The more Yun Xiu thought about it, the more possible it seemed. After mulling it over for a good while, she took out her other, black glazed mirror.
The one the Lingyun Sect had issued was blue, with a distinctive pattern on the back, whereas this black one was what she’d had on her when she transmigrated, utterly ordinary in appearance.
But the unusual thing was that this glazed mirror had no IP address.
She’d just observed that on the SpiritNet, every blogger’s handle came with their own IP, like “Jiuli, Lingyun Sect” or “Penglai, Jiaoyue Continent” and so on. Even the lower-left corner of her own profile page had one.
Yet when she’d used this black glazed mirror before, she hadn’t seen her IP in the lower-left corner.
Yun Xiu tried posting a random test on the SpiritNet with this mirror, and sure enough, the two characters following the IP read “Unknown.”
A little thought and Yun Xiu understood why. The Hehuan Sect’s reputation in the cultivation world was atrocious, practically everyone wanted to beat them on sight.
If a Hehuan Sect disciple chatted with people online and the IP after their handle read “Wuyou Realm, Hehuan Sect,” they’d be swarmed and attacked, private messages overflowing every day.
Yun Xiu deleted the test post and switched to the Cultivation Forum, registered a random account, and hand-typed a thread.
look: 【How are you】
But the forum’s heat was all on her fight, and her thread quickly got buried. There were only a scattered few replies, 【?】【What language is this】【Can’t understand】—and then it sank like a stone into the sea.
Finding fellow countrymen this way was hopelessly inefficient, so Yun Xiu gave up.
The SpiritNet was plastered with clips of her brawling, and Yun Xiu got scalp-tingling just seeing them, couldn’t bear to look. Not wanting to scroll threads anymore, she switched off the glazed mirror.
She flopped onto her pillow, spirits low, and started missing novels and games.
Oh, right. Games.
Yun Xiu suddenly perked up again. She could make a game herself!
Finding fellow countrymen this way would be far more efficient.
Although Yun Xiu had chosen to work at the town crematorium after graduation, her university major had been in network technology.
When she’d picked her major, she’d investigated carefully: this field’s coursework aside, everyone communicated online, with zero offline activities whatsoever.
So without a backward glance she’d chosen to become a tech shut-in.
Yun Xiu picked up the black glazed mirror and began her research.
Half an hour later, having roughly gotten a handle on the SpiritNet’s system, Yun Xiu had an indescribable feeling.
How to put it… the way it was built gave her the sense of a mediocre coder who somehow also wasn’t especially mediocre.
To use an analogy: it was like drawing a cat by tracing a tiger (copying something badly, botching the imitation), learning from others but not learning well, swallowing it whole like a date without chewing, piling on spirit-runes willy-nilly without caring whether it would even run, and just throwing the main framework together like that, a slapdash mess that made no sense.
And the absurd part was that it actually ran.
Yun Xiu went quiet, then decided: whatever. Rain me no melon.
Code that runs is good code.
That said, the slapdash framework wasn’t without its upsides. Yun Xiu found that building a game on top of it was easy, time-saving and effort-saving.
All she had to do was link her consciousness to the glazed mirror, construct the game in her sea of consciousness using her spiritual sense, and then reproduce it onto the glazed mirror’s spirit-runes with spiritual energy.
Yun Xiu closed her eyes and tried to enter her sea of consciousness. She’d expected the first attempt to be difficult, but the moment she gripped the glazed mirror, whoosh, she was in.
It happened so fast she froze, standing in the middle of her sea of consciousness without registering it.
Yun Xiu found a comfortable position, crouched in her sea of consciousness, propped her chin on her hand, and gazed quietly at the vast expanse of white.
Ten minutes later, a fuzzy little plush-bird toy dropped down in front of her.
……
Toward evening, Yun Xiu had just withdrawn from her sea of consciousness and was rubbing her head when the blue glazed mirror beside her went ding.
She picked it up and looked.
Xie Wuwang: 【What would you like to eat?】
Maybe because she’d expended spiritual sense and spiritual energy, Yun Xiu was faint with hunger. Without hesitation she reeled off a string of dish names, nearly filling the whole screen.
