“I heard some time ago that you’d come out of seclusion, Lord Sword Venerable. I’d meant to go and offer my congratulations, but knowing how you’ve always preferred quiet, I feared I’d disturb you, so I figured I’d wait until the Dao-Preaching Assembly to make my move. I never imagined you’d grace my humble Shuiling Palace in person today.”
Xie Wuwang, neither warm nor cold: “So I’ve disturbed you, Palace Master?”
The Shuiling Palace Master hastened to reply, “What a thing to say, how could it possibly be a disturbance? Your visit today makes this humble hall shine . It’s only that today was terribly sudden, if our hospitality falls short anywhere, I do hope you won’t take offense, Lord Sword Venerable.”
“This wine is brewed from the fruit of a ten-thousand-year immortal peach tree, every bit the equal of Yaochi’s jade nectar. It clears the mind and washes away worry, soothing the spirit and calming the heart.”
Lord Sword Venerable swept his gaze over the immortal fruits and wine on the table, then over the girl asleep face-down on it, and said airily, “I’ve heard the Shuiling Palace’s fish slices are quite good, fresh and delicious. I wonder if I might have the chance to try some today.”
“Ah, ah?”
Once a cultivator formed their foundation, they could subsist on spiritual energy alone and had no need for the five grains, let alone a cultivator of such lofty attainment as Sword Venerable Wuwang. It had never occurred to the Palace Master that such a figure would care about mere food and drink, which was why he hadn’t prepared any.
“Of course, of course, the oversight is mine.”
He hurriedly summoned someone to relay the orders.
In the end, it was the aroma of food that woke Yun Xiu.
Her stomach gave a growl. Face-down on the table where she’d been sleeping, she opened her eyes and beheld a whole feast of seafood, lobster and crab, carved sashimi, rich seafood soups whose fragrance filled the air.
Yun Xiu: !! The immortal jail’s serving dinner?
She sat up with a jolt, then turned to find the white-robed young man not far off. Across from him sat a man with a hawk’s nose and hooded eyes, a sly and vicious-looking sort, who was flattering him in conversation.
The jade pavilions were surrounded by a grove of peach trees, and it was spring, the blossoms in full bloom, an elegant scene. A few boughs happened to hang nearby, and as she lifted her head, a pink petal drifted down on the breeze onto her nose.
Sensing she’d woken, Xie Wuwang said flatly, “Eat.”
Still groggy from sleep, Yun Xiu brushed the petal away as a great wave of TV-drama plots surged into her mind. She whispered, “Um, this isn’t, like, my last meal before the chopping block, is it?”
Xie Wuwang shot her a sidelong glance. “It is. Although you’re also welcome to go to the execution ground on an empty stomach.”
Yun Xiu decisively opted to die on a full one.
That single peach earlier hadn’t been nearly filling enough. Yun Xiu swept away more than half the food on the table like a whirlwind, and her brain finally rebooted, exiting standby mode.
Delicious.
Good Guy Bro really was a good guy.
Yun Xiu picked up a strange-looking shrimp longer than her own arm, thinking that shrimp in the cultivation world sure got big, and started studying how to eat it.
Xie Wuwang: “That’s an ornament.”
“Oh.”
Yun Xiu instantly lost all interest and tossed it aside.
The Shuiling Palace Master: “…”
That was his palace’s emblem!
The Palace Master looked at her. “Lord Sword Venerable, this is…?”
Xie Wuwang lifted the chain unhurriedly. “Isn’t it obvious? She’s a prisoner.”
The Palace Master gave a laugh. “Haha… so that’s how it is.”
Since when do you let a prisoner sit at the table and eat?!
Yun Xiu paid no mind whatsoever to those around her, head down, absorbed in chowing through her rice, before long she’d polished off everything on the table, eyes narrowing in satisfaction.
Xie Wuwang said mildly, “Full?”
Yun Xiu gave a small nod, then lowered her head to poke at the glazed cup on the table.
Lord Sword Venerable made a noncommittal sound and turned to the Shuiling Palace Master. “Now we can get down to business.”
The Palace Master started. “Do tell, what business would that be?”
“If it’s the Shuiling Palace’s help you require, we will go through fire and water without hesitation…”
Lord Sword Venerable’s tone stayed calm. “The Shuiling Palace outwardly selects disciples from the mortal cities, but in secret works forbidden arts upon them, fusing them with the blood of demon beasts.”
