Liu Yun woodenly accepted the gourd — which radiated, from every inch of its body, the aura of six-thousand-year lightning-struck wood — and opened her mouth.
It took her a long while to produce a sentence: "This lightning-struck wood... don't tell me you also have 'a tiny bit' of it?"
Ning Ruan froze, then shook her head. "Of course not."
Liu Yun nodded at that and quietly sipped her wine to settle her nerves... She'd thought as much. That was lightning-struck wood. It wasn't the sort of thing one just happened to have a bajillion of.
The thought had barely finished forming.
When Ning Ruan's clear, earnest voice sounded again, unhurried: "Of that... I have quite a lot."
Liu Yun: "!!!"
Eldest Senior Brother Luo: "..."
...
Looking at the heaps of lightning-struck wood now piled through the previously empty great hall...
Liu Yun and Luo Yue sank into another spell of eerie silence.
Bowls and chopsticks carved from lightning-struck wood.
Combs carved from lightning-struck wood.
Little folding stools carved from lightning-struck wood.
Small daggers carved from lightning-struck wood... with what appeared to be several kitchen cleavers mixed in...
And Ning Ruan was still pulling more out...
Eldest Senior Brother Luo had long since gone catatonic. Liu Yun finally clawed her way back to reality through a storm of extremely complicated feelings, and barked:
"That's enough. Put it away..."
Any more of this and she feared she wouldn't be able to stop herself from robbing her own precious disciple.
Ning Ruan looked up, eyes limpid and sincere:
"No need, Master. Everyone can keep these for daily use... I have more."
Liu Yun: "..."
So, seriously — what dark magic did the Crimson Heaven Sect possess, to lure this walking treasure vault of a girl into its entrance exam?
Liu Yun couldn't work it out. What she could be certain of was this: if she suddenly tried robbery right now, the odds were excellent that she'd be the one to die.
Yes.
From their very first meeting on the testing plaza, her uncanny intuition had been sounding the alarm.
Her little disciple carried a lethal weapon... a weapon lethal enough to threaten even her.
She poured a mouthful of strong wine down her throat.
And finally recovered her equilibrium:
"We'll set the lightning-struck wood matter aside.
There's something more important to discuss."
With that, she looked up at Ning Ruan. "Do you know why your master took you in?"
Ning Ruan: "Because of my exceptional, outstanding light-element talent?"
Liu Yun: "..."
Luo Yue, only just recovered from the sustained critical hits of the lightning-struck wood: "..."
"...The reason I took you in..." Liu Yun drew a deep breath and was about to continue.
A streak of light dropped abruptly into the hall.
As the light dispersed, a cold, solemn voice rang from within: "By order of the Sect Master: Peak Lord Liu of Xueyang Peak is summoned to the main peak at once."
"Tch. Even faster than I expected." Liu Yun's lip curled. She turned and leveled a gritted-teeth stare at Luo Yue, still standing by in perfect deference:
"Tell those delinquents: everything before today, I'll let lie.
But now our Invincible Peak is about to be disbanded.
I don't care what methods you use — prove to me you're not trash."
She dropped those words, face frosty — and between one blink and the next, she was gone.
"..." Ning Ruan blinked in bewilderment, then couldn't help turning to the Eldest Senior Brother with the exceedingly mild temper:
"Um... what does 'Invincible Peak is about to be disbanded' mean?"
She'd only just joined!
Could she still eat the Crimson Heaven Sect's Xun rabbits or not?
Luo Yue sighed and dredged up a smile, though his voice remained warm and pleasant:
"We've failed our master, truly.
In all our years since joining, none of us has taken one step off this peak, let alone entered any sect competition, large or small.
Master took in seven disciples, and not one of us has ever won her a shred of glory.
Small wonder the sect wants to disband us and re-establish Xueyang Peak."
"...Hold on. Seven disciples?" Ning Ruan keenly seized the key point.
Luo Yue gave a soft "oh?" of surprise:
"Master hasn't told you, Little Sister?
Our Invincible Peak has always differed from the other peaks. We take no inner disciples. Direct disciples only."
