Chapter 20

The room was quiet, the dust settled silently.

Only a subtle fragrance wafts by, like a myriad of flowing lights.

Yuan Daojun glanced at his once most prized disciple and sneered, "What? Have you become mute? Not going to say anything?"

He slammed the thick stack of notes on the table with a "bang," his tone becoming increasingly dramatic and sarcastic: "Yes, if I hadn't seen Shuhe's notes today, I would never have known in all my years that 'to kill her' and 'to accompany each other all the way, with deep affection' are actually the same thing."

If it weren't for the detailed description in his youngest son's notes, he would have truly believed the evil of this Xie family boy!

Xie Qianjing: "She doesn't remember me."

Yuan Daojun: "What does this have to do with you wanting to kill her?"

The room was quiet.

After a while, a soft laugh rang out.

This smile no longer possessed the refined and gentle demeanor of Xie Jia Bodhi Jun; instead, it had an alluring, bewitching quality.

"Doesn't the former Palace Master think this is unfair?" Xie Qianjing said. "I still remember her, but she has completely forgotten me, and all she thinks about is... someone new."

He was the only one trapped in the old snowstorm.

This isn't fair, Xie Qianjing thought.

So he will make her get to know him again, remember him, and even like him.

Then, when she trusted him the most, he killed her.

Just like he had experienced before.

Xie Qianjing said, "That's fair."

He stood in the shadow of the screen, his black hair flowing like a waterfall, his lips curved like blood, looking exactly like the "Lord" those demons spoke of, showing no trace of the Xie family son who was once praised by everyone.

Those youthful days of high spirits seem to have truly vanished with the wind.

Yuan Daojun thought that he was probably really old.

This disciple, who was once the most respectful and aloof, is now completely unfathomable to him.

He dragged out the last syllable, squinting at Xie Qianjing.

Xie Qianjing: "I will not take action at Qingyi Academy."

“No.” Yuan Daojun shook his head and gave Xie Qianjing a cold laugh. “That’s not what I wanted to say.”

The old man stood up, reached out and picked up a note, shaking it as if he were shaking off a wet shirt. The note rolled down Yuan Daojun's chest and continued until it reached his feet.

Yuan Daojun said coldly, "I don't care about anyone else, but there's one thing: you can't drag my son into this."

"..."

Xie Qianjing paused for a moment before saying, "Okay."

Looking at Xie Qianjing's calm and composed face, Yuan Daojun suddenly remembered something and added, "The smaller one won't do, but the larger one will."

The younger ones are too naive; they can't outplay one of them.

Big ones...

Yuan Daojun sat back down in his chair, reverting to his ethereal and otherworldly demeanor.

It's fine.

Anyway, after all these years, the older one has probably gotten used to being messed with.

Yuan Daojun was lost in thought and didn't notice when Xie Qianjing had disappeared, while the people he had ordered to be brought had appeared in front of him.

"There are no outsiders here, why are you pretending to be so profound?"

Suddenly looking up, I saw Sheng Ningyu's face, with that familiar, nonchalant smile on her lips.

The feeling of a heart attack returned, and Yuan Daojun's blood rushed to his head.

"How dare you say that!"

As she spoke, Sheng Ningyu turned her head to look at the long corridor outside the window, seemingly pondering the feasibility of this path.

The familiar feeling of suffocation.

Even when someone is in the right, they still act with confidence.

How could there be such a distorted and distorted version of the truth in the world!

Yuan Daojun clutched his chest, too angry to utter a single word.

Compared to the previous visitor, Sheng Ningyu was much more at ease.

She bent down to pick up the medicine packet that had fallen to the ground, sniffed it, and tossed it back and forth in her hand. Inadvertently, it landed on the window frame and reflected off the screen.

Sheng Ningyu glanced sideways at Yuan Daojun: "Can I pick it up?"

Yuan Daojun said irritably, "If you throw something away yourself, who will pick it up if you don't?"

Before Sheng Ningyu could finish speaking, a medicine packet had already landed on her head.

Sheng Ningyu cried out "Ouch!" and squatted down, covering her head. She turned her head away, looking aggrieved. "Why did you come again, old man?"

Yuan Daojun was also surprised that he could hit her. Seeing that the girl's eyes were red, he felt both sorry for her and amused.

He couldn't bring himself to apologize, so he simply opened his eyes to look at the book in his hand and said in a strong voice, "Don't try to extort me here. Don't think I don't know that with your abilities, Sword Master Mingyue, you can't escape this..."

"I can't avoid it now."

Sheng Ningyu carried two medicine bags, casually pulled a chair opposite Yuan Daojun's desk to the window, and comfortably lay down on it.

