Luo Ying agreed.

She felt she wouldn’t live much longer. That her two disciples could have such deep fellowship warmed her heart somewhat. Qinghe’s nature viewed fellowship among sect members very lightly, which had originally worried her.

She raised the whip in her hand, about to continue, when she heard Su Zhuyi say again: “Master, you’re tired. Why don’t you let…” Seeing that Elder Hu was also present with a worried expression, Su Zhuyi immediately said, “Why not let Elder Hu take over?”

Elder Hu was tall and sturdy but had a warm heart and was protective of his own. He also particularly valued disciples with excellent talent and high cultivation—he would go lenient.

The Punishment Hall was located on Jie Peak. The peak master was a Nascent Soul stage female cultivator whom everyone called Peak Master Yun. She had always been quite dissatisfied with Luoxue Peak’s position above sect rules.

After hearing Su Zhuyi’s words, she stepped forward imperceptibly. “We at the Punishment Hall shouldn’t interfere with Luoxue Peak’s affairs, but since Luo Ying is unwell, let the Punishment Hall carry out this whipping.”

Elder Hu stepped forward, dissatisfied, about to speak, when Yi Lian also said in a deep voice: “Let me do it.”

Peak Master Yun hesitated slightly, glanced at Yi Lian, then said: “Then we’ll trouble Elder Yi.”

Yi Lian was rarely at Gujian Sect, often hiding in deep mountains and forests to stake out spirit beasts, sometimes for decades at a time. Though he was often absent, he was still a peak master. His strength and methods made people quite wary.

Yi Lian took the whip and, with a “crack,” struck Qinghe. Su Zhuyi noticed he whipped properly, each lash seeming to use full force, but looking at Qinghe’s reaction, it seemed less painful than before. Of course, Qinghe’s pain wouldn’t show on his face—at most, he’d grunt, making it impossible to tell if it hurt.

The Spirit Refining Whip’s power was related to the wielder’s cultivation realm and the strength of their primordial spirit.

Although Luo Ying was severely injured now, her cultivation was still the highest among those present. Her primordial spirit was equally weak—like a completely dried consciousness sea—but that consciousness sea itself was vast, just without divine sense in it anymore, though the realm remained. So when she whipped Qinghe, it hurt both Qinghe and herself.

But now, though Yi Lian was using full force, why did Little Skull secretly tell her that Qinghe was much more relaxed?

Su Zhuyi felt something was strange. As she pondered, she saw the golden sparrow on Yi Lian’s shoulder suddenly turn to look at her, its small eyes flashing with a cunning expression quite different from that foolish bird before.

The next moment, Su Zhuyi thought of a secret technique she’d heard about in her previous life.

Universe Transposition—shape-shifting substitution. This was much more powerful than straw man substitutes. It involved having a spirit creature grow up together from birth, becoming constant companions whose auras grew increasingly similar. Then, a certain secret method was used to allow a person and a spirit creature to communicate and switch places at any time, equivalent to one person having two lives and two identities.

In her previous life, Su Zhuyi had only read about it in books but never seen anyone use it, so she hadn’t thought of it initially. Now that she had, she marveled that Yi Lian indeed had some skill. Of course, what amazed her more was that he chose a bird for his shape-shifting substitution.

And a golden sparrow at that…

What use was a golden sparrow?

This meant the golden sparrow must be over fifteen hundred years old, too—truly an old bird indeed.

Since they had switched positions, it was now the golden sparrow whipping Qinghe. What strength could a golden sparrow have? No wonder hitting Qinghe felt like scratching an itch. Understanding these connections, Su Zhuyi immediately relaxed. Now they owed Yi Lian a favor, though she didn’t know his purpose or what he sought.

Anyway, he had helped voluntarily. If it was something small and she was in a good mood, she might help out. If it was too troublesome, forget it—she was thick-skinned and didn’t care.

After finishing with Qinghe, it was her turn.

Yi Lian walked over to Su Zhuyi with a smile, showing off the whip.

He said: “Your spirit beast has returned, hasn’t it?”

Su Zhuyi: “…”

Before Su Zhuyi could make excuses, Yi Lian continued: “I can smell its scent on you, stronger than last time.”

Little Skull was standing right beside her—of course, it would be stronger!

“When will you bring it out for me to see?” Yi Lian asked again.

He flicked the whip, making it crack loudly. Was he planning to threaten her? If she didn’t agree to bring Little Skull out for him to see, he would get serious?

Little Skull absolutely couldn’t be brought out to meet people—it was a ghost creature. When Luo Ying had originally required her to join the Gujian Sect, their purpose had also been to keep Little Skull by their side. Even though Little Skull’s aura seemed clean now, such ghost creatures were easily seen by outsiders as being influenced by external forces. Su Zhuyi knew Little Skull had his principles and was quite insistent about not killing or doing bad things, but whether others would believe or dare to believe was another question.

Ghost creatures were inherently not tolerated by the world. In their view, ghost creatures shouldn’t exist between heaven and earth, even if they never harmed anyone.

Those who kept ghost creatures were considered evil heretics.

Similarly, Qinghe wasn’t controlled by an evil sword—he now was the evil sword. Bone connected to bone, flesh connected to flesh—he was both human and sword, a sword that could go mad with murderous qi at any time. If they told Luo Ying and their sect members that he was now the Longquan Sword that had once caused great chaos and devastation in the world, no matter how they struggled internally, Qinghe would have only one fate. Luo Ying would step forward and try everything possible, even mutual destruction, to destroy the Longquan Sword. If it couldn’t be destroyed, it would be sealed again.

