Chapter 98
Chapter 98
“Is that Yun Xi a fool? This is an ancestor of Dingtian Sword Sect! What greater fortune could there be than catching the eye of a senior at the Tribulation Transcendence stage?”
“Being mentioned in the same breath as a Tribulation Transcendence ancestor must be the proudest moment of that Foundation Establishment master’s entire life.”
“From now on, she can boast to everyone: Even a mighty Tribulation Transcendence cultivator once lost to me. Hahaha…”
Zhu Yin, now experiencing the proudest moment of her entire life: “…”
She rubbed her nose and laughed.
The two cultivators holding forth beside her heard the laugh and looked over unhappily. Upon seeing her appearance, they hesitated, then turned away again.
No one knew whether such an obviously disreputable cultivator might be insane. Everyone knew that madmen neither followed reason nor considered consequences when they fought.
They could not be bothered with her.
Zhu Yin paid them no mind either. She moved elsewhere, listened to more gossip, and gained a general understanding of her young disciple’s situation in Dingtian Sword Sect.
Once news of the innate sword bones spread, cultivators from Dingtian Sword Sect came to snatch–that was, receive–her as soon as the cloudship carrying the new disciples reached the Eastern Continent.
A sect made entirely of sword cultivators had few twists and schemes. Though its sword cultivators did not quite understand why the girl rejected the sect ancestor, they said little about it.
Some even considered her unyielding, spirited, and grateful, and admired her greatly.
Thus, despite the uproar outside, her young disciple’s actual circumstances in Dingtian Sword Sect were quite good.
Rumors were still only rumors, however. Zhu Yin went to see for herself.
When she found Yun Xi, the girl had just finished her morning lesson and was practicing swordsmanship alone in her assigned courtyard.
After several months apart, Yun Xi had grown a little taller. Perhaps because she now practiced the sword, her presence had become even sharper.
As she trained with a serious expression, she possessed a cool, remote air.
Zhu Yin quietly watched for a while before slipping away.
In the courtyard, Yun Xi suddenly frowned and glanced in one direction.
Her heart had skipped a beat. For some inexplicable reason, she felt as though someone in that direction had been watching her.
She put away her sword and walked over.
All was quiet. There was no trace of anyone having lingered nearby.
I must have imagined it, the girl thought.
Holding her sword, she happened to glimpse sunlight passing through the leaves and casting mottled shadows on the ground. She fell into a daze.
Whenever Master had nothing to do, she liked sitting beneath the tree in their courtyard and counting the spots of light on the ground.
I wonder what Master is doing now, Yun Xi thought.
She had asked an older female disciple how long she must wait before leaving the sect to visit home.
The older disciple had teased her mercilessly. “Look at our Yun Xi, still a little baby who has not been weaned! You only just entered the sect, and you already miss home?”
There was no fixed rule, the older disciple explained. Sect disciples had leave every ten days. Those who lived nearby could return home during their breaks.
For someone like Yun Xi, however, whose home lay in Nandu, a single journey back took months.
The older disciple had said, “You will at least have to reach the Golden Core stage and gain some ability to protect yourself before the elders allow you to travel far from the sect.”
She had found it difficult to understand. She had heard that the junior disciple’s master was only at the Foundation Establishment stage.
“Why did your master not come to the Eastern Continent with you?”
Yun Xi did not understand either, but Master must have had her reasons for refusing.
She smiled. “Master is accustomed to living in Nandu. Her disciples went far away to study; there is no reason to trouble Master by making her follow us.”
She simply had not expected the requirements for returning to be so demanding.
The Golden Core stage…
The girl silently resolved to reach it. It was only the Golden Core stage.
She and her senior brother had begun cultivating long ago. They had merely suppressed their cultivation all this time, afraid that Master might discover it.
Now that they had reached the Eastern Continent, they naturally had no reason to hold back.
Besides–
Yun Xi sometimes wondered whether Master had truly known nothing about all the years she and her senior brother had secretly followed Mr. Gongyi in practicing the sword and cultivating.
She raised her right hand and gently touched the jade bracelet on her left wrist.
The bracelet was made from exceedingly rare blue jade, a slender and exquisite piece whose lustrous stone resembled water. It was very beautiful.
Yet no beauty could change the fact that it was supposedly “a useless mortal object.”
And in the cultivation world, mortal objects had the least value of all.
Her senior brother had received a similar object. A bracelet did not suit Yun Lie, so his was a hair ribbon.
Yun Xi had worn the bracelet into Dingtian Sword Sect, yet even the Tribulation Transcendence ancestor who wanted to accept her as a disciple–one of the cultivation world’s reputed greatest experts–had noticed nothing unusual.
This was a secret shared by the master and her two disciples.
Her bracelet and her senior brother’s hair ribbon were both storage artifacts of astonishing capacity, packed with all kinds of luggage and supplies Master had prepared for them.
As a child, she had simply believed Master could do anything.
Later, she learned that Master was one of the legendary cultivators.
After entering Dingtian Sword Sect and gaining a broader understanding of the cultivation world, Yun Xi began to question whether her own “unremarkable Foundation Establishment cultivator” was quite what she seemed.
Yun Xi had considered whether Master might actually be a hidden great cultivator, forced by some special circumstance to conceal her identity, withdraw into little Nandu, and live an ordinary life.
Yet Master’s behavior was strange.
If she truly wished to hide her identity, she ought to be careful in everything. Why, then, had she let so many clues to her identity slip before the two disciples?
Yun Xi could not understand.
So she stopped thinking about it.
Cultivators enjoyed long lives, after all. Even if Master truly was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, she could live for centuries.
Once Yun Xi had achieved something in her own cultivation, she could ask Master directly.
.
After seeing her young disciple, Zhu Yin strolled around Dingtian Sword Sect.
She discovered that the sect’s disciples mentioned Yun Xi often.
Innate sword bones were extraordinarily rare.
And Yun Xi had certainly lived up to that astounding talent. After only a few months in the sect, her strength had advanced so rapidly that her fellow disciples were thoroughly convinced of her ability.
Her rejection of the sect ancestor’s offer also appeared to have brought no consequences.
Once the ancestor confirmed her resolve, they simply returned to seclusion.
Yun Xi entered the inner sect with the other newly admitted disciples and cultivated alongside them.
The occasional conflict amounted only to fellow disciples who resented her skill or thought her ungrateful openly challenging her to fights.
Zhu Yin nodded in satisfaction. This matched her impression of a sect made entirely of sword cultivators.
After finishing her tour, she stopped by Dingtian Sword Sect’s dining hall for a simple meal and concluded that its food was thoroughly mediocre. Naturally, she also muddled the memories of anyone who saw her. With her current appearance, she might otherwise have caused trouble.
Fortunately, she had packed plenty of food into both disciples’ storage artifacts. Time stood still inside them, and the supplies would last the children for years.
Dingtian Sword Sect: visited. Next stop, the Dao Sect.