Chapter 3
Though we tried to suppress the news that Murong Luan had left, word still got out.
Once we were certain every disciple who wanted to leave had gone,
Lingyun Mountain closed its gates to visitors.
The other sects secretly rejoiced, striking us straight off their list of rivals for the assembly two years away.
Meanwhile, guided by my memories of my previous life, several sect brothers and sisters secretly brought back a good many rare medicinal plants.
The spiritual fields on our immortal mountain were planted almost solid with them.
With the help of my sight, we kept improving how each herb’s medicinal properties served cultivation and the spiritual meridians. My fellow disciples made great progress.
Within just three months, several had reached the late Golden Core stage.
As for me, I worked day and night. All the time I had once spent on Murong Luan, I now spent on myself. After examining my cultivation, our master could scarcely believe it and checked again and again.
This time, as my cultivation advanced, my sight grew stronger.
I could even see the flow of spiritual energy inside cultivators, and where it was deficient.
We replenished whatever was lacking. On my advice, every elder began addressing their own weaknesses. Our master could only sigh. “If Murong Luan knew what he had missed…”
“He hasn’t missed what he wanted.”
Even after the Murong Luan of my previous life rose to power, Ah Rou, who had died for him, remained his sole obsession.
After yet another failed attempt to revive her, he seized me by the throat and threw me to the ground. The scorching pill furnace burned my back, filling the air with an acrid smell. My veil caught fire and stuck to my face. Tears sprang from the pain.
“Why wasn’t it you who died?” His voice was ice-cold as he demanded it again and again. “Do you deserve that face? Such a beautiful face. You must be delighted when you dress yourself up as her.”
When I came of age and my features were about to mature, Murong Luan used his arts to give me Ah Rou’s face.
For the rest of that life, I never knew what I should have looked like.
And because I had her face but could not imitate her timid manner, he despised me all the more and kept making me wear a veil.
I had tried to tell him that Ah Rou was not as simple as he thought.
Even the body in the cave that day might not have been her mother’s.
After all, the creature in that cave had been so desperate to get back to Ah Rou.
He would not listen. He only sneered. “You’re filthy. Only you could think of something so vicious.”
At last, I asked him whether he knew her true form.
He said, “So what?”
He did not care.