Chapter 2
My sect brother left the mountain.
The elders tried to rally themselves and choose other promising disciples, but there was clearly no longer enough time.
Talent and hard work alone did not make a promising cultivator. Immortal medicines and spirit stones were needed to nurture one, which was precisely why the Assembly of Immortal Sects mattered so much.
Gloom settled over the sect. The elders sighed and shook their heads.
Two days later, some disaffected disciples and recent arrivals slipped away in the night without a word.
After a long silence, our master ordered an inventory, then divided the remaining spirit stones equally among all the disciples.
Even I received ten.
Although I was the eldest sect sister, I had specialized in alchemy.
In my previous life, I had devoted myself to making pills and medicines for Murong Luan’s cultivation. Buried in that work, I had little strength in actual combat.
In this life… I spread out a map of the immortal sects and began marking the valleys where medicinal herbs grew, one by one, from memory.
By the time my youngest sect brother pushed open my door, I had gone two days without rest.
He fell silent at the sight of my haggard face. “Eldest Sister, he has only been dazzled by that mortal woman’s looks for a moment. To me, you’re the prettiest.”
“She really is beautiful.”
Cultivation had slowed my development, leaving my looks not yet fully formed. Beside her, I was like white jasmine beside a hibiscus in full bloom.
I still remembered the day Murong Luan brought Ah Rou home. A mortal lacked the strength to climb the immortal steps.
He carried her up the Lingyun Steps one at a time. In the morning light, he set her down on the sword-practice terrace. Amid the radiant clouds and glittering waterfall, she brushed the hair beside her ear and lowered her lovely head. Her beauty seemed beyond this world.
I stared.
The other disciples whispered. Our eldest sect brother took Ah Rou’s hand and gently told her not to be afraid.
But I saw through that vividly beautiful skin to what lay beneath.
Because I could see through things.
What was that? A half-demon wearing human skin. Its human and demonic parts were slowly fusing together.
And I had never imagined she could be that kind of demon.
A chill ran down my spine. That evening, I went to tell my eldest sect brother, only to stumble upon a scene at the cold spring that left me mortified.
The half-demon was whimpering, and he seemed unable to restrain himself. I heard low breaths, ragged and heavy.
“You really don’t despise me, my lord?” she sobbed softly.
“I have never—Miss Ah Rou is the most beautiful, the best woman I have ever known.”
“I don’t believe you. If you truly don’t despise me, why—why—If you are tired of me, I will leave this instant.” Someone stumbled into the cold spring.
Water splashed. Then the quiet crying gradually became muffled sobs and breathless gasps.
I withdrew.
Soon afterward, I heard that our eldest sect brother had found Ah Rou while pursuing a demon.
The creature had fled for days and was close to death, yet it had tried to run into a cave even at the cost of detonating its inner core.
Curious, Murong Luan followed it down and found Ah Rou barely alive.
Ah Rou said she and her mother had been abducted together. To protect her, her mother had given herself to the creature, but it had not returned for days.
Starving, her mother had cut her wrist to feed Ah Rou her blood, and had died.
Ah Rou clutched the hem of Murong Luan’s Daoist robe and lifted her face in pleading. “I only ask you to help me bring my mother’s body up.”
Our eldest sect brother brought them out. They had lived in the cave for a long time.
At first, Ah Rou could not see, so wherever she went, she had to follow Murong Luan.
He tied his forehead ribbon around her wrist and led her everywhere. One day, while bathing in a mountain spring, she encountered a snake and flung herself into his arms in panic. Murong Luan, usually so self-possessed, fell straight into the water with her. Amid the shimmering ripples, he dared not open his eyes, yet could not help looking.
One glance, and she became his obsession.
Murong Luan said he would take responsibility for her.
Later, he came to me with fine spirit stones and pills as compensation. “What happened between us was only youthful foolishness. From now on, just call me Eldest Brother.”
He added, “You needn’t make pills specially for me anymore. I don’t want Ah Rou to misunderstand.”
“But the Assembly of Immortal Sects is almost here—” Back then, all I could think about was how failure at the assembly would cost the Lingyun Sect its spirit-stone allotment for the coming year. I tried to reason with him. “Besides, if Ah Rou truly wants what’s best for you, she wouldn’t want to interfere with your cultivation. And do you know what she really is?”
Murong Luan’s expression changed. “Enough! Tianxiao, I know you have feelings for me. Ah Rou is different from you. She is only a weak, ordinary woman. Even a little jealousy from you could destroy her. Have some self-respect.”
He would hear nothing against Ah Rou. He even turned on me.
He did not know she was like a parasitic vine, straining to climb higher on him.
I could see the fusion within her body accelerating. She was gaining spiritual energy through dual cultivation.
Taking from the abundant to replenish the deficient. Her influence on Murong Luan reached to his very foundations.
In the end, I told him and our master everything. I did not want him to remain in ignorance.
I saved his cultivation, and destroyed the entire Lingyun Sect.
I came back to myself and pressed my youngest sect brother’s shoulder. Murong Luan had been right about one thing.
How could a sect that could not even protect itself ever rise again?
In this life, I would make Lingyun Mountain renowned throughout the world. I would see its disciples enter the Assembly of Immortal Sects with their heads held high.