Gu Ning turned her head and looked at this master she had inherited along with everything else.
A face of surpassing beauty, its complexion like jade, came into view.
Brows and eyes washed in kohl, her gaze like dark jade, clear and deep.
Her lips carried a touch of cherry pink, like that one bright point on a branch where the ice and snow have just begun to melt.
But the most striking thing was the fall of long curls that graded from ice blue.
Everything about her drifted with an immortal grace, worthy of the name of the aloof Sword Immortal.
"Master, I... only just reached the sect."
A thousand thoughts ran through Gu Ning's mind, but to avoid showing a crack she answered Qingxiao all the same.
Qingxiao's gaze swept across to confirm that they were all unhurt, and only then settled on Gu Ning.
"So long as nothing is wrong."
She paused, then added.
"The rest of you withdraw. Ning'er and I have matters to discuss."
Hearing that, Gu Ning's heart dropped.
Apart from Yu Ruo, the person Gu Ning least wanted to run into was Qingxiao.
Qingxiao had raised Gu Ning from childhood, and she was afraid she would be seen through here of all places.
But before she could think it out, both their figures wavered and vanished from where they stood.
Off to one side, Yu Ruo looked at the space where Qingxiao had been, a thread of doubt rising in her, and rubbed her chin.
This Sword Immortal seemed a little strange...
Then she gathered her thoughts back. There was something more important to do just now.
Raise her cultivation, and take the 《Flowing Water Plain Maiden Art》 to its second layer.
Then her spiritual energy and Gu Ning's would no longer reject one another, and she would become fatally attractive to Gu Ning.
The corners of Yu Ruo's mouth curved up. She could already picture the scene of Gu Ning falling beneath her skirts.
***
Her vision drew slowly into focus.
Gu Ning found the setting around her had become Qingxiao's chambers.
Carved jade and worked stone, magnificent past describing.
Gu Ning also found that her link to Dumpling had been cut. Qingxiao must have taken it.
She had no idea why she would do that, but it was better to deal with the matter in front of her.
She went back through what she knew of Qingxiao.
Sect master of the Mystic Light Sword Sect, cultivation at late Nascent Soul.
In her younger years, out cultivating in the world, she had come across the abandoned Gu Ning.
Gu Ning had been six then, sleeping in the streets, a small beggar.
Qingxiao saw that she carried a Sword Spirit Body, a marvel for cultivation, and took her as a personally taught disciple.
Raised her with great care.
And when Gu Ning was taken into Yu Ruo's harem, Qingxiao followed her in soon after, brought into the harem herself.
Which gave Yu Ruo the master-and-disciple combo meal.
Gu Ning's thoughts came back, and Qingxiao's lovely voice sounded in her ear.
"Ning'er, do you still remember the first time you and I met?"
Qingxiao turned around, her flowing gown lifting faintly, that cold face looking at her disciple.
"Of course I remember." Gu Ning did not dare slack, and answered. "If not for Master, I would surely have..."
"Nnh— Master, what are you..."
But as Gu Ning was speaking, that tall and striking figure kept coming closer.
Until it was right in front of her, and Gu Ning's voice grew smaller and smaller, and then stopped.
Gu Ning raised her head to look at that beautiful face, and was struck dumb by it.
Qingxiao was taller than Gu Ning, and she carried a cold fragrance about her that made Gu Ning's face go faintly red.
But she noticed it. Those eyes of Qingxiao's, cold before, now looked as though they were holding something back.
"Ning'er..." Qingxiao bit down on her red lips, as though the feeling in her chest were about to slip its restraint.
Qingxiao had believed her heart was set on the dao alone, that the Emotionless Dao was her whole practice.
When she found Gu Ning, she had only thought the child pitiable, gifted, a good seedling.
Someone who could inherit her mantle.
Then, watching Gu Ning go from a girl in her budding years to a woman grown and graceful.
Things took on another meaning.
Bathing, she had seen Ning'er's body and found it exquisite past bearing, and an urge had risen in her to lay hands on her.
At the time she thought she had simply gone mad, that such a thought was a violation of everything a master owed a disciple.
From then on she felt she was not fit to be Ning'er's master.
To keep that thought from growing, she had pulled away from her and left her out in the cold.
Ning'er at the time could not possibly have understood why.
She would only have thought she had failed at something, and made her master angry.
If Gu Ning had become unapproachable, it had most likely begun there.
After that, Qingxiao took to sealing herself away in cultivation.
For no reason but to reach the end of the Emotionless Dao and cut this feeling out.
And then, in the last stage of her assault on Deity Transformation.
She failed.
Because her heart demon had taken Gu Ning's shape...
Qingxiao put out a pale finger, wanting to touch Gu Ning's face.
"Master?"
At Gu Ning's call in her ear, she was pulled back to the world.
Qingxiao looked at the suggestive distance and the gesture, her face went red, and she stopped at once and coughed lightly.
"N-Ning'er, your master drifted off just now. Let us speak of the real matter."
Even so, a thread of regret went through Qingxiao's heart.
"If only we were still in the illusion..."
"All... all right."
The corner of Gu Ning's mouth twitched.
That was a hand about to touch me, and that look a moment ago wanted to eat me. How is that ordinary drifting off!
In the original owner's memory, her master had always been someone she revered.
She had always held her up as the goal to chase with everything she had.
Though at some point her master had begun to keep her at a distance.
It had never changed how Gu Ning felt about her.
But looking at Qingxiao now, how could this possibly be the ordinary feeling of a master for a disciple!
Gu Ning felt Qingxiao's motives were less than pure, but she could not put a name to it, and could only take it a step at a time.
Surely she was not, like Yu Ruo, out to get her into bed?
"Ning'er, your cultivation these past years has been diligent and swift. You are one step from late Golden Core."
"And this time you took a demonic sect Saintess alive. That is a great merit."
The flush faded from Qingxiao's face and the old cold manner returned.
"I can win you a chance to choose a treasure from the sect's holdings."
"A treasure?"
At those two words Gu Ning's eyes lit and her heart surged.
Only those who had rendered the sect great service ever got such a chance. Plenty of elders never had.
This was favoritism at the level of extra helpings from the kitchen.
"Your disciple would like the 《Cloud Sea Origin-Condensing Art》."
Gu Ning said it without a moment's thought.
Qingxiao's lovely eyes blinked, somewhat surprised, but out of trust in her disciple she nodded slightly all the same.
Seeing her master nod, Gu Ning's heart lifted.
She had chosen it because it was the only art that would do her physique any good.
It eased the symptoms.
With that art in hand she would have far more ground to stand on against Yu Ruo.
The corners of Gu Ning's mouth curved up, and she looked openly happy.
And seeing Gu Ning like this, something in Qingxiao's chest trembled.
"Ning'er... she seems to have changed." Qingxiao bit hard on her lip, holding the feeling down. "She seems to have grown even more beautiful..."
Then an absurd thought rose in her.
She said, softly.
"Ning'er, could you... grant your master a wish as well?"
Qingxiao's gaze slid away, her lovely face faintly red, not daring to look straight at Gu Ning.
"Master, please speak."
Gu Ning blinked, with no idea what she meant.
"It is... could you sleep together with your master?"
"?"
Gu Ning's small mouth fell open. She had not expected a request of this kind.