Chapter 5

That night, for the first time in ages, I dreamed of when I’d just joined the sect.

Several senior brothers were always making me run errands and do menial work.

Collect herbs, feed spirit beasts, tend the flower gardens.

After a while, I realized I couldn’t go on like that.

With no time to cultivate, how could I ever advance?

But my senior brother sneered. “With your aptitude, what difference would time to cultivate make?”

So because my aptitude wasn’t good enough, I didn’t even deserve the chance to try?

I refused to accept that.

I gave up my rest and cultivated day and night.

At last, I reached Foundation Establishment.

I went to my master, delighted. He merely nodded and told me to keep working hard.

My senior brothers piled more and more work on me.

Sometimes they even made me hand over my monthly spirit stone allowance.

I endured it for a long time. Just as I was reaching my limit, my master took another disciple.

My new junior brother was handsome and bright-eyed, with extraordinary talent.

More importantly, he was obedient and well behaved.

Wonderful.

My senior brothers would give half the work to him.

And I could push my work onto him too.

That was the ugly thought that first came to me.

My junior brother really was obedient. He did everything our senior brothers assigned him, and did it well.

I watched him struggle, as I once had, to squeeze cultivation into every spare moment, troubled and bewildered.

Then grit his teeth and carry on.

Even with heaven-sent talent, his days and nights

were worn away by the same numbing, repetitive chores.

For some reason, those scenes kept surging through my mind, over and over.

I sighed countless times. Finally, one day, I told him, “Forget it. Let’s split the work evenly.”

My junior brother smiled. “Thank you, Senior Sister.”

What an idiot, thanking me.

With his talent, he soon reached Foundation Establishment, and his Golden Core was in sight.

Our master was overjoyed and handed all his chores back to me.

But my junior brother refused.

Later, he formed his Golden Core and gained the strength to stand up to our senior brothers.

He gave the chores back to them, every word ringing clear. “I won’t do this work. My senior sister won’t do it. And neither will any new disciples Master takes in.”

After that, my life became much easier.

I still spent my days rushing from one mission to another to earn spirit stones.

But it was all worth it, if it meant having the spirit sword I wanted forged.

The scene shifted again.

The beautiful spirit sword I’d only just got suddenly became a wreck.

I jolted awake.

What a vicious dream.

Since the nightmare had woken me, I arrived at the lecture hall especially early that day.

Yet the sect leader and the elders were already there.

So was Yun Che.

They gazed at him with fervent, burning eyes.

Yun Che simply rested with his eyes closed, ignoring them.

I quietly found a corner and sat down.

But Yun Che opened his eyes and beckoned to me.

“Fushuang, come and sit up front.”

“In the seat closest to me.”

Every gaze around me swung my way.

I steeled myself and sat before him.

He leaned toward me with his usual casual air. “From now on, this is your seat. Ask me directly if you have any questions about cultivation.”

“After all, I’m only here to repay my debt to you. Naturally, you come first.”

I froze for a moment. There was something pointed in his words, as though he knew what had happened.

He glanced sidelong at the sect leader and elders. “No objections, I trust?”

He was still smiling, but their faces changed instantly. They hurried to reply, “None! None at all, of course!”

Was this the absolute freedom strength could give you?

I’d never wanted so badly to become strong.

My master didn’t attend that morning’s lesson. Yun Che seemed to speak especially slowly, explaining Body Tempering, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core in turn and in detail. I actually learned a great deal.

After the lesson, Yun Che stopped me again.

“Anything you still don’t understand?”

I shook my head. His explanation had been so meticulous that it felt like a lesson prepared solely for me. If I still couldn’t understand, that would have been a bit much.

He smiled with satisfaction. “Good.”

With that, he made to leave with me.

After a moment’s silence, I asked, “Why are you helping me?”

I hadn’t been able to find the Tianxing Sect he’d mentioned, or anyone who knew his name. But however slow I was, the sect leader’s attitude made it clear he was no ordinary person.

The first thing he’d seen on waking was me preparing to hurt him. After that, I’d blatantly extorted him.

He had destroyed my immortal sword first, of course, but when had right and wrong ever mattered in a cultivation world where the strong devoured the weak?

I’d never hidden my ill will toward him.

Yet he didn’t seem to mind at all.

He’d even helped me today.

Suddenly, a thought struck me. I blurted in horror, “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for me!”

Before he could answer, I dismissed the idea myself. “Impossible. Sure, I’m funny, cute, and not bad-looking, but I must seem utterly ordinary to you.”

Yun Che was as languid as ever. “Why impossible?”

I stopped walking.

He stopped too, his expression earnest. “Ordinary, but precious all the same. Worthy of anyone’s love.”

Something in my heart gave an inexplicable tremor.

“You know I’ve spent all this time saving the world.”

“No? I don’t know that.”

“I’ve always thought the world I save should be one where ordinary people can live well too.”

“Ordinary people should have the freedom to feel desire, anger, foolishness, joy, sorrow—all of it. I destroyed the spirit sword you worked so hard to buy. Of course you’re angry. Of course you resent me. What’s wrong with that?”

“But people like your master and sect leader hold power. If they’re too free, the rest of the world won’t be.”

“The freedom of those in power should have limits. That is the responsibility and duty I impose on them. If they object, they’re welcome to challenge me.”

“Can you police all of them?” I asked.

“No. But if I see it, I ought to do something.”

I was quiet for a while. “Which brings us back to this: why did you destroy my sword?”

Yun Che sighed. “Saving the world isn’t easy. None of us wanted that.”

Now I understood why so many sects were hunting him.

Save the world, get hurt, steal some spirit herbs here and a treasure there.

Maybe we should just let the world end?

Yun Che suddenly patted my head, his smile warm and gentle. “I want you to be happy.”

“If you’re happy, then ordinary people are happy.”

“It makes me feel that everything I’ve held on for has been worth it.”

Got it. I was now the official embodiment of ordinary people.

Was I really that ordinary?