If Mo Wudu’s master eventually emerged from secluded cultivation and discovered that Jade Radiance Peak was gone, the blame would undoubtedly fall on Mo Wudu. The original Mo Wudu feared neither heaven nor earth, but there was one person he truly feared, his own master.
At present, aside from Mo Wudu and Ning Qingxue, the only other person belonging to Jade Radiance Peak was his master. However, his master had entered secluded cultivation five years ago and had yet to emerge.
So, strictly speaking, only Mo Wudu and Ning Qingxue currently lived on the entire mountain.
…
At Ning Qingxue’s residence, she was soaking in a wooden bathtub, staring at the shocking scars covering her body with a quiet sigh.
She had come to the mountain three years ago, and during those three years, she had suffered far more than just one or two beatings.
It was not that Ning Qingxue had never considered escaping from the mountain. Rather, she simply could not leave. To her, her identity as a disciple of the Jade Flower Sect was a safeguard that protected her life. If she left this place, suffering another beating would be the least of her worries.
Ning Qingxue had originally been a princess of the Great Dragon Empire.
The Great Dragon Empire had existed for more than 1,000 years. No one had expected such an ancient Empire to be destroyed overnight. Of course, in the endless course of history, the rise and fall of dynasties was nothing unusual.
The problem was that it had happened far too suddenly.
The Great Dragon Empire was destroyed, and a new Empire, the Great Flame Empire, rose in its place. As a princess of the former Empire, Ning Qingxue naturally could not be tolerated by the new royal family.
Her brothers and sisters were slaughtered by the Great Flame Empire’s royal family. She alone managed to escape.
With the Great Flame Empire’s soldiers pursuing her day and night, Ning Qingxue eventually fled to the Jade Flower Sect. By sheer coincidence, she arrived just as the sect was holding its disciple recruitment ceremony.
As long as the Jade Flower Sect accepted her and she obtained the identity of a sect disciple, she would effectively transcend the mortal world. Even if the Emperor of the Great Flame Empire personally came here, he would not dare harm Ning Qingxue.
That was the status cultivation sects held in the mortal world.
However, no one in the entire sect wanted her.
The aptitude test showed that Ning Qingxue possessed no talent whatsoever for immortal cultivation.
It was at that moment that Mo Wudu approached her and accepted her as his disciple.
At the time, Mo Wudu had merely wanted to ensure Jade Radiance Peak could continue to exist, so he casually took in a disciple. Yet that simple decision had effectively saved Ning Qingxue’s life.
Back then, Ning Qingxue had been deeply grateful that Mo Wudu was willing to accept a supposedly useless person like her as his disciple.
She simply had not known that her nightmare was only beginning.
After arriving on the mountain, Mo Wudu would beat her whenever the sight of her displeased him. He never taught her any cultivation techniques, nor did he ever give her cultivation resources.
There had been times when Ning Qingxue felt that her entire life had fallen into darkness.
But she could not collapse here.
Her parents, brothers, and sisters were still waiting for her to avenge them.
She was the princess of a fallen Empire, but beneath that identity, she was also just an ordinary young woman.
Ning Qingxue had sworn to herself that one day, she would slaughter every last usurper of the Great Flame Empire.
In fact, according to the plot Mo Wudu had originally written, she eventually succeeded.
However, that only happened after her Innate Dao Body awakened.
No matter how strong her determination was, Ning Qingxue was still a young woman. Looking at the scars covering her body and remembering everything she had endured, she could no longer suppress her emotions.
Large tears rolled down her cheeks as she sat silently in the bathtub.
Creak…
The door suddenly opened.
Ning Qingxue immediately sank deeper into the water and covered her chest. Her frightened gaze snapped toward the figure standing in the doorway.
To her shock, it was her master.
Ning Qingxue immediately thought she understood why Mo Wudu had suddenly started treating her so well.
So that was it.
He had taken an interest in her body.
She had already been crying, but now her tears fell even harder.
Mo Wudu was equally stunned.
