Revenge
Li Sushang slowly opened her eyes through the haze, then saw Kaino sitting by her bed, silently peeling an apple.
"Yo, you're awake."
Kaino raised the apple in his hand and greeted Li Sushang.
After chatting with the two of them for a while longer, Kaino chose to leave first and returned to the room to keep watch over Li Sushang.
The Tai Xu Sword Qi truly was mysterious. Kaino had not even finished peeling the apple before Li Sushang woke up.
Li Sushang said nothing and slowly sat up. She drew her legs up, buried her head in them, and her body began to tremble.
"Sniff... sob..."
After hearing the news of her mother's death and being knocked out by Kaino, Li Sushang's impulse to immediately rush back to her mother had passed. What replaced it was grief rising from the depths of her heart.
Kaino set down the fruit knife and scratched his cheek, at a loss.
He had no experience dealing with this kind of thing. Aside from his own family, the people his age he had met either had both parents or were simply orphans.
None of them had ever cried in front of him.
Kaino hesitantly reached a hand toward Li Sushang, then abruptly changed course halfway through and picked up the fruit knife again, absentmindedly peeling the apple.
Maybe crying for a while would help her feel better?
Only after Kaino finished eating the apple did Li Sushang finally stop crying.
"Why?"
Li Sushang, who had stopped crying, suddenly spoke.
"Hm?"
Her voice was muffled as she leaned against her knees, and Kaino did not hear her clearly.
"The Raiken... why did Mother die? Why did the Immortal kill Mother?"
Li Sushang raised her head, her eyes red as she looked at Kaino. She still sniffled from time to time. The tears in her eyes had not yet dried, leaving them glistening.
"...Your mother, along with Master and the others, killed the Immortal. But the Immortal came back from the dead and has now returned for revenge."
"As for why she killed your mother first... I don't know. Maybe the Immortal was simply closer to that place."
Kaino looked at the stunned Li Sushang and sighed inwardly.
After spending several days with her, Kaino knew full well that her values were sound. Otherwise, he would not have so readily revealed some of his abilities to her.
This girl was far too straightforward.
Precisely because of that, if she learned the truth, would she not be completely devastated?
But he could not keep it from her either. It was a fact that the Red Sparrow Immortal had killed her mother, and she already knew it. If he did not tell her the truth, she would eventually seek out the Immortal anyway. Then she would either be killed by the Immortal or suffer another crushing blow after learning the truth.
Just like those villains in some Homu comics who were redeemed halfway through.
Rather than let her suffer two devastating blows, it was better to cut deep now.
"Mother... killed the Immortal together with Master and the others?"
As if she could not believe it, Li Sushang cautiously repeated the words.
"Yes. They killed the Immortal together back then. It was not that the Immortal wanted to kill them first. They ambushed and killed the Immortal."
"As for why, each of them had their own reasons. But in the end, it was nothing more than revenge, self-preservation, survival, attachment, and such."
After receiving the answer, Li Sushang's gaze went vacant as she stared blankly ahead.
Kaino tactfully remained silent.
"Raiken, what should I do?"
Li Sushang slowly rested her head on her knees, her voice weak and lost.
"Master killed Master's master... No matter the reason, that was wrong, right?"
"Yes."
Kaino nodded.
"My grandmaster was killed and came back for revenge. That is only natural too, right?"
"Yes."
"Then Mother was killed by Grandmaster, and everyone at Yi Xin Mountain Villa died because of it... I should take revenge on Grandmaster too, shouldn't I?"
"...Emotionally speaking, there's nothing wrong with that."
Kaino nodded helplessly.
If it had happened to him, he would want revenge too.
"But so you don't get carried away, let me warn you first. Back then, even when Master and the other seven ambushed the Immortal, they almost lost. You absolutely cannot beat her alone."
"...Do Master and the others intend to wait for Grandmaster to kill them, or do they intend to kill Grandmaster again?"
After a brief silence, Li Sushang turned her gaze to Kaino and asked in a low voice.
"Master says she regrets it now, and she is willing to be killed by the Immortal. But Ma Fei Ma does not think that way. Otherwise, he would not have come all the way to Mobei. By the way, I'll be going back with him to find the Immortal, and Master will come along too."
Kaino explained.
After Kaino healed Ma Fei Ma's injuries, Ma Fei Ma told him why he had come to Mobei—he was here to tell Cheng Lingshuang that the Immortal had been revived.
According to Ma Fei Ma, Su Mei was the one who told him Cheng Lingshuang was here.
Yeah, that woman again.
But interestingly, Su Mei only asked Ma Fei Ma to tell Cheng Lingshuang about the Immortal's revival. She did not ask him to bring Cheng Lingshuang over.
In the end, Kaino was the one who said he would go, and he brought Cheng Lingshuang with him.
After all, Kaino needed to find the Immortal, so he absolutely had to return with Ma Fei Ma. As for leaving Cheng Lingshuang here alone, Kaino worried that the Immortal might pass by and kill her along the way. That would be a real mess.
Besides, with Cheng Lingshuang there, if anything happened, one more person meant one more helping hand. She could not possibly ignore her own disciple, could she?
"Then I'm going too."
A fierce glint flashed through Li Sushang's eyes.
She understood that there was an absolute gap between her strength and the Immortal's, so she wanted to join the army hunting the Immortal and take revenge together with them.
"If you want to come, then come. I'm not stopping you."
Kaino shrugged.
"But Raiken, don't you need something from the Immortal? And we've only known each other for a few days... Won't you stop me then?"