No wonder they were facing disbandment. That this peak had survived to the current generation felt like a miracle in itself... Ning Ruan's expression grew complicated:
"Then why don't my senior brothers ever compete?"
Luo Yue heaved a sigh. "Ah... that is a long and painful story.
As it happens, Little Sister, you've just joined — by rights you should meet your other senior brothers anyway.
Once you've seen them, everything will explain itself."
Ning Ruan: "..."
...
The Crimson Heaven Sect.
Tianshu Peak. Within Changyun Hall.
Liu Yun stood at the center of the great hall in her red robes, vermilion wine flask in hand, indolent and unbothered.
Her faintly wine-hazed eyes lifted, sweeping across the assembled Peak Lords and elders and their wildly varied expressions:
"Invincible Peak will not be disbanded. Anyone who objects — care to go a round?"
"You... Junior Sister Liu, you cannot simply bulldoze reason itself!
Besides, after what happened back then, the whole world knows you were grievously wounded.
Do you imagine you're still the Liu Yun whose combat strength once ranked first in the Crimson Heaven Sect?"
The speaker was a middle-aged man in stern black, cold and forbidding.
His voice matched the summons that had arrived by light at Invincible Peak.
Slender fingers tapping her wine flask, Liu Yun tugged up a corner of her mouth, her smile pure insolence:
"Senior Brother Nan is welcome to test that theory."
The atmosphere in the hall congealed for a moment.
Then another elder — an aged man with half-lidded eyes and a genial air — offered gentle persuasion:
"Junior Sister Liu, in truth, even if your Xueyang Peak is disbanded, nothing much changes.
You would serve as an elder of Tianshu Peak, our main peak.
Your seven disciples would remain Crimson Heaven Sect members, and your disciples still.
But a peak's direct disciples must command respect — that is simply non-negotiable.
Whereas if they were merely an elder's disciples, then even if envy and grudges arose, we could shield them for you."
"And who says my Invincible Peak's disciples can't command respect?" Liu Yun's voice rang through the hall, flamboyant and absolute:
"Among every generation of this sect's disciples — if my Invincible Peak claims second place, who under heaven dares claim first?
Refusing to compete does not make them trash."
Delinquents, at most.
Liu Yun silently appended in the privacy of her heart.
Then she raised her eyes to the head of the hall, to the Sect Master of the Crimson Heaven Sect, who had not spoken a single word:
"Three months... no. Two months!
Give us two months, and my Invincible Peak's disciples will prove it themselves: first place in the Crimson Heaven Sect has never changed hands!"
Several elders drew breath to object on reflex.
But then.
The Sect Master's indifferent, level voice was already rolling through the hall:
"Granted!
In two months, if Xueyang Peak still cannot produce talent and strength worthy of its previous generations of direct disciples —
either Xueyang Peak is disbanded,
or Peak Lord Liu accepts inner disciples and elders onto her peak."
"Sect Master, this..." Someone still couldn't accept the outcome.
The Sect Master cut them off flat. "Enough. The matter is settled."
He paused.
Then turned his gaze to Liu Yun, face as expressionless as ever:
"I have just heard that Peak Lord Liu injured several of Suiyun Peak's direct disciples over some light-element slip of a girl... Is this true?"
"I injured them, yes." Liu Yun's lips curled, her striking brows and eyes tinged with insolence:
"But who says it was over some light-element slip of a girl?
That girl is already my Invincible Peak's eighth direct disciple.
Direct disciple against direct disciple — if Suiyun Peak can throw away all dignity and gang up on one junior, why can't I bully a few of my juniors in return?"
For the first time, the Sect Master lifted his head fully, a measure of gravity in his eyes: "You are serious?"
Liu Yun arched a brow. "Would the disciple I chose with my own hands be a fake?"
The words had barely landed.
When that stern, cold Senior Brother Nan — the same one whose voice had summoned her — flung his sleeve and snapped:
"Absurd!
To my knowledge, Junior Sister Liu's so-called precious disciple hasn't even walked our Thousand-Step Stairs.
You made her a direct disciple just like that? How is anyone meant to respect it?"
Liu Yun clicked her tongue twice and answered as if it were nothing at all: "Then let her go walk it."