“A-Yuan's parents used a forbidden secret technique. At the cost of burning their own souls, they gave up reincarnation and severed any chance of rebirth to construct a Soul-Guarding Sanctuary Array for her.”
“That array protected her right in the center, and not a single drop of the bloody storm outside could touch her. When I rushed over, she was sitting inside the array, holding her mother's sword, so hungry she didn't even have the strength to cry.”
Jinglian closed her eyes.
“She was only three years old.”
Shen Qingci felt a tightness in her chest, finding it a little hard to breathe.
“Later, I sealed A-Yuan's memories. Those past events were far too heavy; a three-year-old child could not carry such darkness. I have never dared to tell her the truth about her parents' passing.”
“Once she learns that her parents' souls were completely extinguished and their reincarnation severed just to protect her, this guilt would haunt her for lifetimes, and she would never be able to let it go.”
Shen Qingci sat in silence.
At this moment, she suddenly understood completely. Her master's special partiality toward her senior sister had never been about talent.
It was simply because her senior sister carried far too much.
“Master, did you deliberately distance yourself from Martial Aunt Liu, letting her misunderstand that you loved someone else all this time, also because of this past disaster?” she asked.
Jinglian nodded slightly. “Only the Sect Master, Junior Sister Liu, and several Grand Supreme Elders within the sect know about my damaged Dao foundation.”
“With my cultivation as a Soul Transformation sword cultivator guarding the sect, the petty scoundrels of the outside world dare not provoke us easily. However, my path of cultivation stops at the mid Soul Transformation stage.”
A sudden bitterness welled up in Shen Qingci's heart.
Others might not know, but she was the one who knew best how terrifying her master's talent was.
What exactly did the title “Sword Venerable” represent?
The youngest Soul Transformation sword cultivator in ten thousand years, unmatched by anyone.
With her master's original foundation and comprehension, she could have easily reached the Body Integration realm and even touched the threshold of the Mahayana realm.
Yet, that bloody battle had shattered all her future paths. Her foundation cracked, and from then on, every step forward became an insurmountable chasm.
“Junior Sister Liu specializes in illusion techniques. Her latent talent and comprehension are top-tier, and breaking through to the Void Refining realm is only a matter of time... I cannot drag down her cultivation.”
“Furthermore, Senior Brother Sect Master is impetuous and short-sighted. I dare not leave at will, fearing he might act recklessly and ruin the entire sect.”
“With my heart burdened by so many ties, how could I dare to involve myself in romance?”
After listening, Shen Qingci slowly clenched her hands at her sides.
That phrase, “stops at Soul Transformation,” made her eyelids twitch painfully.
“Master! A damaged Dao foundation is not necessarily without a cure.”
Jinglian was startled.
“My family's Library contains the most complete collection of pill recipes in the Four Regions. I will look through them once I return, page by page. A Soul Transformation cultivator's lifespan has at least three to four thousand years left, which is more than enough time.”
“Even if we can't find a pill recipe, there are other ways. Heaven-grade spiritual items, grotto-heavens and blessed lands, inheritances left behind by Mahayana cultivators... there must be something that can mend Master's foundation.”
“Master, just wait a little longer for me. Wait until I reach Nascent Soul, and wait until I have greater authority within my clan.”
“There will be a way. There definitely will be.”
Jinglian looked at her youngest disciple solemnly planning a path for her. She wanted to say “there's no need to bother,” but she swallowed the words back down.
A-Ci's resilience of character far exceeded that of her peers.
Once she set her mind on something, she could not be swayed.
“Alright, Master will wait.”
Jinglian thought for a moment and did something completely out of character.
She reached out, gently pressing her fingertip against her youngest disciple's brow, smoothing away the faint furrow that had formed there at some point.
“You're so young, why are you frowning?”
Shen Qingci froze, slightly dazed.
“Before, I worried that A-Yuan's nature was too kind and she would inevitably be deceived by others. Now that I have taken you in, I worry that you are too clever for your own good, keeping everything bottled up inside.”