"...No. At worst, I'll just return home empty-handed. Of course, if I judge that the Immortal truly knows how to send me home, I won't help you kill her. At most, I'll stop her from killing you and Master."
"Is that so... Thank you."
Li Sushang lowered her head.
Kaino looked at Li Sushang in silence.
No one had the right to ask another person to let go of the hatred in their heart. The hatred of having a loved one murdered was enough to turn someone into an evil ghost living only for revenge.
The Red Sparrow Immortal had been betrayed and ambushed to death by disciples she had raised for at least ten years, and in some cases decades. Though she had not completely died, no one had the right to urge the Immortal to let go of her hatred.
Likewise, Li Sushang's mother, whom she had not seen for years, had been directly killed by the Immortal. Her mother had indeed struck first against the Immortal, but who could use that as a reason to stop Li Sushang from taking revenge?
After all, many among the Seven Disciples had parents killed by the Immortal as well... Though those people had fallen into madness, that did not matter to their children.
When hatred was the only reason left for two groups to slaughter each other, no one could persuade them to let it go—if someone truly wanted to persuade them, that person should first have their own family die and see whether they could let go.
At the very least, Kaino could not. So even though Otto's existence held great significance for his world, if given the chance, Kaino would absolutely stab him to death.
So, at this point, there was no longer any distinction between right and wrong. Before Kaino lay only two paths: help his nominal master and the friend he had known for only a few days, or help the Immortal, who might be able to send him home.
And for a Kaslana, was the choice not obvious?
Unless he could find a third path.
The Tai Xu Sword Sect
At the foot of Sky Vault Peak.
After nearly half a month of grueling travel, Kaino's group had finally arrived at their destination.
The moment he got off the carriage, Kaino could not help stretching his limbs and taking a deep breath.
"Riding in a carriage for half a month has exhausted me... Say, why aren't any of you tired at all?"
The other three got down from the carriage one after another, but none of them seemed as fatigued as Kaino.
His physical condition was clearly no worse than theirs, right?
"This is nothing. Raiken, once you spend more time holding horse stances, you'll understand. Daily martial arts practice is far more tiring than this."
Li Sushang was the one who spoke.
After half a month had passed, her complexion had clearly improved. At least now she could laugh and talk instead of constantly wearing a dead expression.
Of course, her desire to kill Chi Yuan had not faded in the slightest.
"No thanks. I can practice sword form, but horse stances... I can't learn those."
Kaino hurriedly shook his head.
On the road from Mobei to Sky Vault Peak, Cheng Lingshuang and the others had not allowed him to idle around. Under the combined instruction of the two, Kaino's mastery of the Tai Xu Sword Form rapidly climbed to its peak.
Ma Fei Ma had nearly died of envy at that speed.
At the same time, Kaino successfully grasped the so-called Tai Xu Sword Soul.
In Kaino's view, the Tai Xu Sword Soul was a systematic summary, a calculation formula, for the way force was applied in the Tai Xu Sword Form. Once one had fully mastered it, one could use the Tai Xu Sword Form with any weapon.
A cause for celebration: although Kaino had never systematically learned Kaslana gun-fu, he had developed his own unique Kaino-brand gun-fu.
As for the Tai Xu Sword God... according to Cheng Lingshuang, while Kaino could not cultivate the Sword Heart Sutra, his control over Honkai energy was sufficient to cultivate the Sword God.
But on one hand, half a month was simply not enough for Kaino to master the Sword God. On the other hand... Kaino did not have enough energy.
Kaino was rather speechless about that. Though the Sword God was supposedly extremely powerful, its energy consumption was absurdly high. Kaino's current Honkai energy reserves were enough for him to draw Heavenly Fire despite the backlash, but they were not even enough for half a Sword God.
No wonder cultivating the Sword God required the Sword Heart to reach the Tai Xu Realm.
"So this is the Tai Xu Sword Sect?"
Having loosened up, Kaino looked over the towering mountain peak before him and spoke.
Several buildings stood at the foot of Sky Vault Peak. Sect disciples dressed in white came and went in an endless stream. A long stone staircase connected the foot of the mountain to its summit, where a large building stood.
To be honest, the Tai Xu Sword Sect did look quite imposing. Without considering city walls, it was more prosperous than the largest town they had seen throughout their journey.
Though they had not stayed in any particularly large towns.
Still, that was all. The twenty-first century had places far more prosperous than this, so Kaino would not be as easily impressed as some people.
"Wow, this sect is even more bustling than our place back home."
Li Sushang widened her eyes and stared ahead without pause.
There, the easily impressed one had arrived.
"Have some dignity."
Cheng Lingshuang lightly smacked Li Sushang on the head and said calmly, "The Tai Xu Sword Sect... they have not even changed its name. Yet in only a little over ten years, it has become one of the six great righteous sects. Senior Sister certainly put effort into it."
"It only became one of them, not the first?"
Li Sushang asked curiously.
Kaino said, "Objectively speaking, making it into the top six in a little over ten years is already impressive. But she is the Immortal's eldest disciple. If she could not manage even that with such a title, that would be ridiculous."
"The Tai Xu Sword Sect was not this lively before... Someone's coming."
Ma Fei Ma frowned.
A woman who looked to be around twenty walked out from the Tai Xu Sword Sect toward the group.
"Deputy Sect Leader."
After casually sweeping her gaze over the group, the woman settled her eyes on Ma Fei Ma and cupped her hands in salute.
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