The Guanyin Sutra of Relieving Suffering.
Lu Xiangyu suddenly remembered that scripture she had picked up in the Sutra Pavilion, the one meant to temper one’s character.
Just like the grand performance before her… it moved her so deeply that tears streamed down her face, and she felt on the verge of wailing in grief.
“Haha… Hahahaha…”
Seemingly afraid that the sound of her crying would be too loud, Lu Xiangyu forced herself to cover her mouth tightly. She retreated further and further toward the deepest part of the cave until her palms brushed against a patch of icy mountain moss on the back wall.
She was so moved—so moved that she couldn’t help but bite down hard on the flesh of her palm, even tasting the fresh, sweet tang of blood between her teeth.
So it turned out she had been “judging the heart of a gentleman with the mind of a scoundrel” all along. What a joke… It turned out that Song Shenshi was the true embodiment of great mercy and kindness!
She had never, ever imagined that Song Shenshi could be so benevolent, to the point of showing pity and compassion even for wicked monsters and demons. It was truly heart-rending.
This filled Lu Xiangyu with an intense surge of excitement, but she didn’t want to ruin the beautiful scene before her. She remained in the farthest, darkest corner, watching Song Shenshi.
…What do you take yourself for? A spectacle for people to laugh at?
…Well, isn’t that exactly what it is.
She knew Song Shenshi must be incredibly clever. It was that way in the novel; everything seemed to come naturally to her. In her cultivation—whether it was insights into the Way of the Sword, knowledge of medical cultivation, or the obscure rules of array formations—Song Shenshi’s talent was as if the author had personally shoved the pen into her mind.
The same applied to her sensitivity toward human nature. She was never arrogant, yet everyone in the Haiqian Sect, from top to bottom, admired her. Every named supporting character treated her with great preciousness, and every male lead in the “harem” was deeply infatuated with the protagonist. This wasn’t just the author’s heavy-handedness; it was Song Shenshi’s personal charm.
Even if it was only a facade she occasionally adopted, changing into the exact type of person they adored… Lu Xiangyu knew that to win this affection, Song Shenshi wore layer upon layer of masks.
Only Lu Xiangyu, who had been inseparable from her since transmigrating, could detect those fleeting moments of fragmentation.
Could it be… could she be so clever that she actually knew this was a novel? Was she choosing to wear the mask of a character specifically to win the readers’ favor?
“…Tch.”
The thought made her stop peering at Song Shenshi, lest she be swayed again. It was far too terrifying!
Lu Xiangyu wanted to say something to regain some ground, but she suddenly heard a thunderous boom outside the cave. The small beasts inside were startled and fled frantically.
In a daze, Lu Xiangyu avoided Song Shenshi and made her way to the cave entrance.
The moon shone grimly over the forest; there was no light on the distant horizon, and the ground was dark and sunken, looking like a landscape of festering sores.
The cave Song Shenshi had found wasn’t far from the ground. The pink figures of the small beasts led her in a certain direction. Without much hesitation, Lu Xiangyu followed them and jumped down.
On the ground stood a sword, and beside it lay a person.
The aura of a high-grade spiritual sword emitted speckles of white spiritual light in the dim air, making it easy to spot.
As Lu Xiangyu approached, she smelled a thick scent of blood, and soon her feet were stained with sticky filth.
The man was severely injured. Thick blood flowed continuously from his chest. As she drew closer, Lu Xiangyu recognized him as Qin Hang, a senior brother from their Haiqian Sect. The style of the sword in his chest was also familiar.
Du Yifeng had killed him and thrown his body off the cliff.
However…
“Ugh…” Blurred words mixed with thick blood, leaving only fragmented whimpers.
Qin Hang turned his head imperceptibly, appearing to have seen her.
“Don’t move. I’ll find a way to save you.” Seeing that he still had breath in him, Lu Xiangyu’s expression turned serious, and she strode forward.