The air around the peach grove went instantly silent.
Deathly silent, even.
Yun Xiu blinked a couple of times. This blunt, huh?
By the normal script, shouldn’t he be lodging here first, seizing a chance to sneak in and covertly hunt for evidence of the Shuiling Palace’s crimes, then, just as he was about to crack the case, uncovering an even bigger conspiracy, running into some key figure, finally cracking it all with great difficulty, and losing a poor unlucky soul or two along the way… at minimum enough material for a twenty-episode arc?!
The Palace Master suppressed the pang in his chest and forced a strained smile. “You jest, Sword Venerable. Where did you hear such a rumor? How could the Shuiling Palace ever do such a thing…”
“I know that mere words prove nothing. Without evidence, a few sentences cannot demonstrate the Shuiling Palace’s crimes.”
Xie Wuwang lifted his eyes, unhurried, his pupils inky black. “Which is precisely why I’ve come to demand the evidence from you.”
Yun Xiu: OvO?
Demand a villain’s evidence of his own crimes… from the villain himself?
That approach was, uh, a little avant-garde.
After watching quietly for a moment, the fawning look in the Palace Master’s eyes sharpened. He put away his false smile and gave a sudden cold laugh. “So you really will refuse the toast only to drink the forfeit (spurn the courteous offer and get the hard way instead). Lord Sword Venerable, take a good look at where you are.”
“Or is it that you’ve grown so used to hearing flattery every day that you truly believe yourself invincible under heaven, daring to storm my Shuiling Palace, home to a hundred thousand Golden Core cultivators, all alone?”
The words had barely left his mouth when a dense swarm of cultivators appeared throughout the peach grove, sealing off even the airspace above, surrounding them without a gap.
The Palace Master stood, his hawk eyes fixed keenly on the white-robed young man. “Wasn’t it evidence you wanted, Lord Sword Venerable? Every cultivator here is your evidence. Today I’ll let you witness how, having cast off the frail, fragile human body, they so easily broke through the barrier that shackled the human frame for centuries, and ascended to the peak!”
“Here you’ll find not just a hundred thousand Golden Core cultivators, but five hundred at the Nascent Soul realm, one hundred at Spirit Transformation, sixteen at Soul Integration, and five masters of the Great Vehicle stage, every one a talent the Shuiling Palace poured untold effort into cultivating.”
Yun Xiu: “…”
She quietly tugged her veiled hat lower.
Xie Wuwang slowly swept his gaze around. “Is this everyone?”
The Palace Master sneered. “Scared now?”
“Not that you need worry, Lord Sword Venerable. Your sudden disappearance from the cultivation world would be a great nuisance, so I won’t take your life. But now that you know the Shuiling Palace’s secret, there’s no way I can let you leave unharmed.”
“Recently the Shuiling Palace developed a forbidden puppet art, we’ve yet to find anyone to test it on. From where I stand now, there’s no better candidate than you, Lord Sword Venerable.”
“Long have I heard that Sword Venerable Wuwang wields ‘one sword against heaven and earth,’ that his name looms large. Today, let me first see for myself whether you’re truly as formidable as the rumors claim.”
The Palace Master smiled sinisterly and hefted the magic implement in his hand.
“Lord Sword Venerable, draw your sword.”
Faced with all this, Yun Xiu fell silent.
So it really was a last meal.
She turned to look at Xie Wuwang, meaning to console him, since ancient times, who has ever escaped death, only to see him lightly raise a hand and shatter the spirit-lock chain, its shards of spiritual energy scattering along with the peach blossoms.
Then the white-robed young man rose languidly to his feet, and with slender, unhurried fingers snapped off a sprig of peach blossom, pale pink buds blooming at its tip.
The Palace Master scoffed. “Death at your doorstep, and still you play at refined elegance (putting on airs of cultured taste).”
The Palace Master didn’t understand it, but Yun Xiu thoroughly approved of the spirit. Everyone’s about to die anyway, so what’s wrong with admiring the flowers a bit longer?
She sidled over and whispered, “F-fellow cultivator, are you trying to arrange flowers? Do you need any help? I’ll have you know, I once spent half a year hauling vases for people at a neighborhood flower-arranging class, I’m a real pro.”
