In this manner, Gu Ningyun followed the sword and watched as the boy woke up in a freezing cave.
She watched him fight with beggars for food and endure bullying and insults.
She watched him eavesdrop outside a schoolhouse, only to be driven away with clubs by a wealthy family's servants.
She watched him hide in the cave to cultivate, battling the wild beasts of the desolate ridges.
She watched him grow up through hardships until, at the age of eighteen, he left the barren mountains and made his way to Ningchuan Town. There, he fainted from hunger beneath a willow tree near a tall building, where a young man found and rescued him.
That young man was named Miao Hongxi, the son of the Miao family head.
For the first time since losing his memory, the boy felt kindness.
It was like a beam of light shining into his dark, lonely, and cold world.
The boy’s eyes finally regained their luster.
He settled into the Miao Manor, and the two of them cultivated together, becoming inseparable.
He gave himself the name Nie Yuquan.
He said the "Nie" came from the word for "Nirvana," using its homophone.
Gu Ningyun saw the doting look in Miao Hongxi’s eyes and the small, dependent gestures Nie Yuquan made.
She also noticed that the spirit sword had changed.
If it had only possessed a hint of nascent spiritual light before, it now seemed to have gained intelligence, becoming clear and translucent.
The most direct manifestation was that when Nie Yuquan practiced his swordplay, it became more effortless, as if the sword were actively cooperating with him.
Two years later, the old head of the Miao family passed away from illness.
The main branch grew weak, and the side branches moved to seize power.
Miao Hongxi looked toward Nie Yuquan with a pleading gaze.
That night, Nie Yuquan was clad in red, and blood stained both the Miao Manor and the spirit sword.
The members of the side branches, whether cultivators or mortals, were all slain.
Nie Yuquan was a cultivator; by killing mortals, he had burdened himself with karmic debt.
Miao Hongxi successfully became the family head as he wished. He promoted two elders who supported him to their positions and treated Nie Yuquan as an honored guest.
However, Nie Yuquan never smiled again.
The two elders used the family lineage as pressure, and eventually, Miao Hongxi took a wife.
As if to compensate him, Nie Yuquan’s status within the manor became increasingly prestigious, far above that of the two elders.
The elders told Miao Hongxi that the Miao family respected Nie Yuquan more than they respected the head of the family.
At first, Miao Hongxi didn't care, but as the elders spoke of it more often, he gradually began to take notice.
Later, the elders suggested that Nie Yuquan’s hands were stained with the blood of the Miao family. If the family head ever displeased him, would his sword then turn against the head?
By then, Miao Hongxi and Nie Yuquan had not spoken for a long time.
Eventually, Miao Hongxi’s wife became pregnant.
Not long after, she suffered an unexpected miscarriage.
The elders claimed Nie Yuquan was responsible, which was why they couldn't find any evidence.
This time, Miao Hongxi believed them.
He had a massive argument with Nie Yuquan.
It was the first time they had spoken in months.
It was also the last.
The light in Nie Yuquan’s eyes vanished completely.
On a rainy day, beneath the same willow tree where Miao Hongxi had first found him, Nie Yuquan raised his sword and pressed it against his own neck.
The longsword flared with spiritual light, yet it ultimately could not defy its master’s will.
Nie Yuquan took his own life.
When Miao Hongxi arrived, he saw only a blood-stained sword devoid of spiritual light and a corpse with a severed neck, blood pooling on the ground.
Clutched in the corpse’s hand was a bloodied note—
"In high spirits we met and I drank to your health; sword in hand by the willow near the tall tower."
Miao Hongxi’s pupils shrank, and his hand gripped the note as he clutched his chest.
The purest devotion of a youth had finally been stained red by blood.
Miao Hongxi regretted everything.
Ignoring the elders' objections, he buried Nie Yuquan in the Miao family cemetery.
He commissioned a custom sword stand and kept Nie Yuquan’s spirit sword in his bedroom.
He sealed the note inside a sachet and carried it against his heart at all times.
He no longer had the heart to cultivate or manage the family affairs. His cultivation remained forever stalled at Qi Refining level six.
He spent every day repenting to the sword, speaking of his longing and remorse, yet he never dared to visit Nie Yuquan’s grave even once.
Four years later, the elders, concerned about the family line, drugged him.
Madam Miao gave birth to a young master, but she died shortly after from depression due to years of her husband’s cold neglect.
Under the care of the steward and the elders, the young master grew to the age of his first-birthday grab.
Though just a child, he had a singular love for red clothing.
The sight was strikingly similar to Nie Yuquan.
Miao Hongxi’s overflowing remorse finally found an outlet.
He intended to raise the young child as a way to make up for Nie Yuquan’s wandering youth and the absence of a father’s love.
The spirit sword’s light became even more restrained, like a giant beast of the abyss lying in wait.
When the young master was five years old, the beast awakened.
That night, the young master went to the family head’s bedroom to find his father, and the glowing sword caught his attention.
The moment he grasped the sword, the young master’s eyes, once full of life, suddenly became hollow.
He left the bedroom with the sword, stalking through the shadows of the moonlight all the way to the study.
He pushed open the study door. Ignoring the concerned inquiries of the three people inside, he acted like a swordsman who had cultivated in seclusion for years, slitting the throat of the man in the primary seat with a single strike.
The sword wound on the left side of the neck was identical to the wound from Nie Yuquan’s death.
Even the residual gold-attribute sword qi was the same as Nie Yuquan’s.
"Ten years I've honed this blade; today, I present it to the departed."
The elders were horrified and instinctively rose to stop him.
The young master swung his sword back, slitting both their throats simultaneously.
As if it had finally completed a plan years in the making, the spirit sword flared with brilliant light. It vibrated and flew out the door, out of Ningchuan Town, and toward a certain cemetery.
Beside a particular grave, it dug a hole and buried itself.
The spiritual light of the sword gradually dimmed as if it had finally found its home and was at peace.
Tranquility returned to the grave.
A willow leaf fell, brushing past the characters on the tombstone: "Tomb of My Beloved, Nie Yuquan."
A short while later, a speck of spiritual light flew out from the small mound of the spirit sword.
Gu Ningyun was pulled by the light, following it back to the head’s bedroom in the Miao Manor, where she watched it settle onto the sword stand.
The memory ended, and Gu Ningyun’s consciousness returned.
With the rationality born of twenty-two years of singlehood in her past life, she calmed her complex emotions, withdrew her defense array plate, and sent a wisp of purple mist into the boy.
The old servant supported the unconscious boy. "Young master! Immortal Master, what are you doing?"
"It is nothing. I am simply letting him rest for a while. He is unharmed."
Gu Ningyun used her spirit energy to lift the boy onto the soft couch and covered him with a blanket.
The old servant looked at the boy on the couch. Seeing his steady breathing, his expression relaxed slightly.
"Steward Miao, the past events between the person from ten years ago and your family head are related to the true culprit of this case. Please tell me the truth."
"This..."
Hearing Gu Ningyun’s question, the old servant’s features immediately crinkled, looking extremely conflicted.
He cautiously observed Gu Ningyun’s expression. Unfortunately, Gu Ningyun was used to being around Jun Luo; she imitated his expressionless mask, and Steward Miao naturally could not read anything from it.
"If you do not want your young master to meet the same fate, do not hide anything."
The old servant’s expression changed, and he no longer dared to hesitate. "Thirteen years ago, this old servant was merely a page boy by the master's side, and the master was not yet the family head."
"On that day, the master was at the back gate of the Miao Manor, beneath a willow tree, when he encountered that person..."
...
"Immortal Master, this old servant knows only this much."
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