To the best of my ability, Part Two
Late that night, deep in the woods, she saw a figure leaning against a tree trunk, its back to her. The person's head was slightly drooping, and it had only one arm; a sword lay askew beside it.
She quietly took out her bamboo flute, but hesitated when she brought it to her lips.
Beside the man, there appeared to be another slender figure, a girl. Judging from her posture, the girl's hands were tied behind her back, and she was lying face down on the ground.
"Is it Senior Sister Yin, or Junior Sister Qian Shu?" Wan thought incredulously, "Or perhaps Senior Sister Chun Feng?"
The nine sisters all had similar figures. Despite no deliberate instruction, the Seven Sisters of Misty Rain possessed identical graceful figures and elegant bearing. This was a well-known story within the Misty Rain Pavilion. "They're practically seven fairies," the disciples would often say. "With these sisters, just their presence alone would be enough to make the whole world fall at their feet."
"We still have two saintesses."
"The Holy Maiden hasn't even shown her face yet, and those people are already completely convinced. Some probably haven't even figured out the names of the senior sisters before they've hastily and voluntarily submitted." This is a half-joking statement, but it also contains some genuine thoughts.
Young women are at an age where they care about their appearance, and it's impossible for them not to be influenced by the opinions of those around them. Even if those opinions are mostly compliments and positive comments, the women secretly compete with each other, striving to become more and more perfect. Occasionally, they might have the illusion that they truly live in a world where beauty is all that matters, not strength.
Would such a world exist? She sometimes asked herself this question. She believed others must have pondered it as well, but it was an unspoken competition; no one would openly discuss it. As a pillar of the Misty Rain Pavilion, to not fully dedicate oneself to swordsmanship but instead secretly compete in beauty—wouldn't that make one a laughingstock? She'd inevitably face punishment from her master.
Now, in the darkness of night, the results of such efforts have ironically become factors influencing later judgments.
Qian Shu, Yin, and Chun Feng—these three have a priority. Qian Shu is the Holy Maiden, and nothing can happen to her under any circumstances; Yin is her senior sister who has been looking after her, and she doesn't want anything to happen to Yin; Chun Feng is the Holy Maiden who betrayed her sect, and she and the man beside her are both targets for capture on this mission. Yin is right; Chun Feng caused the current situation, and Wan feels she should bear the corresponding punishment.
The man hadn't discovered her yet, and Wan now had three choices. First, she could play her bamboo flute to summon a crowd to surround him, but the risk was that she couldn't predict what the man would do to the girl beside him; second, she could unexpectedly snatch the girl from his side, in which case both of them might be injured, but not killed; third, she could go all out to kill the man in one blow, but if she failed, she herself would become his prisoner.
Ultimately, Wan wasn't sure what the man's current state was. Although he was injured, could she defeat him? Five senior sisters had already died at his hands; they were enemies that even the two senior sisters, Feng and Yan, couldn't defeat together.
Do you have a choice? I asked myself that evening.
She couldn't gamble that the person wasn't Qian Shu.
On the grassy field in the woods, a layer of frosty white light surged, merging with the moonlight. Slowly, like a tide engulfing a small island, it silently approached the man with his head bowed.
As the distance between her and the man continued to shrink, Wan's mood gradually shifted from nervousness to confidence. "It'll work. He's completely unaware; he's at his last gasp!" a resolute voice cried out in Wan's heart.
The sword intent hidden beneath the moonlight instantly solidified. Tens of thousands of silver needles, from every direction, simultaneously lunged at the man.
The man is riddled with wounds.
In the evening, I felt a peculiar sensation, like a snapped line.
Then the sound of wind breaking through the forest filled the air.
Far less dense than the "silver needles," but much thicker, dark shadows emerged from the messy, tall piles of weeds. The slender shadows surrounded them from all sides, blocking all escape routes.
The tide that had just submerged the island was about to be buried by even larger waves.
*
The woods fell silent.
