A point of cold light, and a bitter wind carrying a chill in its folds.
Two streaks of pale blue sword-light flashed across the sky, and on the leading blade stood two figures, one tall and one short.
"Nnh—" At the pressure against her chest, a faint pink surfaced on Gu Ning's cold face and a stifled whimper escaped her.
Behind her, the small shape of Su Qiuyin hung on like a charm on a cord, both arms circling Gu Ning's slender waist.
"Senior Sister smells so good—"
Su Qiuyin's little face was squashed nose-first against Gu Ning's gown of flowing silk, rubbing back and forth.
As an alchemist she was sensitive to scent to begin with, and this posture, this closeness, this fragrance.
It was pure indulgence. A thought even surfaced in her head. Wouldn't it be lovely to hold Senior Sister and sleep at night?
The thought was buried almost at once under a flood of mortification, and the tips of her ears took on a faint crimson, as though they might drip blood.
She only pressed her face in deeper, treasuring this hard-won chance.
Which was misery for Gu Ning. Her already sensitive body, put through this, had every taut nerve in her head ringing like piano wire.
Because although Su Qiuyin had a Foundation Establishment cultivation, her spiritual power was nowhere near enough to sustain long-distance sword flight, so Gu Ning had to carry her.
"Pfft~"
An ill-timed snicker came from behind, and though the wind scattered it at once, Gu Ning heard it perfectly clearly.
In an instant her cold gaze fell on Yu Ruo, laughing behind her hand.
"Senior Sister, why is your face all red, and your breathing unsettled? Is Senior Sister Su too heavy?" Yu Ruo made no attempt to dodge, her brows and eyes curved, her crimson gaze glimmering.
Every line she spoke had a barb in it, and yet she wore an expression of pure concern.
Gu Ning could not find a gap in it. It was like throwing a punch into a bale of cotton, and all she could do was talk tough and make her dislike plain.
"Hmph! We have already set our rule. Unless it is necessary, you do not touch me. Junior Sister Yu does remember?"
"Of course I remember." And having said it, Yu Ruo put on that signature helpless little expression again, her tone going soft.
"But does Senior Sister truly find me so hateful? I was only acting for Senior Sister's own good, and in my haste I circulated the art to cure you..."
Gu Ning watched the performance quietly, knowing the line was not aimed at her alone.
If she rushed to deny it on the spot, wouldn't that prove the girl's words true in reverse?
Sure enough, the pair of ears below her went up like antennae, carving every word Yu Ruo said into her head and pulling out one key term.
Cure.
"Senior Sister has an illness that can't be cured? And Yu Ruo has a way to treat it?"
What troubled Su Qiuyin more was why Senior Sister had not told her. Was her own medical skill not enough?
Su Qiuyin tilted her small face up a fraction, looking at that profile that held the eye and would not let it go, and opened her mouth, wanting badly to press the question.
But the words jammed in her chest and would not come out no matter what, and she could only push the doubt down inside.
What came in its place was a deep guilt, and a sense of helplessness.
For as long as she could remember, she had been nurtured by her master.
Her talent for cultivation was ordinary, but in alchemy she showed a gift beyond the common run, and the sect had made her a focus of its training.
And by accident she had come to know that daughter of heaven, Gu Ning.
"Your alchemy is excellent. If your temperament were a little harder, your master might even let you train with a sword, and then we could spar."
A girl in white with a sword at her hip, her hair tied back, saying it to her with a smile.
And from that day someone had walked into her heart.
And now, as ever, she could not help anyone.
The girl's heart went quiet, and she began to accept her own weakness and uselessness.
"Qiuyin?" A voice like a small bell reached her ears, and the fog over her vision slowly cleared.
"Cangwu Town is just ahead. Hold on tight, don't fall off."
The voice was cold, and yet it carried concern.
From the moment Yu Ruo had begun her chattering, Gu Ning had been keeping constant watch on the girl behind her.
The small hands circling her chest had loosened by the second, and now and then a sniffle came from behind her back.
That had given her no small fright.
In the original owner's memory, Su Qiuyin was a person of the most delicate feeling, and the original owner walked the Emotionless Dao, so of course she never registered the smallest shift in the temperament of anyone near her.
But Gu Ning was not her, and if she paid no attention at all, wouldn't the heroine simply get hooked back to the Mary Sue's side?
She had no wish to be abandoned by everyone and pour out what little goodwill she had like so much water.
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, Qiuyin is fine. I was only thinking about when I was small."
Su Qiuyin tipped her face up. Gu Ning's long hair, drifting like cloud on the wind, happened to sweep softly across her face and brush her lashes.
Her eyes prickled at once and narrowed to slits.
"Hey, hey, hey, there's a catch in her voice," Gu Ning grumbled inwardly.
But looking at Su Qiuyin with her eyes squeezed shut like that, she drifted a little.
She thought of the little ragdoll cat back home, whose eyes had narrowed to the same slits when she scratched under its chin, a low rumbling purr in its throat.
"Just like a cat."
If both her hands had not been occupied, Gu Ning would probably have reached over and patted her head.
"Then all is well."
After that, they flew the rest of the way in silence.
Before long the three of them arrived at Cangwu Town.
The town counted as a border settlement under the Mystic Light Sword Sect's jurisdiction, a place where dragons and fish swam together, but their own territory in the end.
At present the orthodox and demonic paths would not give each other an inch, and swords were half out of their sheaths.
Of them all the Mystic Nether Sect was the most rampant, opposing Gu Ning's sect at every turn and expanding its ground.
In the original plot, Yu Ruo brought their Saintess Tao Yao to heel, and with the protagonist's halo behind her helped Tao Yao crush every rival, put her in the sect master's seat, and made her a power in her own right.
And the Mystic Nether Sect became a plaything in Yu Ruo's palm.
And this Tao Yao pressed down the rest of the harem too, with the faint air of being its mistress.
As a daughter of heaven in her own right, Gu Ning was naturally singled out for attention and squeezed mercilessly by the two of them.
At that thought a chill went up Gu Ning's back, and she shook her head to fling the images out of her mind. She had no wish to end up as anyone's plush toy.
A flash of pale blue spirit light, and a jade slip appeared in Gu Ning's palm.
It was covered with red marks large and small, but inside the largest red circle were three names.
"Yihe Court?"
Gu Ning blinked. The name sounded strange, and she felt as though she had heard it somewhere before, though she could not place it.
Thinking no more of it, the three of them stepped into a splendidly appointed building.
And all three of them found their pupils shrinking a little at the scene before them.
The air inside was thick with a haze that muddled the head and hinted at things.
Ahead of them a woman of upright, striking build sat with an arm around a flushed girl on either side.
The woman was teasing the face of the girl beside her with a slender finger, while with the other hand she lifted a gilded wine ewer and poured into her own mouth.
It was, unmistakably, a scene of phoenixes overturned and lovers murmuring together.
No wonder that ever since she walked in, no small number of scantily dressed women had been throwing her flirtatious looks.
And here she had thought her own charm was simply irresistible even to girls.
It had never occurred to her that this was an establishment that served women exclusively!
She was beginning to doubt the accuracy of the intelligence!
A layer of pink washed over Gu Ning's lovely face, and her eyes went to Yu Ruo as though demanding an answer. Are you sure this is the right place?
And beside her, Su Qiuyin, who had seen nothing of the world, had never encountered anything of the sort.
Her whole head buzzed like a kettle coming to the boil, her face scarlet, and all she could do was put both small hands up in front of her.
And then part them out of curiosity, showing two round eyes fixed unblinkingly on the thing ahead that was scouring a young girl's values away.