An Old Well in the Wind and Snow

The disciples along Sword-Washing Creek dared not discuss the momentous incident that day, but some private exchanges were inevitable. Word soon spread, and only then did they learn that the terrifying flying sword that day had actually been the Tide-Coming Sword, and the powerful cultivator who had gone mad was naturally Lei Poyun, the master of Jade Lake Peak.

Everyone said the master of Jade Lake Peak had been gravely wounded in a joint assassination attempt by fiends from the Nether Department and assassins from the Never-Old Forest in Chaoge City, and was recuperating somewhere. Who could have imagined he would appear before the masters and disciples of Various Peaks in such a deranged state, as though his cultivation had gone awry? What exactly had happened?

No one gave an answer. The incident gradually subsided, and the cliffs severed by Lei Poyun's sword light were restored by the array masters of Past Arrival Peak. To the naked eye, not a trace remained. After a single night, it seemed as though the incident had never happened at all.

But those shrill, frenzied words still echoed among Various Peaks.

"Even if there isn't a one, what about two!"

"No one, but what about two?"

The words had neither head nor tail. What exactly did they mean? No one could say.

Coupled with the mysterious death of that martial uncle from Jade Lake Peak a few days earlier, the whole affair felt increasingly eerie.

Jing Jiu knew what those words meant, and he also knew why Lei Poyun had remained fixated on this matter before his death.

Standing at the cliff's edge with his hands behind his back, he looked at the sky, deep in the night, and felt that this place resembled an old well. The faintest trace of weariness appeared between his brows.

At the summit of Shangde Peak, the cold pierced the bones. Anyone there, whatever their cultivation level, had to remain absolutely clearheaded.

Yuan Qijing walked into the depths of his cave abode and looked down into the well. For a long time, he said nothing.

Frost and snow had painted the cave walls white, and another streak of white had appeared in his hair, but that had nothing to do with the bitter cold.

To subdue Lei Poyun the night before, he had used the Sword Dao he had learned in the outside world in his youth. It had been highly effective, but had also consumed an immense amount of sword essence, which would take at least a hundred days to recover.

More than thirty disciples and stewards of Shangde Peak knelt behind him, awaiting his judgment.

As the second most powerful figure in the Green Mountain Sect, he had the authority to decide many people's futures, even their life or death. But he did not do so, raising his hand to dismiss them instead.

Anyone capable of releasing Lei Poyun from the depths of the heavily guarded Sword Prison was naturally no ordinary person. These disciples and stewards could have done nothing.

The question was, why had that person released Lei Poyun?

Yuan Qijing looked out of the cave toward Heavenly Light Peak, wondering whether this was killing with a borrowed blade, or yet another attempt to test him.

"What happened that day... still needs investigating. We can't let it drop."

He spoke slowly, his voice somewhat hoarse.

The stewards and disciples had already withdrawn from the cave abode. Only Chi Yan, his most trusted junior brother, remained.

"There's some news from Twofold Forgetting Peak... but it's hard to confirm, and I don't really believe it myself," Chi Yan said.

"Since there's news, of course we should investigate further. It's just..."

Yuan Qijing paused, then said, "The Sword Inheriting Grand Tournament is approaching. Don't make too much of a stir."

The mention of the Sword Inheriting Grand Tournament reminded Chi Yan of something. "That Jing Jiu... do we really not need to take another look?"

Anyone who could earn Zhao Layue's special regard deserved greater attention, whoever they were.

Seeing his senior brother remain silent, Chi Yan said with a wry smile, "Fewer and fewer disciples have been willing to come to our Shangde Peak these past years."

The Sword Inheritance Assembly was the occasion when the Green Mountain Nine Peaks chose their Sword-Inheriting Disciples.

But for those outstanding disciples with potential, was it not also an opportunity to choose a sword peak?

For countless years, Heavenly Light Peak, where the Sect Master resided, had naturally been the place most disciples wished to go.

Shangde Peak wielded enormous authority and possessed first-rate sword techniques, and Yuan Qijing was the Sect Master's senior brother. Yet fewer and fewer disciples had signed up for Sword Inheritance over the years.