Nana approached the edge of the crater created by the impact. After only one glance down, she knelt down and began to vomit violently.
Fifty. No, perhaps more. Wooden pieces, about two fingers thick, were whittled into sharp spikes, covering the sides and bottom of the pit. More than fifty spikes pierced her, turning this girl, known for her speed, into a beehive. Blood gushed from the wood.
The figures they saw were merely mannequins made of twigs and leaves. The stronger one's hatred for him, the closer one is to death.
Nana couldn't count them all. She didn't even have the courage to look into the pit again; just the smell and the images that flashed through her mind were enough to make her stomach cramp and churn.
Staggering away from the pit, and vomiting again until she was no longer in the smell of blood, Lin Zhenna finally rallied. In her eyes, besides hatred, was fear. Her gaze swept through the forest. Without time to think, Lin Zhenna flew off in the general direction from which Qian Shu and Xiang Wu had set off.
She hadn't run far when Nana heard another piercing scream. Even from a distance, she immediately recognized it as Wan's voice. Nana gritted her teeth, quickened her pace, and continued towards Qian Shu and Xiang Wu.
As Nana's calves began to ache, she saw the figure also moving swiftly through the forest. "Chien-shu!" she called out immediately.
Qian Shu stopped in her tracks upon hearing the call. Her facial muscles relaxed for a moment before quickly tensing up again. "Did you hear me, Senior Sister?"
After confirming that Qian Shu was not injured, Nana nodded in response to Qian Shu's question.
"Let's hurry over there," Qian Shu said anxiously, "Senior Sister Wan must be in danger."
“It’s probably too late to go now,” Nana said. “Let’s rejoin our master first; it’s dangerous to continue like this.”
"Where is Senior Sister Yin? Have you seen her?" Qian Shu asked again.
“Senior Sister Yin,” Lin Zhenna looked into Qian Shu’s eyes, bit her lip, and said, “Senior Sister is dead.”
Chishu's eyes were filled with shock and disbelief. She muttered to herself, "How could this be?"
"No, we can't just leave like this. Senior Sister Wan might need us." Qian Shu looked at Lin Zhenna for help.
"What was the sword intent of the one-armed old man you encountered?"
“It’s flame,” Chishu replied.
“We must join forces with our master, otherwise it will be dangerous.” Nana gasped, speaking with an unwavering tone.
"Is that someone Senior Sister knows?" Qian Shu asked with unusual sharpness.
"yes."
"Is Senior Sister going to kill us?" Tears welled up in Qian Shu's eyes.
“No,” Nana said. “I would never hurt you, no matter what.”
Qian Shu stared wide-eyed at Lin Zhenna, who remained silent, tears streaming down her face.
"That's what worries me. You have to be strong. There will be times when we're not around, and there will always be times when you have to rely on yourself," Nana thought to herself. But she didn't dare to raise her hand to wipe away Qian Shu's tears, afraid of frightening her.
From deep within the forest behind the thousand trees, a deafening roar suddenly resounded.
Another mechanism had been triggered. Nana's heart tightened. She couldn't care less about anything else. She grabbed Qian Shu's wrist and ran towards the source of the sound.
At the center of the commotion was the fleeing elephant.
Han Xiaozhou followed closely behind Xiang Wu, keeping a distance. She didn't continue forward because Xiang Wu was constantly triggering mechanisms. It was thanks to him that Han Xiaozhou was able to proceed without hindrance.
"The Medicine Buddha statue of Xinyuan Temple." Han Xiaozhou frowned. "Just who is this kid?"
Xiang Wu fled in a disheveled state. In Han Xiaozhou's eyes, it was as if he had deliberately walked into a trap left by the enemy. Neither the wooden spears flying from the shadows, nor the thorny brambles suddenly rising from beneath the fallen leaves, nor the meteor-like rocks falling from the treetops could stop his advance.
He just kept rushing towards the next trap. The running elephant laughed loudly, which made Han Xiaozhou even more cautious.
