Next.
The senior sister and junior brother quickened their pace.
In just over half a day, they crossed seven mountain peaks and nine valleys.
Unlike before, Ouyang Lan did not complain of being tired even once.
Instead, she gritted her teeth.
She kept driving her lightness skill all the way.
Even when they occasionally stopped to regulate their breathing, she did not head deep into the forest to hunt for game.
"Junior Brother, do you see that tallest peak ahead? Let's use our lightness skills and see who gets there faster."
Ouyang Lan pointed ahead and called out in high spirits.
Ever since she had voluntarily called a halt to their sword match that morning, she seemed to have completely figured something out. It was as if she had suddenly become a training fanatic.
She refused to let Lu Wu-bing steal all the glory.
"How about we rest first?"
Lu Wu-bing asked tentatively.
He always felt that his senior sister was actually forcing herself to endure.
Like a child pretending to be strong, when deep down she was afraid.
"Rest? Rest for what? We're young, with all this wonderful time ahead of us, yet you want to rest here and rest there. When we're old, there'll be plenty of time to rest."
Senior Sister Xiaolan pointed at the rivers and mountains with commanding vigor.
Who knew where she had learned such rhetoric.
It was probably either from Sect Leader Master or from that martial aunt he had never met.
"Fine, then let's compete. I'm not afraid of anything else—I'm only afraid Senior Sister will feel upset after losing."
Hot blood surged through Lu Wu-bing's heart.
After all, this was not his previous life. He was only a sixteen-year-old boy now.
Moping around all day was far too unbecoming.
"Who said I'd be upset? If your lightness skill can beat mine too, then for the rest of the journey, Senior Sister will carry you on my back."
"There's such a good deal?"
Lu Wu-bing was dumbfounded.
To be fair, he really did miss that night beneath the bright moon and pines, when his senior sister had carried him over mountains and ridges.
It was also from that night onward that he had felt this world before his eyes was so vivid, so beautiful.
Everyone and everything he had experienced was no longer hollow symbols.
Watching Ouyang Lan turn into a streak of emerald shadow and shoot forward like an arrow, Lu Wu-bing chuckled and murmured, "Senior Sister, you're definitely carrying me this time."
One before and one behind, they covered three zhang with every step, like two swallows that had just parted and then reunited, speeding over the forest's grass and leaves.
Peals of soft laughter rang out from time to time.
Sometimes the green shadow was ahead.
Sometimes the blue shadow was ahead...
They clung tightly to each other, neither able to gain the upper hand.
"Damn it, you secretly trained [Inch Step] to the Proficient Realm too."
Ouyang Lan felt she had miscalculated.
From the corner of her eye, she saw that her junior brother's figure was indescribably graceful.
As he employed his movement technique, he gave off the feeling of using intention without force, his rises and falls smooth and natural.
"You fell for it. Although Senior Sister has opened the acupoints in her legs, and her inner force is much deeper than mine,
she can't really bring that inner force out properly. Instead, it cancels itself out..."
Lu Wu-bing saw through it as well.
Ouyang Lan's movement and footwork were actually extremely exquisite.
But her control over driving her inner breath was not so perfect.
When she used her lightness skill, she either exerted too much force or did not use enough.
As a result, when she used [Inch Step], her body lurched forward in bursts, wasting quite a bit of strength.
Gradually.
Ouyang Lan stopped speaking, seemingly gaining some insight from Lu Wu-bing's words.
Her footwork changed, and her figure became several degrees nimbler.
She truly wanted to win just once.
She no longer wanted, when facing enemies, to merely play support while her junior brother, who had only recently begun cultivating, faced mighty foes alone.
Sensing that powerful resolve.
Lu Wu-bing's gaze shifted slightly. He slowed his breathing, and his body lagged behind for an instant.
The green shadow brushed past him, flashing to the mountaintop.
"Junior Brother, in the end, I still won."
