Chapter 14

Chapter 14

After that day, I remained in the thatched cottage, while Senior Brother continued going out to gather information.

He no longer told me what was happening outside. He only wanted me to focus on practicing the moves he had taught me and hurry up and recover my eyesight.

One day, I finally couldn’t help asking him, “Senior Brother, are we not looking for Senior Sister anymore?”

More than half a month had passed since we found Mojian.

Senior Brother lifted his eyes, his voice carrying little emotion. “I don’t know where to start.”

I suddenly hated how clumsy I was with words. I remembered him saying that Little Senior Brother and Senior Sister had disappeared together.

Now Little Senior Brother’s fate was unknown, and Senior Sister might also-

No, no, no. That couldn’t be!

I abruptly smacked myself on the head. In a daze, I heard Senior Brother give a low laugh.

“Why are you hitting yourself?”

“It’s nothing.” I rubbed my temple. “Senior Brother, you’re back so early today.”

“I brought you something good.”

He set an oil-paper package on the table and raised his brows, signaling for me to open it.

My eyes lit up. “It’s red date cake!”

“You went blind once, and your nose got sharper than a dog’s.” Senior Brother gave a derisive little laugh and tipped his chin. “Eat. It’s all yours.”

“Mm-hmm!”

I didn’t stand on ceremony and pulled the oil paper straight into my arms.

The red date cake was truly fragrant, so fragrant that even my dreams tasted sweet.

So fragrant that when I opened my eyes the next morning, the first thing I wanted to ask Senior Brother was whether there was any left.

But after searching around the thatched cottage inside and out several times, I found neither the red date cake nor Senior Brother.

“Senior Brother?”

“…Senior Brother!”

Strange. Usually, he would check my eyes before leaving.

Full of suspicion, I went back inside for another look. Only then did I notice an extra bundle beneath the window.

When I opened it, I was deeply disappointed. It was actually an entire bag of steamed buns, along with a handful of copper coins.

My stomach was already hungry, so I didn’t think too much of it. I first took a bite of a bun, then unhurriedly opened the envelope pressed beneath the bag.

The ink on the paper had long since dried. It must have been written well in advance.

[Dongze will execute my master at the Four Regions Assembly. I am going to save him.

[After I leave, remember to circulate your energy every day. Before your memories recover, do not wander around.

[Also, ration the buns. You don’t need to pay me back anymore.]

Senior Brother’s farewell lay before me just like that, without the slightest warning.

I read those few short lines over and over, but no matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t take them in.

I only felt the back of my head tighten, waves of dizziness sweeping before my eyes.

It was not until a sharp sting came from my hand that I realized the letter paper had been twisted and torn. Cold sweat streamed down my back.

Senior Brother left?

How could he just leave like this?

No wonder he had been teaching me martial arts for self-defense lately.

No wonder he kept urging me to recover my eyesight quickly.

So he had planned all along to abandon me and leave on his own.

But he had clearly promised me he would help me find my parents.

I stared blankly around the empty room. Before long, my feet began running beyond my control.

I ran out of the thatched cottage, out of the woods, down the hillside, and onto the Northern Plains marketplace I had not set foot in for a long time.

It was still as prosperous as when we first arrived, even livelier than before.

In a daze, I wove through the crowd, searching aimlessly for a direction, trying to catch sight of that familiar figure.

No one paid any attention to a woman stumbling around like a fool. They were all discussing far more important matters.

“Xiang Suize really confessed? Then who will take over Xiangwu Mountain from now on?”

“Idiot. A place like that should never have existed in the first place!”

“I heard he and three of his disciples plotted this together. Master and disciples killed so many Blessed Cultivator practitioners. Their sins are monstrous. They deserve to be eliminated!”

“But of those three disciples, only Nan Wenji’s whereabouts are still known. The other two may be dead for all we know. Where are they supposed to look?”

“In any case, the Dongze Sect Leader has already issued an order to arrest Nan Wenji. As for the rest, we’ll just have to wait for the Four Regions Assembly!”

…

I did not believe a single word of it, yet my heart was pounding fiercely.

Senior Brother and Bai Yujian had both said that the Dongze Sect Leader hated Xiangwu Mountain more than anyone.

Could he have tortured Master and forced a confession out of him?

If Senior Brother was captured by him too, wouldn’t his fate be terrible?

In my panic, I anxiously grabbed a passing man and asked, “Ex-excuse me… how do I get to Dongze?”

The man had a kind face, but he looked me up and down strangely. Then he coldly shook off my hand and caught up with his companion.

Perhaps I was not used to being treated with such indifference, or perhaps I still had not recovered from the shock of Senior Brother’s departure.

I stared blankly as the man left, feeling the scenery around me grow dim and blurry along with his retreating figure.

When I came back to myself, I was standing in front of the thatched cottage again.

My face was warm and wet, and behind me, the rain was pouring down in sheets.

Little Senior Brother’s Qingque was hiding beneath the eaves, half spreading its wings as it hopped and fluttered.

“Can you take me to find Senior Brother?”

Qingque’s dark, glossy eyes faced me. As I looked at it, it felt as though I were staring into an abyss with no bottom.

Its body paused slightly. Then it rushed into the curtain of rain.

I hurriedly picked up the letter and bundle Senior Brother had left behind and followed.

Qingque landed beneath a tree.

The earth beneath the tree had been freshly turned. Buried there was Mojian, whose sword spirit had scattered. Senior Brother had laid it to rest here.

“You want me to bring Mojian?”

Without waiting for Qingque’s response, I wiped the rain from the corners of my eyes, bent down, and dug into the wet mud with my hands.

It was Senior Brother’s fault for burying it so deep. I dug for a very long time before my fingers finally found Mojian’s hilt.

The rain washed the mud and sand apart, seeping downward and binding Mojian even more tightly.

Just moving the hilt half an inch took almost all my strength.

A little more. Just a little more…

I gritted my teeth and pulled Mojian’s blade completely out of the earth. A sudden force struck me and sent me tumbling to the ground.

My hands burned with pain, soaked in the muddy water as if insects were gnawing at my flesh.

The rain fell harder and harder.

I had no time to tend to my wounds. Holding Mojian, I got up and ran toward the thatched cottage. I kept running.

I forgot how long I ran. I only remember the final flash of lightning tearing across the sky, thunder crashing over my head.

All at once, the world spun before my eyes. Caught completely off guard, I pitched straight toward the steep slope at my side.