Chapter 80

"Though death is inevitable," the great demon in the cage said, her smile growing more ferocious, "what harm is there in destruction for both of us? Taking a cultivator like you down with me would be quite satisfying!"

Seeing her poised for a desperate fight, Yun Shuchen lowered her gaze in thought for a moment. She wiped the blood from the corner of her lips, then smiled. "Unfortunately, you missed my meaning. It's not my master who came this time, and I don't necessarily want to oppose you—so isn't there room for negotiation?"

Miao Shun froze, watching motionlessly as Yun Shuchen slowly withdrew her spiritual power. Her own demonic aura gradually settled. She squinted at the young cultivator before her and sneered, "If I kill you two, I can flee immediately. Would I leave you alive to report back to your old master?"

"Naive. Our cultivations aren't far apart. If it were that easy to take my life, why would I walk into death's door?" The young girl in lotus-pink shook her head with a light scoff. "Besides, my soul lamp is displayed in the sect. If anything happens to me, someone will surely come seeking revenge—can you truly escape unscathed?"

Qing Zhouxue, listening nearby, couldn't help but smile slightly. Her master back then was indeed young and inexperienced, but she had the threatening tone of someone quite seasoned.

Clearly, she had done this sort of thing often.

Miao Shun had indeed sustained internal injuries; fighting another round would be the last gasp of a spent force.

Her eyes darted around, her guard loosening a bit, and a smile crept back onto her lips. "Then what does this young miss wish to discuss with me?"

Yun Shuchen pulled a brocade pouch from her sleeve, fiddling with it casually in her hand, her tone light. "I've heard that a Demon Core is a great tonic." She looked up at her, speaking briskly, "I want that round pearl in your belly—not your life. What do you say?"

Miao Shun spat, "That's the core of my cultivation. If you go back on your word halfway, with no strength to resist, I'd just be handing over my life for nothing."

"A fair point." Yun Shuchen nodded slightly, then suddenly raised her hand, thumb pressed into her palm, pointing to the sky. "If you gift me your Demon Core and I still hunt you down, may I be struck by lightning and die a horrible death. I swear it."

A faint rumble of thunder echoed from beyond the sky.

For cultivators, an oath sworn to heaven was witnessed by heaven and earth—it could never be broken.

"But what if you leak my whereabouts later? Wouldn't I still end up dead?" Miao Shun remained unreadable.

Yun Shuchen shook her head with a light laugh. "Do you know why I'm going through all this trouble? I want this Demon Core for myself. I don't plan to hand it over to the sect—so why would I tell my master?" She poked a finger at her cheek. "If I report that the demon escaped, at worst I'd be blamed for incompetence. A scolding is nothing compared to such a real benefit."

Miao Shun's heart relaxed a little. But after years of cultivating by eating human flesh and drinking blood, she had finally taken human form, and now all that effort was about to vanish—resentment burned within her.

Yet no matter how unwilling she felt, there seemed to be no other way. She could only blame her bad luck for running into a disciple of a great power. It wasn't Yun Shuchen herself she feared, but—as Yun had said—the entire sect behind her.

To save her life, Miao Shun finally nodded, her eyes cold. "Come take it, then."

Hearing this, Yun Shuchen's face brightened with delight, quickly suppressed. She frowned slightly and tossed a brocade pouch to her. "This... it's a bit bloody. There's a boning knife inside. Do it yourself."

The demoness looked at her slightly inexperienced expression and sneered inwardly—truly a fledgling cultivator. Without further hesitation, she took the pouch and opened it with a hateful flick—

A flash of golden light. The demon's figure was suddenly swallowed by the enlarging pouch, which immediately bulged and squirmed about.

Only then did Yun Shuchen drop her act, tucking the pouch away. The demonic aura thinned considerably. The mortals who had been standing dumbfounded, their minds lost, gradually regained consciousness and began looking around in confusion.

She turned to Qing Zhouxue with a smile in her eyes. "What are you staring at? Let's go."

Qing Zhouxue realized that her master had smiled a lot when she was young—perhaps aware of how lovely she looked when she did. Five hundred years later, her expression was more restrained, lacking this lightness, carrying instead the composure of an elder.

The young girl's mind was remarkably sharp; she had turned the conversation in all sorts of directions, fooling the demon into complacency and avoiding a fierce battle.

Just as Qing Zhouxue had always suspected, Yun Shuchen had never been a dull person.

"You deceived her like that—what if the oath breaks?" Qing Zhouxue asked.

The girl clicked her tongue softly, eyes curving. "I said I wouldn't kill her to the last, but I never said I couldn't capture the demon. How is that a lie?"

"..."

Yun Shuchen loosely hooked her fingers through the pouch's drawstring, swinging it as she walked out of the brothel with Qing Zhouxue. Suddenly remembering something, she turned around—but Qing Zhouxue, still lost in thought, kept walking forward—

The two collided square into each other.

Stumbling, Qing Zhouxue instinctively caught her master's waist to steady her. Just that brief touch made the young woman's eyes widen, blinking.

After a moment, seeming deeply unaccustomed to such close contact with another woman, her cheeks flushed, and she shoved Qing Zhouxue away.

"Master," Qing Zhouxue said, already used to addressing her that way. "Where will you go next?"

It took her a moment to realize she was being called, and feeling utterly awkward, she mumbled, "To eat?"

At the tavern.

Qing Zhouxue quite naturally mooched a meal off her. She ate quietly, never speaking unless someone engaged her in conversation.

The girl across from her, with no one to talk to, picked at her food briefly before propping her cheeks in her hands and staring at her for a long while. Her gaze shifted away, and the word "disciple" caught in her throat, not a syllable slipping out.

