Chapter 3

With Senior Brother’s help, I made quite a splash at the Sword Tournament. I defeated several alchemists and nudged my progress bar forward.

But I was still a long way from my goal.

Junior Sister was still popular. With her against me, everyone else naturally disliked me too.

Senior Brother’s approval alone wasn’t enough to change that.

And although he had some influence in the sect, our master outranked him.

The moment Master emerged from seclusion, Junior Sister went crying to him about everything she’d suffered.

The system had learned its lesson. After carefully reviewing all the character cards for this world, it told me, “Host, don’t try to turn Master against Junior Sister this time. His card says he supports the matriarch and her partner too. In your terms, he’s a shipper. He’s on her side.”

“Patience,” I said. “There’s a twist.”

“Huh?”

Before I could explain, Junior Sister came charging over with Master in tow.

What a fine aloof master he was, saving all his favoritism for Junior Sister. No wonder he was her main love interest in the original story.

He looked at me coldly and said in a quiet voice, “Go kneel before the matriarch’s statue.”

“May I ask why, Master?”

He didn’t even raise his eyes. His voice was frosty. “You bully your fellow disciples. Naturally, you must be punished.”

Clinging to his arm, Junior Sister said in a small, aggrieved voice, “Master, you have no idea how awful she’s been. She started picking on me just because I said the matriarch and her partner were well matched.”

“Oh, you think they’re well matched? In what way?”

“The matriarch is so alluring, and her partner is so handsome. Of course they’re well matched.”

Master’s eyelid twitched. He turned to look at her.

Oblivious, she continued. “Yes, the matriarch is a stunning beauty, so gentle and tender, but her partner’s hardly lacking either.”

Master pulled his arm from her grasp with a look of distaste.

“Master, what’s wrong?” she asked, bewildered.

“Yes, Master,” I said. “What’s wrong?”

He closed his eyes. Conscious of his position, perhaps, he was trying hard to control himself.

But his tightly pressed lips betrayed his displeasure.

“Danxin, leave us.” He waved her away.

She gave him an uneasy look and left, glancing back again and again.

Once she was gone, he looked no kinder toward me. He pointed at the gilded statue nearby. “Kneel. After six hours, tell me what you did wrong.”

I dropped smoothly to my knees before the matriarch’s statue and declared, “Master, I’ll kneel, but even two hundred hours wouldn’t help me understand what I did wrong! I simply don’t think she’s well matched with her partner! A woman that mighty, who can move mountains and split the heavens with a sword—shouldn’t she have a sweet, gentle partner with delicate good looks?”

Master stood behind me, silent for a long time.

At last, he asked softly, “You… truly think of the matriarch as a mighty woman?”

I nodded hard. “Yes! Put the whole cultivation world together, and it still couldn’t match her might!”

Master came to stand before me. He gazed up at the gilded statue without a word.

After a very long time, he murmured, “Good taste.”