Su Zhuyi returned to the Gujian Sect.
As soon as she climbed Luoxue Peak, she saw Little Skull leading Yellow Dog running toward her. When they were about to approach, he paused mid-step and directly wrapped Yellow Dog in spiritual energy, making the tail-wagging dog invisible to Su Zhuyi.
The dog had grown very well. Originally, the lowest-grade spirit dog, it now seemed to have advanced further. Its frame was large, fur smooth and glossy, standing there like a tiger, looking even more detestable. For someone like her who hated dogs, big dogs seemed more terrifying because they were stronger with sharper teeth. But since Little Skull protected it, she turned a blind eye.
“Big Sister, you’re back!” Little Skull happily held several branches of red plum blossoms. “I’ve been changing the flowers in Elder Sister’s room every day, too.”
He still remembered everything Little Sister had instructed him to do before, even after spending half a year in the True Spirit Realm, and completed each task earnestly every day. Now handing all the flowers to Su Zhuyi, he said, “I’ll go pick more later.”
Su Zhuyi took the flowers and saw Luo Ying standing not far in front of her. She wore a white cloak with white fur around the collar, her entire figure seeming to blend into the snowy mountains behind her.
Luo Ying’s face remained expressionless. Her complexion was very pale—a sickly, transparent whiteness. Her skin seemed particularly thin, revealing many light blue blood vessels underneath. Standing in the wind and snow, she looked as if she might be blown over at any moment.
“You’re back?” Luo Ying asked softly, her voice calm without fluctuation, yet it inexplicably warmed Su Zhuyi’s heart.
Someone was waiting for her.
No one had ever waited for her before.
This feeling was something she’d never experienced. A murderous demoness who trusted no one, in her youth at the Blood Asura Sect, if she saw anyone near her room, her first reaction was vigilance and silent killing, because within the Blood Asura Sect, except for those elder high-level powerhouses, every fellow disciple was a competitor. Their appearance near her room could only mean trouble. Later, when her cultivation improved and she ventured out, her cave dwelling was naturally kept secret—it was where she cultivated and healed, impossible for anyone to know about. So no one would wait for her.
No one would say, “You’re back.”
She remembered the candy she’d eaten as a child, so sweet she’d nearly bitten off her tongue. Though not as obvious now, she felt a faint sweetness at the tip of her heart. This unfamiliar emotion lingered in her heart, making her unnaturally turn her head slightly, avoiding looking at Luo Ying and Little Skull.
At this moment, Little Skull tugged at her sleeve. “Big Sister, I put the Songfeng Sword in front of Little Uncle’s memorial stone. Let me show you.”
Su Zhuyi didn’t leave immediately but walked to Luo Ying, bowed respectfully, and called out, “Master.”
Luo Ying nodded. “They said you subdued the Songfeng Sword, but Little Skull brought the sword back. What sword are you carrying?”
“It’s a broken sword.” Su Zhuyi’s understanding of sword dao was truly limited. After thinking, she asked, “Master, can a broken sword reforge itself? It said, ‘When the sword heart is stable, the broken sword will be reborn.'”
Luo Ying nodded and raised her hand, grasping at empty air. The Qianlong Sword appeared in her hand.
“Like my Qianlong Sword—if damaged, it can repair itself, but this process requires help from me, its master. The more stable the sword heart and stronger the sword intent, the faster it recovers.” Luo Ying paused here, then continued, “If the broken sword you mentioned can also be reborn, it’s at least an immortal sword. Did you obtain two immortal swords from this trip to the Sword Tomb?”
Speaking here, Luo Ying shook her head. “Three swords.”
She pointed at Little Skull. “It’s Zhuying Sword is also an immortal sword.”
Su Zhuyi was slightly stunned. “I just picked up swords at the cliff edge. Could there be the most immortal swords there?”
Luo Ying was silent for a moment. “I’ve never been to the Sword Tomb. When I descended the mountain, I was already past the age to enter the Sword Tomb.” She looked at Su Zhuyi. “Your senior brother says you have extremely high sword dao talent, just that your mind isn’t focused on it. I think you feel sword cultivation is too weak in the early stages, so you primarily cultivate other paths?”
“Whatever you want to learn, I won’t interfere.” Luo Ying paused, then suddenly touched her toe to the ground. The long sword in her hand was already unsheathed, emitting a clear cry that echoed ethereally through the snowy mountains. The sword flew into the air and circled, but didn’t return to Luo Ying’s hand. Instead, Luo Ying reached out and plucked a plum branch from Su Zhuyi’s hand.
“I’ll suppress my cultivation and primordial spirit to the Golden Core level, using only the first two levels of Tianxuan Nine Swords. Use your full strength and spar with me.” After speaking, Luo Ying retreated one zhang, holding the red plum as a sword, and said flatly.
Su Zhuyi: “…”
Golden Core stage, using a red plum as a sword, one-armed, was Luo Ying this confident? She probably thought her advantage lay in having a few hundred years of combat experience. How could she know Su Zhuyi wasn’t truly sixteen either?
“Very well. Please instruct me!” Feeling she had the advantage, Su Zhuyi rarely used a polite opening. She immediately deployed Shadowless Traceless, her figure shifting and transforming, visible only as afterimages to the naked eye.
She knew many techniques. Seeing Luo Ying holding just a plum branch, she decided not to use even Blazing Flame Palm, determined to let this sword-obsessed master, who only knew sword practice, experience what scholarly cultivators could master—utilizing any favorable conditions to create winning opportunities at any time.
For instance, now she could use a technique called Flower Grafting. This technique was equivalent to an illusion that could transform the red plum in Luo Ying’s hand into other spirit plants, briefly possessing other plants’ effects. Though not real, the illusion could cause real damage. She rarely used it, but when she did, the effects were particularly remarkable.
