“Really can’t do anything to you?” Su Zhuyi muttered.
“You think that just because the Liuguang Mirror is on your body and your divine consciousness can communicate with it, you’re the Liuguang Mirror’s master and can do whatever you want?”
The middle-aged man stood with his hands behind his back within the formation’s barrier, looking ahead with a cold smile. He couldn’t see Su Zhuyi, but could sense her divine consciousness’s intimidating pressure. He said, “You can’t kill me. If you want your little lover to survive, do as I say.”
Tsk tsk, little lover. She repeated these three words and even glanced at Qin Jianglan. Then Su Zhuyi looked at the middle-aged man and asked, “Then tell me, what should I do?”
Hearing her ask this, he immediately felt there was hope. Qin Jianglan in the distance remained motionless, seeming indifferent to their conversation.
First, he needed to get Qin Jianglan to voluntarily offer his body, so he could become the center of this Liuguang Mirror. Since Qin Jianglan hadn’t agreed to him before, now if he could persuade this woman, it would be much better. After all, Qin Jianglan seemed to love her deeply—he was even willing to sacrifice himself to the mirror for her, giving her a chance at rebirth. He would be willing to listen to her.
“I need a physical body,” he said. “Otherwise, as a weak remnant soul, I can’t do anything at all.”
Su Zhuyi was shrewd. During her years as a demon lord, she had deceived countless people. Hearing him speak like this, she immediately knew this person indeed harbored ill intentions. And probably because he’d been a remnant soul for too long and had just recovered, he was quite stupid. If it were her, she would proceed gradually, deceiving bit by bit slowly. Who would demand a physical body right from the start, directly using their ultimate move?
“Qin Jianglan!” When Su Zhuyi first spoke with Qin Jianglan, it was similar to voice transmission—the middle-aged man didn’t know what they had discussed. But now, Su Zhuyi called out directly, and hearing Su Zhuyi call someone, his heart immediately filled with secret joy.
Qin Jianglan had originally been some distance from the middle-aged man’s barrier, though he could hear Su Zhuyi’s words. But after Su Zhuyi called, he flew near the barrier. Little Skull eagerly followed behind him, and while running, even pulled out a red gemstone and waved it above his head, “Little sister, is it pretty? I’ll bring it back for you later!”
This made Su Zhuyi slightly stunned. One of the little phoenix’s eyes had been dug out for her, and the remaining one had fallen into Little Skull’s hands.
That little phoenix had always wanted to go home, and in the end, with the Jianmu Tree’s help, it had gotten its wish.
Su Zhuyi moved her gaze away from the red gemstone and said, “Qin Jianglan, I can’t kill this primordial spirit.”
“You try?” While speaking to Qin Jianglan, her divine consciousness lightly brushed over his body again.
The middle-aged man had thought she would tell Qin Jianglan to offer his body, but unexpectedly, her words made his primordial spirit tremble with cold. She couldn’t kill him, but Qin Jianglan could.
Qin Jianglan shook his head.
The middle-aged man finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. He felt that since awakening, his emotions had been constantly fluctuating, and now he could barely bear it anymore.
“We don’t need to act personally,” Qin Jianglan said. “He’ll dissipate on his own.”
“Oh.” Su Zhuyi nodded, her divine consciousness sweeping from top to bottom like a gentle breeze caressing Qin Jianglan. “Then let’s chat about something else.”
Her breath was fragrant like orchids, that gentle breeze brushing across his face like a hand softly caressing, making his eyes darken. He then silently walked to one side, sat down on the spot, and silently recited calming mantras in his heart. At this time, the middle-aged man called out loudly, “He sacrificed himself to the Liuguang Mirror and will be devoured bit by bit. You think he remembers you now, but will he still remember you after some time?”
“The Heavenly Dao will set things right and completely erase his life.”
“And he will completely merge into the Liuguang Mirror, becoming the same as those dead objects from the True Spirit Realm.”
“And you!” He couldn’t see Su Zhuyi, now pointing at the sky, “You’ll regret it for the rest of your life!”
Su Zhuyi fell silent.
After a moment, she said cheerfully, “How could that be? How could I regret it for life?”
Qin Jianglan’s eyelids trembled. He had wanted to open his eyes, trembling slightly with his lashes fluttering, but didn’t open them.
“Since the Heavenly Dao wants to find a substitute to replace his existence, and he will disappear accordingly, I’ll just prevent that substitute from becoming his substitute and have more people remember him, right?” Qin Chuan had originally been called Qin Jianglan, but through her persistence, he was now still Qin Chuan. The Heavenly Dao only provided guidance, but what truly determined fate was the human heart itself.
With Qin Chuan, she discovered that as long as one was willing to work hard, a substitute identity could also be changed. Qin Chuan was still Qin Chuan. He wasn’t the previous life’s Qin Jianglan, nor did he use the Songfeng Sword. He had obtained an immortal sword named Bixie.
From Zhang Enning, Su Zhuyi had already seen that Zhang Enning had a choice; only Zhang Enning had chosen the path of becoming a demon.
“As long as he doesn’t disappear, there will always be a way out, right?” Su Zhuyi looked at Qin Jianglan. “Old Dog Qin, you trapped me on the Wangtian Tree for six hundred years, but also accompanied me for six hundred years. Now you’re trapped in this mirror, and I should at least accompany you for six hundred years, too. I’m someone who doesn’t like taking losses, so you at least have to persist for six hundred years without dissipating, right?”
Qin Jianglan opened his eyes, the corners of his mouth suddenly curving in a smile. When she was on the Wangtian Tree before, she had rarely seen Qin Jianglan smile—she should say she had almost never seen him smile. He always had a cold, icy face. Seeing him smile this time, even though that smile was fleeting, Su Zhuyi felt very comforted, so she took the opportunity to touch him again.