“There is, in fact, one very important favor I need from you.” The young man cast her a sidelong glance and said slowly.
His voice was rather cold and low, Yun Xiu assumed he was about to say something big, like plotting an escape.
She grew serious too, tilting her head to listen. “Go ahead, fellow cultivator.”
The young man tossed the Zhezhu Sword into her arms.
“Hold my sword for me. Then go find a cool corner and stay put.”
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit: “!!!”
Boss, what, are you abandoning me?!
The Palace Master sneered. “The secret accounts say you can’t even tame your own sword. So it’s true after all. And a man like this gets called a Sword Venerable? What a joke.”
Go find a corner and stay put, for Yun Xiu, that request was like a butcher slicing tofu: no trouble at all.
Because as a severe social-anxiety sufferer, the single thing she did most every day was find an empty corner and hole up by herself.
“No problem.”
Yun Xiu stood up, clutched the Zhezhu Sword, and turned to leave.
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit: ???
Just like that, without a shred of hesitation, she abandons the boss and walks off???
She’d taken barely two steps when Yun Xiu suddenly stopped and turned back around.
She seemed to hesitate, her voice stammering.
“F-fellow cultivator…”
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit gave a cold huff.
At least this mortal has some conscience, she knows she can’t just cling to survival at any cost.
Yun Xiu: “Does this count as a jailbreak?”
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit: “…”
Xie Wuwang: “…”
“…It does not.”
“Oh.”
Having received a firm answer, Yun Xiu turned back around. Feeling the many tangled, crisscrossing gazes settle on her, she forced down the palpitations and dizziness that had been growing stronger and stronger from the start, breathing deeply as inconspicuously as she could.
Then she pulled her veiled hat low, lowered her head, hugged the Zhezhu Sword, and walked slowly toward the corner.
A promise made to Good Guy Bro was a promise to keep.
One step, two steps…
It was so quiet all around, all she could hear was her own breathing.
A heavy breath in, then a heavy breath out.
Beyond that, she couldn’t hear a thing.
Yun Xiu’s fingers gripped the sword tightly as she held it.
How strange.
…Shouldn’t a fight make some noise?
She blinked her blurred eyes and stared at the ground, walking step by step, and it seemed a sound really was starting to reach her ears.
A very, very faint sound, like fine snow drifting slowly down, settling on bamboo leaves.
Clear moonlight shone quietly over a bamboo grove, and as time flowed on, there came a crisp snap, fallen snow bowing a bamboo branch until it broke.
It seemed someone was calling her, too…
“…Are you all right?!”
A young, clear voice rang out beside her ear.
Yun Xiu came to with a start and lowered her head toward the source of the sound, that is, the sword in her arms. “S-sorry, I’m a little dizzy.”
“I see. A mortal facing a scene like this, nervous for a moment, feeling faint and light-headed, all perfectly normal.”
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit forced the words out with effort: “I understand all of that, and I can sympathize. So could you please sympathize with me a little too?”
Yun Xiu, puzzled: “…Hm?”
The Zhezhu Sword Spirit: “If you don’t let go, I won’t live to see tomorrow’s sun.”
Yun Xiu: “!!”
She hurriedly loosened the hand gripping the sword.
Only then did the Zhezhu Sword Spirit breathe a sigh of relief. How was this little mortal so strong? She’d squeezed it so hard it could barely breathe.
Something fine and white suddenly drifted down before her eyes. Yun Xiu looked up, dazed, as snowflakes rustled slowly down in front of her.
She raised a hand to catch one, the cold white flake melted slowly at her fingertips.
It was snowing.
…But wasn’t it nearly summer?
As if by intuition, Yun Xiu suddenly turned her head and looked behind her. As far as she could see, the ground was strewn with cultivators and magic implements, blanketing the entire peach grove like snowfall.
That figure in white stood at the center of the ethereal wind and snow, tall and crane-straight, his brows and eyes as though painted.
The young man walked unhurriedly toward her, slender fingers still leisurely twirling that sprig of peach blossom, the pale pink flowers blooming at its tip exactly as they had the moment he’d snapped it off.
His gaze settled slowly on her.
And then he laughed softly.
“The fight’s already over. How is it you still haven’t managed to hide?”