Chapter 54 Going to see my junior sister. My junior sister should live so freely...

The curses Zhan Cangqiong was about to utter were swallowed back down by the sight before him.

Xuanji Daozun's face was ashen, and behind him stood five young disciples, each with a different style but equally displeased expressions.

Jun Lintian, who was at the head of the group, stepped forward. Although he still maintained a polite bow, his voice was devoid of warmth: "Senior Zhan Cangqiong, I apologize for disturbing you so late at night. May I ask where my junior sister, Shi Liuying, is at this moment?"

Rong Yan chimed in menacingly, "That's right! Hand over our junior sister! It's been three days, and there's still no word from her!"

Zhan Cangqiong was bombarded with questions that gave him a headache, especially those of that old bastard Xuan Ji, who had torn them apart and still acted all self-righteous.

He tugged at his nightgown irritably and muttered, "Hand over what? Do you think I'm a kidnapper? That girl is perfectly fine."

"but……"

He paused deliberately, looking at the sudden tension in their expressions, and said slowly, "You probably won't see her for several decades or even a hundred years."

"What?!"

Several junior female fans were stunned by this sentence, their heads buzzing.

"Decades or even centuries?!"

Rong Yan's dark, ghostly aura suddenly surged, "So you really are going to detain my junior sister!"

The Dharma image behind Chong Cang instantly grew larger, its eyes dangerous.

Jun Lintian's breath hitched, his hand gripped the hilt of his sword, and his voice deepened: "Senior, what do you mean by this? Please enlighten me."

"If the Sword Sect intends to forcibly detain my disciples..."

He didn't finish speaking, but the pressure from his unfinished words caused the remaining protective array patterns inside the Sky-Slaying Hall to buzz.

Xuanji Daozun was even more direct, pointing his sword at the same spot, his second sword energy already prepared, aimed at the remaining half of the roof of the sleeping quarters, just waiting for the signal to fire.

"Stop, stop, stop! You bunch of youngsters, and Xuanji, you impatient old fool!"

Seeing that things were not going well, Zhan Cangqiong quickly raised his hand, still wrapped in a quilt, and shouted in a completely unseemly manner, "It's not that she's locked up, it's that girl just had a stroke of luck and entered 'Sword Heart Reflection Path'."

"That's an ancient Dao realm, an opportunity that others would kill for. She's diligently comprehending the Dao inside!"

"'Sword Heart Reflects the Dao'?" Jun Lintian frowned. "Senior, are you referring to your sect's legendary enlightenment realm? My junior sister..."

"you do not say!"

Zhan Cangqiong, pulling at the blanket that was about to slip off his body, finally found an opportunity to explain.

"That dilapidated library on the back mountain, I almost used it as a storage room! Who would have thought that in the past thousand years, apart from Xuanji Zi, someone else would actually be able to awaken the Dao within it again and gain recognition."

"That girl is amazing!"

As he spoke, a sense of pride involuntarily crept onto his face, as if Shi Liuying was already a precious treasure of his Sword Sect.

Su Wan listened intently and asked curiously, "Xuanji Zi? This senior must be extremely powerful, right? But how come I've never heard of such a powerful person before?"

When Xuanji Zi was mentioned, the smugness on Zhan Cangqiong's face faded, replaced by a complex sigh.

He shook his head, and, taking advantage of being "surrounded" by the crowd, simply sat cross-legged on the cold stone steps, wrapped in a blanket like a giant cocoon.

"Impressive? Of course he is impressive. Back then, he was a sword prodigy who dominated his generation."

He sighed, his tone tinged with regret, "But she was just unlucky."

"Throughout his life he diligently practiced and honed his skills, displaying his brilliance to the fullest, yet at every crucial moment, he always fell short by just a little, or was simply restrained..."

"The title of 'perennial runner-up' stuck with her for the rest of her life."

"Not the chief, not the best in the world, so many years have passed, apart from a few fragments in our Sword Sect's own scrolls, who still remembers her?"

Jun Lintian keenly caught the phrase "just happened to be suppressed." This feeling of helplessness was all too familiar.

