Chapter 97

That evening, Liu Xunqin returned to the peak.

She went with Qing Zhouxue to check on Yun Shuchen again. As Yun Shuchen had suspected, her blindness was partly due to heavenly punishment and partly due to her severely depleted spiritual power; it might take some time before she recovered.

Compared to that minor ailment, Yun Shuchen was far more troubled by her disciple. Although her life had been saved, her Golden Core was shattered, and she had no Nascent Soul either. Yun Shuchen had no idea what to do.

"Indeed, this is unprecedented," Liu Xunqin said, equally puzzled. "If she failed to break through, she should have fallen to the Golden Core stage, not lost everything."

"Perhaps the injuries from the ninth thunder tribulation you struck were too severe."

Yun Shuchen turned her head toward the voice and frowned. "What thunder tribulation did she strike?"

On that day, when the formation for the seventh thunder tribulation had shattered halfway, Yun Shuchen had nearly lost consciousness and naturally hadn't seen Qing Zhouxue's feat.

Qing Zhouxue remained silent. Liu Xunqin glanced at her. "Explain it to your master yourself; I won't say more."

Senior Liu didn't stay long and fluttered away. She now oversaw not only the medicine peak but also a pile of miscellaneous matters.

Only the master and disciple remained. The silence was so profound that a pin drop would have sounded like thunder.

After a long while, Yun Shuchen spoke calmly. "Tell me, what good deeds did you do that day?"

Qing Zhouxue met her eyes. She knew her master couldn't see, but the stare still made her heart tremble. She only looked once before averting her gaze.

"Speak." Yun Shuchen frowned.

Qing Zhouxue sighed softly and finally recounted everything honestly, in full detail. She tentatively dropped a few sentences, carefully observing Yun Shuchen's expression. If her master's brow twitched even slightly, Qing Zhouxue would pause, search her mind, and pick out softer words to describe the dire situation.

But the plain facts were dire enough. Qing Zhouxue tried not to anger Yun Shuchen, but by the end, her master inevitably grew upset. "You..."

"You usually seem so steady. How could you make such a mistake at a critical moment?"

"Do you know why I and the other elders took on this tribulation for you?"

"To keep me alive," her disciple said, her voice growing weaker.

"Then what were you doing?"

Yun Shuchen's chest ached again from anger, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. "If you had rushed in and been struck dead, would you have been worthy of me?"

Qing Zhouxue caught a glimpse of that red, panicking slightly. She pulled out a few hemostatic pills that Liu Xunqin had said she could give Yun Shuchen and poured a cup of water. Before she could bring it over, Yun Shuchen knocked it away with a wave of her sleeve.

The warm tea spilled onto the ground, leaving a damp patch. Qing Zhouxue managed to keep her grip on the cup, steadied herself, and set it aside on the table.

Yun Shuchen felt her wrist being grasped. For the first time, her disciple didn't go along with her words but instead asked, "What if Master can't endure any longer?"

Yun Shuchen lowered her eyes and removed her hand. "Nine thunder tribulations—I know them well. The formation should cancel most of them, and I can use some magical tools for the rest. The other elders, especially the Sect Leader, won't watch you die either."

"Who said there are only nine thunder tribulations? Who can guarantee it's only nine?"

Her disciple's voice was calm but choked with sobs. "It came to take my life. It's different from ordinary tribulations. If nine bolts don't kill me, why not ten? Why not a dozen? Would Master keep enduring until she's nothing but dust?"

Yun Shuchen was slightly stunned. Qing Zhouxue pulled her into an embrace, pressing her nose into the dark hair that hung over Yun Shuchen's chest.

Her little disciple held her tightly, as if recalling that day's scene and fearing she might leave. A large warm spot soaked into her shoulder.

The girl in her arms was trembling, increasingly unable to stop. Her voice wavered like a fractured water's surface as she repeated desolately, "But... if you were gone, what would I do?"

She cried until she shook, but still suppressed it, her voice pitiful. Yun Shuchen couldn't see Qing Zhouxue now, but she unconsciously recalled the little girl from many years ago who had crouched beside the stone lion, her face covered in snow and frost, looking abandoned.

Silly girl, she sighed inwardly. Who in this world can stay with you forever? No one lives because they can't live without another.

But Qing Zhouxue's anger dissipated more than half with that one burying into her and then the crying.

When someone unknowingly places you in an irreplaceable position in their life, it's hard to stay angry at them.

On second thought, her disciple had done nothing wrong, after all. Yun Shuchen was unwilling to admit it, but if she had been at that age, in that position, in that situation, she would likely have done something similar to Qing Zhouxue.

After all, she had thought the same in her twenties—even more so than Qing Zhouxue, unable to let go.

Yun Shuchen's hand slowly moved to her disciple's back, and she felt that the girl seemed thinner. She patted her. "Let go. You're pressing on my chest; it's stuffy."

Only then did Qing Zhouxue loosen her grip, inhaling through a nose that sounded blocked. She still insisted on pouring a cup of water and feeding the pills to Yun Shuchen.

After the water, Qing Zhouxue fell silent. Yun Shuchen couldn't see her and didn't know if she had stopped crying or had turned to silent tears when she closed her mouth.

