With the cold light of the needle’s tip still vivid in her memory, Cong Jinyue half-closed her eyes, staring at the picture like reflection in the water, and replied, “Yes, Master.”
The person in the pool had saved her with her own hands and was now warning her out of concern, ultimately, it was for her own good, so she would trust her.
However, since the topic of tonight’s ambush had been raised, Cong Jinyue could not help but follow the thread and inquire, “Hearing Master discuss matters with the elders, the main culprit behind tonight’s attack is the Wujian Sect?”
Jiang Xingxuan did not reply immediately. She tilted her head slightly, as if loosening her neck and shoulders. Her delicate neckline moved accordingly, and her snow white skin rippled subtly, causing droplets of water to slide down.
Amid the light clinking of her earrings, she hid her hands beneath the water, curling them against her palms, and whispered softly, “Yes. The reasons behind it are far-reaching, involving the landscape of the mortal realm, it is a long story.”
Jiang Xingxuan let out a soft sigh, her subtle breath echoing as if traversing a long corridor of time, coming from ancient antiquity:
“A thousand years ago, this realm was still a barren wilderness. Whether it was spiritual energy or demonic energy, both were extremely thin. Then one day, a rift ruptured in the realm’s boundary, stretching over ten thousand miles, an event recorded in history as the Calamity of the Falling Sky.”
“Waters from beyond the heavens, carrying flowers from outside the realm, poured in, forming the Guixu Abyss. Both spiritual energy and demonic energy surged into this world along with it.”
She brought both hands out of the water and flicked her fingers. The scattering luminescent spots gathered at her command, forming a geographical map:
“In today’s mortal realm, the human and demon tribes, as well as the immortal and demonic paths, stand in opposition. Each side boasts outstanding figures who have founded sects, recruited disciples in abundance, and kept one another in check.”
She raised a finger, and a location on the map shone with brilliant light:
“Take our Guiyuan Sect, for example. We belong to the human immortal path. Founded twenty years ago, we take only humans and teach only immortal arts.”
“Originally, as the various factions ebbed and flowed, there were no world-ending wars after the Calamity of the Falling Sky.”
Jiang Xingxuan flicked her ten fingers, and a flurry of crimson light dots suddenly spread across various parts of the map:
“However, the Wujian Sect broke the isolation between the two tribes and the two paths. The Sect Leader of Wujian founded the sect over twenty years ago, accepting anyone without regard to whether they were human or demon, immortal or demonic.”
The red light on the map resembled fresh blood, gathering into streams that flowed slowly before Cong Jinyue’s eyes. Even the light splashing sounds of the spring turned into a soft, sorrowful weeping:
“This move aroused suspicion from all sides. And the Wujian Sect Leader did not disappoint, using evil arts, she successively slaughtered three places: the Immortal-less City, the Qingfeng Pass, and Changsheng Mountain, turning the entire sect into an enemy of all the world’s factions.”
Cong Jinyue lowered her brows, she had found her enemy.
Yet the hushed narrative came to an abrupt halt here. The eye corners of the woman in the water seemed stained with fresh blood, exceptionally crimson, as if weeping in eternal grief for a single person, her teary eyes shimmering.
Jiang Xingxuan waved her hand to dispel the luminescent map. Her voice harbored a sense of mournfulness, like a sad lament: “Alright, as for the rest, we still have tomorrow to talk about it slowly.”
“If you soak any longer, aren’t you afraid of getting dizzy?”
She looked back at Cong Jinyue with a gentle smile, as if the sorrow from a moment ago was merely an illusory moon reflected in the water: “If there is nothing else, A-Yue should go back to her room first.”
Actually, there were still things she wanted to know.
“The Wujian Sect Leader…” Cong Jinyue frowned slightly. “Master, will she send people to attack us again?”
“A-Yue need not be afraid. Just stay by my side, and I will not let anyone hurt you.”
Jiang Xingxuan gazed at her, using her fingertip to gently rub the space between Cong Jinyue’s eyebrows: “If the Wujian Sect dares to invade again, I will make sure they never return.”
Meeting her gaze, the surge of resentment from her mortal feud quieted down slightly inside Cong Jinyue. She could not help but ask another question: “What about Master?”
“I only know that Master possesses a Water Heavenly Spirit Root, and the elders and senior sisters all call you Dao Lord Wangshu.”