"How could a top-tier swordsman who has received the true teachings of 'Sword Heart Reflecting the Dao' be repeatedly defeated by a pill cultivator? This is illogical."

Rong Yan also realized, "That's right, don't the people from the Pill Sect rely on taking drugs and using magic weapons to fight? How could they possibly be a match for a Sword Sect expert in a head-on sword fight?"

A look of bewilderment and vicissitude appeared on Zhan Cangqiong's face, quite different from his usual bold and fiery demeanor.

He sat on the stone steps, gazing at the deep night outside the hall, and slowly said, "Yes... this is the strangest and most incomprehensible place."

"The sect leader of the Dan Sect, before Xuanji Zi appeared out of nowhere, was also excellent, but he did not show the kind of strength that he later had... a level of near-overwhelming power."

"It's as if Heaven deliberately created this character to deal with Xuanjizi's rise to power."

Shen Hanzhou listened intently and couldn't help but ask, "Then... what happened next? What became of this Senior Xuanjizi in the end?"

Zhan Cangqiong remained silent for a moment before whispering, "She failed when she was in the Tribulation Transcending stage and trying to break through to the Mahayana realm. Her Dao heart was severely damaged, her cultivation level plummeted, and she was lucky enough to survive, but she became just another ordinary person."

"A 'second place' that was never truly recognized, even its end was quiet and unnoticed..."

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent.

Even without fully understanding the details of what happened back then, one can still sense a heavy sense of powerlessness, a feeling of being toyed with by fate, from these few words.

Jun Lintian's doubts grew stronger.

Xuanji Zi's fate was too strange, and the rise of the Dan Sect Master was also mysterious.

Thinking about the system, he vaguely felt that his junior sister's entry into "Sword Heart Reflection" this time might not be a simple coincidence.

As for myself, I need to figure some things out.

He said to Zhan Cangqiong, "Senior, since Junior Sister is safely comprehending the Dao in 'Sword Heart Reflecting the Dao,' I am relieved."

"As her senior, I'm always worried about her. I wonder if I could go and check on her from afar to make sure she's alright?"

This request is perfectly reasonable. The members of the Myriad Manifestations Sect exchanged glances and nodded in agreement.

Although they were anxious, they also knew what "Sword Heart Reflecting the Dao" meant to sword cultivators; it was a rare and precious opportunity.

Forcibly dragging my junior sister back to the Myriad Manifestations Sect? Are you kidding me?

To be able to get such a top-tier deal from the Sword Sect is an incredible stroke of luck.

As long as they were sure their junior sister was safe, they couldn't be more eager for her to continue her studies for a few more years.

Zhan Cangqiong cleared his throat and emphasized, "Want to see 'my' little disciple? Considering your concern for your fellow disciple, I'll make an exception and take you to see him."

He emphasized the word "mine" with extra force, and even glanced provocatively at Xuanji Daozun, whose face was even colder, feeling quite pleased with himself.

Having entered "Sword Heart Reflecting the Path," and received the ancient inheritance of my Sword Sect, decades or even centuries have passed. How could this girl still remember anything about the Myriad Manifestations Sect?

I'm determined to take this disciple as my own!

"Slaying the Azure Sky" means that one can go to the Heavenly Realm.

Although Chong Cang also wanted to go, Zhan Cangqiong's words, "'Sword Heart Reflects the Dao' spontaneously rejects non-sword cultivators. Forcibly approaching would be seen as a provocation and would trigger a counterattack from the Dao Realm," shut him down.

In the end, everyone decided that the eldest brother would go to check on the junior sister's condition on behalf of the group.

-

Led by Zhan Cangqiong, Jun Lintian quietly arrived at a secluded spot in the back mountain.

Looking from afar, the old library was indeed shrouded in a hazy mist.

Although it is not clearly visible, one can feel the tranquil and vast power contained within it.

Jun Lintian approached the edge of the mist and, through the not-so-completely isolated "Dao Qi," saw Shi Liuying sitting cross-legged within it.

She was still wearing that light blue dress, her posture upright, holding the Buling Sword in her arms, with several ancient books spread out in front of her.

Her small face was completely focused, sometimes frowning in thought, sometimes smiling suddenly.

