Chapter 37
Shu Li stopped what he was doing and hummed in acknowledgment.
“What is it?” Yu Tai asked, reaching down to stroke Xia Mo, which sat beneath the bed happily gnawing bamboo.
“The Qingguang Sword.”
When the hand petting its head stopped, Xia Mo looked up. “Chirp?”
Why had she stopped?
Yu Tai’s expression grew complicated for a moment. After a pause, she said, “I’ll think about it.”
The Qingguang Sword, once renowned throughout the world, had vanished from public view together with its fallen master.
A sword cultivator’s sword was different. It was a companion and a partner, an indispensable piece of the soul.
As long as the sword lived, its master lived. When the sword died, so did its master.
On the day Shu Li’s Dao foundation was destroyed, he had forever lost his bonded sword-the Qingguang Sword.
The Qingguang Sword had clearly disappeared in the original novel, yet now Shu Li wanted her to find a sword that no longer existed?
[I understand…]
The System instantly perked up. [What do you understand, Host?!]
[Shu Li wasn’t reborn or transmigrated. I’ve finally figured out what he is.]
The System: [What? What? What?!]
Yu Tai: [He’s simply gone insane.]
The System: […]?
As though guessing what Yu Tai was thinking, Shu Li chuckled and said, “The Qingguang Sword did not disappear. Someone stole it.”
“Although my Dao foundation was destroyed, the Qingguang Sword had already merged with my soul. I can still sense its location.”
Yu Tai abruptly turned her head toward him.
“Hiss.” The movement was too sudden and pulled the wound across her back.
Shu Li walked over and crouched before her so she could see him clearly. “Slowly,” he said gently.
Yu Tai frowned instinctively.
Was it her imagination, or had Shu Li changed since she woke up?
He had suddenly become clingy and overly affectionate.
Tsk.
“Then can you sense roughly where it is?” Yu Tai pushed away the handsome face that had drawn too close.
Shu Li caught the hand she extended and answered softly, “Somewhere in the Upper Realm.”
The Upper Realm?
The unexpected answer made Yu Tai forget to pull her hand away.
The Upper Realm was completely different from the Middle Realm. In Yu Tai’s eyes, *that* was the true cultivation world.
Spiritual qi was so abundant there that a few casual breaths could carry someone to Foundation Establishment. Nascent Soul cultivators supposedly filled the streets, countless sects covered the Nine Provinces, and one could pick up artifacts simply by lowering one’s head outdoors. Even ascending to immortality through Tribulation Transcendence-an impossibility to Middle Realm cultivators-was commonplace there.
It was also the place where Shu Li had once made his name known throughout the world.
The leading sect of the Upper Realm had reportedly offered Shu Li an exception and invited him to become an inner disciple, but he refused.
The Upper Realm was paradise in the hearts of every Middle Realm cultivator.
But for Yu Tai, it was unquestionably hell.
People with higher cultivation than hers were everywhere, and danger lay at every step. If her identity as a demonic cultivator were exposed, she could only wait obediently for death.
“I’m not going…” Yu Tai refused without mercy, utterly unlike the confident promises she had made to Shu Li underground.
She went back on her word with impressive decisiveness.
But Shu Li seemed to have expected this answer. He merely nodded and said, “Then we won’t go.”
Yu Tai stared at him suspiciously and frowned. “Senior Brother, what’s gotten into you these past few days?”
Shu Li raised his eyes. Yu Tai’s reflection appeared in their crystalline depths. He tilted his head slightly, his ink-black hair falling down his back like the finest silk, his refined face full of gentleness. “Hm?”
He was acting like a male fox in heat.
Realizing that he still held her hand, Yu Tai drawled lazily, “Let go, Senior Brother.”
Shu Li loosened his grip, and the soft hand slipped instantly from his palm. Then he suddenly asked, “Aren’t you hungry?”
Yu Tai froze.
Oh, right. She had been bedridden for several days and had not circulated spiritual qi, so naturally, she had not absorbed any righteous qi.
She was not lacking it yet, but who would complain about having too much of something that could save their life?
Yu Tai caught a strand of Shu Li’s hanging hair and curled her lips. “Come here, Senior Brother.”
Shu Li rose and bent over, cooperating as Yu Tai lay on her stomach, raised her head, and kissed him.
Looking at the man’s long lashes, Yu Tai thought he seemed to be enjoying this more and more.
Had he finally accepted his position as her kept lover and simply given up resisting?
The System: […I don’t think so.]
…
Strange rumors began spreading after the Chengtian Sect was annihilated by a demonic cultivator.
Several Qingshan Sword Sect disciples died mysteriously while Yu Tai alone survived. Then, after Mo Zhen accused her of killing his daughter, his entire sect was exterminated.
For a time, rumors about Yu Tai swept across the Middle Realm.
However, most cultivators insisted that the events were coincidences and Yu Tai was merely a victim.
Most of those defending her were people who had followed Yu Tai and survived Bishui Secret Realm. They fought the rumor spreaders by themselves, proving that Shu Li had been right.
A good reputation truly was useful.
The System: [???]
It had been the one to say that first!
As the subject of the rumors, Yu Tai responded with complete disdain.
She had killed the Qingshan Sword Sect disciples, and she had killed Mo Xiaowei. But claiming she might have colluded with a demonic cultivator was utterly absurd.
Sorry. She *was* the demonic cultivator.
The only thing she had not done was annihilate the Chengtian Sect.
Despite her disdain, Yu Tai wore a veiled hat when she went out. Those measuring, probing gazes genuinely irritated her.
Especially when Shu Li was not at her side.
Looking at the stone marker ahead bearing the three large characters “Beast-Taming Sect,” Yu Tai thought she had finally arrived.
She wondered how Shu Li would feel when he woke to discover that she had locked him at home.
Sensing movement in the demon-beast pouch, Yu Tai lifted Xia Mo out. “Behave yourself, or I won’t bring you with me next time.”
Yu Tai had tried to be even quieter when leaving, yet Xia Mo still noticed. It had clamped its teeth around the hem of her robe and refused to let go. With no other choice, she brought it along.
“Who goes there?” Someone stopped her outside.
“I’m here to see Zhang Xiaoxiao. Please inform her, Fellow Cultivator,” Yu Tai said softly.
She had come to return the lightning rod. Jiang Yibai believed the lightning rod was Yu Tai’s artifact and had used his last strength to bring it out and return it to her.
Now that her wounds had healed, she had come to give it to Zhang Xiaoxiao so it could be returned to its original owner. She also wanted to ask a few questions.
Zhang Xiaoxiao emerged in confusion. The moment she saw the completely covered Yu Tai, she suddenly cried, “Benefactor!”
Her excitement startled even the disciple guarding the gate.
Yu Tai was surprised too.
She was dressed like this, yet Zhang Xiaoxiao could still recognize her?