Heavenly Sword Peak was like spring all year round, with snow covering it in winter only rarely.
At the summit, hardly anyone ever went.
It was a place everyone on Heavenly Sword Peak had been explicitly forbidden from visiting.
The sword-shaped peak pierced the clouds, and beneath it yawned a sheer cliff stretching ten thousand feet down.
Ye Qingxian found a large rock and sat down at the edge of the cliff.
What kind of person had Ye Xiaoyao been in her memories?
She looked back on what she remembered of her junior sister.
To her surprise, Ye Qingxian could only recall a few scattered things. She vaguely remembered her as a very obedient and resilient girl who always wore a smile, no matter who in the sect gave her a hard time.
How could someone usually so well-behaved do something so outrageous?
It was already obvious who was at fault.
After sorting out her thoughts, Ye Qingxian rose again, her killing intent spreading around her.
Her gaze shifted to the palace nearby. Her master was meditating inside.
After hesitating several times, she still decided not to tell Heavenly Sword Venerable about this.
Her gaze turned toward the foot of the mountain, her eyes distant as a bottomless pool.
When anyone was at a loss, they would instinctively confide in the person they trusted most, and choose to lean on the person they believed in most.
Who was Ye Xiaoyao's most trusted person?
The answer was already obvious.
In her mind appeared the little girl's unsteady figure as she walked away.
The net had been cast. If you still dared to show up, then be ready to hand over your head.
Night deepened.
My cave abode felt a little quiet with no one else around.
I sat on the swing, rocking gently in the breeze.
The night was dark, with just a corner of the sky visible beyond the clouds.
Perhaps because Heavenly Sword Peak was so high, I could never tell where the moon was.
Gradually, I started thinking about what things had been like before I came to the Cultivation World.
What color had the sky outside the Cultivation World been?
I could barely... remember.
Few people knew that I wasn't actually a native of the Cultivation World.
The natives of the Highest Cultivation World were all prodigies and powerful cultivators.
Even a big yellow dog by the roadside might have Four Spirit Roots.
For a mortal to reach this world, they had to ascend at least four times.
Most worlds had thirteen realms. This Highest Cultivation World alone had fourteen.
Five-level worlds piled upon five-level worlds.
By now, the Cultivation World had reached the grand total of sixty-six realms.
In the countless lower worlds, an entire city, nation, or even era might have just one chosen protagonist, ascending under the gaze of the masses.
The legendary stories of people discovering after ascending that they were merely the most ordinary among a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers had long since become the truest reflection of the Cultivation World.
The Highest Cultivation World had another name.
Supreme Heaven.
Just how terrible was my talent?
Probably, even in the lowest world, I'd be the absolute bottom of the cultivators.
On the swing, I lifted a jade-white hand and rested it on my soft belly.
Tenderness flickered in my eyes. I suddenly closed them, as though sensing the heartbeat of the little one inside me.
At Qi Refining Third Layer, I already had spiritual sense.
I could hear her heartbeat.
"Talent?"
I slowly spread my arms, facing the darkness before me.
Maybe I really was still a little chuunibyou.
In my imagination, the darkness I embraced was entirely at my mercy.
Rumble.
A bolt of lightning suddenly struck down on the horizon.
At the highest point of Heavenly Sword Peak, an exalted, illusory figure suddenly opened her eyes, a faint sense of unease rising in her heart.
She made a divination and summoned her attendants to ask about recent events, yet still couldn't work out what lay at the root of it.
That shouldn't be.
Her plan shouldn't have gone awry.
The crushing weight of daily life could grind away every bit of a person's ambition.
Tell me, how much strength could anyone who spent every day struggling to make ends meet have left to dream of grand ambitions?
Ordinary lives were the true reflection of countless people.
The common folk, adrift in the vast Cultivation World.
A life repeated day after day could make anyone worn down by the struggle believe, from then on, that mediocrity was all they were capable of.
Everyone was born the sole protagonist of their own life.
But.
Once you accepted your own mediocrity as fact—
from then on,
you were just a robot repeating the same day over and over.
That was Heavenly Sword Venerable's complete plan.
After a long while, she closed her eyes and pressed down the trace of unease.
It was probably just her imagination.
