I, a Daoist master of ethereal beauty and jade-like grace, offer this sacrifice...

Yan Huanyue took the candlestick, pushed open the small door, and went inside.

This was just a small room, less than four steps in length and width, extending from the southwest corner of her room.

The room was filled with the scent of incense and candles, and two memorial tablets carved with flowing clouds and flying cranes were placed on the Eight Immortals table facing the door.

She lit two candles on the table with a candlestick, lit three incense sticks and offered them, then went to the corner and picked up a piece of sandalwood that she had originally intended to cut into an offering bowl.

He took out a short knife and cut it into a rectangular wooden tablet and a base. Since it couldn't be placed on the table next to his parents, he went back to his room, moved a small stool, placed the empty tablet in the corner of the wall, and flicked a drop of blood from his fingertip onto it.

Blood dripped down, winding a crooked trail that seeped into the base and spread out in a small patch.

Yan Huanyue set up the incense burner and the vase, then climbed over the wall to break off a branch of white camellia from outside the courtyard. She lit three sticks of incense, respectfully made three offerings, and bent down to place the incense on the ground.

Looking at her own memorial tablet, she felt that the way she was worshipping herself was rather ridiculous, so she couldn't help but laugh.

But as he laughed, the smile grew dry, and his lips were forced into a stiff, unnatural shape, like the head of a cow or sheep in a butcher shop with its mouth hooked shut.

Perhaps it was because of something on her mind, but after making this offering and taking the Shouyuan Pill, she inexplicably felt that her mind was clearer. She meditated and circulated her spiritual energy until late at night, and the situation from the previous night did not recur.

After blowing out the lamp and lying down at night, she quickly fell asleep. In her dream, she didn't know who she was or where she was. She was walking alone along a path that seemed to have no end in the dark wilderness.

Suddenly, a raging fire swept in from the sky, and everything around her turned as red as a burning bronze furnace. The searing pain pressed down on her relentlessly. She ran forward desperately, but like a hastily pieced-together jigsaw puzzle, she collapsed and shattered into countless pieces.

The firelight seemed to melt away time, endlessly scorching the almost numb pain, like a torture from which one could never escape.

"Who will save me...who will save me...who...me...me...I'll save me...I'll save you...quick...quick..."

Scattered, broken hands emerged from the limbs, each grasping half an arm, attempting to piece it back together...

Amidst the clear chirping of sparrows, Yan Huanyue opened her eyes. It was still dawn, and the light outside the tent was not very bright.

She silently recited a soothing incantation, gradually dispelling the deathly aura and lingering pain that had been subsiding deep within her soul.

She didn't want to wake up and still be stuck in that nightmare; what she wanted to do was to ensure that nothing like that ever happened again.

Before long, he got up, dressed and washed, applied medicine to his hands, and walked towards the Broken Jade Waterfall by the training ground in the morning breeze.

The Broken Jade Waterfall hangs far into the green mountains, plunging sixty feet. The water roars and then tinkles, like a box full of jade discs thrown onto the bluestone ground, shattering with a splash and a scattering sound.

Although it was still dark, several fellow disciples were already cultivating in the open space in the forest and on the rocks beside the Broken Jade Waterfall, and a few others had even jumped into a blue stone tablet.

Yan Huanyue glanced at the blue stone tablet, then stopped a short distance away. She stretched out her right palm, made a hand seal with her left hand, and suddenly soared into the air for several feet before plunging headlong towards the Broken Jade Waterfall.

The steam was thick, and the wind whipped at my sleeves.

She thrust her sword horizontally through the air with her right hand, quickly gripped the hilt with both hands, and used all her spiritual power to cleave the Shattered Jade Waterfall. The sword wind howled, and the waterfall flowed on, like willow catkins brushing against her face, without the sword wind affecting the water flow at all.

When one's swordsmanship reaches a certain level, one can instantly cut through water when drawing the sword. The Shattered Jade Waterfall is rich in spiritual energy, and even with the addition of spiritual power, ordinary sword winds and energy are simply insufficient to cut it in an instant.

She gathered her strength in mid-air and used her swordsmanship to slash at the Broken Jade Waterfall about three hundred times. Unsurprisingly, it had no effect on the waterfall, but she was so tired that her hands ached, her arms were numb, and she was drenched in sweat.

In her previous life, she would only swing her knife twenty or thirty times a day, not even counting the common situation of working hard for three days and resting for two. When she exerted herself too much, her body couldn't take it.

Gu Yuxiao sheathed his sword, stood with his hands behind his back on the large, bluish-black rock washed by the water, and laughed, "Junior Sister Yan, is your hand better? You've been through so much."

