Chapter 2: The hardship is like flying snow, willow catkins, butterflies…
Blood was splattered all over the ground.
Pei Wenjing's gaze swept over the faces surrounding him, and he suddenly chuckled softly.
The white fish suddenly began to swell and grow larger, forming a vortex that enveloped him.
Seeing this, Elder Hongyu shouted, "He's trying to leave! Stop him!"
Various Taoist techniques were thrown at him, crashing into the Yang Fish, but they were like cotton, completely merging into the white light of the Yang Fish. The white light grew stronger and stronger, like sunlight.
The elders sensed something was wrong.
He's not trying to run, he's trying to... pull himself up and explode!
"The sun and moon in the pot!" The warehouse elder tossed a jade pot high into the air, and the lid that had been lifted from the pot sucked everyone in, providing them with a safe haven.
With a muffled "thud," the jade pot landed on the snow.
As Shen Cangyu watched the white light gradually intensify before her, she knew that Pei Wenjing had ignited all his "life force," intending to pull himself up and self-destruct, taking the elders down with him.
With Pei Wenjing's cultivation level, if he were to blow it up, he could level this entire mountain.
The warehouse elder did not take her into the Sun and Moon Pot, and now that she is facing Pei Wenjing's full-force attack, she probably won't survive.
Bloodshed and disaster.
The divination image resurfaced in her mind, and it seemed the divination was accurate; she was truly going to perish here.
Shen Cangyu bent down and buried his head in the snow, closed his eyes, and waited for the moment when the white light exploded.
She waited a few breaths, but the expected explosion did not occur. She looked up and saw countless white light fragments fluttering in the air like butterflies, melting into the snowflakes and being swept into the night sky by the wind.
Pei Wenjing exposed himself, but did not harm anyone.
Shen Cangyu raised her hand and caught a piece of light that was falling. The light landed in her palm and then dissipated like mist, leaving no trace.
She clenched her fists, her eyes welling up with tears. For some reason, a feeling of sorrow welled up in her heart at that moment.
"I knew it, my senior brother must be a good person."
...
After returning to Kunlun from Blind Mountain, Shen Cangyu immediately went to his bedroom. The outer disciples' bedrooms were for eight people each, with beds embedded in the walls, one after another, like a steamer.
She climbed the stone steps, lay down on her hard bedding, and slept for three days straight.
Perhaps the snow on Blind Mountain was too heavy, or perhaps she suffered a backlash from forcibly using her mental techniques, or perhaps...
In short, she was burning up with fever, delirious, and had fallen seriously ill.
In her dream, she saw many things, but everything was shrouded in mist and she couldn't see them clearly.
She was still fast asleep when the disciples of the Discipline Hall dragged her out of bed.
"Outer disciple, Shen Cangyu." The disciple from the Discipline Hall dragged her to the floor, looking down at her with the same disdain in his eyes as the other inner disciples of Kunlun.
She had seen that look in her eyes countless times since she went up Kunlun.
As a child, she was proud and resentful of the arrogance of the inner disciples, wondering why they looked down on her. But as she grew older, she gradually realized that in this class-based society, only by bowing her head could she protect herself.
Outer disciples can only ever follow the lead of inner disciples.
Except for that one person.
Shen Qingyan.
Shen Qingyan, as an outer disciple, has climbed step by step to the highest point of Kunlun, and has now even squeezed out his former senior brother Pei Wenjing.
He was so unique that the outer disciples regarded him as a role model, while the inner disciples held him in high esteem.
Those who offend him are either killed or injured, while those who fawn over him rise to great heights.
He is an irreplaceable legend, the most wonderful tale of Kunlun over thousands of years.
He's so lucky.
As Shen Cangyu flew into the inner gate of Kunlun with the fish cart of the Discipline Hall, she saw snowflakes falling on the golden glazed tiles of the Heavenly Pool on the Cloud Peak and on the sandalwood branches.
She couldn't help but think, "The inner gate of Kunlun is what a sacred mountain should look like." This was her first time visiting the inner gate and her first time going up Kunlun.
Shen Qingyan usually lives in such an ethereal place.
Thinking about this, she felt both envious and jealous.
Back in the outer sect, she had never interacted with Shen Qingyan. She had only vaguely heard of his legends, but had no recollection of his existence. In fact, she could say that in all her years in Kunlun, she had never heard of him. This person seemed to have sprung up overnight from a crack in the rock, and everyone was now looking at him with newfound respect.
She hadn't yet witnessed what kind of magic that person possessed.
She sat on the fish cart in the Discipline Hall, listening to several disciples chatting. They were using words she couldn't understand, but no matter what the topic was, they all mentioned Shen Qingyan's name.
He's such a big celebrity... Shen Cangyu couldn't help but think. In the past, she had only seen this kind of treatment from Pei Wenjing.
I don't know when it started, but everything changed.
"Senior brothers and sisters, may I ask what business the Discipline Hall has with me?" Shen Cangyu asked carefully, sitting in the corner.
The disciples of the Discipline Hall, who had been chatting and laughing, stopped when they heard her voice, glanced at her sideways, and sneered: "Don't you know what you've done?"
What did she do wrong?