In her spiritual sense, the little girl was still accomplishing nothing. She was even still at the first realm, Qi Refining Third Layer. Tomorrow, she'd have endless Spirit Fields to tend and endless tedious sect affairs to handle. If she didn't even have time to cultivate, how could she think about how to destroy the world in the future?
The invincible Demon King who would be impossible to defeat in the Highest World of the future.
In the hands of Heavenly Sword Venerable, she was nothing special.
This was the strongest method of the mightiest time-space administrator: just like boiling a frog in warm water, she could quietly erase a future enemy from existence.
Outside the cave abode, disciples passed by in bustling streams.
Even at night, plenty of cultivators on Heavenly Sword Peak were still busy.
I took out a Communication Talisman.
[Senior Brother, Xiaoyao can't sleep.]
[I... miss you.]
Jian Wushuang had just been racking her brains over when she'd finally be able to win over her junior sister. Then, the next second, an unexpected delight appeared before her.
A late-night rendezvous, under the flowers and moonlight.
This was the perfect time for her to show some concern.
When someone was emotionally vulnerable, it was easiest for others to use concern as an excuse to take advantage.
She had already pictured the little girl throwing herself into her arms, her eyes brimming with tears as she poured out her feelings and confessed her love.
She had even taken out her Ghost Fire Flying Sword.
It would still take nearly two months to win her over.
Her junior sister really was something else; she was the most difficult person Jian Wushuang had ever pursued.
It wasn't as if she'd never met difficult female cultivators who always kept their wits about them.
She'd given up on most of those early. It was rare for her to keep pursuing someone for more than two months.
But with Ye Xiaoyao, she could keep seeing hope, as if she were always just a little bit away. She couldn't bring herself to give up so easily.
The sunk cost was staggering. Even a hunter could get trapped in the snare.
If this dragged on for a few more months, Jian Wushuang would start wondering if her junior sister was an experienced playgirl, even more practiced than her.
Fortunately, today she finally saw results.
Jian Wushuang checked her reflection in the water mirror, straightened herself up, and smoothed down her little blond hair. Carrying the Ghost Fire Flying Sword her junior sister found most exciting, she strode out of her cave abode, full of confidence, and eagerly made her way to the spot they'd agreed to meet.
It really was an under-the-flowers-and-moonlight kind of place.
The two had arranged to meet in a Peach Blossom Forest. When the wind blew, countless peach blossoms fluttered down. It was breathtakingly beautiful and poetic, and with a lovely woman's captivating smile, it could become a sight that stayed in anyone's memory forever.
Cave abode.
I tidied myself up and deliberately changed into a pale Immortal Skirt I rarely wore. I piled on hairpins and ornaments of every kind.
I even styled my hair in an elegant old-fashioned braid, and wore a jade bangle on my pale wrist.
A faint, casual smile turned me into a scene all on its own.
This unusual sight immediately made Ye Qingxian's gaze sharpen from her hiding place.
Dressing up this beautifully—if she wasn't going on a date, then what was she doing?
The little girl up ahead looked especially beautiful today. Her eyes and brows were full of the longing peculiar to a lovestruck maiden, so intense it seemed ready to spill into the air.
Ye Qingxian spat in disgust.
Still fantasizing about a future with that worthless scumbag, were you?
You only dared meet in secret in the dead of night. What kind of decent person would do that?
She was thinking about whether to kill her with a single sword strike or make her suffer through a hundred cuts.
Beneath a tree, I smiled faintly, revealing a cute dimple.
A flash of dark cunning, belonging to a little girl, slipped through my red eyes.
Oh dear, why was I getting happier and happier?
I could hardly wait.
My dull life as Ye Xiaoyao was finally getting interesting.
A secret late-night rendezvous with your junior sister? That was no fun at all.
Senior Brother, your junior sister has arranged something big for you—and even brought along an audience.
What was the point of a secret meeting between two people? A secret rendezvous with an audience was the most thrilling of all.
My soft, lilting humming, the winding melody, the increasingly light steps beneath the little girl's skirt—everything about it looked beautiful.
Senior Sister, oh, Senior Sister.
Let this villain see just how clever you, the Female Protagonist, really are.
Before you continue