Many Sword Pavilion disciples shared private friendships with members of the Blood River Sect.
For example, Sikong Jingxiao and Yu Xiaochen were close friends, while he and Blood River Sect Elder Zhang Jian were friends despite their age difference. When he had chosen Red Talisman as his sword, it was Zhang Jian who gifted him a complete set of the core sword canon from Emperor Min of Liang, enabling him to subdue the blade. If Heartless Sword Master Tu'an Li had not stopped them, refusing to let them disrupt the hierarchy of seniority, the old man and young man would nearly have sworn brotherhood.
Ning Shuangrong also had several acquaintances in the Blood River Sect. In particular, she had once traveled hand in hand with the daughter of Blood River Sect Elder You Jingzhong, forging a deep friendship. She had always held the Blood River Sect in high regard, privately believing it to be the great sect in the world most capable of bearing the responsibility of the extraordinary.
The two sects were both located in the eastern Southern Regions and had always been neighbors. They had supported Liang Kingdom together, governed Calamity Water together, once resisted pressure from Xia Kingdom together, and now resisted pressure from Qi State together... They had too many reasons to be friends.
It would not have been an exaggeration to call them branches from the same root, sharing breath and spirit.
With the tacit approval of their elders, the outstanding members of the two great sects had begun forming friendships at an early age.
Yet the death of Guan Changqing of Sword Pavilion, once the foremost swordsman beneath heaven, had actually stemmed from a Blood River Sect conspiracy!
Ning Shuangrong could not help but feel the pain of betrayal by someone close to her.