Xie Wuwang: 【……】
Xie Wuwang lowered his eyes to the spirit stones he’d just earned.
Xie Wuwang: 【Fine.】
Night fell. Xie Wuwang returned to Luoxue Peak and walked into the little courtyard.
To his surprise, the girl wasn’t thrashing about. She lay asleep on her pillow like a small animal, the tip of her nose faintly red, her sleeping face peaceful.
She’d actually stayed home obediently all day.
Xie Wuwang set the dishes she’d ordered out on the table one by one.
Catching the smell of food, the little animal’s nose twitched. Her ears shot up with a whump, her eyes opened, and she hopped off the couch to sit primly at the table’s edge.
A pair of bright, clear eyes gazed sparklingly at… the food.
Xie Wuwang opened his book and read with lowered eyes. “Eat.”
At the taste of the good food, Yun Xiu’s eyes lit up. “Um… this is really good, do you want to try some?”
Xie Wuwang didn’t lift his eyes, his tone was calm.
“No need. I’ve undertaken bigu (grain abstinence, cultivators forgo food).”
Mouth stuffed with food, Yun Xiu hummed indistinctly. “Okie.”
Moonlight came through the window lattice, resting quietly on the two of them.
His long fingers slowly turned the pages.
She seemed, compared with the beginning, no longer very afraid of him.
After the meal, Xie Wuwang as usual left her space to apply the ointment, then watched over her once she’d fallen asleep. Whenever her hand went to scratch an itch, the vines would bind it up.
The next morning he left food out and departed.
Yun Xiu, meanwhile, continued her game development, and once she started she’d go the whole day, coming out when she reckoned the timing was about right, waiting for Xie Wuwang to come back and bring her food.
This peaceful life lasted until noon on the third day.
She received one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.
The good news was:
Yun Xiu’s first-ever game, 【Fluffy Match-3】, was successfully made.
The bad news was:
You Yujing told her Xu Shaoqian had woken up, and upon waking had stared cold-faced at that fight clip a full ten times, his gaze reportedly brimming with murderous intent.
Yun Xiu: “……”
Yun Xiu typed feebly on the glazed mirror: 【Senior Brother You, could I ask you for a favor?】
On the other end, You Yujing put away his sketchbook in a single second and turned serious.
【Of course, no problem at all. Junior Sister Yun, say the word, what favor?】
At the foot of Luoxue Peak, Yun Xiu snuck down through the clouds and mist, crept over to crouch beside the stone stele, and waited for You Yujing to come make contact.
“What are you doing?!”
Yun Xiu started and looked toward the sound. A sword came flying out of the mist.
It was Xie Wuwang’s Zhezhu sword.
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit fixed its eyes on her. “Are you trying to sneak out?”
The ward had been repaired, so it no longer needed to guard the gate, but before the boss left he’d specifically told it to keep an eye on her these few days and not let her go out.
Caught red-handed!
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit gave a hmph. “Forget it. With me here today there’s no way you’re getting out this gate. And when the boss gets back I’m telling him—”
Yun Xiu blinked. “I wasn’t trying to sneak out.”
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit choked. ?
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit, suspicious: “Then what ARE you doing out here?”
“Junior Sister Yun!”
Not far off, someone suddenly called out and came jogging over, stopping right outside the ward.
You Yujing came to a halt, his gaze landing on Yun Xiu, and his face abruptly reddened.
Junior Sister Little Yun wasn’t wearing her veiled hat today, her face was exposed.
Even though he’d seen it a few days ago, and had watched that fight clip many times over, coming face-to-face now with Junior Sister Little Yun’s pale little face and those clean, limpid eyes still made him nervous.
You Yujing pressed a fist to his lips and gave a light cough. “Junior Sister Yun, hand me the thing, I’ll be sure to get it done right.”
Yun Xiu nodded and passed him the box in her hands.
The moment it reached his hand, a familiar boy’s voice suddenly sounded behind the two of them.
“Get what done?”
The two turned to look, and it was Xu Shaoqian.
One arm still bound in white cloth, his gaze frosty, lips pressed tight, he stared at the pair of them.
You Yujing: OvO!
Yun Xiu: OvO!
You Yujing was aghast. “Didn’t you drink the medicine and fall asleep?!”