After the anger earlier, Yun Shuchen felt drained and weary now.

She lay half-reclined, feeling something poking her lower back, only to have someone gently lift her and place a quilt behind her.

She closed her eyes and deliberately listened.

It wasn't long before she caught the faint rustling of her disciple lifting her sleeve to wipe her tears.

Yun Shuchen felt helpless and softened her voice. "Still crying?"

Was she crying because she had been frightened to tears, or because she recalled that day and was scared?

Her disciple had never shed tears in the first half of her life, but since her sudden enlightenment, it was as if a floodgate had opened, and a few tears fell from time to time.

She didn't seem ashamed, because she had been emotionally indifferent before and wasn't experienced in handling emotions. Whenever she thought that her master had almost been lost, sorrow surged, and she could only release it through the most primitive method.

"Stop crying."

She rubbed her disciple's hair and curved her lips. "In any case, I'm still here. You're crying like I—"

A finger pressed against Yun Shuchen's lips, stopping the inauspicious word. Qing Zhouxue shook her head repeatedly. "Master, let's not talk about that, alright?"

"Alright." Yun Shuchen closed her mouth, as if she had kissed her finger. "I'm hungry. Go cook."

Qing Zhouxue lowered her hand and answered yes.

Yun Shuchen, in fact, had no appetite. But she thought it best to give her disciple something to do lest she be reminded of painful feelings and shed all the tears of her next life as well.

She listened to her disciple leave the room and lay down slowly again. In recent years, she hadn't cultivated, worried about her life and unwilling to rashly break through. Fortunately, she had been improving slightly; but then heaven willed otherwise, and she suffered this disaster.

She didn't know how long it would take to recover to her previous state.

The silver lining in this misfortune was that, although the price was heavy, at least no lives were lost.

She turned over and felt a bit hot.

When Qing Zhouxue left the room and heard her master want food, she felt a sliver of hope. The appetite usually followed the body; if one had appetite, it meant one was recovering.

As she walked out, she happened to run into Senior Sister Bai Su. Seeing her, Bai Su frowned and handed her a handkerchief. "Why are you crying? You should wipe your face."

Qing Zhouxue gave a muffled "mm," her nose sounding stuffy, but her expression had calmed. "Senior Sister, is the kitchen here still usable?"

"Of course." Bai Su led her to the kitchen. "We even bought some rice today."

Elder Liu didn't seem like the type to have time for meals, but unexpectedly, there were some fresh vegetables here. Bai Su explained, "Master doesn't cook and has no habit of eating. But disciples who just arrived at Lingsu Peak usually haven't achieved abstinence from food, and occasionally injured patients of lower cultivation need to eat. So it's necessary to keep the kitchen always usable."

"Feel free to use it," Bai Su said. "There are plenty of vegetables, but little meat. Oh... there might be some cured meat and dried fish."

She watched Qing Zhouxue skillfully mince scallions and marveled, "Junior Sister, you don't look like someone who can cook. I was wrong."

"My cooking isn't great," she said with self-awareness. "Barely edible."

But her knife skills were impressive. A row of scallion slices was cut neatly.

She didn't know many complicated dishes. Thinking that Yun Shuchen had only just woken and was weak everywhere, she made a bowl of noodles, rather plain.

Senior Sister Bai watched solemnly as Qing Zhouxue deliberated over how much soy sauce to add, carefully pouring for half a day only to let fall a drop or two.

A bowl of clear noodle soup was taken out, and Qing Zhouxue intended to send it over like that. Bai Su, unable to bear seeing Senior Yun suffer through bland food—since her own cooking was decent—warmly stir-fried a few side dishes for Qing Zhouxue to bring along.

When Qing Zhouxue returned to the same spot, she found Yun Shuchen looking slightly off. Her usually pale complexion was flushed, as if she had just drunk wine.

She set the food on the table, walked over, and pressed the back of her hand to her master's forehead. "Master, what's wrong?"

Yun Shuchen had noticed the problem when Qing Zhouxue left the room—

Her anger just now seemed to have stirred the two poisons that Liu Xunqin had barely managed to restrain. While talking to her disciple, she hadn't noticed it at first.

It was like boiling a noodle in warm water, gradually softening without notice. Softening until now, she had turned into a pool of pliant water. Her waist seemed to lose its spine, unable to straighten. She struggled to control her breathing, turned over, and leaned on the edge of the bed, her waist sinking while her upper body rose, supported by the quilt behind her. Between a few breaths, her breathing grew heavier.

With her spiritual power depleted, if the love poison or cold poison that had lain dormant in her body for a hundred years now rebounded, it would be a flood breaking the riverbanks, with unimaginable consequences. This was the moment they would seize; she had no... no way.

What to do.

Yun Shuchen felt restless and pressed her legs together awkwardly. She was very hot now, and the love poison seemed to be taking the upper hand. She inwardly cursed, why now, of all times? But in any case, she absolutely couldn't do this at Lingsu Peak. Even if others didn't know, she'd feel awkward seeing Liu Xunqin later.

A cool hand touched her cheek, and Yun Shuchen shuddered involuntarily. She grabbed Qing Zhouxue's wrist and said urgently, "Take me back to our peak."