As for how to get him out, Su Zhuyi thought of the Jianmu Tree’s words. If she successfully defied heaven to change fate, could the Liuguang Mirror become a Dao artifact? Then, could she release Qin Jianglan? The question was, what counted as successfully defying heaven to change fate?
Without any judgment criteria for this, she probably had to take it step by step and slowly figure it out.
At least now, the events of this lifetime already differed greatly from before her rebirth, but obviously, this wasn’t enough.
She lay in bed, her body wrapped so tightly she couldn’t move, but her sea of consciousness was quite lively. Thinking and thinking, she loudly called Qinghe over.
Qinghe stood at the door with a cold expression, “What do you want?”
He had just been standing outside Master’s window watching Master. Master had been worried about her these past two days and hadn’t rested well.
“Senior Brother, go offer two sticks of incense at that stone tablet,” Su Zhuyi said, lying in bed and glancing sideways.
Qinghe: “…”
“Hey, don’t leave! Call all the Gujian Sect disciples over and have them line up to offer incense!”
“Don’t you damn well leave!”
Qinghe walked away expressionlessly.
But after a while, he came back, followed by two Gujian Sect disciples.
Gujian Sect disciples normally didn’t have the opportunity to come to Luoxue Peak. Comprehending sword intent at the tip of the ancient sword on Luoxue Peak required outstanding Gujian Sect disciples—only the cream of the crop from sect trials had the chance to come to Luoxue Peak. This time, the two followed behind Qinghe, staying ten feet away and not daring to get closer, but their emotions were very excited and stirred.
Ahead was Qinghe.
The coldest person in the Gujian Sect.
The disciples below privately called Qinghe a human-shaped sword, practicing swordsmanship to the point of obsession, with no one daring to approach within three feet. Therefore, both were very nervous and curious, but neither dared to speak up and ask. They also didn’t dare communicate with each other, didn’t even dare use divine consciousness transmission, and could only glance back and forth with their eyes, hoping the other could understand their meaning through eye contact.
Song Shangzhi glanced sideways, “What do you think Senior Brother Qinghe called us here for?” There were no maidservants in the Gujian Sect—while cultivating, disciples also had to clean the mountain gate. The fallen leaves at the mountain gate weren’t swept with brooms, nor could spiritual energy be used. They needed to use sword qi to pick up the fallen leaves one by one, then shred them into pieces, finally sheathe their swords, lightly exhale, and blow away the nonexistent ash. It looked carefree and elegant, but was tedious and tiring. Today, he was on duty with Junior Brother Lin Xun, sweeping the white jade stone steps, when Qinghe called them over. Even though they had already entered Luoxue Peak, they still didn’t know what they were here to do. Though excited, he was also somewhat nervous.
Qinghe was too cold, with a strange temperament that was extremely difficult to approach. He wouldn’t be planning some evil deed, would he?
This was within the sect—he wouldn’t kill people, would he?
The more he thought, the more afraid he became. Song Shangzhi’s legs were even trembling. He looked nervously at his junior brother with his eyes, but his junior brother was an idiot who couldn’t understand his meaning at all. His junior brother even had a smile hanging at the corner of his mouth, looking foolish as if he’d been chosen by an expert and was about to ascend to heaven in one step to become a great sword cultivator.
Lin Xun blinked, his meaning being, “Senior Brother, I’m so happy! Does Senior Qinghe think we have good aptitude?”
Song Shangzhi continued twitching his eye corner, “This vast Luoxue Peak has so few people—will he use us as sword slaves? Sword polishing?” Imagining himself covered in sword wounds and miserable, he felt his breathing wasn’t smooth.
Lin Xun’s eyes lit up, “The place where they live is just ahead. Senior Luo Ying and Junior Sister Su are also here.” Among peers, they were ranked by order of entry. Su Zhuyi had entered the sect after him, so she should be called Junior Sister. But Su Zhuyi’s strength was also very strong, so generally when face to face they would address each other as Fellow Daoist, though privately they still called her Junior Sister affectionately.
The two exchanged glances, but their thoughts were completely on different wavelengths.
When Qinghe stopped, they properly lowered their heads and stood straight, looking like they were waiting for an elder’s instruction, not even daring to look around at their surroundings.
Then they saw Qinghe turn around and hand each of them three sticks of incense.
Both were stunned simultaneously, both completely puzzled.
Qinghe stepped aside, and they saw a stone tablet in front of them with three characters carved on it: Qin Jianglan. Who was Qin Jianglan? The two looked at each other, both with bewilderment in their eyes.
“Offer incense,” Qinghe said flatly.
“Oh, oh.” Even though their hearts were full of confusion, Song Shangzhi and Lin Xun didn’t dare to be negligent. They properly offered the incense and, without Qinghe’s instruction, knelt and kowtowed.
After offering incense, Qinghe was about to send them away, but seeing their expressions, he said coldly, “You two go to the sword tip to comprehend sword intent. Don’t wander around randomly. Go down the mountain before evening.”
“Yes!” The two replied in unison, full of high spirits. Lin Xun mustered the courage to ask, “Who is Qin Jianglan?”
Qinghe didn’t answer, glancing at Su Zhuyi’s room.
Her window was open a crack, and she was awake, so she had probably noticed the commotion outside long ago.
Sure enough, a voice came from inside, “Worship him, and your sword dao comprehension will be faster.”
“Don’t believe it? I worship him every day—three sticks of incense morning and evening.”
“Ask Qinghe, isn’t that right?”
Qinghe: “Hehe.”