She reached out, channeling the spiritual energy she had just refined in the cave into the man’s wound.
It was dire… a single sword thrust through the chest. It was a miracle he had tried to adjust his posture as he fell; if he had landed the other way, he would have been split in two. But the current situation wasn’t optimistic either—his spiritual meridians were completely destroyed. Seeing how he struggled to force out his last words, he must have been enduring immense pain.
“Uh… I…” Seeing that the newcomer wasn’t Du Yifeng but the junior sister who had fallen off the cliff earlier, a flicker of hope rose in Qin Hang, granting him one last surge of energy in his final moments.
Lu Xiangyu, however, kept a stern face and directly cut him off.
“Senior Brother Qin, you have multiple major internal injuries and your heart has been sliced open by half an inch. You’re about to die, so stop talking.”
Turning away, Lu Xiangyu ignored Qin Hang’s despairing gaze and gripped the sword with both hands, intending to pull it out.
But pulling it would cause a massive hemorrhage, leading to immediate shock and death.
Lu Xiangyu freed one hand and continued to pour spiritual energy into Qin Hang’s heart. Under her guidance, this gentle energy coalesced into a tough, thin thread, poised and ready beside the wound.
“…” Fine beads of cold sweat formed on her forehead.
She had to use those threads to stitch the half-inch wound shut in the exact moment the sword came out. It had to be done at maximum speed.
Lu Xiangyu was usually impulsive and reckless, but she didn’t lack courage or meticulousness.
Without further hesitation, she yanked the sword out!
“Cough!” Qin Hang let out a faint scream, rolled his eyes, and promptly fainted.
His final words… in his last moment, his teeth had been clenched in indignant agony.
“Senior Brother Qin! Qin Hang!!”
Lu Xiangyu had achieved her theoretical maximum speed. The moment the sword was out, she tossed it aside, and the wound was immediately stitched shut. She didn’t stop, continuing to use her spiritual energy to gently nudge his heart, keeping it beating.
Seeing that Qin Hang had only fainted, Lu Xiangyu kept calling his name while continuously channeling energy to mend his other wounds.
Earlier in the Sutra Pavilion, Lu Xiangyu had also picked up a few copies of the Introduction to Medical Cultivation. The basic principle was to manipulate gentle, non-harmful spiritual energy to perform emergency aid on the injured—similar to micro-surgery.
Saving such a critically injured patient was not only a massive drain on spiritual energy but also incredibly mentally taxing.
Furthermore, Du Yifeng would surely come down to finish the job; his sword was still here.
In Qin Hang’s current state, he couldn’t be moved easily. It would have been a better choice to just listen to his last words and leave.
But since Lu Xiangyu had chosen to try and save his life, she wouldn’t regret it. Her spiritual energy would soon be depleted, so she took out all the spirit stones from her storage bag and picked out the most potent “Top-grade Revival Pill” to tuck under Qin Hang’s tongue. As one spirit stone after another was absorbed, Lu Xiangyu’s “micro-surgery” became increasingly proficient.
As long as she could stitch up these severe internal injuries and guide the internal hemorrhaging out of the body… Qin Hang would be able to hold on for a little longer.
Lu Xiangyu was fully immersed in her life-saving work, appearing completely indifferent to the outside world.
Swish—
The spiritual sword beside her suddenly let out a faint hum, like the persistent ringing that had been echoing in her ears. The sword hovered for a moment before darting off in one direction, then curved upward, returning to its master’s hand.
“Heh.”
Du Yifeng couldn’t help but sneer. He moved along the cliff face at a near-vertical angle, his murderous gaze fixed solely on Qin Hang’s half-dead figure lying on the ground.
Of course, he saw Lu Xiangyu too. Since this naive and foolish little junior sister wanted to save him so badly, he would just kill her along with him!
