The safest path open to her was to find a disciple inside the sect of outstanding natural talent who had also studied 《Ethereal Sword Art》 through to the bottom.
She could use her standing as Saintess to take them in as a personal student. To the outside world it would look like an ordinary case of taking on a disciple, while in private she would pretend to be testing them — having them break down the first volume of 《Ethereal Sword Art》 word by word and line by line until it was clear, then teach her a set or two of the simplest basic sword forms. That way, when she took the platform in seven days, she would only have to recite from the book and go through the motions of a few crude forms, and she might just scrape through.
The thought had barely surfaced before she snuffed it out.
No. Absolutely not.
As the revered Saintess of the Ethereal Sword Sect, taking a disciple into her residence out of turn and for no reason would inevitably draw countless eyes from every level of the sect.
The elders would watch in secret, her fellow disciples would talk and speculate, and that disciple's every move would have nowhere to hide.
In close daily contact, the flaw of her knowing nothing whatsoever about the sword dao would surface sooner or later. The moment that disciple sensed something wrong, grew suspicious, and reported it to the sect, the Sect Master — with the means of a Divine Transformation power — would certainly use a soul-search technique to investigate down to the root. Then the secret of her body-snatching would be laid open to everyone, and she would end with her soul scattered to nothing.
Chu Qingxue's brows knitted tight, her fingers bunching her wide sleeve without her noticing, and she shook her head at the idea over and over inside. The path looked workable and was in truth riddled with hidden danger.
If only there were someone she could trust.
She worked through other methods again and again, only to find dead ends everywhere ahead of her.
The crisis of the lecture seven days from now was not yet resolved, and looking further out, the Spirit Ruins Secret Realm five months away was waiting for her as well. She would have to lead a team then and contend against the elites of every sect. One hard thing stacked on another until the weight of them left her barely able to breathe.
Now and then a few thoughts of simply giving up would rise in her. If her identity came out on the day of the lecture, at least she would not have to wear herself out over all the trouble still ahead.
Chu Qingxue let out a long sigh, drew in the unsteady thread of spiritual energy circling inside her, and started off toward the Jade Pool on the rear mountain.
The Jade Pool was a place of quiet cultivation reserved for the sect's female disciples. A spirit spring ran down between the rock faces, and an endless flow of warm, gentle vapor hung in the air, wrapping the whole pool in white mist.
The sky had grown gradually darker, and several female disciples were still on the bank, some seated in meditation regulating their breathing, some playing and laughing softly.
The moment they caught sight of that white-robed, silver-haired figure they put their play aside, respect and delight rising in their faces, and bowed together. "Senior Sister Qingxue."
Chu Qingxue inclined her head slightly, her expression detached, and walked unhurriedly along the path beside the Jade Pool.
For three whole months she had worn the halo of the original owner's title, Saintess of the Sword Sect, copying her expressions, drilling her bearing, memorizing crude methods by rote off the transmission stele, living every day inside fear and pretense. Loneliness had long since soaked all the way through her.
She lifted her eyes to this cultivation world of coiling cloud and drifting immortal air, and her thoughts floated of their own accord back to the distant mortal world from before she crossed over, and to Lin Jin, the close friend of nine years who had been at her side.
He was a fanatic for cultivation stories, forever putting on a dashing air and declaiming his imagined edgelord lines at the top of his voice: "I have a sword. It can split mountains, cut rivers, cleave the heavens. Sword, come!"
If Lin Jin were to see a cultivation world that genuinely existed with his own eyes — the seven steles on the Transmission Grounds that carried the whole depth of the sword dao, the sword cultivators treading on air and riding their blades above the clouds — he would surely go wild with joy.
A thread of envy stirred quietly in Chu Qingxue. If she could trade places right now with that idiot who loved cultivation so much, it would be a release for her instead.
Just as her thoughts were drifting, everything changed at once.
A dazzling golden light shot up from the exact center of the Jade Pool's spirit spring and tore through layer after layer of vapor with a roar.
The water churned and boiled violently in an instant, bubbling loudly, and even the white mist coiling around it was shaken apart in every direction by that violent power.
Chu Qingxue's chest tightened abruptly, her heart slamming hard.
The color of that golden light, the strange stabbing sensation particular to its eruption — both were carved into her bones.
Three months ago it had been exactly such an abrupt flash of spiritual light that had dragged her soul bodily out of a modern university dormitory and into this cultivation world full of danger.
The golden light slowly withdrew, the churning water gradually settled, and above the surface there was now, out of nowhere, a bedraggled human figure.
"Aaah—! There's a man!"
"A lecher, broken into the Jade Pool!"
Shrill cries rang out across the whole of the Jade Pool in an instant, and the peaceful place of quiet cultivation dissolved into chaos.
A dozen and more female disciples, mortified and furious, snatched up brooms and wooden basins from the bank and charged barefoot for the water's edge.
Chu Qingxue pushed quickly through the gathering crowd, her gaze falling on the figure sprawled facedown at the pool's edge. Several of the disciples, mindful that he was only a mortal with no spiritual power at all, had not used their cultivation; they were simply pinning him to the ground with their bare hands, shoving and kicking.
The man was soaked through with spring water. He wore a black short-sleeved shirt of bizarre style with an odd portrait design printed across the chest, loose dark blue shorts below, and a pair of flip-flops, one of which had snapped and was barely hanging on.
Even in such straits he was still guarding an unopened can of some drink against his chest, a sight both ridiculous and pitiful.
"Mercy, immortal maidens! Go easy on me!" Lin Jin curled up on the ground, teeth bared with pain, and still would not stop talking. "Not the back! I sit down all year round, my lower back is injured as it is! Easy with that foot, immortal lady — it would be such a shame if you hurt it on me!"
One of the disciples, caught between anger and laughter, raised her voice. "You can't even save yourself, and you still have the leisure to worry about someone else?"
"That is an entirely different matter!" Lin Jin said, wholly self-righteous, pinned to the ground and unable to move and still running his mouth. "You immortal ladies have such delicate figures — how could they be put to use beating a brute like me? You ought to be taking proper care of yourselves... ow!"
"Still smooth-talking, are you!"
"I won't, I won't! But everything I said is true!"
Lin Jin rolled over and over on the ground clutching his can, and the next moment let out a heart-rending wail. "Stop hitting me! My teammates in the game are still waiting for me to get them out!"
The beating stopped where it was. The disciples looked at one another, blank to a woman.
Chu Qingxue stood at the front of the crowd, her long lashes trembling faintly, the corner of her mouth twitching beyond her control.
She did not need to look any closer. From that one-of-a-kind behavior and that erratic tone alone she was already certain: this thoroughly disheveled person in front of her was Lin Jin.
Nine full years of brotherhood, from skipping class to fool around to staying up all night side by side. They knew each other down to the bone.
In all of that old world there was exactly one person who, hemmed in on every side, would think not of saving his own life but of a game. The familiar look of him, the familiar temperament — there was no possibility of mistaking it.
"Senior Sister is here!"
The disciples immediately clustered around Chu Qingxue, all talking at once about the terrifying scene just past.
Their voices were full of shame and indignation. "Senior Sister Qingxue, this person appeared out of thin air from the spirit spring and disturbed our cultivation!"
"No man from outside has ever laid eyes on my figure. This cannot be let go lightly!"
"As I see it, his eyes should be dug out!"
"Better to cripple his limbs and throw him to the demon beasts on the rear mountain, as a warning to others!"