Traps can indeed be deadly. But for the object of his view, a denser network of traps doesn't necessarily mean greater danger; rather, it indicates that things are developing in the direction he expected.
These traps are not only deadly weapons, but also the footprints left by the perpetrator. In other words, as long as one follows these "footprints" to the end, one will surely find the person Xiang Wu is looking for. It's only a matter of time, because the speed at which he sets up the traps will certainly not be faster than the speed at which Xiang Wu advances.
*
A thunderous sound. It opened Qu You's ears and forced open Qu You's eyes.
Once her vision refocused, Qu You realized that the once clear blue sky had transformed into a shimmering Milky Way, stretching far beyond her sight. The tall, silent mountains on either side of the canyon had also become part of the night sky.
She sat up from the pebbly ground, only then feeling a slight pain in her back. Her mind was still a blur, so she stared blankly at the Milky Way overhead.
Where have I ended up?
That's right, she remembered. Memories were like the hundred-eyed cabinet in a clinic, with medicine drawers being pulled out one after another, and the scent of fragments of memory gradually becoming stronger, making one clear-headed.
After Kim Yoo-jung's condition stabilized, Qu You took her mother-in-law on her journey again. This time, because they didn't need to search for an entrance, the journey was much smoother than before. After preparing dry food and water, Qu You chose a warm and dry day and hired a horseman to take the grandmother and granddaughter directly to the entrance of the jungle trail. When they arrived, the sun had just risen halfway up the sky.
Qu You deliberately got up very early, not only because the daylight was better for traveling, but also because it would allow her mother-in-law to stay awake for a longer period of time. The first half of the journey went smoothly; they even reached the edge of Burial Sword Gorge and saw the white waterfalls that plunged straight down to the bottom of the valley.
The valley floor was filled with mist in the early morning, making it impossible to see how far the cascading waterfall had plunged down. It seemed as if there was no end in sight.
The journey became more difficult as it began to descend. Her mother-in-law's legs were no longer strong, so Qu You had to carry her on her back, carefully sealing some of the dry rations inside the trunk of a hollow tree. To her surprise, although the tree trunk was completely hollow, the lush foliage at the top was no less abundant than that of the other trees around it.
Qu You carried her mother-in-law on her back, leaving markers along the way as they continued on their journey. If things got too difficult, they could always turn back to retrieve the provisions and continue their return trip. "Preparation is the key to success, and lack of preparation leads to failure," her mother-in-law used to always say to her. This teaching had somehow become ingrained in her, a part of her very being.
Thankfully, her mother-in-law was much lighter than she remembered. She carried her down to the bottom of the canyon, through the waterfalls. Looking up again, the sky was still a pristine blue, without a single cloud. Night was still a long way off.
The sheer cliffs on both sides of Burial Sword Gorge sandwich the sky in the middle. The blue, though limited, stretches endlessly forward.
"That's much better," Qu You thought. "I don't need to think about which direction to go anymore. Just go straight ahead, and I'll reach the destination."
There has always been only one path to Mount Hua. Qu You didn't know why she suddenly thought of this saying. This path was hidden deep underground and couldn't take her to the sky, and besides, this wasn't Mount Hua.
After walking a distance away from the waterfall and making sure that the splashing water wouldn't splash on the grandmother and granddaughter any further, Qu You stopped to rest for a while. She took out spare clothes from her bundle and gave them to her mother-in-law to change into; she couldn't afford to catch a cold or get sick at this time.
As she changed her mother-in-law's clothes, she thought to herself, "Preparation is the key to success, and lack of preparation leads to failure. Mother-in-law, I remember it very well."
After wringing out her and her mother-in-law's clothes, she used a longsword that had been discarded at the bottom of the valley to build a rack and hang the clothes up to dry. "Let's rest for a while," Qu You said to her mother-in-law, "and hang the clothes up to dry as well."
Qu You lay flat on the pebbles, gazing at the pure blue sky. When she woke up again, it was already late at night.
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