“Dao... Dao companion?”
“Yes, to form a Dao companion relationship,” Shen Qingci said, staring at her earnestly as she reiterated.
Chi Yuan did not speak for a long while.
Outside the window, the birds in the parasol tree suddenly stopped chirping. The entire east wing grew so quiet that only their overlapping breaths could be heard.
“No, Junior Sister...”
“Your senior sister lost her composure and crossed the boundaries of proper conduct between fellow disciples. You have only just left your family to gain experience, so it is only natural for you to develop a reliance on me. However, as the older one, I cannot lead you astray.”
Her eyelashes drooped, concealing the trembling vulnerability that was on the verge of shattering across her face.
“You are only sixteen, while I have already cultivated for over a hundred years. Aside from my sword dao, I have no other strengths to speak of. Once you travel across famous mountains and great rivers, and meet cultivators from all over, you will understand that there are countless paths in this world, and romance is never the only one.”
“Master wanted Senior Sister to condense your sword intent before breaking through to the next realm, otherwise you would have long since become a Nascent Soul True Monarch,” Shen Qingci interrupted.
Chi Yuan raised her eyes to look at her.
Shen Qingci's expression was open, her words clear and distinct. “From love comes grief, from love comes fear. Senior Sister is merely constrained by the difference in our ages, unable to cross this hurdle in your heart.”
“But the next line is: he who is free from love knows neither grief nor fear,” Chi Yuan said, raising her gaze as the emotions in her eyes condensed into layers of thin frost. “We have only known each other for a few months. How can you be so certain?”
“But when I first saw you, Senior Sister, I felt as though I had known you for a very long time.”
Shen Qingci was indeed not lying.
In the original novel, from Chi Yuan's first appearance, from the moment Frostchill was first unsheathed, and from all those highlight moments ruined by the male lead, she had already known her.
Chi Yuan was left speechless by those words.
【Known me for a long time!】
If anyone else had said these words, coming from a sixteen-year-old girl, Chi Yuan would have dismissed them as mere youthful impulsiveness.
But the one saying this was Shen Qingci.
She was the successor of the Shen family, who had remained perfectly composed even when personally welcomed by a Soul Transformation powerhouse.
Chi Yuan stood up and paced to the window, abruptly pushing open the shutters. The cold morning wind swept in, carrying the morning dew. Droplets of water rustled down from the parasol leaves, splashing against the bluestone slabs.
With her back turned to Shen Qingci, her voice carried a hint of barely perceptible stiffness. “A hundred years is nothing in the cultivation world, but to your sixteen-year-old self, a century-long gap is a chasm lying right before you.”
“Right now, you are confined to the Azure Cloud Sect's territory. Those you meet are either fellow disciples or hall deacons. You only think your senior sister is outstanding because you have never seen a truly top-tier cultivator.”
“Once you achieve great success in the Golden Core realm and travel outside the sect, once you meet True Monarchs who walk on air and make acquaintances with peerless geniuses of your generation with equal talent...”
“Senior Sister,” Shen Qingci's voice drifted from behind her, laced with helplessness. “Do you take your junior sister for a frog at the bottom of a well who has never seen the world?”
Chi Yuan's fingertips gripped the window frame tightly, not daring to look back.
“Although my Shen family is a reclusive clan, we have stood strong in the Northern Region for thousands of years. We never relied on working behind closed doors,” Shen Qingci said, counting on her fingers. Her tone was casual, yet carried immense weight.
“My father is at the Void Refining stage, and my mother is also at the Void Refining stage. There are more than a dozen elders in our clan at the Body Integration stage or higher.”
“I grew up in our main family home in the Northern Region. I've seen more Soul Transformation cultivators than there are Golden Core disciples in the sect. And you say I haven't seen the world?”
Chi Yuan's shoulders suddenly stiffened.
“As for the peerless geniuses of my generation,” Shen Qingci sneered, “among the direct descendants of those noble families in the Northern Region, those whose talent and bone structure can catch my eye can be counted on a single hand.”
“That is because you have not traveled far enough.”
