Things that were perfect were rare in this world

A Man looked at the three of them, then at Shen Ji, a trace of envy surfacing in her eyes.

She turned to Zhu Lianqing beside her and asked, "So the relationships in cultivation sects like yours aren't just like those between teachers and students. They're so close. They seem less like martial siblings and more like actual siblings."

Zhu Lianqing looked at A Man and read what she was thinking from her eyes.

Someone all alone in this world would inevitably feel envy and loneliness upon seeing others love and care for one another.

Zhu Lianqing shook her head. "Actually, a harmonious, happy sect family like Young Hero Shen's is already very rare. Not all sect families are like that. Things that are perfect are rare in this world to begin with, let alone the bonds between people."

A Man nodded thoughtfully. "You're right. I misunderstood. Perfection is hard to find in the mortal world. It should be the same in the cultivation world."

Seeing that envy had not plunged her back into grief, Zhu Lianqing relaxed.

A Man asked curiously, "But do the masters in your sects really give their disciples pocket money?"

A Man's question made Zhu Lianqing laugh. "Well, that depends on how wealthy the master is. If they're a pauper, I imagine they wouldn't have any pocket money to give. Of course, there are also masters with human faces and beasts' hearts who exploit their disciples and make them earn money for them. There are bad people in the cultivation world too."

A Man's eyes immediately widened. "That actually happens? How awful! Then why didn't that disciple expose him? A teacher ought to have a teacher's moral integrity."

Zhu Lianqing raised her head and looked ahead.

With the others chatting and laughing up ahead, Xie Lingchuan's retreating figure looked especially forlorn.

Zhu Lianqing's gaze flickered. "Of course it does. He didn't expose him because... he was deceived. This disciple had a miserable life. He fell in with the wrong people from childhood, and many people bullied him. So when he met that master, whom everyone praised as a model for the immortal sects, he thought he'd finally found someone who would treat him well. But the truth was the exact opposite. He was tormented until he died."

A Man frowned as she listened. "He met villains with human faces and beasts' hearts, like the villagers of Wuxia Village? But why didn't he leave?"

Zhu Lianqing sighed. "Because when that master took him as his disciple before everyone, he really did treat him well, even though it was an act for others to see. He clung for years to that little bit of kindness that barely counted as kindness at all, always thinking that one day he would receive it again."

A Man froze at those words. "Then he really was too pitiful. But... but I still don't understand. Why keep hoping through all that suffering that the master would change for the better?"

Zhu Lianqing paused, remembering the past.

Before she came here to carry out her mission, Xie Lingchuan had already gone through his original course of events many times.

191 had shown her the plot.

When his original master tricked Xie Lingchuan into sacrificing himself to his sword, Xie Lingchuan looked at the sword-tempering pool of churning lava and still asked with hope, "Master, if I jump in, will I die?"

At the time, she had thought Xie Lingchuan was terribly foolish, but when she heard that original master's answer, she fell silent.

With a gentle smile in his eyes, that master walked up to Xie Lingchuan and reached out to pat his head for the second time.

"You won't die."

That man made just that one gesture and said those few simple words, not even bothering to invent a high-sounding excuse.

Yet sixteen-year-old Xie Lingchuan jumped into the sword-tempering pool just like that.

She had heard Xie Lingchuan's inner monologue before he jumped.

-Why did Master lie to me and say I wouldn't die?

-If Master only wanted to melt down my spiritual root to sacrifice to his sword, why didn't he tell me sooner? He made me... spend all those years working hard for nothing.

After that, she could no longer call Xie Lingchuan foolish.

He had already intended to die. How could he have been foolish enough not to know that jumping into that sword-tempering pool meant certain death?

The question he asked was merely a futile struggle before death, merely the last shred of hope he still held for kindness in this world.

Returning from her thoughts, Zhu Lianqing watched Xie Lingchuan's fluttering hair ribbon and slowly answered A Man's question.

"Why would he leave? Perhaps because... someone who has only ever tasted bitterness will naturally never forget an unexpected taste of sweetness."

Sadly, even after holding on to it for so many years, he never tasted sweetness again.

A Man could not help lowering her lashes and sighing. "I hope that when he's reincarnated in his next life, he can be born into a good life and meet people who treat him well."

Zhu Lianqing smiled to herself. "He will."

He had now become an impressive young swordsman in many people's eyes, and the formidable Senior Brother Xie in the eyes of many of his fellow disciples.

"Miss A Man, do you think this person was foolish?"

Xie Lingchuan's voice suddenly came from up ahead.

Zhu Lianqing could not help looking up in surprise.

A Man was also surprised that Xie Lingchuan had joined the conversation.

She thought it over seriously, then nodded. "A little, yes. But perhaps that's because I've only heard a few words about him and don't understand what he was really like. Many people once hurled cruel words at me too, but I always knew they were rotten to the core. I never expected them to change for the better. I only have expectations of people who truly love me."

Zhu Lianqing could tell that A Man was already being as tactful as she could. From A Man's perspective, Xie Lingchuan's past behavior really must have seemed terribly foolish.

"I think that person wasn't merely foolish. He was downright stupid," Xie Lingchuan concluded bluntly.

Zhu Lianqing's brow immediately furrowed, and she retorted, "You've only heard a few secondhand words from me and don't know the whole story. Why jump to such a hasty conclusion? Instead of calling that master evil, you call this miserable disciple stupid?"

It was rare to see Zhu Lianqing speak so harshly, and A Man hurried to soothe them. "Please don't be angry, Dao Lords. Everyone simply has different views. I'm sure Dao Lord Xie meant no harm. He's merely angry that the disciple failed to stand up for himself."

Where A Man and Zhu Lianqing could not see, a deeply inscrutable hint of a smile flashed through Xie Lingchuan's eyes.

Zhu Lianqing also felt she had reacted a little too strongly just now. She drew a deep breath, let it out, and said nothing more.

Yes, this should be a good thing. Why was she angry?

After all, the one insulting Xie Lingchuan was Xie Lingchuan himself, not anyone else.

Moreover, Xie Lingchuan's fate had already changed. That he now thought his former self stupid at least meant that, in this life, he had already tasted plenty of sweetness.