Swiftly adjusting his angle, Du Yifeng used a nearby withered branch as leverage to leap gracefully. Holding his sword with both hands, a surge of arrogant and abundant spiritual energy erupted from the blade’s edge, expanding it by more than three feet. His body spun at high speed directly above Lu Xiangyu’s head, and the sharp sword-qi surrounding him struck the rock walls, creating visible sparks!
This charged strike was not only fast but incredibly powerful, carrying the force of a devastating storm aimed straight at the seemingly oblivious Lu Xiangyu—
Hum—
In a sudden flash of flint and steel, an explosion erupted just an inch above Lu Xiangyu’s head. Her hair and robes billowed despite the lack of wind, the earth beneath her trembled, and the rattling of stones sounded like teeth chattering in fear.
“…” Du Yifeng’s eyes widened slightly.
He knew someone would intervene, but her presence lurking nearby had been completely undetectable. Even until the moment he thought he could mince Lu Xiangyu into bloody pulp, he hadn’t sensed her.
The Qingling Sword was like a vast ocean. With the grace of a dragonfly skimming water, Song Shenshi neutralized all of Du Yifeng’s sword-qi. In that split second, above the blade’s edge, the sword-qi ravaged the surrounding cliffs like a mindless beast, gouging out countless terrifying claw marks. Yet beneath the blade’s edge, it was as light as a ripple—gentle, quiet, and elegant.
Lu Xiangyu acted as if she heard and saw nothing. Her hands did not stop their movements, nor did she spare a shred of spiritual energy to protect herself or the patient, Qin Hang.
She knew very well that she was no match for Du Yifeng.
In their previous encounter, the two had already tested each other’s strength. Even though Du Yifeng had already killed over a dozen people on the cliffs, if he pursued them down here, he would certainly still have strength to spare.
Thus, Lu Xiangyu never lowered her guard because she never put it up in the first place; she didn’t allow herself to be distracted by the two of them for even a second.
She was the lead surgeon in the heat of battle, with eyes only for the patient on the operating table. Either the enemy’s shells would blow her and the patient to pieces together, or she would never abandon her duty.
Looking at it this way, wasn’t Lu Xiangyu quite grand?
Seeing his strike fail, Du Yifeng retreated again, vanishing into the treacherous shadows beneath the cliff.
Song Shenshi had revealed herself. She was still unable to channel her spiritual energy; although the Qingling Sword appeared to have blocked that strike steadily, she discovered her webbing between her thumb and index finger was trembling slightly after she withdrew the sword.
…That man had killed over a dozen fellow disciples of the Haiqian Sect in a row, and he was actually showing signs of an imminent breakthrough.
However, Song Shenshi quickly regained her composure. She stood silently by the two of them, keeping a vigilant watch for Du Yifeng’s subsequent attacks.
She didn’t have to wait long. Du Yifeng lunged at Lu Xiangyu from behind like a ghost. Song Shenshi’s reactions were lightning-fast; she blurred into motion and positioned herself in front of the blade. The Qingling Sword blocked the blow, but she also saw the crazed, cold smirk on Du Yifeng’s blood-stained face.
Something was wrong!
Song Shenshi used the momentum to knock Du Yifeng back. Suddenly, a “bang” echoed—not from a direct hit between them, but from the sword-qi she had just dispersed. It had actually regrouped beneath the cliff and was now flashing back like a boomerang, striking toward Lu Xiangyu’s neck at an even greater speed!
Rippp— The sound of tearing fabric echoed in her ear. Lu Xiangyu kept her eyes fixed forward, having no idea how the fight was progressing. Song Shenshi’s body, pressed close to hers, gave a slight tremor before she moved away again; the previous sound felt like an illusion.
However… a few strands of black hair drifted slowly down within her peripheral vision, settling quietly in the dim, foul-smelling mud beneath her. A sharp pain bloomed on her cheek, causing her already tense brow to tighten further. Blood seeped from the wound, spreading and sliding down her skin with an itchy sensation.
Yet, a corner of Lu Xiangyu’s slightly parted mouth couldn’t help but curl into a smile.