"You've managed Sword-Seeking Peak quite well. It seems you didn't forget your place just because Lingtian was away." The female cultivator swept her spiritual sense over Sword-Seeking Peak.
When she saw the cultivation manual in Qian Renxue's room, she frowned slightly, then looked at Qian Renxue curiously.
"Lingtian cares quite a bit about you. He knew the sect wouldn't give you a cultivation technique for the time being, so he gave you the one he created himself." The female cultivator's tone was calm, but it held a note of surprise.
Qian Renxue's pupils contracted. She thought the sect had forbidden this and that the woman had come to demand an explanation.
At the thought of Ye Lingtian being punished, she hurriedly bowed and confessed, "Senior, you've misunderstood. This lowly servant stole the manual from the young master's room. He had nothing to do with it."
The female cultivator frowned and fell silent. Under the gaze of such a powerful cultivator, Qian Renxue felt a mountain of pressure bearing down on her, even though the woman had not released the slightest trace of her oppressive might.
"Did you really steal it?" The female cultivator's tone turned somewhat unfriendly, but Qian Renxue breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly admitted it. "Yes, this lowly servant stole it. The young master had nothing to do with it. I'll accept any punishment."
"Heh." Noticing Qian Renxue relax, the female cultivator chuckled. "You really do look out for Lingtian. Don't worry, I'm not here to punish anyone."
After a pause, she added, "Besides, the sect has never forbidden its disciples from teaching others their own cultivation techniques. As long as it isn't something the sect has prohibited, it won't interfere."
Qian Renxue froze. She raised her head and looked at the female cultivator in confusion. "Then, my lady, you are..."
After a moment's thought, the female cultivator asked, "Hasn't Lingtian ever mentioned me?"
"My name is Xie Ningshuang, and I'm the master of Sword-Seeking Peak," she said, then added with a smile, "I'm also Lingtian's master."
"I've been traveling for more than ten years. I never expected to hear that Lingtian had nearly died as soon as I got back. It nearly made me die of anger."
"And that sect master, too. He didn't even send a peak master along..."
Xie Ningshuang's voice was full of indignation. Heaven knew how worried she had been when she learned that Lingtian had faced the Hundred Flowers Demon Saint. She had completed a journey that should have taken three days in just one.
She had gone to ask Daoist Qingxu about Lingtian without even taking the time to return to Sword-Seeking Peak. Only when she learned that Ye Lingtian had his External Avatar Talisman with him did she breathe a sigh of relief.
"Y-young master! What happened to him?!"
Qian Renxue suddenly spoke up. She hadn't heard a word of what Xie Ningshuang said afterward; her mind was full of what Xie Ningshuang had just said about Ye Lingtian nearly dying.
Xie Ningshuang raised an eyebrow at Qian Renxue. That wasn't the kind of question a maid would ask.
But she answered her nonetheless.
"Lingtian is fine. He's already on his way back. When he gets here, I'm going to give him a proper lesson. He ran into someone at the Nascent Soul Stage and didn't run, and he even said he was afraid of the trouble. He's the craziest of them all."
It could only be said that people grew more talkative with age. Xie Ningshuang had broken through to the Nascent Soul Stage before the age of two hundred, making her a thoroughly heaven-gifted genius.
But in terms of age, she really was old enough to be Qian Renxue's grandmother.
Clutching the hem of her clothes, Qian Renxue breathed half a sigh of relief, and her heart finally settled back into her belly.
Before this, at Spirit Hall, she had grown up seeing nothing but schemes, with people concealing their intentions both to others' faces and behind their backs.
After coming to the Primordial Sect, from Ye Lingtian to the unworldly, stunningly beautiful Nascent Soul peak master before her, the openness with which they treated her instead made the tip of her nose sting slightly.
Xie Ningshuang glanced at her reddened ears. How could she fail to see that the girl was straightforward and sincere? Her protective nature immediately came to the fore.
She casually drew a few bottles of Qi Condensation Pills and a copy of the Gentle Water Sword Manual, suited to women's cultivation, from her storage pouch and stuffed them into Qian Renxue's arms.
"Since Lingtian trusts you, I can't be stingy as his master. These are for you. Just focus on your cultivation. Lingtian has a good eye. Anyone he's willing to protect is someone we at Sword-Seeking Peak will accept as one of our own."
Qian Renxue stood frozen with her arms full of gifts. On the other side of the sky screen, Qian Daoliu sprang to his feet from his seat among the worship elders with a thump.
"Good! Wonderful! How many lifetimes did my Xue'er spend earning this good fortune?!"
He had been worried that Qian Renxue would have no one to back her up when she first arrived in the cultivation world. But now, the sect master was her backer, Ye Lingtian protected her, and even a Nascent Soul peak master doted on her as one of her own.
From now on, she could swagger sideways through the entire cultivation world, and no one would dare touch her lightly.
Yu Xiaogang's face turned livid, and he opened his mouth to make some sour remark about her "doing no work and knowing only how to enjoy herself."
Everyone around him pretended not to see his reaction. Ning Fengzhi thought of what had happened to Tang San, then looked at Qian Renxue and shook his head. "Comparing people really can make you die of envy."
Several days later
Ye Lingfeng and Su Mingyue, who were leading the group back to the sect on flying swords, could now see the sect's landmark. No matter how tense they had been, they could finally relax.
The wound on Su Mingyue's shoulder had mostly healed. Recalling how Ye Lingtian had kept the Lingtian Sword hidden and refused to bring it out earlier, she couldn't help poking him in the arm, her eyes curving with a hint of reproach.
"You really know how to keep things hidden. We were about to run out of arrows and rations back there. I thought you were really going to die at Baihuaxiang's hands, but it turns out you had all your trump cards tucked in your pocket?"
Ye Lingtian didn't know whether to laugh or cry at her poke. He produced a pill for nourishing the soul between his fingertips and handed it to her. "I originally wanted to see where my limits at the Golden Core Stage were. Who knew you'd rush out and take that blow for me?"
"If I still hadn't brought out the Lingtian Sword, was I supposed to just watch you take Baihuaxiang's full-force attack?"
"Besides, the sect master pressed that External Avatar Talisman on me to save my life. I didn't want to use it if I could help it. Now look, I've gone and earned myself a punishment from the sect master for nothing."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a talisman suddenly flew out from within the sect, carrying the sect master's helpless voice.
"So you do know enough to fear punishment? If I hadn't given you the External Avatar Talisman, both of you would have lost your lives."
"Hurry back. Junior Sister Xie has been waiting at the mountain gate to catch you two for nearly half a shichen. You're dawdling along-are you waiting for her to fly over herself and drag you both back for punishment?"
The latter words came from the talisman with Daoist Qingxu's trademark helpless amusement. Ye Lingtian's face fell on the spot, and the soul-nourishing pill between his fingertips nearly dropped.
Beside him, Su Mingyue burst out laughing and reached over to poke his arm. "I heard long ago that Peak Master Xie Ningshuang protects her own without any regard for reason."
"You fought a Nascent Soul Demon Saint to the bitter end this time and nearly threw your life away. There's no telling how long you'll be confined. You'll probably have to copy out the sect rules three hundred times afterward, too."
"Oh, stop with the snide remarks." Ye Lingtian rolled his eyes irritably.
As soon as the two landed on the white jade steps, they saw Xie Ningshuang standing at the mountain gate with her arms folded. Her green robes snapped in the mountain wind, and she swept a gaze over them, smiling yet not quite smiling.
Beside her, Qian Renxue looked at Ye Lingtian with embarrassment written all over her face. A layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on his back.