Given It All Back to Her, Their Master

"Why did it break?" Song Wensheng muttered behind Xie Lingchuan.

Xie Lingchuan froze for a second too, then looked up at Shen Ji.

"Junior Brother Shen, have you learned the Spirit Connection Spell? I seem to have forgotten some of the incantation."

Zhu Lianqing's brow twitched. Truly her disciple, wasn't he? Just like her, he excelled in some subjects and floundered in others. He was skilled with a sword, but fell apart the moment he had to use an incantation!

Then again, her own uneven abilities came from her love of studying the sword. When in doubt, she settled it with a single strike. She simply couldn't be bothered to memorize all those incantations.

But Xie Lingchuan's situation was different from hers!

She had clearly taught him this Spirit Connection Spell over and over, guiding him through it herself. How had he given it all back to her, his master?

Honestly.

After silently scolding her young disciple, Zhu Lianqing turned to Shen Ji.

Shen Ji shook his head. "The incantation my master taught me is a little different from this one."

It was rare for Zhu Lianqing to see Xie Lingchuan stumped, and she was quietly amused for a while.

A moment later, she held out her hand and tipped her chin at Xie Lingchuan. "Young hero, you asked me to form a spell with you, and now I have to cast it myself? Watch closely."

Zhu Lianqing formed a hand seal with her left hand. After several changes in position, golden characters immediately wreathed her fingertips.

The next second, she extended two fingers and touched Xie Lingchuan's wrist.

Several fine golden threads swiftly wound around their wrists, circled twice, then sank straight into their wrists and vanished.

Beside them, Jiang Tingxue praised her. "So a complete spell can actually be this beautiful to watch when it's performed smoothly! No wonder Master said we looked like wooden puppets when we had to stop and think at every step!"

Shen Ji couldn't hold back a soft laugh.

Zhu Lianqing withdrew her fingers and looked at Xie Lingchuan. "I've finished demonstrating. Your turn."

Xie Lingchuan began forming the hand seals again, only to be stopped before he had completed two steps.

"Wait, that's wrong."

Zhu Lianqing reached straight out and adjusted Xie Lingchuan's fingers. "Here. It should be like this."

In the end, with Zhu Lianqing's guidance, the Spirit Connection Spell was finally completed.

Zhu Lianqing drew back her wrist and looked at Xie Lingchuan. "Young hero, are you satisfied now?"

Despite Zhu Lianqing's teasing, Xie Lingchuan's expression remained unruffled. He even nodded to her in polite, distant thanks. "Thank you for your guidance, Senior."

Zhu Lianqing tilted her head to look at him, thinking, Now he's behaving himself again. Where did that aggressive air from earlier go?

"I didn't have time to ask earlier, Junior Brother Shen. Where are the people we left in your care?" Xie Lingchuan turned to Shen Ji.

Hearing Xie Lingchuan ask after the villagers, Jiang Tingxue and Song Wensheng both hung their heads low.

Shen Ji fell silent for a moment, his voice filled entirely with self-reproach. "I'm sorry, Senior Brother Xie. I let my guard down for a moment and failed to keep an eye on them. They all fell off the cliff. I'm afraid..."

At that, Xie Lingchuan showed no hint of reproach in his voice, merely saying, "They've helped a tyrant work his evil all these years and harmed countless people. They even tried to lay hands on us. This was never a place they should have come. You already warned them, but they wouldn't listen and ended up dying here. You needn't blame yourself."

"As long as you don't blame me, Senior Brother Xie."

Beside them, Zhu Lianqing also said, "Although we cultivators have no right to deal with even the most vicious ordinary people, on this journey, their many injustices brought calamity upon them. Xie Lingchuan and I saw that cliff too. The ghosts below were people eaten by the corpse-eating demon, and there must have been people they murdered among them. Dying there could even appease the ghosts' resentment. In that sense, they died in the right place."

Zhu Lianqing's words were very blunt. Beside him, Shen Ji looked at her in surprise for a moment, then smiled, his eyes curving slightly.

"Let's go. We should get out of here quickly. A Man is still in Wuxia Village. I'm worried there may still be some extreme villagers there who might harm her."

Everyone nodded, turned, and headed toward the cave entrance.

Only Xie Lingchuan lingered where he stood for a moment.

