Gu Ningyun finished playing her melody, and the sword spirit returned to its previous energetic state.
This time, the pure white spiritual light gathered rapidly, soon compressing into a light orb the size of a fist.
The light orb floated from the tip of the sword to her. Gu Ningyun wrapped it in spirit energy and, after confirming with her divine sense that it was a pure collection of Sword Dao insights, stored it in her space.
In exchange, she informed the sword spirit of Nie Yuquan's reincarnation's whereabouts.
The sword spirit's tone was somewhat worried. "Is the Lin family powerful? Can they protect Master? In this life, he won't have to experience what happened in his last one, will he?"
Gu Ningyun did not answer.
In the cultivation world, who could say for certain what would happen?
People cannot predict their encounters; they can only decide their own choices.
How far this life's Nie Yuquan could go would depend on his own choices.
Returning to the Miao Manor, the young master of the Miao family was still in a deep sleep.
Gu Ningyun checked on him and estimated he would wake up naturally around tomorrow morning.
Xiaoyao was the number one immortal sect in the cultivation world and had governed Yunzhou for a hundred and ten thousand years.
Steward Miao recognized Gu Ningyun's green-belted disciple robes and had seen her identity jade token, so he naturally trusted her words.
He was already worried about his young master's health, so he had no objections to letting the boy sleep for a while longer.
After checking the boy's condition, Gu Ningyun withheld the information about Nie Yuquan's reincarnation and privately informed Steward Miao of the murder's full details and the matter regarding the sword spirit.
Steward Miao had cared for the young master of the Miao family since he was born.
With such a disaster befalling the family, all the other servants had fled, leaving only Steward Miao behind.
He truly treated the young master like his own kin. Gu Ningyun believed it was best for Steward Miao to decide whether to tell the boy the truth of the murder, how to tell him, and when.
As for the sword spirit, she analyzed the situation for Steward Miao as well.
Now that the Miao family had collapsed, the original family business and the assets in the treasury could not be protected by just an old man and a child.
The sword spirit had signed a contract with her. Restricted by the power of the contract, it would never harbor any malice or cause them harm.
Only with the sword spirit's protection would the Miao Manor be stable and the young master remain safe.
If they truly did not want to see the sword, they could have it hide in the shadows and use it as a protective tool.
When Steward Miao learned the truth, he felt considerable hatred toward the sword spirit.
He wanted to ask Gu Ningyun if she could destroy the sword, but considering the Miao family's predicament, he knew this was already the best way to handle things for the manor and the young master.
The master and the elders were dead; even if the sword was destroyed and the sword spirit killed, they wouldn't come back.
Keeping the long sword would at least serve some purpose.
In fact, with this sword's abilities, it could protect the young master better and provide him with more significant, long-term help.
Ultimately, he accepted it.
The Miao family murder case was thus resolved.
Gu Ningyun took out her identity jade token and opened the mission in the Mission Hall.
In the mission details, she omitted the part about the Sword Dao insights and clearly wrote down the cause, effect, and resolution of the murder case.
After finishing, she thought for a moment and added a summary at the end—
An obsessive fool, a scumbag, and a stupid sword.
After writing that, Gu Ningyun felt a bit better and clicked to submit the mission.
If the martial uncle in charge of reviewing missions in the Mission Hall felt she hadn't investigated clearly or that her handling of the matter was problematic, it would be sent back for her to continue.
Otherwise, once her mission feedback passed, she would receive the reward: one hundred sect points.
She had handled this matter clearly, so she expected there wouldn't be any issues.
Saying her goodbyes to the Miao Manor, Gu Ningyun couldn't help but summarize her trial on the way out of Ningchuan Town.
First: A love brain is unacceptable; cultivation requires one to cultivate the heart.
Second: Choose friends carefully and stay away from scumbags.
Summarizing up to this point, Gu Ningyun couldn't help but recall the young master's mother, that mortal woman who had died of depression after childbirth.
The Miao family had become increasingly weak due to internal strife among cultivation families.
The two elders had forced Miao Hongxi to marry. Under those circumstances, no woman who had practiced cultivation would be willing to marry into the Miao family.
Out of desperation, they had targeted the mortals of Ningchuan Town.
With just a single yellow-rank low-grade Return-to-Spring Pill, the local gentry and wealthy families scrambled to compete, offering up their own daughters.
Forced by her father and pressured by the Miao family, the woman was compelled to wear red and marry into an immortal family she knew was a dragon's den.
Powerless to resist, with nowhere to escape, trapped in the rear court and imprisoned by her circumstances, she was filled with despair and died of grief.
A great beauty had ultimately become a sacrificial lamb in someone else's love story.
In the end, it all came down to weakness.
Suppressing the bitterness in her eyes, Gu Ningyun silently added to her thoughts.
Third: Cherish opportunities, cultivate diligently; only by being strong can one obtain freedom.
Only after adding the lessons learned from mortal karmic debt and the sword spirit did Gu Ningyun end her summary.
...
Upon reaching the outskirts of the town, she checked the route on the Yunzhou map she had bought earlier. The nearest city to Ningchuan Town was Tingyang City.
When she had arrived for the mission, Gu Ningyun had taken a teleportation array from the sect to Tingyang City, then directly controlled a spirit boat to fly in a straight line to Ningchuan Town.
Since she wasn't in a hurry to do a mission now, she planned to follow the route from Ningchuan Town to Tingyang City, utilizing 《Wind Walk》 to run back and practice her movement technique.
On the way back, Gu Ningyun utilized her movement technique to its full extent, feeling the spirit energy flow of 《Wind Walk》. She only left a sliver of divine sense to observe the path and stay alert for any movement around her.
While passing through a dense forest, Gu Ningyun's divine sense suddenly detected the sound of fighting in the distance.
Better to avoid trouble if possible. She was about to take a detour when the commotion moved closer, falling right within the range of her divine sense.
She immediately discovered that one side of the fight was wearing the white robes and yellow belts of handyman disciples, clearly a fellow disciple.
Their opponent was a...
Gu Ningyun's divine sense carefully confirmed it: a wooden material, a mortise and tenon structure, four wooden legs, and two horns.
Was this a wooden sheep?
As she observed, the wooden sheep gained the upper hand. It kicked off the ground with its four hooves and charged fiercely, its two horns about to pierce the fellow disciple's neck.
The disciple was only at Qi Refining level three, but the wooden sheep's aura had reached the early stage of rank one, equivalent to the strength of a level six Qi Refining cultivator.
Gu Ningyun kicked off the ground and took flight, already slashing out with her sword.
The green wind-attribute sword qi was incredibly fast. Just as the sheep's horns touched the disciple's neck, she lopped them off with a single strike.
Deprived of its horns, the wooden sheep's momentum didn't slow, and it slammed headfirst into the disciple, sending them flying.
Without waiting for its next move, Gu Ningyun arrived on the scene and split the wooden sheep in half with a single stroke.
The wooden sheep finally stopped moving. She turned to look at her fellow disciple. "Are you alright?"
The disciple had already gotten up from the ground. Clutching her chest, she stared at Gu Ningyun with sparkling eyes. "I'm fine, I'm fine! Senior Sister's life-saving sword came just in time. Yuan Zhi didn't suffer a single scratch!"
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