Chapter 89

"Is that why you're always butting heads with her?" Yun Shuchen helped the tear-streaked young woman to her feet with a smile. "You've got nerve, riling the Pavilion Master up enough to send her all the way to Taichu."

"But you've been crying on my shoulder for years, and you still won't let me tell her. How's she supposed to know?"

"She can't know!" Li Guancang blurted out, then wilted. "...It's too embarrassing. She'll think I'm still a baby."

"So would you rather keep this up?"

"I..." She couldn't answer, her thumb worrying the edge of her sleeve.

"It's not like you've committed murder or arson. What's so shameful?" A clear, cool female voice interjected.

Li Guancang looked with reddened eyes at the white-clad young woman standing nearby, who remained impassive. Stumped, she shot back, "Well, what would you do in my shoes?"

"Tell her."

Qing Zhouxue looked back at her, as if she couldn't understand why anyone would cry on her master's shoulder—it had nothing to do with Yun Shuchen, after all. No matter how miserably she wept, the only one who knew about it was Yun Shuchen, not Li Chaoyin.

She should be crying on the Pavilion Master's shoulder.

Qing Zhouxue finally understood why this scene seemed so jarring to her. It was because there was such a flaw in the logic. She felt suddenly enlightened.

Li Guancang wiped every trace of tears from her face, leaving only a faint rim of red around her eyes. She straightened her back but remained rooted to the spot, stubbornly refusing to move an inch.

Yun Shuchen knew that she was probably feeling awkward about something again.

When Li Guancang was just learning to walk, Yun Shuchen had seen her a few times. She was a small, short thing, and looked quite obedient.

She was the child of the Pavilion Master's deceased close friend. Some unknown story lay in between, and Li Chaoyin adopted her into the Penglai Pavilion, also establishing her as the successor to the Pavilion Master's position.

Perhaps the Pavilion Master truly had too many matters to attend to. Once she got busy, she would unknowingly distance herself from her ward. For a child of that age, what she needed was far more than fine clothes and good food, and that's where the problem started.

Look at her now, carefully guarding a strange bit of pride, not wanting to go see Li Chaoyin with freshly cried eyes, and so she just froze there.

Truly the temper of youth.

"She probably won't get over it anytime soon. Qing'er, why don't you take her out to clear her head? How about that?"

She couldn't just leave her standing there. Yun Shuchen let out a light sigh, shifting her gaze to Qing Zhouxue. Qing Zhouxue was momentarily stunned, then said, "Yes, Master."

*

Along the way, Li Guancang followed Qing Zhouxue in silence, occasionally rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. It didn't get better; the slightly swollen areas became even redder.

Qing Zhouxue asked, "Where would you like to look around?"

Li Guancang said in a muffled voice, "Anywhere."

Anywhere. Qing Zhouxue truly picked a random direction within Taichu, leading her on a stroll with no particular aim.

The scenery in Taichu was quite beautiful—strange peaks, secluded pools, surrounded by mountains and waters. As they walked, Li Guancang's mood gradually calmed. She turned to look at her, staring for a while, and a glimmer of curiosity emerged. "What's your name?"

"Qing Zhouxue."

"You're Cloud Immortal's disciple... Does she treat you well?" Li Guancang asked again.

This question should have been answered with care. Qing Zhouxue tilted her head slightly, pondered for a moment, but still answered truthfully. "Very well."

Sure enough, the Young Pavilion Master was like a downcast Persian cat soaked by the rain, its precious fur clumped together. "Right. I've seen her quite a bit. She doesn't seem like the type to constantly belittle people. She's even patient with me, so she must be even better to her own disciple."

"Does your master treat you poorly?" Qing Zhouxue didn't think that was quite the case.

"I can't really say." Li Guancang had just had a good cry, and most of her anger had dissipated. "I kind of hate her."

"If you hate her, then why cry for her?"

"...I wasn't crying for her!" That touched a raw nerve, and she bristled.

Qing Zhouxue nodded and didn't say anything further.

They wandered about for a while longer, and then Li Guancang spoke again in a soft voice. "When I was young, the place I slept in was quite big. I was very scared then. She was always busy with official matters in the pavilion, and no one paid attention to me. So I placed glowing jewels all over my bedroom, making it all glittering and resplendent."