He had been so focused on surprising Ning Qingxue with the medicine that he had never imagined she might be bathing.
Instead of giving her a pleasant surprise, he had frightened her half to death.
Mo Wudu immediately backed out and shut the door. Standing outside, he hurriedly explained, “Qingxue, what just happened was an accident. I didn’t mean anything by it. I only came to bring you some ointment. I didn’t know you were bathing. I’ll leave the ointment outside the door, so I won’t disturb you any longer.”
After saying that, Mo Wudu quickly walked away.
Although he had only caught a brief glimpse when he opened the door, with the senses of a Golden Core Realm cultivator, that single glance had been enough.
He had clearly seen the horrifying scars covering Ning Qingxue’s back.
Mo Wudu cursed himself inwardly, ‘Mo Wudu, you were truly inhuman.’
At that moment, memories of the original Mo Wudu brutally beating Ning Qingxue surfaced in his mind.
He had whipped her repeatedly.
Just imagining it made Mo Wudu feel the pain.
Meanwhile, Ning Qingxue still had not fully processed what had happened.
She had originally thought her master had been overcome by lust and intended to do something to her. She never imagined that he had genuinely come only to give her medicine.
After wrapping herself securely in a bathrobe, Ning Qingxue opened the door.
The ointment Mo Wudu had mentioned was sitting on the ground outside, while Mo Wudu himself was already nowhere to be seen.
Ning Qingxue picked up the ointment and immediately recognized it from the books she had read.
It was Mystic Jade Skin-Healing Ointment.
This ointment possessed an exceptionally powerful ability to repair damaged skin and was extremely popular among female cultivators. After all, fighting was commonplace among cultivators, so scars were hardly unusual.
Among all similar medicinal ointments, Mystic Jade Skin-Healing Ointment was considered the most effective and also the rarest.
It was said that even a tiny amount could be sold for one supreme-grade spirit stone.
Yet what Mo Wudu had left for her was an entire container.
Its value was almost impossible to estimate.
Naturally, Mo Wudu, a Peak Master who was practically penniless, could never have afforded something so expensive himself.
The Mystic Jade Skin-Healing Ointment had actually been a gift from Mo Wudu’s former lover.
That alone showed that the original Mo Wudu’s former lover had been an incredibly wealthy woman. Unfortunately, their relationship had still ended. If the current Mo Wudu had never transmigrated here, the original owner of this body would probably have continued wasting away in despair.
Ning Qingxue could not understand what her master was thinking.
Was it really fine for him to give something so precious to her?
Could someone’s personality truly change this drastically in a single day?
Just yesterday, his expression had been completely different when he whipped her.
Moreover, when her master had entered earlier and discovered her bathing, the shock on his face had been so genuine that Ning Qingxue almost began wondering whether this man was truly the same master she had always known.
After all, whenever her master stood before her in the past, his face was perpetually cold and expressionless, as though he possessed no emotions whatsoever.
This was the first time Ning Qingxue had ever seen him show the kind of flustered expression one might expect from an inexperienced young man.
Ning Qingxue returned to her room with the ointment and carefully applied it to her wounds.
She had to admit that its effects were astonishing.
In only a short while, every scar across her body disappeared. The burning pain that had plagued her skin vanished along with them, leaving her body restored to its original flawless, snow-white state.
“Could Master really have come to his senses?”
Ning Qingxue had previously heard some rumors about him.
According to those rumors, her master had been abandoned by his cultivation partner, which was why he had become so gloomy and dispirited every day. Before that happened, he had supposedly been an exceptionally gentle person.
Could it be that Master had finally let go of the past?
Ning Qingxue still found it difficult to believe.
What could possibly have transformed her once violent and cruel master into the person she had seen today?
The greatest problem was that Mo Wudu had changed far too quickly.
The difference between yesterday and today was so enormous that it was almost impossible for anyone to believe.
What Ning Qingxue did not know was that the master standing before her today was no longer the master she had known before.
And the true reason Mo Wudu was treating her so well was, in fact, Ning Qingxue herself.