Shadow One turned and entered the cave.
He understood the Eldest Young Lady's look.
Clean it up, leave no trace, and let this old thing experience karma along the way.
He waved his hand, and two dark figures darted out from the shadows, kneeling on one knee.
“In the Shadow Division, who has the best skill at gelding crowing spirit-chickens?” Shadow One asked.
The two secret guards exchanged a glance.
Gelding crowing spirit-chickens was a technique in the cultivation world specifically used to castrate and domesticate spirit beasts. Once a spirit-chicken was gelded, its meat became tenderer and its spiritual energy purer.
What the consequences would be when used on a human went without saying.
“This subordinate understands.”
“Afterward, seal his soul, refine him into a Nascent Soul puppet, and sell him to Linlang Pavilion. The spirit stones from selling the puppet will be distributed to those rogue cultivators in the secret dungeon as compensation.”
“Yes, sir.”
Shadow One asked again, “How long have those rogue cultivators been imprisoned?”
“The longest has been three months, the shortest three days. A few are already no longer of sound mind.”
“Erase all memories of being trapped by the evil cultivator, and feed each of them a Mind-Awakening Pill. Don't let them live the rest of their lives in the shadow of this.”
The secret guards accepted the order and left.
Shadow One took one last sweep of the depths of the karst cave. The Blood-Robed Patriarch slumped on the stone seat, drawing his last breath with a chest riddled like a sieve. His lips twitched as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't even have the strength to make a sound.
Shadow One withdrew his gaze and snapped his fingers.
Three restrictions sealed the cave entrance once again.
Not a single sound from inside could escape.
...
Outside Blood Thorn Ridge, Chi Yuan summoned the Frostchill sword.
The sword light transformed into a ten-foot-long white rainbow in the night. She stepped onto it first, then turned and reached her hand out to Shen Qingci.
Shen Qingci grasped that hand and leaped onto the sword light in one step, naturally wrapping her arms around her senior sister's waist and leaning her cheek comfortably against her senior sister's back.
“Senior Sister~”
“Mhm.”
“You kissed me just now.”
“...Mhm.”
“So, does that count as accepting me?”
Chi Yuan remained silent for two breaths, not answering directly, but merely urged the sword light to rise slowly into the air.
Shen Qingci waited for a long time without receiving a reply. Just as she was about to speak again, she heard a very soft sentence drift through the wind.
“It counts.”
Shen Qingci laughed so hard her shoulders shook.
“That's wonderful!”
The Frostchill sword rose above the clouds and sped toward the sect. The blade flew swiftly and steadily.
The sword possessed intelligence. Though it could not speak, it also breathed a sigh of relief in its heart. Its master had finally seen the light; from now on, it would probably share in the benefits as well.
Spiritual ore refinement, sword box maintenance, custom sword tassels, regular edge-testing... its treatment was bound to go up a couple of tiers.
After flying for about half an hour, Shen Qingci suddenly remembered something and said, “Senior Sister, are we just going to fly back to the sect like this?”
“Of course. Riding a flying vessel is too slow.”
“We're covered in the miasma of Blood Thorn Ridge, and cleansing spells can't wash it off at all. If we go back like this, others will think we just crawled out of a mud pit,” Shen Qingci said.
Chi Yuan was silent for a moment.
Indeed, having stayed in Blood Thorn Ridge for so long, the miasma clung to their clothes and hair. Even after trying cleansing spells repeatedly, it couldn't be completely removed, leaving a faint, putrid, fishy scent.
Normally, Chi Yuan wouldn't care about such trivial matters at all. But for some reason, she actually gave it serious thought for a brief moment.
It was better to be a bit more particular in front of her junior sister.
Her junior sister had a weakness for good-looking things. If not for her face, a certain someone wouldn't have been unable to look away when they first met.
In fact, she had noticed it during their very first meeting—that gaze wasn't quite right. But at the time, she had assumed her little junior sister was just naturally fond of looking at beauties, so she hadn't thought much of it.
Only later did she realize that the beauty Shen Qingci loved to look at had been her, and only her, from the very beginning.