The tavern buzzed with the clamor of drinking and conversation. Perhaps she had said the word "disciple" very quietly, but Qing Zhouxue didn't hear it.

"...I heard this happened many years ago." At the neighboring table sat several sword-bearers with jade hairpins—clearly cultivators—perhaps old schoolmates gathering to chat about gossip in the cultivation world. "Really? If the head of the Xu Family practiced such a heretical technique, can he possibly escape the heavenly tribulation later?"

"Ah, in life, being able to dominate for a while is enough. Who knows what happens after ascension?" One cultivator raised his cup. "But digging out people's Spirit Roots to boost oneself—how brutal. I heard the Xu Family head denied it early on, saying it was a Demon Core, but some fool spread a story about Spirit Roots."

"I think so too. The Xu Family is one of the four great immortal families, with a clean reputation. A few years ago I was on good terms with some of their younger generation—fine people. This is surely slander."

Qing Zhouxue had just set down her chopsticks when she noticed Yun Shuchen had gone stiff.

The young woman before her trembled slightly in the eyes, suddenly turning to stare hard at those cultivators. Her mouth opened as if she wanted to speak, but the group had already finished their meal and stood to pay, threading past her.

Qing Zhouxue was puzzled. "What's wrong?"

Yun Shuchen's face turned deathly pale in an instant. She murmured, "The Xu Family..."

"I have some matters to attend to." Yun Shuchen suddenly rose, her expression icy. "You eat. I'm leaving first."

"Master?"

Qing Zhouxue was baffled, but in just a moment, the young woman descended the tavern steps and headed back along the path they'd come.

She had no choice but to put down her chopsticks and follow at a distance. She watched Yun Shuchen touch the brocade pouch at her waist, hesitate, then, as if resolved, re-enter that brothel.

Just before stepping inside, Yun Shuchen dropped a bead from her sleeve at the entrance—seemingly not wanting what happened next to be recorded.

Qing Zhouxue saw clearly that it was the 'Yiyu Huan,' a recording orb.

Sure enough, the scene around them began to crack and blur.

Qing Zhouxue felt her soul ripped away once more. When she woke, a woman's voice came to her ears: "Wake up. The trial is over."

She opened her eyes and found herself still sitting in meditation as before, while her young master had vanished like a dream.

Yue Changge extended a hand, waving it before her eyes with a smile. "How was it? Your master, in her youth, was one of the finest blossoms of the Taichu Sect. This bead has another wonder: when a living person steps into the recollection, it naturally evolves through the Three Thousand Dao Methods. I expect you could converse with those within."

"Indeed..." Qing Zhouxue was still shaken. "It's quite marvelous."

"Better than solitary cultivation, anyway," Senior Yue sighed, touching her own cheek. "Good child, wandering the world is simply a light-hearted pastime. Yet you needed another to guide you from straying."

Senior Yue waved her wide sleeve, ready to carry her back to the Taichu Sect.

Clearly, in Yue Changge's mind, cultivation ranked high on the list of ways to stray from the proper path.

Qing Zhouxue at last returned to Heyi Peak as she had wished, settling into her comfortable days of staying indoors.

But the final scene in that bead—the subtle expression on the face of the eighteen-year-old girl—was etched into her memory.

A flash of disbelief. A flash of suspicion.

Then bewilderment, and finally a rise of hatred quickly suppressed.

She couldn't understand how a girl of eighteen could feel so much complexity.

The Xu Family? Qing Zhouxue silently mouthed the two words a few times.

That evening, her master, as usual, sat at the bedside reading for a while before growing drowsy.

She extinguished the lamp and glanced at her side. Her disciple's clear, dark eyes were still staring at her thoughtfully.

"What's the matter? Did seeing your master out collecting demons in her youth scare you?" Yun Shuchen gently stroked her disciple's hair. "At this hour, you should be sleepy."

With the lamp out, neither could see the other's expression.

"Master, the Xu Family... what connection do they have with our Taichu Sect?"

She ultimately decided that guessing on her own would only lead her further astray—better to ask directly.

If her master wished to answer, she would.

The window had been shut, and not a sliver of moonlight could slip through.

Qing Zhouxue couldn't see her master's face, but she heard her pause, then say, "Not much connection with the Taichu Sect. Many years ago, they were one of the four great immortal families—they sent some of their younger members here to study, that's all."

Her tone was calm, almost dismissive, as if discussing what to have for lunch.

But Qing Zhouxue knew that if her master would not speak further, it was a topic she did not wish to discuss.

Only a disciple who had been close to her for over a decade could notice such small habits.

Yun Shuchen lay down on her side, and Qing Zhouxue's forehead pressed against her shoulder, her arms slowly wrapping around her waist. Yun sighed softly. "Hugging me again? You won't sleep well like that."

Silence enveloped them, and Yun felt the fabric near her chest inhaled sharply by her disciple.

Oddly, this time Qing Zhouxue only shifted away a little, but didn't let go as she was told.

"What's wrong?"

"I can still..." her disciple began softly, then fell silent.

"Can still what?" Yun Shuchen was endlessly patient with her, her hand still stroking through her disciple's silky hair. "Qing'er, what is it?"

She felt Qing'er's leg wrap around hers again, then heard her say, "I still like being pressed against you like this."

In her mind, she and Yun Shuchen had somehow made up, and the question slipped out unbidden.

"Master, in the brothel, I saw two women holding each other like this."

Yun Shuchen's breath grew unsteady as the girl's clear voice whispered at her ear, asking, "Is this what you call love, master?"