In Chu Mingyao’s nightmare, after she had repeatedly urged Chu Mingdong to cultivate diligently and had even taken the initiative to shoulder part of the task of guiding Xiang Qingyun, Chu Mingbei suddenly behaved very differently. He became extremely fond of crowding around her, constantly asking her all kinds of questions about cultivation.
Chu Mingbei completely occupied all the time Chu Mingyao had freed up outside of cultivation, leaving her with no leisure to pay attention to Chu Mingdong and Xiang Qingyun at all.
At first, she truly thought Chu Mingbei had matured and become sensible, and that he had finally understood the importance of diligent cultivation. She was delighted, and even if it meant sacrificing more of her own cultivation time, she did her best to help him resolve doubts and difficulties.
Who would have known that the moment she saw Chu Mingbei put in a little effort and raised her expectations of him slightly, he immediately revealed his true colors.
Chu Mingbei had not genuinely been stirred into striving upward or pursuing greater strength. He simply did not want her interfering with Chu Mingdong and Xiang Qingyun spending time together, and so he did not hesitate to ‘sacrifice himself’ to consume all of her time!
To that end, Chu Mingbei had even followed Chu Mingyao’s past habits and done thorough preparation in advance, ensuring he could perfectly monopolize all of her free time.
And so, the moment Chu Mingyao showed even a bit of willingness to sacrifice her own cultivation time so her little junior brother could make faster progress, Chu Mingbei immediately let the truth slip.
After realizing everything, Chu Mingyao was so furious that she nearly decided never to bother with Chu Mingbei and the others again.
She remained angry for a long time and even went into seclusion, determined to make up for the cultivation time she had wasted.
However, less than two days later, she was forced to end her seclusion.
The once-in-a-century Dao Discussion Assembly was about to begin. This time, the host sect was the Hundred Flowers Palace, and her master, Perfected Ziqiong, was responsible for leading the delegation.
The assembly was divided into two segments. The first was lectures by powerful senior cultivators, and the second was competitions among the younger generation.
The competitions were further divided into team battles and individual battles.
Each team consisted of five people. Chu Mingyao and Chu Mingdong were naturally included, with the remaining three being Xiang Qingyun, Chu Mingnan, and Chu Mingxi.
After arriving at Hundred Flowers Palace, no one knew exactly what happened. Chu Mingyao only knew that Chu Mingdong had clashed with a member of the Qi Kingdom’s imperial family and had actually been seriously injured before the team competition even began, forcing Chu Mingbei to step in as a substitute.
Participants in the Dao Discussion Assembly included not only major sects but also certain cultivation clans.
An imperial family of a nation naturally counted as a cultivation clan. Otherwise, they could not have secured their throne. Even in a mortal kingdom, a certain level of support from cultivators was required to truly hold power.
The Qi Kingdom’s party had clashed with Chu Mingdong and, violating the rules by ganging up on him, were expelled by the Hundred Flowers Palace.
With Chu Mingdong gone, the substitute Chu Mingbei was comparatively weak.
As for Xiang Qingyun, although she appeared to be the third among the Sword Sect’s younger disciples, her actual combat ability was mediocre. Her cultivation had been piled up entirely through resources, her foundation unstable, and her overall combat strength was even inferior to Chu Mingbei’s.
At the very least, Chu Mingbei had truly grown up in the Sword Sect and had various kinds of real combat experience from a young age. Xiang Qingyun’s repeated victories in sect competitions relied entirely on knowing her opponents’ strengths in advance, as well as Chu Mingdong specifically telling her how to counter fellow disciples’ attacks.
As a result, the Sword Sect’s performance in the team competition at the assembly was nothing short of disastrous.
Even compared with first-rate sects below the top-tier level, it was barely passable, let alone compared with other top-tier cultivation sects.
If not for Chu Mingyao’s explosive performance, turning the tide on her own, the Sword Sect might even have lost to teams from first-rate sects.
That alone would have been bad enough, but Xiang Qingyun repeatedly behaved as though it was Chu Mingyao’s arrogance and reliance on her own strength— her refusal to conduct team training in advance with her juniors— that had caused the poor coordination and repeated defeats.
Xiang Qingyun openly and covertly blamed Chu Mingyao like that, while also saying it was her own fault for having entered the sect too late, and that no matter how hard she cultivated, she was still weak and had dragged her eldest senior sister down. That drew waves of comfort toward Xiang Qingyun, along with praise for her extraordinary talent, while Chu Mingyao, as the eldest senior sister, was criticized for being unfit for her role.
Chu Mingyao was furious. In the individual competition, she unleashed her full might and seized first place.
Yet after that, Perfected Ziqiong harshly reprimanded her, echoing the outsiders by saying she only cared about showing off. On the return journey, he would not even give her a pleasant look.
The journey back to the Sword Sect was also far from peaceful. An inexplicable ambush occurred, leaving everyone injured, with Xiang Qingyun suffering the most severe wounds.
When they finally returned to the Sword Sect, Chu Mingdong and the others focused on recovering. Chu Mingyao, who was also injured but comparatively lightly, was once again ordered to guide her juniors in cultivation.
The sect master was furious upon learning of the Sword Sect’s failure at the team competition. The consequence was that Chu Mingyao’s teaching duties became extremely heavy— so heavy that she had to impose stricter demands on her juniors, earning herself a terrible reputation among the disciples.
At long last, when Chu Mingdong, Xiang Qingyun, and the others had mostly recovered, Chu Mingyao thought she could finally resume seclusion and digest the insights she had gained from the Dao Discussion Assembly. Unexpectedly, Chu Mingbei came to beg her again, asking her to accompany him to Jiujue[1]Nine Absolutes jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1727589_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1727589_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); Secret Realm— a place only accessible to those under fifty years of bone age— to search for treasures.