Twofold Forgetting Peak could select talent from among the disciples of Various Peaks and rarely chose Sword Inheritance candidates in advance. Shiyue Peak leaned toward theoretical research, while Past Arrival Peak managed Green Mountain's affairs, so relatively few disciples signed up for them. Yet now, the number willing to undertake Sword Inheritance at Shangde Peak was lower even than at Jade Lake Peak and Cloud-Traveling Peak, let alone Qingrong Peak. Why was this? Was it because Shangde Peak's atmosphere was too oppressive, because the Sword Prison was too sinister, or because all the young disciples were utterly terrified of them?

"That lazybones?"

Yuan Qijing snorted coldly. "How could those youngsters on Twofold Forgetting Peak possibly let him off?"

Chi Yan did not understand what his senior brother meant by letting him off.

"Don't concern yourself with anything else," Yuan Qijing said. "First see whether we can take over Jade Lake Peak."

Time moved forward, slowly but surely, and before long, early winter arrived.

Reportedly at Qingrong Peak's request, the Sect Master agreed to open a gap in the Green Mountain Grand Array, allowing the cold winds and snowflakes of the outside world to pour into the Nine Peaks.

Watching the snowflakes dancing across the sky, Jing Jiu once again had the feeling that he had forgotten something.

He began to work through deductions, but found nothing, and the feeling grew stranger.

Since returning to Green Mountain from that little village, he had experienced many feelings he had never had before, such as boredom, interest, and forgetting...

He could not forget, so the emergence of this feeling could only mean that he had subconsciously avoided something.

Why? Because he had already grown accustomed to his idle life?

On the day the first snow fell, Zhao Layue came again.

She had cultivated quietly in her cave abode for dozens of days, perfectly assimilating what she had gained on Sword Peak. Even the most minute injuries had been fully healed.

White snow fell among the cliffs, onto the courtyard walls, and onto her.

In that white world, her thick, dark eyebrows stood out with extraordinary clarity, as did her eyes.

As that streak of sword light landed before Jing Jiu's cave abode, a chorus of lamentation rose from across Sword-Washing Creek.

"Senior Sister's here again!"

"Why has she come again?"

"The seventh time! The seventh time!"

The disciples beat their chests and stamped their feet, or clutched their hearts, disappointed and grieved by their idol's choice.

"I was born in the twelfth lunar month, so that's why I have this name."

Zhao Layue glanced at her bracelet. "During a heavy snowfall."

Is this going to be a chat? Jing Jiu thought. He had chatted with Liu S sui before, and with Zhao Layue several times as well. Though he was still unaccustomed to why people spent their free time chatting, he had at least accepted that such a thing existed, and knew that chatting required a topic to begin with.

He was not good at finding topics for conversation, and as for matters concerning Zhao Layue, he knew of only one.

"Which peak will you choose at the Sword Inheriting Grand Tournament?"

The Nine Peaks would choose the disciples they favored at the Sword Inheritance Assembly, but if a disciple was too popular, the situation would reverse.

A gifted young woman like Zhao Layue naturally had ample room to choose.

Which peak she would ultimately choose at the Sword Inheritance Assembly was a matter of great curiosity to the Green Mountain Sect, and even the entire cultivation world.

But for all manner of reasons, no one had ever asked her this question to her face.

Until Jing Jiu felt that it seemed time to begin a chat.

Zhao Layue did not answer the question. She gazed silently at the peaks in the wind and snow.

In the eyes of her fellow disciples and elders, she was somewhat aloof, taciturn, and cold. But in Jing Jiu's eyes, she was like a stubborn little girl, rather deserving of tenderness.

Jing Jiu raised his hand to ruffle her short hair, then lowered it again. "Don't think too much."

Zhao Layue withdrew her gaze and looked at him. "I'm going to Sword Peak to make my final preparations."

Those preparations were naturally for the Sword Inheritance Assembly.

She had come through the wind and snow to say this to him simply to bid farewell.

Farewells were often sorrowful affairs, but that did not apply to Jing Jiu.

"See you then."

He said.

On the long, long road of cultivation, there were many encounters, and reunions too, but most of all there were farewells, followed by never meeting again.

He had witnessed too many joys and sorrows, partings and reunions, separations in life and death, so he could now remain very calm.

Before time, what else could one do but remain calm?

Zhao Layue left Sword-Washing Creek and headed toward Sword Peak.

She did not use Sword Control, not because the little blue-green sword was badly damaged, but out of other considerations.

At the end of Sword-Washing Creek, Gu Han blocked her path.