Her right thumb instinctively rubbed the base of her index finger, as though an old, long-standing sword callus belonged there: “What about other things? Master’s background, natal magic treasure…”
“Are you curious about me?” Jiang Xingxuan’s gaze dropped keenly from her face to her right hand. After the shimmering light in her eyes flickered slightly, she merely smiled: “In the future, you will come to know everything, bit by bit.”
It was indeed true. Now that they were master and disciple, they would eventually get to know each other through their daily interactions.
Cong Jinyue could not help but smile in return. Answering with a soft nod, she rose from the spring. However, the moment her upper body emerged from the water, she could not help but feel a wave of embarrassment, quickening her steps significantly.
Haste made for easy mistakes.
Jiang Xingxuan’s thin gauze dress was still floating in the pool, like living aquatic weeds moving with the waves. It actually wrapped around Cong Jinyue’s ankle, tightening with every step she took.
Pulled so abruptly in her rush, Cong Jinyue instantly lost her balance, her forehead plummeting toward the edge of the pool!
Seeing that her head was about to be bloodied, she instinctively raised her hand to protect her face. Yet she heard water splash everywhere, mid-fall, she was suddenly flipped around and caught firmly in a warm embrace.
A hand cradled her waist and another supported the back of her head. Perhaps because they were soaked in spring water, they felt even warmer and softer than usual.
It felt as though a heat far hotter than the hot spring, resembling love, lingering affection, or perhaps an obsession, was silently spreading through the palm carved with life-runes, entering her existence once more.
Her heart trembling from the heat, Cong Jinyue opened her eyes. A small part of her world consisted of the bright moon suspended in the sky, serene and cool, another small part was a full tree of magnolias, holding blooms of silver-white moonlight like glittering stars.
And another small part was a radiant, striking face, more dazzling than the lush flowers, more brilliant than the stars.
Eyes touched by autumn waters, lips stained like crimson maple leaves. In just a single gaze, a depth of emotion seemed hidden within, wanting to speak yet holding back.
A sudden feeling washed over Cong Jinyue, as if they had met and known each other many years ago.
A single glance felt like ten thousand years, an eternal lingering never to be forgotten.
Her soul began to throb with pain. In her dazed state, Cong Jinyue could only follow her heart, placing her fingertip at the slightly upturned corner of Jiang Xingxuan’s eye, then tracing downward until it finally rested at the edge of her lips, which shared the exact same curve as her eyes.
A distance of merely a few inches felt as though it had taken half a lifetime to walk across before finally arriving at this moment.
At this instant, allowing her lost-and-found beloved to brush against her face once more, even the famous Dao Lord at the half-step Nascent Soul stage could not help but feel her sea of consciousness tremble.
Sunsets and moonrises, shifting stars and moving constellations, time, which never turns back, felt as if it were roaring backward in this single moment.
Twenty-five years ago, by the shores of the Guixu Abyss.
The current Golden Core Dao Lord was then twenty years of age. Because her spirit root was exceptionally pure, her cultivation had already reached the Great Circle of the late Foundation Establishment stage, one tier higher than her friend named Gu, who was a few years older than her.
That friend named Gu was already considered an elite among peers. Having competed with her since childhood, after a game of chasing each other’s heels, she had still ended up one step behind.
Yet this proud, top-tier half-step Golden Core prodigy had been kicked out of the house by her mother, ordered to seek her own opportunity to condense a Golden Core.
Simply because in the entire mortal realm, there was still one person whose natural talent surpassed hers.
Thinking of that heavenly prodigy whom she had never met, the “Number One Foundation Establishment in the Mortal Realm” could not help but gnash her teeth in secret.
If that person had not broken through to the Golden Core stage and gained world-wide fame, she herself wouldn’t have been dumped by the waters of Guixu, racking her brains to seek advancement.
However, the young girl’s resentment vanished in a flash. The Foundation Establishment cultivator knew very well that the true culprit behind her wandering in the wild was her strict mother, not the genius tens of thousands of miles away.
Besides, what filled her heart even more was an intense curiosity and a hazy longing toward that prodigy.
What would such an unprecedented genius be like?
Sitting on the edge of a ten-thousand-foot cliff, the Foundation Establishment cultivator rested her right cheek in her hand, pondering all the rumors about this heavenly child.
The deeply cherished young city lord, possessing an absolute pure-Yang Fire Heavenly Spirit Root, wearing robes as red as flame, displaying an enchanting celestial posture, capable of forging heaven-grade magic treasures and creating supreme sword techniques.