“Then how many do you think is enough, Senior Sister?” Shen Qingci tossed aside the quilt and stepped barefoot onto the cool, damp floor tiles. In a few quick strides, she arrived right behind Chi Yuan, pressing her relentlessly.
“Ten? A hundred? Or do I have to meet every single genius from every sect in the Southern and Northern regions?”
Chi Yuan turned around, leaving barely a foot of distance between them. The morning light streamed in from behind her, dusting the tips of her hair with a faint golden sheen.
“Junior Sister, I...” Chi Yuan's throat bobbed. “It is not that your senior sister does not like you. It is precisely because I have feelings for you that I cannot let you act on a whim.”
“Since you entered the sect, the first fellow disciple you grew close to was me. You have mistaken this reliance for affection. As time passes, it will naturally fade.”
“Heh, mistaken it for affection?” Shen Qingci raised an eyebrow.
Chi Yuan pursed her lips tightly and averted her eyes.
“Senior Sister.”
Shen Qingci took half a step forward, closing the distance between them from a foot to mere inches, their breaths practically mingling.
“That is not what you said when you were drunk last night.”
Chi Yuan's ears instantly flushed bright red.
“Last night, you said that clam girl wasn't good-looking. Her waist was too thin, and she didn't look stable,” Shen Qingci slowly recounted, every word drilling straight into Chi Yuan's ears.
“Your junior sister asked you what kind of person would count as good-looking. You stared at me for a long time, then said—someone like you.”
Chi Yuan lowered her eyes even further.
【Oh no, Junior Sister actually remembers everything!】
“When you said that, you didn't mention a single word about a hundred-year gap,” Shen Qingci said, tilting her head to look at her, her eyes brimming with a mischievous smile. “Nor did you say anything about needing to see a wider world. You just stared at me for a very long time before softly saying, someone like you.”
“I was drunk.”
“In wine there is truth.”
“Those were nonsensical words.”
“Drunken words are the truest feelings,” Shen Qingci said, crossing her arms with absolute confidence.
【S(〃･̆ω ･̆〃) I'm going to throw a tantrum.】
“Senior Sister is usually so dignified, you'd have to go through seven or eight detours just to praise someone. If you hadn't been drunk, I probably would have never heard you say I'm good-looking in my entire life.”
Chi Yuan raised her eyes to look at her plausible little junior sister. Shen Qingci met her gaze, her eyes open and burning. The two of them stared at each other in silence for a full ten breaths.
In the end, Chi Yuan was the first to yield, turning her head away to rub her temples.
The sluggishness of her hangover was still churning in her meridians, and early in the morning, she had been backed into a corner by her little junior sister with no room to retreat. Having lived for over a hundred years, she had never been in such a pathetic state.
“Junior Sister, cultivators forming a Dao companion bond is not child's play. Cultivation, lifespan, the path—every single detail must be carefully weighed. Your senior sister is more than a hundred years older than you. If that day truly comes and I perish before you, how will you cope?”
“Then I will cultivate with all my might to catch up to Senior Sister's footsteps,” Shen Qingci said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Senior Sister is stuck at the late stage of the Golden Core realm only because Master wanted you to polish your sword intent, not because your talent is lacking.”
“Once your sword intent reaches great completion, you will break through all the way through the Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, and Void Refining realms. Your lifespan will naturally soar accordingly.”
“Besides, Dao companions with an age gap of several hundred years are extremely common in the cultivation world. It's not unheard of for a Soul Transformation Dao Lord to marry a Foundation Establishment cultivator. A hundred-year gap is nothing at all.”
The cold mask on Chi Yuan's face almost shattered completely.
She opened her mouth, wanting to refute the impropriety of those words, but Shen Qingci spoke too quickly for her to even interject.
“And as for compatibility of our paths,” Shen Qingci said, bending her second finger as she argued speciously. “I have a Lightning Spiritual Root, and Senior Sister has an Ice Spiritual Root. Lightning shatters while ice freezes; ice and lightning complement each other. When joining forces against an enemy, our power will do far more than just double. Didn't Master arrange for you to guide me precisely because she saw this compatibility of our spiritual roots?”
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