Su Zhuyi certainly couldn’t let Luo Ying get hurt, or Qinghe would beat her to death. So she used Flower Grafting to transform the red plum Luo Ying wielded as a sword into vines that directly coiled around Luo Ying.
Luo Ying had also suppressed her primordial spirit, so in that instant, she discovered the red plum in her hand had become soft vines coiling around her entire body like snakes. She no longer had a sword in her hand.
Yet Luo Ying didn’t even furrow her brow. With nothing in her grasp, she simply made a sword-holding gesture. Though her arm was also bound, her hand could still move. With a twist of her wrist, a sword qi directly shredded the vines on her body. Su Zhuyi had already started drawing symbols in the air, planning to cast an Immobilization Curse. Such curses were usually drawn in advance—drawing them on the spot was very slow, making them unusable in combat. But this situation was different. She had first used Flower Grafting to unexpectedly lock down Luo Ying, which should have given her enough time to completely control her.
She won beautifully and avoided injury to herself.
But the spell had barely begun when Luo Ying had already shredded the vines. In Su Zhuyi’s eyes, the red plum blossoms were torn apart, scattering fragments across the ground at her feet.
Though Luo Ying held nothing in her hands, Su Zhuyi seemed to feel a brilliant sword thrusting toward her, penetrating cold with countless sword shadows before her eyes—this was a sword technique from the second level of Tianxuan Nine Swords. She couldn’t resist directly and could only dodge!
Su Zhuyi reacted extremely quickly, feinting with her footwork while simultaneously unleashing Blazing Flame Palm. But the sword intent pierced through Blazing Flame Palm and pressed directly against her neck. The snow beneath her feet was frozen into ice by the cold intent, numbing both her legs.
She couldn’t escape…
In her previous life, her cultivation level hadn’t differed much from Qin Jianglan’s, but she had self-awareness and knew she wasn’t his match. However, her strength wasn’t poor either. She considered herself only slightly inferior to Qin Jianglan among both righteous and demonic paths in the cultivation world. She just needed to avoid Qin Jianglan. Moreover, Qin Jianglan felt guilt toward her, so when they truly encountered each other, he only wanted to capture her alive, not kill her. Thus, she had successfully escaped from his hands before.
But regarding other sword cultivators, she truly wasn’t afraid and felt early-stage sword cultivators were pitifully weak, only becoming somewhat watchable after the Nascent Soul stage. When Qin Jianglan was at the Golden Core stage, hadn’t he been unable to directly rescue two people? Though this reasoning was a bit forced, at that time, the Blood Asura Sect had a Nascent Soul stage elder with powerful divine sense present. For the Golden Core stage, Qin Jianglan had to protect himself and take one person away within that elder’s divine sense range was already quite good. But Su Zhuyi felt that if Qin Jianglan had had more diverse methods, then he might have been able to take her away, too.
When he returned with sect elders to rescue people, the Blood Asura Sect cultivators had withdrawn completely without leaving any traces.
Qinghe was formidable, but he became powerful after fusing with the Longquan Sword. In his previous life, he also became a sect-destroying maniac only after Luo Ying’s death.
Luo Ying was formidable—she had cultivated bitterly on the mountain for five hundred years, only descending after reaching the Nascent Soul stage.
Now, with Luo Ying suppressing her cultivation and primordial spirit while still in an injured state, Su Zhuyi thought she could win beautifully. She hadn’t expected to lose so quickly.
Luo Ying held no sword but made a sword-sheathing motion. “Unity of person and sword—with your aptitude, you could achieve this at the Golden Core stage.”
“If you don’t like it, I won’t force you.” Luo Ying’s complexion grew even paler, appearing almost transparent under the sunlight. “It’s just that it’s no inferior to other dao methods.”
You could choose not to learn it, but you couldn’t look down on it.
Luo Ying maintained an almost stubborn persistence regarding her sword dao.
Su Zhuyi was silent for a moment before asking, “But the sword isn’t my life-bound magic treasure.”
Luo Ying raised her head. “In that case, learning swordplay would suit you well. Using other magic treasures that aren’t life-bound would feel somewhat less responsive to control, but flying swords are different. If you can stabilize your sword heart and achieve unity of person and sword, why would you need to form soul contracts with life-bound treasures?”
She glanced at the Qianlong Sword floating in the air. Though her face remained expressionless, her eyes seemed filled with warm sunlight, her gaze radiating warmth. “I am the sword, and the sword is me.”
As her words fell, the Qianlong Sword suddenly leaped high into the sky, dancing like a silver dragon and emitting joyful sword cries.
Su Zhuyi felt somewhat moved.
Little Skull, who had been foolishly watching the excitement beside her, also pulled out his Zhuying Sword and made a few gestures in the air. “Is it like this? Or like this?” After spinning once and making a forward thrusting motion, Little Skull used too much force and tumbled into the snow. Though he got a mouthful of snow, being a skeleton, the snow leaked out of his mouth. He didn’t think anything was wrong and giggled continuously.
“Elder Sister, Big Sister both use swords, Little Uncle uses swords, Green-face Fang-tooth uses swords—I use swords too!”
Using swords didn’t seem impossible either, Su Zhuyi thought.
Moreover, only if her sword heart stabilized and sword intent improved would she have a chance to suppress the Longquan Sword, save Qinghe and Luo Ying, and reverse destiny.
Wait, what was Little Skull talking about with “Green-face Fang-tooth”? Was he referring to Qinghe?
In front of Luo Ying, he was a sunny, handsome, and elegant young master. If he knew about this, he’d dismantle that skeleton bone by bone!