Honestly, she really wanted to meet her.
However, that would have to wait until after she condensed her Golden Core!
The Foundation Establishment cultivator was petty, she thoroughly disliked having to respectfully call a peer “senior.”
Shifting her chin to her left palm, she gave a discontented snort, surveyed the bottomless cliff for a moment, and then leaped down without a second thought!
She had established her foundation at the edge of life and death in her childhood, must she also seek death to form her Golden Core now?
A call from afar was scattered by the wild wind. Suspended upside down, the Foundation Establishment cultivator plunged headfirst toward Guixu in a manner of seeking death after seeing through the mortal world!
Yet amid the vast sea of clouds, a streak of crimson light came toward her.
Cultivators could only ride the wind after forming a Golden Core. This遁光 (escape light) flashed like lightning, indicating that a Golden Core cultivator was approaching at extreme speed!
The Foundation Establishment cultivator flipped her wrist, actually sending out a palm strike in an attempt to repel the person.
If this Dao Lord came to save her, it was completely unnecessary. Though she had been kicked out of the house by her mother, a small portion of her mother’s spiritual power remained sealed within her body.
A Nascent Soul Immortal Lord’s spiritual power was more than enough to ensure she would survive falling into Guixu.
If the person came to kill her, that spiritual power would instantly burst forth the moment it sensed intent to kill, letting the visitor know what it meant to suffer physical and spiritual destruction.
Yet to the Foundation Establishment cultivator’s surprise, the crimson light did not shrink back. Instead, its speed visibly increased as it swooped straight down toward her.
Did this person really think she was bent on dying, risking everything to save her?
“Dao Lord!” She struck out another palm toward the light. “Mind yourself!”
The howling gale flooded her mouth. Every inch of her skin trembled from the weightlessness, and the Foundation Establishment cultivator began to lose control of her limbs, let alone articulate the situation clearly.
The boundlessness of Guixu was already before her eyes. If a Golden Core cultivator touched the water, their meridians would snap at best, and their soul would shatter at worst.
No one would gamble their life for a stranger, that Dao Lord ought to be the same.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator closed her eyes, trying her best to concentrate and sense any abnormality in her dantian that might arise from being on the verge of death.
Yet her dantian remained quiet, she only smelled a warm sandalwood fragrance in the wind.
Her hair was about to touch the water when she was suddenly embraced by a pair of arms. Her entire body was pulled away from her original trajectory of falling by an irresistible force.
Someone had ventured deep into danger, skimming past Guixu, dragging her to the shore, and then turning decisively to use their own body as a cushion for her.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator felt a breath catch in her chest, it could not be called joy, nor was it anger, she simply didn’t know the reason for it or how to express it.
What a unfamiliar feeling, her heart was beating even faster than when she broke through her cultivation realms.
In her state of confusion, she only instinctively wrapped her arms tight, protecting the back of the head and the heart of this “number one kind-hearted person in the world” before they hit the ground.
With their speed being too fast to control, the two crashed into the grass, both groaning softly.
“Are you not afraid of dying?!”
The Foundation Establishment cultivator put on a fierce front to mask her weakness. Her somewhat youthful eyes held an undefinable emotion, which widened abruptly when she clearly saw the person beneath her.
Delicate features that could not conceal the pride in her bones, fluttering red robes, a half-sheathed magic sword engraved with the words “Fu Xian” (Dispel the Frost).
It was her!
“Yun, ” In her shock, the Foundation Establishment cultivator almost blurted out the Dao Lord’s name. Feeling a warmth on the side of her face that did not belong to her, she abruptly lowered her voice and put on a obedient demeanor, calling out softly: “Dao Lord Minzhu.”
Min refers to the sky. Minzhu, the lamp and candle in the sky, like the stars.
It was a very nice Dao title, similar to her own name. The Foundation Establishment cultivator thought to herself that this legendary Dao Lord actually had pretty good taste in names.
The young, matchless Dao Lord in her arms knew nothing of her inner thoughts. She merely curved her eyes, driving away the full moon and crowded flowers her pupils had contained, leaving only the reflection of a vivid, gorgeous face.
Time had faded, and things had changed. The whisper from a returned friend recalled the Foundation Establishment cultivator, now a Dao Lord, back to reality.
Her fingertip brushed across her cheek, and she said to her: “Magnolias are like stars, and you are like precious jade.”
That compliment from back then traveled across twenty-five years of youth, finally breaking into her ears once more.