Even more remarkably, around her were several tiny humanoid figures formed from pure golden Dao essence, constantly demonstrating various exquisite sword techniques. Their movements were fluid and their meaning profound, like living sword manuals.

Shi Liuying's gaze followed the golden figures intently, her fingers occasionally tracing lines in the air, clearly immersed in the scene and benefiting greatly from it.

Seeing that his junior sister was safe and sound, and not only safe, but also in such a rare state of enlightenment, Jun Lintian's tense heart finally relaxed completely.

His stern features softened unconsciously, and a faint, reassuring smile even appeared at the corner of his mouth.

His junior sister should live carefree and unrestrained life like this.

Just as he relaxed and was about to quietly retreat, his gaze inadvertently swept past the edge of the mist surrounding "Sword Heart Reflecting the Dao" and landed under a gnarled ancient tree nearby.

There sat an old woman dressed in gray cloth.

She seemed unaffected by the mist of the Dao Realm, still holding that old broom, sitting quietly under the tree as if it were just a casual rest.

Just as Jun Lintian's gaze fell upon her, Granny Jiang also raised her head and calmly met his eyes.

This glance sent a sudden shock through Jun Lintian's heart.

The spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from this old woman were still weak, even frail, far lower than his.

But just now, he was completely unaware that there was someone under the tree!

Her presence seemed to blend perfectly with the ancient trees, rocks, and even the surrounding "Daoist energy," and she would almost be overlooked unless one looked at her intentionally.

This is something that an ordinary Nascent Soul stage cultivator could not accomplish!

What alarmed Jun Lintian even more was that the moment the old woman raised her eyes, he clearly felt a calm yet extremely penetrating gaze.

There was no hostility in his gaze. When he realized that there was only pure concern and reassurance in his eyes when he looked at Shi Liuying, his gaze softened quickly. He even gave him a barely perceptible nod, as if to say, "She is fine."

However, what made Jun Lintian pause slightly was the old woman's gaze itself.

Those eyes, of ordinary shape, were slightly cloudy with age.

But deep in his eyes, there was something that made Jun Lintian feel a sense of familiarity.

It wasn't a similarity in the shape of the eyes, but rather a kind of... charm.

A pure and unwavering pursuit of the Great Dao, a vibrant life force that burns in the eyes even when the body is old and the spiritual power is weak, and refuses to be extinguished.

That is the purest and most genuine heart that yearns for the Tao.

They look so alike.

It's just like Shi Liuying right now, single-minded and focused on the sword and the Dao, in the mist.

An absurd yet gradually clearer thought, gleaned from various clues, suddenly crashed into Jun Lintian's mind.

"Have you seen enough? It's not advisable to linger near the Dao Realm, lest you disturb that girl's opportunity."

Zhan Cangqiong urged him in a low voice from the side.

Jun Lintian withdrew his gaze, suppressed the turmoil in his heart, and nodded with a calm expression: "Yes, thank you for your trouble, senior. I will leave now."

The two quietly withdrew from the valley, away from the misty Daoist aura.

When they reached the vicinity of the main peak and were alone with only the two of them, Jun Lintian stopped.

He turned to Zhan Cangqiong, his gaze clear and resolute, and slowly said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Senior."

Zhan Cangqiong casually turned his head: "What is it?"

"The old woman under the tree..."

"It's Xuanji Zi, isn't it?"

Zhan Cangqiong paused, his casual expression vanishing instantly.

He looked at Jun Lintian, his eyes flashing with surprise and complex emotions, which finally turned into a long sigh filled with endless感慨 (gǎnkǎi - deep feelings).

He didn't say anything, but his silence was the best affirmation.

really.

The last trace of doubt in Jun Lintian's heart was dispelled.

A sword genius who once entered the "Sword Heart Reflecting the Dao" and should have amazed an era ended up losing all his cultivation and silently hiding in an old pavilion sweeping the floor because of "suppression".

The strangeness of this situation cannot be simply explained by luck or nemesis.

He looked in the general direction of where the Pill Sect was located, his eyes becoming deep and resolute.

It seems I absolutely have to go to the Pill Sect this time.

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Author's note: Red envelope [pat on the head]