“Lanyi is still the one who gives me the least worry. She focuses entirely on studying the Dao of the sword and rarely has any other thoughts.”
Before the bitterness in Shen Qingci's chest could fully dissipate, it was completely scattered by these words.
If she weren't maintaining her persona as the Eldest Young Lady of a great family, she really would have rolled her eyes.
Master was great.
Except she could be really infuriating when she spoke sometimes.
Fortunately, her eldest senior sister had an open-minded temperament and pursued the Dao of the sword her entire life, so she wouldn't care about these biased words.
She was glad that she and her senior sister had settled things between themselves and ended up together.
With Master's terrible mouth...
She was so confidently partial that if they were in any other sect, the disciples would have started fighting each other long ago.
“Alright.” Jinglian waved her hand. “It's late. Go on back.”
“A-Yuan has probably been waiting for a long time.”
Shen Qingci composed her expression, stood up, bowed, and turned to walk out.
Just as she stepped over the threshold—
Smack.
A crisp sound echoed.
Shen Qingci froze on the spot.
A burning pain came from her backside. It wasn't heavy, but the spot where she was struck was so tricky that the humiliation far outweighed the pain.
She turned around in disbelief.
A bamboo cane condensed from spiritual energy hovered in midair, lush and green, with even the veins of the bamboo joints clearly visible.
Jinglian was still sitting on her futon, one hand propping up her chin, the other pinching a spell gesture. The bamboo cane swayed gently with the movement of her wrist.
“Master?”
Shen Qingci suspected her master had been possessed.
Jinglian brought up today's old scores at a leisurely pace, dropping her words one by one: “Locking up your senior sister? Hmm?”
“If you two play around in private, your master won't get angry.”
The bamboo cane came down again. Shen Qingci dodged to the side, but the thing chased her as if it had eyes, smacking her in the exact same spot.
Jinglian snorted coldly and continued, “But to actually want to do it for real... This master is not dead yet! (#｀皿´) < Anger! Anger! Anger! Anger! Anger! Anger!!!”
Shen Qingci finally realized what was happening. She completely abandoned any semblance of great family etiquette or dignified composure.
She dodged around the pillars in the hall, the bamboo cane chasing and whipping her. In her scrambling state, she was even more agile than Jinglei.
“Master! Your disciple was only talking!”
“Only talking?” Jinglian snorted coldly. Her fingertips rotated the spell gesture, and the bamboo cane curved in midair, whipping solidly against her youngest disciple's calves. “The words spoken subconsciously are the truth. You must have conceptualized this in your mind many times.”
“I will teach you a lesson today.”
“Didn't we already let that pass just now!” Shen Qingci hid behind a low table, pulling her sword box out of her storage ring to block the blow.
Smack. The bamboo cane struck the sword box.
Jinglian raised her eyelids slightly. “Just now was just now, and now is now. This master suddenly remembered it, so I am going to settle this old score.”
Shen Qingci was chased all over the hall, her hair bun tilting by half an inch. She had never been this disheveled in both her lifetimes combined. As she dodged, she shouted back, “Master, be reasonable!”
Jinglian replied coolly, “Your master is a sword cultivator.”
The bamboo cane chased her even more enthusiastically, clearly having no intention of being reasonable.
Only after the bamboo cane landed three more times did it finally dissolve back into spiritual energy.
Jinglian felt refreshed after the whipping. She let out a breath of turbid air, her expression calm and composed, as if she wasn't the one who had just chased her disciple all over the hall to whip her.
Shen Qingci leaned against a pillar, panting. Her clothes were neat, and she wasn't injured anywhere. Though the bamboo cane looked fierce, it only stung without harming her skin or flesh. Her master's control over her spiritual energy was exceptionally precise!
But it was precisely this that made her feel even more aggrieved—her master had been completely rational when whipping her, without a shred of actual anger.
She did it purely on purpose.
“Go back and have your dear senior sister apply the medicine,” Jinglian said without looking up.
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