Yan Huanyue replied, "Elder Chu's medicine is good. I have recovered most of my injuries this morning, with only some minor wounds remaining. I can still hold a knife."

Gu Yuxiao waved his hand leisurely, "We shouldn't overwork people. We should relax a bit. I'm going to have breakfast. Do you want to come with me?"

"Senior brother, you go first."

Gu Yuxiao said nothing more and left on his own.

Yan Huanyue gathered her clothes and landed on the blue stone by the waterfall. Just as she was about to pick up her sword to practice her swordsmanship, a gust of wind suddenly rushed by. She looked up and saw an arrow carrying a chilling aura shatter the jade waterfall and disappear into it.

Yan Huanyue suddenly turned around and saw a spirited young girl standing next to Su Henghua not far away.

The girl lowered her bow-holding hand and said proudly, "With such a heavy killing intent, a horizontal sword couldn't split the waterfall even after more than a hundred attempts. I thought the waterfall was something special, but it turns out it's nothing special."

Seeing that the girl was unfamiliar and he didn't seem to remember seeing her before, he sheathed his sword, made a hand seal, and said, "Fellow Daoist, your cultivation is very high."

Su Henghua smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist Lin may not know this, but in the Tianyan Sect, if one cultivates archery, one does not practice cutting water, but rather shattering jade."

The girl raised an eyebrow, pointed at Yan Huanyue with a smug look on her face, and said with great confidence and arrogance, "What is shattered jade? Fellow Daoist, tell me about it."

Yan Huanyue reached out and caught a splashing drop of water. "This is jade. One drop breaks into nine. Not one more or less is not acceptable, and each drop must be the same size."

“What’s so difficult about that? Just point to a drop and let me break it.”

As the waterfall cascaded down, Yan Huanyue casually pointed.

The girl's bright eyes flashed, and she immediately drew her bow and nocked an arrow. A gust of wind whistled, and the arrow pierced through a drop of water that was about to fall from Yan Huanyue's fingertip, condensing it into nine small water droplets of the same size that floated in the air.

Yan Huanyue opened her palm, and the nine tiny water droplets fell into her hand, gathered together, and then instantly merged into a single drop, flowing out from her palm.

At this age and with this level of skill, Yan Huanyue couldn't help but exclaim, "Excellent archery!"

The girl, gripping her longbow, laughed loudly, "Hahahaha, I used to shoot down a single grain of golden sand in the midst of a sandstorm, this is no challenge for me. Su Henghua, you are also skilled in archery, how does my archery compare to yours?"

Su Henghua kept her hands behind her back and smiled gently, "My archery skills are ranked last in Tianyan, and are really not worthy of being compared with those of our friendly faction."

The girl seemed a little too excited upon hearing this, and laughed loudly, "Then I'm still the best! I'll go back, I'll go back! I'll go see my junior sister, and then go back to tell Master!"

Having said that, he ignored them and turned around, leaping nimbly and lightly into the forest like a wild deer, happily speeding away.

Yan Huanyue made a hand seal and greeted Su Henghua. Su Henghua smiled and said, "That is Lin Xiaofeng, a disciple of Elder Sihong of the Divine Capital Sect. He came to Qingxu Peak to deliver some new spring tea on his master's orders. He only arrived yesterday afternoon and is in a hurry to leave now. Junior Sister Yan, please wait, I will see her off."

Yan Huanyue looked in the direction Su Henghua had left, then gazed into the distance.

Lin Xiaofeng was an abandoned baby from the Shen Du Men, taken in by Elder Si Hong when Tengzhou in the north fell and became an insurmountable barrier between the two races. She is a spiritual cultivation genius with dual spiritual roots and Tan Guiyi's senior sister.

During the Ming Dynasty's Spring Festival trial in the Cold Season Secret Realm, he lost both eyes while protecting Tan Guiyi.

Yan Huanyue remembered Lin Xiaofeng because it was really hard not to remember him.

Lin Xiaofeng and Tan Guiyi's master, Elder Sihong, had the surname Huangfu. In his early years, few people knew his given name and referred to him only as Sihong.

In her previous life, she had heard Gu Yuxiao recount a story from the past.

"Lin Xiaofeng of the Divine Capital Sect is Fellow Daoist Tan's own senior sister, known among her fellow disciples as 'Little Madwoman'."

"That year at the Compassionate Sect Dharma Assembly competition, she insisted on competing with a famous singer in front of everyone, saying that she had just seen the sect's talismans and that her master was not called Elder Sihong, but Huangfu Gousheng. After that day, Elder Sihong never left the Divine Capital Sect again for ten years..."

"Alas, Elder Sihong was such a celestial and elegant Daoist master. I wonder if he has overcome that hurdle in his heart yet..."

A note from the author:

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