“Quickly call it out for me to see.” Yi Lian’s eyes seemed to glow. He was particularly obsessed with rare and exotic beasts and had been thinking about the spirit beast Su Zhuyi mentioned last time. But the picture Su Zhuyi drew was meant to fool him. Her completely uncooperative attitude made him anxious, but he couldn’t force a junior. Now, however, was an opportunity.

“It’s divine sense is stronger than mine—I can’t call it out,” Su Zhuyi said.

Yi Lian still smiled. He didn’t say much, just shrugged. “That’s a pity.” Then he raised his hand. As he was about to swing the whip, his wrist twitched, and he turned to hand the whip to Peak Master Yun beside him. “My hand cramped—I’ll trouble Peak Master Yun.”

That golden sparrow glanced at Su Zhuyi again, its eyeballs rolling in a circle. Its claws moved left and right twice as it turned around, showing its back to Su Zhuyi, and suddenly spread its wings as if covering its eyes.

Peak Master Yun took the whip and directly raised her hand for a lash.

She was always strict and quite dissatisfied with Luoxue Peak. She bore a grudge over Qinghe stealing the Sword Heart Stone, but toward Su Zhuyi, who had only been in the sect for ten years yet obtained an immortal sword, she was relatively amiable. She wasn’t deliberately cruel or vicious, but she wouldn’t be soft-hearted either.

Peak Master Yun managed the Punishment Hall—she knew what she was doing and grasped the measure perfectly. This Spirit Refining Whip wouldn’t kill Su Zhuyi, but would certainly hurt her. After fifty lashes, she’d probably have to lie in bed for a year and a half. The lesson would be learned, and the rules established. It was just that Qinghe, who always looked down on others, got off easy this time.

Su Zhuyi was currently at Golden Core cultivation. Her primordial spirit was stronger than her cultivation level. Taking a lash affected her primordial spirit fine, but her physical body hurt terribly.

She had endured much heavier injuries before—even when her whole body had no intact flesh and white bones were exposed, she could calmly talk to people and bluff. She hadn’t expected that living again would weaken her pain tolerance. It seemed these recent years had gone too smoothly, developing delicate skin and tender flesh, so that getting whipped now actually brought tears to her eyes.

She usually fake-cried, able to cry pitifully like pear blossoms in the rain at any time. But truly, shedding tears like this had rarely happened. Being hurt to the point of crying was something she couldn’t recall from her memories, so Su Zhuyi herself was stunned for a moment. She forcibly held back the tears from falling and stuffed them back down.

She didn’t cry, but Little Skull did. Fortunately, with their soul connection, while taking lashes, she had to talk to Little Skull to prevent him from really being unable to resist showing himself.

“Little sister, why do you have to take lashes?”

“Because Qinghe made a mistake.”

“Qinghe made a mistake, and little sister is helping him take the punishment, so I can help too.” He stood close behind Su Zhuyi, not daring to look at her whip marks. He stretched out his arm to block, wanting to shield her from the whip. But the Spirit Refining Whip itself captured primordial spirits and fell on people’s bodies, so blocking was completely useless—it wouldn’t land on him at all.

“I said I would protect little sister.” Tears came from his eye sockets as he held his breath and raised his fists to hit people. Su Zhuyi stopped him. She hadn’t expected Little Skull to truly develop the courage to beat people up, but now wasn’t the time. She had brought this trouble on herself—if Little Skull emerged now and beat up Peak Master Yun, it would be hard to handle.

After taking another twenty or so lashes, Su Zhuyi couldn’t bear it much longer. Originally kneeling straight, now with each lash falling on her body, she could barely support herself and was falling forward. Seeing this, Little Skull immediately ran to the front to brace her. No one could see Little Skull, but they all felt Su Zhuyi’s posture was somewhat strange.

Qinghe had been keeping his eyes closed.

The Spirit Refining Whip damaged his primordial spirit, so he had been suppressing the Longquan Sword. He had overestimated himself earlier—if not for Elder Yi’s help later, he probably couldn’t have endured even fifty lashes. Now, having suppressed the evil nature of Longquan, he opened his eyes to see Su Zhuyi kneeling there with her back covered in blood.

Master stood quietly to one side, her eyes seemingly without spirit.

He knew Master wasn’t wrong, and junior sister was suffering on his behalf, yet his heart still felt unwilling.

Master, you can sacrifice yourself for all the people of the world, sacrifice your own body for strangers—why can’t you protect your disciples?

Qinghe and Luo Ying weren’t the same kind of people. He didn’t care about other people, didn’t care about rules, didn’t care about righteous or evil, didn’t care about right and wrong—he only cared about those he cared about.

He felt he was naturally suited for the demonic path. Unclear about good and evil, unable to distinguish right from wrong.

If Luo Ying hadn’t chosen him originally, he would have entered the demonic path.

But Luo Ying had chosen him.

And he had fallen in love with her.

A “crack” sounded, followed by junior sister’s muffled groan, like pain squeezed from between her teeth, entering Qinghe’s ears bit by bit, invading his consciousness.

Previously, Su Zhuyi, in his eyes, was just a disciple Master had taken in.

Someone Master asked him to care for.

Everything was centered on the Master. He protected her because the Master entrusted her to him.

But now, his junior sister was his junior sister.

Seeing the whip raised high again, Qinghe’s gaze toward the whip-wielder was extremely cold. Peak Master Yun was startled by that look, her heart trembling. Then her eyes darkened, and the originally fairly just woman directly added several points of force to her hand.

Su Zhuyi felt the fierce wind from that whip approaching, seemingly stronger than the previous ones. She suddenly raised her head, her heart jumping abruptly.

She seemed to have forgotten something.

She had just barely convinced Little Skull not to hit people.

A shocking sword light flew from within her body…

The Zhuxin Curse!

Songfeng Sword qi…

This—she couldn’t control it!