A shimmering light filled Ouyang Lan's eyes.
"The next time we meet a powerful enemy, I'll be able to help." She smiled with great confidence and swung her fist heavily. "I won't let you throw yourself away like that senior sister from Bright Moon Palace."
Lu Wu-bing stared blankly at Senior Sister Xiaolan.
So that was what this had been about all along.
It was good that she was back to normal.
"I've never felt that Senior Sister couldn't help," Lu Wu-bing said softly with a smile.
"That day, when Flying Feather Sword and the others surrounded and attacked me, if Senior Sister hadn't risked her life to save me, I might not have escaped.
And without Senior Sister holding him back, I might not have been able to kill Chen San-yang, who cultivated the external Golden Thread Armor, either."
"It's different."
Ouyang Lan gave a soft laugh, turned back, and looked deeply at him.
"I'm the senior sister."
A senior sister had to save face, after all, Junior Brother.
She could not say those words aloud—it would be too embarrassing. Ouyang Lan sighed, then added, "In the past, I traveled the martial world with Father and Mother too. But not once did I truly see how perilous the martial world was, nor did I see hearts so vicious..."
"Born in troubled times, people are worth less than dogs. The common folk of this world—no one has ever truly held them in their hearts."
Lu Wu-bing felt this deeply.
In truth, why only troubled times?
Born at dawn and dead by dusk, like ants.
Were not the countless masses merely mud to be kneaded at will in the palms of the strong?
"This world needed one less sword—a sword forever hanging above their heads."
As Lu Wu-bing spoke, he turned to look beneath the cliff. Below, ocean waves surged, while countless rays of sunset light spilled forth.
I truly want to be that sword.
When one prospered, one aided all under heaven; when one was impoverished, one cultivated oneself alone.
What he had wanted first of all was to take control of his own life and roam the martial world to his heart's content.
Thinking of that story from the memories of his previous life, thinking of that tragic figure who had ultimately severed the hand that practiced the sword, Lu Wu-bing thought that he would never become like that.
Wine in the cup could never be drunk dry; the heads of enemies could never be slain clean.
In this life, he wished only to test his sword against the world, sweep away injustice, and then seek the summit of immortality.
So that this second journey through life would not be in vain.
In the contest of lightness skills, Lu Wu-bing had naturally "lost" without a doubt, and failed to enjoy the comfort of a "Xiaolan" brand mount.
On the contrary, he became the "mount."
One could only say that a boomerang, once thrown, would sooner or later come back to pierce its thrower.
The reason was simple.
At the crucial moment of their contest, Ouyang Lan suddenly gained some insight and opened another acupoint... but because she used too much force, she twisted her ankle at the very end.
The road down the mountain was narrow and steep.
Senior Sister had no choice but to set aside her reserve and shyly say, "Junior Brother, carry me."
And so, Lu Wu-bing carried a pile of cotton weighing over a hundred jin, slowly walking along the mountain path beneath the slanting sun.
It was not that his strength had run dry and he could not use his lightness skill.
Mainly, he did not want to wake Senior Sister Xiaolan.
She had practiced her sword through the entire night without rest, then rushed onward madly during the day. She was truly exhausted.
That day, the two of them emerged from the mountain forest. After traveling another half an hour, they finally saw tavern flags fluttering beside the road ahead and heard human voices.
Ouyang Lan cried out joyfully, "At last, we can see an innkeeper and drink a few mouthfuls of wine. My mouth has gotten so bland I can't taste anything."
"But wine from roadside shops isn't safe to drink. Still, we can stir-fry a few vegetable dishes."
After five or six days through the hundred-li Hengshan, they had eaten nothing but flatbread and hastily roasted game every day. There had been little flavor to speak of.
However, according to Ouyang Lan, once they passed Hengshan, they had now entered Xiangzhou.
Celestial Star Peak was no longer far away, so they were basically safe.
They could relax a little.
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