Something was not right with Master. From when had this awareness begun? It seemed that ever since she had come to know Feng Ya — ever since the day she encountered that Min Qingfeng — a seed of distrust had been planted in her heart. That seed had begun to sprout as the years grew, little by little taking root and growing.

And after she achieved Foundation Establishment, that sprout had finally pushed out its first leaves.

Master had said not to trust anyone easily — including him. Qingyi was struck by an inexplicable feeling, a strangeness that was laced through with something vaguely unsettling.

He had never been one to speak without purpose.

Qingyi thought it over alone for a long while, then concealed her presence and went to find Feng Ya. Compared to others, Feng Ya gave her a sense of ease — someone to whom she could entrust herself.

When Qingyi laid out her purpose for coming, Feng Ya was startled for a moment, then glanced sideways at her: “Do you understand what this means? If I plant my soul mark in the deepest place of your spirit-soul, and I harbor ill intentions — you will die by my hand.”

Qingyi said: “My Master said not to trust anyone easily, including him. But I think — in a whole lifetime, there must always be someone one can trust. To have even one person worthy of that trust would be a fortunate thing. And among all the people I have ever known, there is only you and no one else.”

Feng Ya’s heart gave a stir, but his expression feigned disdain: “You put a tall hat on me and think that makes me a good person? The older you get, the more foolish you become. And you’re a Foundation Establishment cultivator on top of it — your cultivation grows but your brain doesn’t. When it comes to trust, I ought to be far less deserving of it than the Master who raised you. You and I have known each other for only two or three years, and you’d entrust something this important to me? Say that out loud and see who doesn’t laugh at you.”

“Stop talking nonsense. Are you going to do it or not?”

“Be straight with me — what exactly are you trying to do? What happened between you and your Master? Has there been some falling out?” Feng Ya said: “You don’t even trust him anymore, and you’re guarding against him this tightly — are you hiding something from him? Or are you planning something?”

Something came to him: “What — have you finally realized your Master is one thing on the surface and another beneath, and gotten your guard up? Don’t tell me you’re going to defect from your sect and turn against him?”

Qingyi shot him an irritated look and said: “Don’t let your imagination run away with you. Even if Master and I walk opposite paths, it’s only a difference of path and perspective — it hasn’t gotten to the point of defecting from the sect.”

To defect from the sect — that would only happen if one day Master’s actions crossed the line she would not permit.

She could accept a difference in path. She could not accept what lay beyond that line.

“Then what is it?”

“I once used the Great Divination method to calculate and deduce the nation’s fortune. The hexagram was not a favorable one — there will be upheaval within the nation.” Qingyi said: “And this hexagram is faintly entangled with me.”

Feng Ya frowned: “A diviner reads others, not themselves — how did you…”

“Yes — that is why I did not calculate further. But this entanglement alone is already enough.” The pair of phoenix eyes that Qingyi possessed blazed with unsettling clarity as she said: “I have a premonition that something is wrong. It is an instinctive sense of danger.”

Feng Ya’s expression grew heavy.

What kind of danger would make her this cautious and careful — to the point of coming to ask him to plant a soul mark in the depths of her spirit-soul? It had to be a threat to her very life.

Feng Ya did not tell Qingyi she was worrying over nothing. Even ordinary people had the instinct to seek fortune and avoid calamity — let alone a cultivator, and a Foundation Establishment cultivator at that. For her to have this kind of instinct for danger was the most natural thing in the world.

“I do not know what this upheaval will manifest as, nor whether it is the will of heaven or the work of man. Having you place a soul mark in me is only a precaution — in case one day…” Qingyi’s voice paused. In case one day she truly encountered that kind of life-or-death danger — was she asking him to come save her?

He had already achieved Ghost Immortal status. If he continued to cultivate arduously, or accumulated great merit, he might enter the Netherworld underworld and become a sovereign ruler in his own right.

Why would he need to meddle in the affairs of the mortal world and draw down heaven’s punishment?

Forget it.

Qingyi smiled: “Perhaps I am worrying for nothing. Never mind.”