That secret realm contained cultivation techniques, pills, treasure artifacts, and all manner of valuables, even precious materials capable of improving one’s cultivation aptitude.
Among all the treasures in the secret realm, the most famous and most reliably obtainable was the Sword Heart Grass.
Consuming Sword Heart Grass could help one comprehend the Sword Dao. Although it could not permanently improve sword aptitude, temporarily enhancing sword comprehension could still produce enormous benefits.
Sword Heart Grass grew in Jianxin[2]Sword Heart jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1727589_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1727589_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); Valley, where countless streams of sword energy crisscrossed at all times.
Once inside Jianxin Valley, cultivators must rely solely on their mastery of the Sword Dao to weather the relentless sword energy and claim the Sword Heart Grass.
Consequently, only those with a profound enough cultivation of the sword stood any chance of harvesting it.
Jiujue Secret Realm lay extremely far from the Sword Sect, and Chu Mingyao had been unwilling to waste time going.
Sword Heart Grass was of no use to her. With her innate talent, consuming it would change nothing. The remaining treasures of the secret realm were equally unappealing— uncertain in value and likely irrelevant to her specific cultivation.
At the time, all she wanted was to quickly digest her earlier insights and steadily improve her strength.
But Chu Mingbei begged repeatedly, saying that after experiencing the failure in the team competition and deeply realizing his own weakness during the ambush, he desperately longed to increase his strength as soon as possible. Apart from Jiujue Secret Realm, he could think of no other way to rapidly improve. Among those in the sect qualified to enter the secret realm, Chu Mingyao was the strongest……
On top of that, Perfected Ziqiong actually asked Chu Mingyao to bring back some Sword Heart Grass. In the end, she compromised.
Only after she and Chu Mingbei returned from Jiujue Secret Realm did she realize that she had been tricked by Chu Mingbei yet again.
More than that, it was the entire sect that had played her!
During her time away with Chu Mingbei, Chu Mingdong and Xiang Qingyun had officially entered into a Dao companion bond.
The two cultivated a dual cultivation technique, their strengths rising together in great leaps.
The Sword Heart Grass that Perfected Ziqiong had asked Chu Mingyao to retrieve became a gift from him to Chu Mingdong and his wife!
Overwhelmed by a sudden, crushing guilt, Chu Mingbei confessed the truth. He had only urged her toward the Jiujue Secret Realm out of fear. He dreaded that her presence would destabilize the bond between Chu Mingdong and Xiang Qingyun, jeopardizing the sanctity of their upcoming Dao Companion ceremony.
Those revelations struck Chu Mingyao like hammer blows, leaving her head buzzing.
She felt only fellow-disciple affection toward Chu Mingdong. Why would she sabotage Chu Mingdong and Xiang Qingyun?
Yet none of her explanations were believed. Some even comforted her, saying it was best if she could think that way. But Chu Mingyao could tell from their gazes that they all believed she harbored feelings for Chu Mingdong and simply refused to admit it.
And everyone was still on guard against her.
Furious, Chu Mingyao went into seclusion once more.
This time, however, her seclusion did not go smoothly.
When her insights were clearest, she was entangled by various trivial duties, leaving her no time to properly comprehend them.
Now, having been thoroughly confused and unsettled by everyone’s behavior, her mind was far from calm. After years in seclusion, her gains were minimal.
Of course, that was minimal only by her own standards. Compared to others in the sect, her progress was still obvious.
She had only emerged from her solitary cultivation because traces of devils had been sighted in the Qi Kingdom, a threat that could no longer be ignored.
Given the Sword Sect’s proximity to the Qi Kingdom, the imperial family wasted no time in petitioning the sect for aid.
By order of the sect, Chu Mingyao, Chu Mingdong, and Xiang Qingyun were dispatched alongside several others to uncover the source of the demonic traces.
Midway through their journey, the group was violently ambushed by the very demonic forces they had been sent to find.
The demonic forces were not only superior in strength but had also meticulously prepared an array of traps to ensnare them.
Chu Mingyao fought desperately to create an opportunity for the others to escape, while she herself was trapped.
By common sense, once outside the range of the trap, the others could send a message back to the sect and have stronger reinforcements dispatched.
Chu Mingyao did not need to hold on for very long.
Yet she ended up holding on until she could endure no more.
At the final moment of her life, she finally saw Xiang Qingyun arrive to ‘rescue’ her, wearing a facade of panic.
But the instant Xiang Qingyun approached Chu Mingyao, she plunged a poison-coated silver needle into Chu Mingyao’s dantian[3]a metaphysical storage vessel and refinery located in the lower abdomen that serves as the foundation for a cultivator’s power, where spiritual energy is gathered, compressed, and transformed … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1727589_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1727589_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });!
The last words Chu Mingyao heard were Xiang Qingyun’s venomous voice.
“Eldest Senior Sister, you finally died. As the Child of Fate, it actually took me this long to kill you. You should feel honored.”
It was in that instant that Chu Mingyao bolted upright, gasping as the nightmare shattered. The scent of blood and the chill of demonic traps vanished, replaced by the familiar, quiet air of her private quarters within the sect.
The calendar confirmed the impossible— it was the conclusion of the first sect competition, the very moment Xiang Qingyun had entered the sect and everything had begun to change.
After sorting through every detail of the nightmare, Chu Mingyao let out a long breath.
Next, she had to verify whether that horrific nightmare was a true glimpse into her future.
The first step was to observe her junior brother, Chu Mingbei.
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