?”
She didn't know if Shen Huai'an had harbored any feelings for her back then.
But if Shen Huai'an's mortal tie truly was that village, and truly was her, then everything made perfect sense.
To break through his realm, Shen Huai'an—or perhaps the Dao protector behind him—had slaughtered the entire village to sever his final attachments.
Perhaps her master, Lu Chen, had realized the truth. Knowing that a mortal martial artist could never contend with a cultivator, let alone protect her, he chose to use his own life to buy her a way out.
“Was it because of me... that the whole village was destroyed? That Master died?” Su Yueli couldn't help but ask herself.
An unspeakable feeling of suffocation and extreme rage slowly welled up in her heart.
She didn't dare believe this was the definitive truth.
But it was not impossible.
If the source of all this was simply because an immortal high above wanted to "break through his mental barrier,"
then how tragic were those four hundred-odd dirt mounds packed tightly on the sunny side of Black Wind Ridge? How tragic was that half-gourd of strong liquor poured before the solitary grave?
Su Yueli stopped in her tracks and looked up at the cold, solitary moon in the night sky.
She had to get to the bottom of this.
If it truly was because of severing mortal ties, she would have to personally demand answers from that high-and-mighty Young Sect Master.
But even if she asked, what of it?
He was now the Young Sect Master of the Blue Moon Sect, a lofty, powerful cultivator. Things were completely different now.
Even if this was the truth, she was merely a Third Realm martial artist. In his eyes, she didn't even have the right to stand before him and ask questions.
Su Yueli took a deep breath, burying all her rage, speculation, and self-reproach deep inside her heart.
The Third Realm of the martial path was far from enough.
She needed to break through to the Fourth Realm, the Eighth Realm, the Tenth Realm!
She might even have to shatter the Tenth Realm and step into an entirely new realm of the martial path to have even a sliver of a chance to fight!
Rate on N.U.