Feng Ya watched her withdraw her intention and knew at once that she was afraid of dragging him into trouble. He said: “As the saying goes, a clever rabbit keeps three burrows. Even a Daoist who battles evil with their life will keep a trump card for themselves. That you have this awareness is perfectly reasonable. You’ve already come to me — you’ve entrusted yourself to me — so how can I let you make this trip for nothing?”

The moment his words fell, taking advantage of her guard dropping, he had already forced out a thread of his spiritual consciousness and drove it toward her spirit-soul.

Qingyi instinctively raised her defenses — the Daoist resonance of her entire spirit-soul rose up like a righteous shield and struck back in Feng Ya’s direction.

Feng Ya’s spiritual consciousness was struck by her counterattack and nearly suffered a complete backlash — he involuntarily grabbed her hand and glared at her.

Qingyi: “……”

That thread of spiritual consciousness had already found its way in. She had no choice but to relax completely — fingers forming a hand seal, she pressed down onto the space between her own brows, guiding that thread of consciousness into her soul and concealing it in the deepest place.

It was done.

The two of them looked at each other.

“Now you are within me and I am within you — Lord Feng Ya, when fortune and prosperity come, do not forget those who shared your hard times!” Qingyi winked at him with a deliberately lighthearted air.

Feng Ya gave a cold laugh: “You were rushing to achieve Foundation Establishment for the sake of this backup plan?”

To accept a spiritual consciousness into oneself — if she were not strong enough, and Feng Ya harbored ill intent, he could control her spirit-soul. Over time, he could even devour it. Only if she were sufficiently powerful could she suppress it.

And this thread of spiritual consciousness — at a critical moment, it could allow Feng Ya to sense her condition in time and come to her. It might yet save her life.

Everything Qingyi had done was for the sake of perfect preparation — as he had said, keeping a backup for herself, preserving a thread of hope for survival.

Later, events proved that she had been right.

She had deduced that the nation’s fortune was bound up with her own — but she had never imagined that someone would deliberately tie her to that fortune. Nor could she have imagined that someone would be so ruthless, so absolute — that in order to lure her into a trap, they would not hesitate to use an entire city’s worth of ordinary people as the stage for their scheme.

From an ordinary earthquake — to drought and flood — and then to the so-called failure of the dragon-suppression formation, triggering a violent rampage of the earth’s veins. She was drawn to fill the formation’s eye, to save a city full of people, to accumulate immeasurable merit.

All of it was man-made. Every piece of it was a snare laid for her — nothing more than a plan to seize her at the moment when her spiritual power was exhausted and her spirit-soul was at its most vulnerable. To deliver her into the main burial chamber of the imperial mausoleum, to be imprisoned and made into a sacrificial offering — to nourish the dragon veins, to enrich the nation’s fortune, to achieve true and immeasurable merit.

Bound up with the nation’s fortune — so that was what it had meant all along.

Qingyi knelt sitting upon the sacrificial altar, looking at that man who was both teacher and father to her, and asked a single question: “Master — has this scheme been the work of your entire life?”

He had raised her, taught her skills, watched her grow into the form that most satisfied him — and then slaughtered her. So had he put on a false mask from the very beginning?

And what had the National Preceptor said?

He had said: “When your master ascends to the highest position one day, you will become the divine attendant I prize most and am most proud of.”

So everything had been false.

Then so be it.

She said nothing more. She watched him complete the great formation’s final closed loop, little by little. Then she watched him depart. In the instant before the main tomb’s door shut, she called out to him: “Master — in these ten-some years of raising and teaching, your disciple owes you nothing anymore. Today — your disciple Qingyi bids farewell to Master!”

The National Preceptor did not look back.

Today she bids farewell to Master. Come the day that follows — she will be the one who returns for vengeance.

Qingyi watched the heavy tomb door seal shut. She tugged at the mysterious stone chains inscribed with binding talisman script, lowered her head, and looked at the mysterious stone sacrificial altar beneath her. A flash of fierce resolve crossed her eyes. She murmured softly: “Master — there is one lesson you never taught me. To die a glorious death rather than live in dishonor. But then — your disciple can learn this one on her own…”