Helping Nalan Yanran Review Her Broken Engagement?

About thirty minutes later, on the platform atop Misty Cloud Mountain, Yun Congxin boarded a Flying Magical Beast bound for Wutan City with Nalan Yanran.

Sharing a room with the old sect master, who looked stern and harsh, left Nalan Yanran rather ill at ease. After brewing tea for Yun Congxin, she obediently knelt in a corner of the room, her eyes lowered, and remained perfectly still.

Time in the sky was especially dull. Watching the milky-white clouds race backward outside the window, Yun Congxin grew so bored he decided to tease Nalan Yanran, who was doing her best impression of a statue.

"Look at that mountain. Doesn't it seem familiar?"

"This... this is..." Nalan Yanran was startled. Even when she had been demoted from young sect master to maid, she had struggled to remain calm, but now her face turned pale. Gazing at the endless mountain range in the distance, she sank to the floor, utterly distraught.

Yun Congxin nodded. "You're not mistaken. We're at the southeastern corner of the Magical Beast Mountain Range. We'll reach Wutan City soon."

"Why are we going to Wutan City? That place is only..." Agitated, Nalan Yanran suddenly raised her voice. The moment the words left her mouth, she realized she had lost control of her emotions. "This disciple has behaved improperly. Please punish me, Grandmaster."

"It's all right. If you have something to say, speak freely."

Nalan Yanran took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. "If you believe Nalan Yanran has disgraced the sect, Grandmaster, you can simply expel me from the Misty Cloud Sect. Why humiliate me like this...?"

"Why would you think I'm doing this to bully you?" Yun Congxin asked with a smile.

"Why ask when you already know, Grandmaster? I did indeed make a mistake three years ago. Haven't you brought me here to..."

"To what?" Yun Congxin interrupted her. "I remember you once told that Xiao Clan boy you hoped he would apologize to someone on your behalf. Who was it? Apologizing is something you ought to do yourself. How can you ask the victim to do it for you?"

"But..."

"But you aren't ready yet, is that it?" Yun Congxin interrupted Nalan Yanran again. "Relax. Your grandmaster isn't an unreasonable man. I won't force you to go to the Xiao Clan."

Meeting Nalan Yanran's doubtful gaze, Yun Congxin paused before continuing. "The Misty Cloud Sect has its dignity, too. What would it look like if I pushed your head down and made you apologize to a little clan in this frontier town? Besides, an apology must be sincere. Otherwise, it's just a few weightless words. What use would that be?"

"Then, Grandmaster, this journey is for..."

"Ah, just watch. We certainly won't be the only people from the Misty Cloud Sect coming to this little city." Yun Congxin's expression finally grew serious. "What good is an empty reputation if it brings real disaster?"

"This disciple is slow-witted."

"Let me give you an example. Why did you bring people from the Misty Cloud Sect to the Xiao Clan to break off your engagement three years ago?"

"...Because I acted foolishly and made too much of a spectacle."

Yun Congxin shook his head. "No, no, you're mixing things up. Calling your behavior overbearing is a judgment on your decision to bring a Misty Cloud Sect deacon along to break off the engagement. You stood high above them and trampled the Xiao Clan leader's face underfoot. You were at fault, that deacon was at fault, and Yun'er was at fault, too. But that was ultimately only the result. What caused it?"

Nalan Yanran considered this for a moment before answering hesitantly, "Because Grandfather refused to let me break off the engagement?"

"Exactly! And why did he refuse?" Seeing that the girl had finally begun to understand, Yun Congxin smiled in relief.

"Well... I don't know."

"You knew long ago, actually. Otherwise, you wouldn't have begged Yun'er to let you break off the engagement."

"Your grandfather is a man who clings to his pride at all costs. He would rather lose his granddaughter's affection than be branded someone who betrays his word. Even... even when that granddaughter is a rare genius and the young sect master of the Misty Cloud Sect." Yun Congxin walked Nalan Yanran through what had happened. "That is what it means to suffer real disaster for an empty reputation, isn't it?"

"Grandfather... Grandfather was only..."

Even though she knew in her heart that everything Yun Congxin said was right, Nalan Yanran still wanted to preserve her grandfather's dignity.

"Him? Hah. Then do you know what the proper—or rather, respectable—way to break off the engagement would have been?" Yun Congxin sneered, wasting no more breath passing judgment on that old fellow from the Nalan Family.

"The Misty Cloud Sect could have supported you. You weren't wrong about that, and you were right to beg Yun'er to approve your decision to break off the engagement."

"But you shouldn't have played the Misty Cloud Sect card against the Xiao Clan. The Misty Cloud Sect's name is not a tool for bullying others!"

"As I just said, your grandfather had long known that the Xiao Clan boy had become a cripple during those years. Did he want to marry his exceptionally gifted granddaughter to someone who couldn't cultivate Dou Qi? Of course not. But he didn't want to lose face, so he refused to let you break off the engagement. To put it plainly, he was pinned in place by an empty reputation."

"You'd already persuaded Yun'er. You should have put the pressure on the Nalan Family! You should have asked her to take you to persuade your grandfather!"

"Bringing the Misty Cloud Sect to the Xiao Clan was bullying them with borrowed power. But bringing your master to the Nalan Family would have been an entirely different matter!"

"The younger generation didn't want the arrangement made by their elders, so they persuaded a master of equal standing and status to reason with the stubborn elder. That was the proper path! It would have given your grandfather a slope to lead his donkey down—a graceful way out—and allowed the elders who had arranged the marriage before you were even born to settle the matter respectably in private."

"As for the Xiao Clan, they already knew that their crippled young clan leader could never marry a favored daughter of heaven. If Nalan Jie had politely invited the Xiao Clan leader over and dissolved the Engagement respectably in private, would they really have reacted as fiercely as they have now?"

At this point, Yun Congxin smiled helplessly. If the Engagement really had been dissolved privately like that, he knew without even thinking what Nalan Jie, that snob who would never release his hawk before seeing the rabbit, would have said.

It would have been nothing more than claims that Nalan Yanran had persuaded the Misty Cloud Sect Master, and now even the Nalan Family could no longer order her down the mountain to marry. Yanran was an immature child; with the Misty Cloud Sect backing her, she had grown powerful and was determined to oppose the Nalan Family, and so on. He would have shoved the blame onto the absent Misty Cloud Sect and pretended to be caught between two impossible choices. Naturally, Xiao Zhan would have had nothing to say.

With the engagement being dissolved in private and a distinguished Dou Wang offering gentle persuasion, the Xiao Clan would have been shown every courtesy. Xiao Zhan would have had no reason to refuse.

Once he agreed, Nalan Jie could reminisce about his friendship with his old companion, speak warmly of his fondness for Xiao Yan, and bring out the pills he had prepared as a token of care for a junior. That would have settled the matter.

"For the Nalan Family, it would have canceled an Engagement that was bound to cost them, while also pocketing a favor from the Misty Cloud Sect for free. He'd have been pleased to death," Yun Congxin concluded.

"Only the Misty Cloud Sect would have lost out a little, but at least we wouldn't have disgraced ourselves like this. Taking a small loss for the young sect master's happiness would have been perfectly acceptable."

Yun Congxin glanced at the thoughtful Nalan Yanran. There were a few explosive remarks he left unspoken.

When you get right down to it, this is between your Nalan Family and the Xiao Clan. What does it have to do with the Misty Cloud Sect?

You, Nalan Yanran, dragged the Misty Cloud Sect into the mire and left us reeking all over. Somehow, the Misty Cloud Sect became the one and only designated early-game boss, while your Nalan Family slipped blissfully out of sight. Why the hell should we take that?!