As the words fell, the pupils in Yu Qingya’s eyes instantly turned ashen gray, and her body swayed unsteadily.
“Older Sister!”
Seeing that Yu Qingya was about to collapse, Qin Yu hurriedly caught her.
“How could this be? Master, she…” Yu Qingya’s voice choked with emotion, her eye sockets turning red.
Observing Yu Qingya’s state, Qin Yu felt a tight squeeze in her chest and immediately instructed a nearby disciple, “I understand. You go attend to your duties first.”
After taking in the situation, the person chose not to say anything further, quietly stepping outside and pulling the door shut behind them.
The moment they left, Yu Qingya’s tears fell like a broken string of beads, spilling down incessantly. “Xiao You, tell me, why would Master…” That word remained unspeakable to Yu Qingya no matter what, leaving her to repeat it in muffled silence, questioning the void.
Watching Yu Qingya’s two streams of clear tears falling, Qin Yu felt as though her heart were stuffed tight with cotton, impenetrably dense, yet sour, heavy, and aching.
At the same time, a deep sense of shock rippled through her. Ever since arriving in this world, far too many things had altered from their original path.
Could her own arrival have accelerated the progression of every single event? Back in the original timeline, the head of the Lotus Pavilion had fallen, Yu Qingya’s cultivation had been damaged, and the foreign clans had invaded, which had been the darkest, most desolate period of Yu Qingya’s life.
She never expected this tragedy to happen ahead of schedule. Was there some hidden mystery behind this anomaly?
“Older Sister, perhaps Master has successfully broken through to another realm, and we simply do not know it yet.”
Qin Yu knew how devastating this blow was to Yu Qingya, but any further words of comfort spoken right now would only sound pale and powerless.
“Is that true?”
Yu Qingya murmured, “Perhaps Master anticipated that a day like this would come after all. Otherwise, she would never have handed the sect leader’s token over to me so early. I should have realized it sooner.”
Listening to Yu Qingya speak with a voice so choked it was labored, yet insisting on getting the words out, Qin Yu felt her heart ache violently in that moment. How could true empathy not exist in this world? Throughout the past days, Yu Qingya’s only relative had been her master, yet today…
Holding Yu Qingya in her arms, Qin Yu gently patted her back in comfort. For a time, the only sound filling the room was Yu Qingya’s low weeping.
“Xiao You…” Yu Qingya’s voice still carried a heavy nasal congestion from crying.
“I am here.”
Qin Yu’s voice remained gentle as she stopped her patting motion, waiting for Yu Qingya to continue.
“I have only you left as a friend.”
Whether expressing a deep realization or trying to grasp onto something to dull the pain, Yu Qingya’s mind was in absolute turmoil right now.
Hearing those words made Qin Yu’s heart ache even more. People always said Yu Qingya was unapproachable and cold, but when it came to genuine emotional bonds, she cared far more deeply than anyone else.
“I will always be here. I will accompany you back to the Lotus Pavilion.”
Qin Yu felt uneasy about Yu Qingya’s current state, and returning by her side this time was an absolute necessity.
After a short while, Yu Qingya regained her usual composed demeanor and gently pulled away from Qin Yu’s embrace.
Had it not been for the lingering redness around her eyes, no one would have guessed the reality of what she had just experienced.
Pushing open the door, a cluster of disciples stood keeping vigil outside, all of them in tears.
Seeing Yu Qingya emerge, they instantly crowded around, “Senior Sister, Master, she…”
Yu Qingya sighed softly, “Return to the sect.”
Qin Yu also stood beside her, giving instructions to the disciples and asking them to help carry the message back ahead of them.
The following evening, at the Lotus Pavilion.
The moment she stepped back into the Lotus Pavilion, Yu Qingya headed straight for the back mountain.
Seeing this, Qin Yu gritted her teeth and hurried to follow behind her.
Inside the ice cave of the forbidden grounds of the back mountain, the head of the Lotus Pavilion sat with her eyes closed. If not for the complete cessation of her breath, her appearance would have suggested nothing was amiss at all.