"Li Chaoyin, that woman, thought I liked that," she said with a self-deprecating laugh, "and so she gifted me boxes of them every year. Later, when I said I was bored, she found a bunch of children my age to cultivate with me."

"But she seemed to forget that I was the Young Pavilion Master. Those people, every one of them, looked at me with such trepidation, and whenever we played, they let me win." At this point, she turned to look at Qing Zhouxue. "At least it's comfortable talking with you."

"Mm."

"...Just a bit sparse on words."

"Looking at it that way, she has treated you quite well. How can you say you hate her?" Qing Zhouxue paused slightly.

"You think so too?" Li Guancang said. "Everyone around me thinks so."

"Maybe I'm just wanting too much." She lowered her lashes, staring at the ground.

Embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, and have few desires.

A line from a Taoist scripture suddenly floated into Qing Zhouxue's mind. Thinking too much, dwelling too long, and being greedy were indeed not good. If one constantly chased after every little gain, leaving no room for a hint of a clear and simple life, then they could never hold onto the word 'lasting'.

But looking at the partings and unions in storybooks, it was the same. Throughout the ages, people would always be insatiably greedy, especially when it came to matters of love. In *The Peony Pavilion*, one exclaims, "If you don't visit the garden, how can you know the spring is so beautiful?"

But once you're in the garden, you see not only the beauty of spring, but also its decay. You see not just the flowers on the branches, but also the fallen petals turned to mud on the ground.

Talented men and beautiful women, beautiful women, talented men, leaving behind so many eternal regrets.

Qing Zhouxue realized she had long since harbored this thought of possibly creating "regret," and only towards Yun Shuchen. When she was chatting pleasantly with the Pavilion Master, or when Li Guancang hugged her, Qing Zhouxue saw it, held it in her heart, and it was covered in a layer of dust, gray and dull.

She turned her head to look at Li Guancang. A complex emotion began to well up within her, though she hadn't yet found the apt words to describe it at that moment.

Later, she found them. It was called misery loves company.

*

They wandered around for a bit, and finally headed back as night fell.

A string of pearls was pushed into Qing Zhouxue's hand. Looking closer, they glowed with a soft luster even in the darkness, as if they had gathered all the moonlight's splendor.

Then she heard the young woman beside her clear her throat. "You take it."

"Why are you giving me this?"

"Because..." she said, a bit flustered, "because you kept me company and strolled around with me for so long. We don't really know each other."

"My master asked me to do it," Qing Zhouxue said. "I was just following orders. I shouldn't accept a reward. Besides, these pearls don't look ordinary; you're at a loss giving them to me... You don't want them either?"

The words "I want to make friends" felt strangely hard to say. Besides, it was the first time someone had analyzed profit and loss with her. Li Guancang found it quite novel, but couldn't bring herself to say it. She just snorted. "I don't want them. You keep them."

Really? Qing Zhouxue gave her a doubtful look before accepting them.

Back at Heyi Peak, Yun Shuchen had apparently talked about something with Li Chaoyin. At any rate, they no longer argued at the first sight of each other, and the atmosphere had subtly eased considerably.

The Pavilion Master had intended to take her troublesome disciple back early, to avoid any further embarrassment out in the world, but Yun Shuchen said the peak was quiet, and that it was rare to put down official duties and enjoy a leisurely day stolen from the rush of life. Staying a few more days wouldn't hurt.

The next day, Li Guancang didn't want to stay at Heyi Peak, still avoiding someone, and so she went to the training grounds with Qing Zhouxue.

Ruan Mingzhu had arrived early, waiting for someone. She saw Qing Zhouxue approaching from afar, but the person beside her was someone she had never seen around Taichu before.

That was strange. Ruan Mingzhu was quite familiar with all the inner sect female disciples of Taichu. This, then, must be a guest from outside.

"Hello, what's your name?"

Before she even reached them, Ruan Mingzhu had already extended her hand. Li Guancang was startled, then reached out and grasped it. Ruan Mingzhu then looked at Qing Zhouxue, who promptly answered, "This is..."