Xu Shaoqian’s gaze slid from You Yujing to Yun Xiu, cold, as if forcibly holding something back. “If I hadn’t followed you, how would I have found her?”
Yun Xiu: Uh-oh.
Done for.
You Yujing knit his brows. “Xu Shaoqian, I’ve told you many times, this whole thing was started by me, the fault is all mine. Whatever grievance you have, take it up with me. It has nothing to do with Junior Sister Yun.”
Xu Shaoqian ignored him, his gaze fixed dead on Yun Xiu.
Pinned by that stare, Yun Xiu’s social anxiety flared. She lowered her head and picked at her fingers.
Weighed down by guilt, she didn’t dare make a sound, and didn’t dare run.
“I only came to say a few things to you.”
Yun Xiu started. Hearing the seriousness in his tone, she straightened up.
She gave a small nod. “Mm.”
Xu Shaoqian was silent for several breaths, drew a heavy breath, and finally spoke.
“At four years old I took an interest in the sword dao, and from then on began learning the sword. My parents and relatives always said I had extraordinary talent, a rare sword-dao genius, destined for greatness. So day after day I trained, studied the sword dao, never idled for a single day.”
“Twenty years ago, when there was no longer anyone in all of Qianyue Palace who was my match, I entered the Lingyun Sect and took part in that year’s Sword-Debate Tournament. I swept all before me (carried everything before me, unbeatable), had no rival, but just as I was smug and self-satisfied, thinking the top prize was mine, I lost under someone else’s sword.”
“Ten years ago, after ten years of bitter training, I entered the Sword-Debate Tournament again. When I learned that person had left the sect and wasn’t competing, I was crushed, thinking I was about to win a hollow first place, but then You Yujing appeared, and defeated me again, effortlessly.”
Beside him, You Yujing rubbed his nose a little awkwardly.
Xu Shaoqian went on: “My fighting spirit reignited. For these ten years I’ve studied swordsmanship day after day, meaning to defeat him at the Sword-Debate Tournament a month from now and prove my sword dao. That resolve held right up until that morning three days ago.”
Yun Xiu started. That was exactly when she’d beaten him up.
“After I woke, I saw the video on the SpiritNet and watched it many times. Every time, watching myself get my sword knocked away by you, I wished I could grip it and not let go.”
Xu Shaoqian’s gaze slowly lowered. “But I didn’t.”
Yun Xiu could feel the sorrow on him, and felt even guiltier.
Xu Shaoqian’s voice was calm as he recounted it slowly: “In fact, after all these years, I understand that I’m not really any sword-dao genius.”
“My parents and relatives said so because they couldn’t bear to see me disheartened. Those around me said so out of deference to my family’s power and influence.”
“I knew all this. I just never wanted to admit it. To admit my own mediocrity.”
Xu Shaoqian paused.
“And now, I admit it.”
The air among the three fell silent.
Xu Shaoqian: “So I came today to tell you both, I won’t be competing in this Sword-Debate Tournament. As I am now, unable even to hold a sword steady, I’m not qualified. I’m no match for You Yujing.”
“After this, I…”
This sounded exactly like the prelude to packing up and going home!
You Yujing pressed his lips together. “Xu Shaoqian, it was just one lost spar. There’s no need to take it so hard…”
Yun Xiu opened her mouth too, wanting to urge him not to lose confidence over this, not to give up on himself.
But when she looked up, she met the boy’s resolute gaze.
He straightened his body and spoke earnestly, word by word.
“I want to take you as my master and learn body techniques from you, so I can fight again at the next tournament, and beat You Yujing’s dog head into the ground.”
Yun Xiu: ?
You Yujing: ?
Yun Xiu’s nose suddenly caught a faint scent of white sandalwood, and then a young man’s cold voice fell out of nowhere over the top of her head.
“What are you doing here?”
Why had he suddenly come back at noon today?
Yun Xiu turned her head, but before she could get a word out, the Zhezhu Sword Spirit, which had been spectating for a good while, took a bite of its spirit stone and summed up the scene with one unruffled line.
“Boss, your grand-disciple is in the middle of taking your disciple as her master.”
Xie Wuwang: ?