Watching the person who had nurtured her throughout her entire upbringing, Yu Qingya gently lifted her body and placed her inside an ice coffin resting to one side.
“This is?”
Qin Yu felt somewhat puzzled. Generally, when cultivators passed away, they were buried in places with exceptional geomantic energy to absorb the vital essence of heaven and earth, striving for a better natural aptitude in their next incarnation.
Yet this location appeared no different from any ordinary environment.
Yu Qingya gave a bitter smile, “Master always preferred quiet and frugality, cultivating in this cave during her daily life, yet no one else in the sect knew about it. The most extravagant thing Master ever did in her lifetime was crafting this ice coffin, hoping she could be buried here after death to ensure her physical body would not decay.”
Qin Yu understood that what Yu Qingya really wanted to say was that she simply had never imagined this day would arrive so swiftly.
Realizing that Yu Qingya had not rested properly for days, Qin Yu stepped forward intending to help, but the moment she drew close, a sudden anomaly caught her senses.
“What is it?”
Noticing Qin Yu’s grave expression, Yu Qingya asked.
“Your Master, her soul seems to have been extracted by someone.”
As soon as Qin Yu spoke those words, a wave of panic surged in her chest.
The two of them exchanged a glance, reading the exact same unspoken realization in each other’s eyes.
If the soul had been extracted, only one possibility remained: just like the Seventh Elder they had encountered earlier, the sect leader had run into someone possessing the exact same dangerous capability.
Yet the Seventh Elder had already been thoroughly eliminated. Could another member of the foreign clans have infiltrated the Lotus Pavilion?
And yet, this cave showed no signs of a struggle, and it even looked as though no one had set foot here at all.
“Are you certain of this?”
Yu Qingya felt a flicker of hesitation, given that everything here looked entirely undisturbed.
Furthermore, with the sect leader’s exceptionally high level of cultivation, launching a sneak attack against her would be an immensely difficult feat.
“I am only going by intuition. My cultivation is still lacking, but I can sense lingering spiritual power fluctuations in this area.”
Qin Yu remained somewhat uncertain, yet her acute perception told her she could not possibly be wrong.
Yu Qingya’s brow chilled by several degrees. If spiritual power fluctuations were present, then Qin Yu’s conjecture carried a high probability of truth. However, this was the Lotus Pavilion, guarded with absolute strictness, so how could such a thing happen?
Could a traitor have emerged from within the sect itself?
“The Lotus Pavilion has always maintained impenetrable security. Unless the intruder possessed terrifyingly high strength, the alternative would mean it is someone from inside our own sect.”
When Yu Qingya finished speaking, her expression turned exceptionally solemn.
Regardless of whether it was the former or the latter, it spelled grave danger for the Lotus Pavilion, proving that their sect had already been targeted from the shadows.
“Is there anyone in the Lotus Pavilion who practices spiritual power cultivation?”
Qin Yu felt it necessary to rule out internal threats first.
Yu Qingya shook her head, “The Lotus Pavilion has always focused primarily on spiritual energy. To my knowledge, anyone who cultivates spiritual power generally joins the Beast Taming Sect instead.”
If that was the case, could this be the true mastermind behind the rumors of the foreign clans?
In the original book, she was the ultimate boss, but if she truly were operating behind the scenes, those foreign clans would have already mobilized en masse rather than limiting themselves to sending only the Seventh Elder so far. There had to be a hidden twist to this.
“Who is over there? Show yourself!”
Yu Qingya suddenly snapped a sharp reprimand toward the outside of the cave.
No sooner had her voice dropped than a single figure stepped out from a concealed alcove.
Looking closely, it turned out to be none other than Cheng Jian.
“What are you doing here?”
Yu Qingya’s gaze turned critical and examining. In her eyes, Cheng Jian had initially fallen into the category of someone with crooked intentions; although he had shown no abnormal behavior during his recent time in the Lotus Pavilion and she had largely left him alone, his presence here today cast a fresh cloud of suspicion over him.
Cheng Jian hastily spoke up, “Senior Sister, the leaders of all the various sects have already arrived at the front hall, and Sister Shu Qing asked me to come fetch you.”