Even Zhu Lianqing herself hadn't noticed Shen Ji's expression just now, but he had.

Before he had reunited with Shen Ji earlier, he had heard Shen Ji's voice transmission.

In it, Shen Ji had been telling his junior brother and junior sister not to look directly at the patterns around the cave entrance in the cliff face, so he hadn't paid it any mind at the time.

According to what Shen Ji had just said, the villagers had fallen off the cliff and died. That meant there was a ninety-nine percent chance they had fallen under an illusion.

So when Shen Ji had warned his junior brother and junior sister, he had specifically used the inner disciples' voice-transmission technique, keeping those people from hearing him.

He had wanted those people dead.

Xie Lingchuan looked up at Shen Ji's retreating figure in the distance, unconsciously furrowing his brows.

What had Shen Ji been thinking just then, to smile like that?

He hadn't had much contact with Shen Ji before. Everyone in the sect praised the third sect leader's current chief disciple as a man as clear as the wind and bright as the moon, a model for the outer disciples. He had once thought so too.

But why did he now feel that this person wasn't as kind as he appeared on the surface?

In that case, he would have to be more careful from now on.

Anything that might introduce uncertainty, he would root out, one by one.

As Xie Lingchuan's thoughts drifted, his vision gradually lost focus. Within it, a figure swayed, then turned and waved at him.

"Young Hero Xie, why aren't you coming? What are you waiting for?"

The hair ribbon behind the person who had turned swept up in an unrestrained arc.

For an instant, Xie Lingchuan saw a familiar shadow.

A moment later, the hand inside his sleeve curled tightly, then relaxed, and he walked forward.

After they left the White Bone Cavern, the sky was still dark.

But clearly, this was no longer the same night on which they had arrived.

The group had expended a great deal of spiritual energy in the White Bone Cavern and were somewhat tired now. But out of concern for A Man, they still didn't linger long, walking along the mountain path back to Wuxia Village, draped in moonlight.

Moonlight spilled over the mountain forest, filtering through the mottled leaves onto the woodland path.

Although the night of the full moon had already passed, tonight's moon was still very round.

Zhu Lianqing raised her head and looked at the night sky through the gaps in the leaves. After she had stopped being Perfected Lord Nanhua, she really was much freer than before.

Although she had come here for a mission, she was also diligently studying the things she loved.

Back when she had challenged Non-Delusion Heaven, the final secret realm of the Myriad Sword Tomb at Spirit Sword Mountain Manor, the moonlight had been just as beautiful on the day she defeated the ancient ferocious beast there and obtained the divine weapon Autumn Water.

Becoming the foremost master of the sword at such a young age was an honor she had taken pride in.

Zhu Lianqing loved swords and swordsmanship, and she wanted to use the sword in her hand to slay all the evil demons beneath heaven. She had kept doing that right up until her death.

But why had she felt tired?

Zhu Lianqing had thought about this before. The simplest explanation was that the greater the honor she received, the greater the responsibility she bore.

But on closer reflection, Zhu Lianqing didn't resent the responsibility her abilities had placed upon her to safeguard the peace of the two realms. Rather, it was because her honors had already far exceeded the share she should have received.

There were too many blind followers in this world.

She wasn't someone who never made mistakes. When she realized that even if she made a mistake, someone would immediately step forward to explain it away for her, she found it frightening.

There were always people who would indulge her because of her fine reputation. They said, how could Perfected Lord Nanhua ever be wrong?

But beneath all this seemingly supreme reverence was merely the fact that, in their eyes, her mistakes were of no consequence.

Perhaps, if the name of Perfected Lord Nanhua hadn't been buried in the inner demon illusion, one day that supreme reputation would have turned around and devoured her.

"Senior, what are you looking at with your neck tilted back all this time? Won't you trip if you don't watch the road?"

Zhu Lianqing glanced sideways at the innocent, curious girl beside her. "Little Jiang, your senior is reflecting beneath the moon. You're ruining the atmosphere."

"Reflecting? Then what have you reflected on, Senior?"

With a leisurely air, Zhu Lianqing kicked a small stone on the path ahead off the cliff.

"Nothing much. I just think the moonlight is truly beautiful tonight."

Zhu Lianqing suddenly came to terms with 191's mistake at work.

Staying here for another three years and experiencing this world she loved under a less conspicuous identity was rather nice too.