"That coffin wasn't as comfortable as lying here. It was hard and there wasn't even a soft cushion. For sixty years, I couldn't move or see anything. Without my spiritual bones, I was like an idiot. I was only able to dodge your attack because I'm incredibly gifted."

As she spoke, Sheng Ningyu began to repeatedly touch the armrests of the chair.

It's soft and smooth, like solidified water; sitting on it feels like you're sinking into it.

Old man Yuan really knows how to enjoy life.

She leaned back in the soft chair, feeling quite pleased with herself, but waited a long time for Yuan Daojun's reply.

Sheng Ningyu: "?"

She slowly turned around and saw that the old man was still sitting at his desk with his eyes downcast, but he hadn't turned a single page of the book in front of him.

Sheng Ningyu turned over and leaned out from behind the chair: "Are you crying?"

Yuan Daojun, who was genuinely feeling sentimental, was speechless.

He swallowed it back.

With a wave of his hand, another soft chair appeared by the window. Yuan Daojun stood up and walked to the window, stroking his beard. He glanced at Sheng Ningyu out of the corner of his eye and asked in a tone befitting a hermit, "Why did you think of coming to find me?"

Sheng Ningyu sighed, "What else can I do? After all, I've calculated that you're the closest I'll ever get to my coffin."

Yuan Daojun: "..."

Yuan Daojun, pinching the three broken whiskers, said, "If you spout any more nonsense, get out!"

Sheng Ningyu coughed lightly, sat up slightly, and said seriously, "Because I bet that you weren't involved in what happened back then."

Yuan Daojun sat beside her, glancing at her sideways: "Why are you still so fond of gambling? What if you lose when you're unlucky?"

Sheng Ningyu laughed, then turned her face back to the sun outside the window, put one hand behind her head, squinted her eyes, and said in a slow tone: "What else can we do? At worst, we'll be locked up for another hundred or two hundred years, until our souls are scattered."

Though spoken lightly, every word was filled with pain, as if flesh and blood had been ripped out.

As the light and shadows flickered, Yuan Daojun gazed upon his former friend's most prized disciple amidst the shimmering light.

He thought back to a hundred years ago.

At that time, Ning Guihai was not yet dead. With him, the Sword Master, guarding the Sword Pavilion, the disciples only needed to practice their swordsmanship and never had to worry about anything else.

At that time, Sheng Ningyu was not the Mingyue Sword Master who would later become famous throughout the world. She was Ning Guihai's youngest disciple, carefree and fearless, pampered and protected by many people. She would go out without taking anything with her and without making any plans.

Even though Ning Guihai later took in new disciples and may have paid more attention to them, Sheng Ningyu was still the most outstanding and talented disciple of this generation of Sword Pavilion disciples.

She's always fooling around and pampered wherever she goes, so she would never utter the words "soul scattered."

Yuan Daojun: "Show me your hand."

Sheng Ningyu did as she was told and extended her hand: "Yuan Xiaoer has already examined me and given me some medicine." At this point, Sheng Ningyu paused, feeling unusually embarrassed for bullying a junior.

"I was badly injured, and Xiao Er seems to have noticed, because I haven't seen him for the past few days."

Yuan Daojun: "That child is very devoted. Since he promised to heal your injuries, he won't give up easily."

As he spoke, Yuan Daojun rolled his spiritual power over Sheng Ningyu.

It was dilapidated and looked no different from a bombed-out medicinal herb field.

Yuan Daojun found it hard to imagine how this person, who used to be so arrogant and demanding, even a bowl of herbal soup required three pieces of sweet cakes and candied fruit from the mortal world, had crawled out of the coffin and was now standing in front of him.

In the past, I always thought this person was a frivolous and irresponsible person, but now that I see her has become more reserved and composed, I feel that she is not as good as she used to be.

Yuan Daojun withdrew his hand, his anger completely gone: "I won't say much else. Shuhe's talent is even greater than mine. The pills he prescribed for you are all good things that he refined himself. Just eat them, consider them as your usual candied fruits and sweet cakes."

Sheng Ningyu raised an eyebrow and smiled: "You still remember?"

"A cultivator without spiritual bones is like a house without beams, a living person without a spine; this is the most fundamental thing. Mingyue, do you still remember who took your spiritual bones?"

The spirit bone is gone?

But doesn't she still have half of her spine?

Sheng Ningyu blinked, searching her mind, but she couldn't find any memory of having two spiritual bones in the past.

That's strange.

Given her previous open and honest nature, shouldn't she have been smug and boastful about having two extraordinary spiritual bones, making sure the whole world knew about it?

Sheng Ningyu lowered her eyes and thought casually, there were three possibilities.

Either her memory is wrong, or the bone in her spine is not her spiritual bone.

Or perhaps...

Both are true.

A note from the author:

----------------------

"Reluctant to part with" can be expressed in three words, or it can be expressed as _____________.