“Very well,” Chi Yuan replied. The sword light veered slightly, descending toward a city outside the mountains.
The Frostchill sword pierced through the clouds and flew southwest for another half an hour.
Ahead, the lights grew denser, and a small city lay nestled in a river valley where two spiritual veins converged.
The city walls, built of green jade stones, were just over a hundred zhang tall. The top of the wall was covered with a kind of white-flowered vine that hung down along the crevices.
At each of the four corners stood a melody tower, with wind chimes hanging from the spires chiming in the night breeze.
Chi Yuan's sword light descended a hundred zhang outside the city gate. She looked up and clearly saw the plaque on the gate, and her steps suddenly froze.
On the plaque were three characters: “Xiange City.”
Most of those entering and leaving the city gate were female cultivators. Some carried zithers on their backs, some had a row of chime bells hanging from their waists, and two were walking into the city chatting and laughing. One of them held a jade flute in her hand, and the tassel tied to the end of the flute was in the pattern of twin lotuses on a single stalk.
Chi Yuan's expression changed subtly.
In the Southern Region, there was only one sect that would build melody towers at the four corners of its governed cities.
The Miaoyin Sect, an all-female sect, consisted mainly of music cultivators. From the Sect Master down to the outer sect miscellaneous disciples, everyone was female.
This was nothing, but what made her freeze was something else.
The last time she passed through the Miaoyin Sect's territory to restock, she had been stopped by several female cultivators from the Miaoyin Sect. They first praised her sharp sword intent, then asked who her master was, and finally asked with a beaming smile, “Does this sword cultivator elder sister have a Dao companion?”
She rejected them with a cold face, but the other party was not angered. Instead, they stuffed an invitation to the Miaoyin Sect's Dao Discussion Conference into her hands, saying she must grace them with her presence when the time came.
At that time, she thought it was a proper Dao discussion on melody mental methods, so she sat there upright and proper.
Less than half a cup of tea after it started, the topic slid from spiritual energy resonance to private, intimate anecdotes between Dao companions.
Things like how the spiritual energy at one's fingertips could tug at the heartstrings when playing the zither, or which spiritual meridian to press with a rolling finger technique to make one's “Dao companion's” bones and muscles go soft...
The hall full of female cultivators listened in rapt attention, and someone even brought out a zither on the spot to demonstrate. As soon as the strings sounded, knowing chuckles rippled all around.
Chi Yuan sat in the corner, her ears burning hot. She wanted to leave, but she was completely blocked by the magic treasures of the seniors in the aisle.
Seeing her blushing, a female Nascent Soul cultivator next to her kindly leaned in and whispered, “Don't be shy, little friend. You'll get used to it after listening a few more times. This is also for the good of your future Dao companion.”
She didn't wait to “listen a few more times.” Taking advantage of the intermission, she slipped out through the side door.
Afterward, it took her a full three months to clear those words from her sea of consciousness.
Now, standing at the gates of Xiange City again, that memory surged back uncontrollably.
Chi Yuan lowered her eyelashes, trying her best to make her attitude seem casual. “A'Ci, let's change cities. There is a Luoyan City seven hundred miles to the east.”
Shen Qingci blinked. “The next city is seven hundred miles away. By the time we fly there, the sun will already be up. Is there something wrong with this city?”
“The last time I passed through a city governed by the Miaoyin Sect, I attended a Dao Discussion Conference.”
“What about the Dao Discussion Conference?”
“That wasn't a discussion of the Dao.” Chi Yuan looked away. “It was... discussing private matters between Dao companions.”
Shen Qingci was stunned for a moment, then quickly caught on. Her eyes lit up bit by bit. “So Senior Sister sat there and listened to the whole thing?”
“I slipped out halfway through.”
Chi Yuan corrected her quickly.
The upward curve of Shen Qingci's lips could not be suppressed at all.
She leaned forward, her shoulder brushing against her senior sister's arm, and tilted her face up, her expression filled with a justified slyness. “Is Senior Sister afraid of being dragged to listen to that kind of 'Dao discussion' again?”
“It's different now. You have me by your side. If anyone comes to ask, I'll block them for you.”
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