Hearing her formal tone, Li Guancang sensed trouble and quickly interjected, "My name is Li Guancang, a disciple of Penglai Pavilion, here to exchange cultivation techniques with Taichu Sect."

She seemed unwilling to reveal her status as the Young Pavilion Master, probably with plans of her own. Seeing this, Qing Zhouxue fell silent. Not long after, Lin Xunzhen and Bai Su also arrived together.

Li Guancang watched them spar for a few rounds, and a sudden interest sparked. "How about I spar with you all?"

"Four against one... How would that even work?" Ruan Mingzhu was quite astonished.

Li Guancang smiled, pulling out a delicate and intricately crafted little fish ornament, seemingly made of jade, from her pocket. She placed it on her person, and her body split into four identical copies of herself.

Avatars of this kind required at least the Nascent Soul stage to create, and it wasn't easy. The others were immediately stunned into silence. Lin Xunzhen's gaze shifted to the jade fish hanging on her chest. With such a high-grade magic treasure, this young woman before them was definitely no ordinary visitor.

Li Guancang pretended not to notice. She raised her hand, condensing water into droplets, which coalesced into spheres. Four equal-sized balls of water shot directly at them.

Ruan Mingzhu dodged to the side, but her blade's wind inevitably clipped a splash of water, which immediately crackled and popped with white smoke.

The Phoenix True Fire wasn't easily extinguished. Its color dimmed slightly for a moment, then flared up visibly brighter. Qing Zhouxue's Qingshuang Sword was thus suppressed, just as before—on the battlefield, it could only ever perform at the level of one of the two, never both.

Lin Xunzhen and Bai Su, standing behind the two of them, let out a soft sigh, a pang of frustration rising in their hearts. Perhaps there really was no way to overcome it; ice and fire were simply destined not to coexist in the same place.

But thinking about it that way raised a question: why didn't the Sect Leader point this out explicitly back then? They should know that a team needs not only high cultivation, but also the tacit understanding honed through years of working together.

Swapping members at a critical moment was a major taboo.

Since the Sect Leader had such high hopes for these exceptional disciples, it was hard to believe he hadn't foreseen this. So why? Could it be that there truly was a solution, and they just hadn't thought of it yet? Lin Xunzhen had actually asked the Sect Leader about this earlier.

The Sect Leader had said, "Of course this is a significant weakness that needs to be addressed. But as for the nuances, it's better if you figure them out yourselves. I won't spell it out for now."

"I've thought for a long time, and I truly don't understand. Junior Sister Ruan and Junior Sister Qing have extraordinary talent, no matter..." Before Lin Xunzhen could finish, the Sect Leader sighed. "They are indeed fine jade and good timber, and the medical cultivator is extremely important. Everyone has their place."

"Child, focus your gaze more on yourself." The Sect Leader was also looking at her. "The matter of the Immortal Ascension Assembly, I didn't ask you on a whim. It was actually the result of a joint discussion by all the Elders."

Lin Xunzhen was startled, and looked up.

"You are also an indispensable part of this."

Indispensable in what way exactly? As Lin Xunzhen was lost in thought, she felt a grip on her arm. She instinctively withdrew her hand and snapped back to attention, meeting Bai Su's slightly concerned gaze.

"Too much worry isn't good for calming your qi and focusing your mind. I noticed your spiritual energy fluctuated quite a bit just now. Circulating your techniques now could be dangerous."

A medical cultivator was always quite perceptive about a person's condition. Lin Xunzhen blinked, then nodded, suppressing her pensive expression and concentrating on the sparring match before her.

Li Guancang noticed that Ruan Mingzhu had a fire Spirit Root, making her much easier to hit than Qing Zhouxue. With a slight smile, she manipulated a mass of water, refining it with her spiritual energy into needle-thin threads, and shot them fiercely at her.

This was no simple game. At that moment, a leaf drifted down from the air, and the dense barrage of water needles pierced through its veins and body. By the time the entire leaf touched the ground, it had already disintegrated into dust.

Ruan Mingzhu couldn't dodge in time. In a hurry, she pressed her index and middle fingers together before her chest, muttered something, and a wave of flame suddenly exploded around her.

Water and fire clashed, and wisps of smoke curled up.

At that very moment, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a white figure.