Feng Jiu’er was startled, and she looked up at the old woman with an expression full of surprise. “Senior, you… know me?”
Could this be someone the original Feng Jiu’er had known? But why couldn’t she recall them at all?
Though she had inherited some of Feng Jiu’er’s memories, she wasn’t sure why, but the Jiu’er of now found herself with far clearer impressions of the original Feng Jiu’er’s memories from before the age of six than those from six to fifteen or sixteen.
It was as though the memories from before age six had been ones she had lived through personally.
While those from six to sixteen were indistinct and blurry — as though someone had forcibly crammed those recollections into her head.
And so, after Feng Jiu arrived in this world and became Feng Jiu’er, her memories of Zhan Yuheng seemed far more vivid for the period before she turned six, while much of what came after felt unclear.
Zhan Yuheng, it seemed, had stopped visiting her much after she had gone through that ordeal at age six as well.
Bringing her thoughts back to the old woman before her, Feng Jiu’er tilted her head and studied her — and still could not recall ever having met this person.
“I am indeed Feng Jiu’er. But I don’t believe I know you, Senior. Could it be that Senior is acquainted with my father? Or my grandfather?”
The old woman said nothing, looked at her once more, then suddenly turned and walked toward the heated bed platform not far away: “Come here when you have finished eating.”
“Alright!” Though Feng Jiu’er had a stomach full of questions, she didn’t press them for now.
She lowered her head, finished yet another bowl of roasted meat, set down the bowl and used her sleeve to wipe her mouth, then immediately went over.
“Senior, are you going to teach me an inner cultivation method?” That was how it always went in stories — when the protagonist found themselves in a desperate situation, they would meet a reclusive master, and then the master would pass on a supreme technique to them.
Ha! It seemed she was perhaps letting her imagination run a little too pleasantly ahead of her.
Yet the old woman actually nodded and gave her a definitive answer: “Yes.”
Yes? She was truly going to teach her an inner cultivation method? But what was their connection? And who exactly was this person?
“You don’t trust me?” The old woman’s brow furrowed slightly.
“I trust you!” With someone of this level of power, crushing her would be no different from crushing an ant. What reason would she have to deceive her?
Feng Jiu’er immediately pulled off her boots, climbed up onto the heated platform, and sat cross-legged, facing her.
“Senior, what martial technique are you going to teach me?”
“Why do you talk so much? These past ten years — who has been raising and teaching you?” The old woman let out a slight sigh, as though a touch exasperated.
Feng Jiu’er was equally exasperated. She said: “Senior, you don’t like to talk! If you don’t speak and I don’t speak, won’t the atmosphere become terribly awkward?”
“…” The old woman found herself truly without words to counter this.
Still, this chatty little girl was rather amusing.
“Turn around. I will channel energy through you to regulate your cultivation.”
“Alright!”
Feng Jiu’er immediately turned around, her back facing the old woman.
But when the old woman saw Feng Jiu’er’s garments still hanging open — and caught sight of the exposed skin beneath — her gaze grew heavy and still.
“Why… has it become like this?”
“Like what?” Feeling the old woman’s fingertips come to rest against her lower back, Feng Jiu’er thought for a moment, then suddenly said: “Are you talking about the mark on my lower back?”
Originally there hadn’t seemed to be one. She hadn’t seen it when looking at herself in a mirror.
It appeared to have emerged after she had nearly died and come back to life.
Though it was on her lower back, it was set off to one side, so when Feng Jiu’er looked at herself in a mirror angled toward her back, she could still see it relatively easily.
“Perhaps it’s proof of having died and come back. Heh!” She hadn’t given it much thought.
“Died and come back?” The old woman’s expression grew somber. “What did you go through?”
“You mean, why did I nearly die?” She had an instinct that this old woman held some indescribable feeling toward her. Feng Jiu’er had no thought of hiding it.
“At the time, I was trying to save someone, and was struck by another person — Gu Poison worms were driven into my heart. I nearly died.”
“Who did this?” A cold light flared in the old woman’s eyes, and a killing intent swept across her gaze.
“The Butterfly Lady of Butterfly Valley.” Feng Jiu’er’s palm tightened — but she quickly released it. “It doesn’t matter. That debt, I will go and collect someday.”
“So it was Hu Xiadie!” The old woman’s fury flared instantly. She let out a cold snort: “I was gone, and she dared act so recklessly!”
“Senior, you know the Butterfly Lady as well?” So the Butterfly Lady’s name was Hu Xiadie — even Feng Jiu’er hadn’t known this.
“We are old acquaintances.” She looked once more at the phoenix mark on Jiu’er’s lower back, then closed her eyes.
Both hands came to rest on Jiu’er’s back, and she said: “Beginning now, follow my cultivation method and train.”
“Yes, Senior.”
…They did not practice for long — only about half an hour in total. But those brief thirty minutes were worth more than several months of Feng Jiu’er training on her own.
“Senior, may I come and find you again?” When she was being “seen out,” Feng Jiu’er couldn’t help looking back at the old woman.
“From now on, you may come and find me on every first and fifteenth of the month.” The old woman nodded, her manner toward Feng Jiu’er one of unmistakable warmth.
But Feng Jiu’er pouched her lips slightly: “Only on the first and fifteenth? Can’t I come more often than that?”
“You little girl — you’re awfully greedy!” The old woman shot her a look. She knew perfectly well what was on the girl’s mind.
“The cultivation method I’ve taught you — if you practice according to what I told you just now, the true energy within you will gradually come under your command.”
“Understood.” It seemed the senior was truly not going to let her come more frequently. Perhaps she found her too noisy and disruptive?
Though the senior clearly looked as though she rather enjoyed spending time with her!
Feng Jiu’er changed into the garments the old woman had given her, wrapped the outer robe she had been given around herself, and was finally ready to leave.
Yet she didn’t know why — but in the moment she turned to go, a sudden stab of pain lanced through her heart.
She spun back sharply, looking at the old woman standing in the doorway. Her eyes grew instantly wet, and she felt… a deep and inexplicable reluctance to leave.
What a strange feeling. She had no idea where this reluctance was coming from, yet it was so very strong.
“Senior, what is your name?” she called out loudly, into the wind and snow.
After a brief pause, the old woman replied quietly: “Xue Gu.”
“Xue Gu, I will come back to see you — I promise I will!” Feng Jiu’er waved her hand, and she truly set off. “Next time, tell your two Snow Lotus Beasts to be nicer to me — don’t let them attack me at every turn!”
She was really gone now. Qiao Mu was still waiting below, not far down the mountain. She didn’t know if Qiao Mu might try to come up — and if she encountered a Snow Lotus Beast, she could be hurt.
Xue Gu simply watched the girl’s figure growing smaller and smaller in the distance, her gaze complex, holding what seemed to be a measure of reluctance as well.
Brilliant in spirit and mischievous, yet never losing her calm. Endearing and just a little shameless.
When they had exchanged blows earlier — seeing her fail to provoke a reaction and suddenly withdraw her hand, dissipating eighty percent of her power — this girl’s nature was, as ever, so very kind.
The fingers resting against the doorframe gradually turned white at the knuckles, the bones showing through. The stirring in Xue Gu’s eyes was one that took a long, long time to settle.
The true Feng Jiu’er — she had finally come back.