Shen Cangyu's heart pounded wildly. She had committed countless crimes: swindling and cheating, profiting from price differences, secretly salvaging discarded treasures from the warehouse to sell for money, stealing forbidden books, and secretly learning mental arts...
What punishment is the disciplinary hall going to give her this time?
She thought this to herself, but her face showed a puzzled expression: "I have been law-abiding in Kunlun for so many years, and I dare not have the slightest thought of overstepping my bounds. I wonder if there is a misunderstanding?"
"Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding? Then explain it to the elders in the hall." The disciple from the Discipline Hall sneered and pressed his hand against the back of her neck.
Then, Shen Cangyu felt a void beneath her as the fish-cart vanished into mist, and she plummeted straight down through the air. A disciple from the Discipline Hall pressed down on the back of her neck to help her land safely. She was forced to experience the feeling of flying through the clouds, and her legs felt a little weak.
Before she could even react, she was pushed into the main hall of the disciplinary hall.
The ceiling of the main hall is adorned with magnificent bas-reliefs and statues of deities, while below, rows of nine-branched lamps are lit, their tiny flames flickering like a silver river spread across the ground.
The high chairs on both sides of the admonition hall were filled with Kunlun elders, and behind them stood Kunlun disciples. It was a dense, overwhelming crowd.
Shen Cangyu had never seen such a big fuss. She felt that her petty thefts and other minor offenses were not worth such a grand commotion.
Sure enough, just as the disciples of the Discipline Hall forced her to kneel, she heard Hall Master Huang's voice: "Outer disciple Shen Cangyu, what exactly is your relationship with Pei Wenjing?"
"Me?" Shen Cangyu was stunned. "It's okay. We only met for the first time a few days ago."
"Nonsense!" Master Huang slammed his hand on the table. A disciple stepped forward and handed him a tray with a sword on it.
Master Huang picked up the sword and tossed it in front of Shen Cangyu. The scabbard struck the jade floor with a crisp clang.
She looked down and saw a frosty white sword on the ground. The scabbard was plain and unadorned, but the jade on the tassel was of superior quality and was by no means an ordinary item.
"You say you have nothing to do with him, then why is Pei Wenjing's sword in your bedroom, in your trunk?"
Shen Cangyu looked at the sword in front of her, the light of the nine-branched lamp reflected on the scabbard. She opened her mouth, but felt a tightness in her throat.
She had no recollection of the sword and didn't know why it was in her box.
"I don't know. I've never seen this sword before, and I don't know why it ended up in my box." The character "判" (judgment) hanging above Shen Cangyu's head didn't change color, meaning she was telling the truth.
But Master Huang was not giving up: "If you don't know Pei Wenjing, then why did he save you the day before yesterday?"
Elder Hongyu saw through the red thread the scene of Shen Cangyu meeting Pei Wenjing on the mountain. In her opinion, the two people spoke in a familiar tone, so they must know each other: "Pei Wenjing is dead, but the succession of the Kunlun Immortal Master is still missing. This disciple was the last person he contacted before his death, so she should know the whereabouts of the succession."
Hearing their words, Shen Cangyu found them somewhat absurd. So Pei Wenjing was dead, and they hadn't found the so-called heir. No wonder they were so enraged and so eager to summon her.
Is it possible that Pei Wenjing was telling the truth back then, and that the inheritance was not actually in his hands?
All of that was nothing more than the crimes that the Kunlun elders had imposed on him.
Shen Cangyu finally understood how Pei Wenjing felt back then.
She tried to explain, but the elders, one by one, condemned her to death, leaving her no room for rebuttal.
"Search her soul, search every memory of hers, and find the whereabouts of the inheritance." The sect leader on the throne finally spoke.
Shen Cangyu's expression changed. She had neither cultivated an inner core nor taken any external medicine; her physique was no different from that of an ordinary person. If she were to undergo a soul search, she would become an idiot!
She turned her head to look at the warehouse elder in the distance. She belonged to the outer sect's rare treasure workshop and was affiliated with the warehouse elder. If he spoke up for her, she might be spared this punishment.
But the old man deliberately turned his face away to avoid her gaze, trying to play dead.
Indeed, she was just an insignificant outer disciple, so why would the warehouse elder disobey the sect leader because of her?
The lives of outer disciples are not considered lives.
No one can save her.
"Wait a minute, soul search?"
She heard a clear voice say, "If we search her soul, will she die?"
She's good-looking, but not as good-looking as the senior brother.
He wore an innocent expression: "Isn't that too cruel?"
Shen Cangyu silently agreed in his heart: "Yes, that's too cruel. Cultivators should accumulate blessings and virtues, so please let me go quickly."
“Qingyan is a kind-hearted person, but this inheritance should rightfully belong to you. It’s just returning it to its rightful owner,” said the elder beside him.
Shen Qingyan frowned: "What if she doesn't know where the inheritance lies either?"
Shen Cangyu nodded vigorously. She now felt that Shen Qingyan was also a very good person and the only sober person in the entire hall.
"It's alright, he's just an outer disciple," the elder said nonchalantly.
Shen Cangyu looked at Shen Qingyan with expectant eyes, hoping that he would refute her. After all, this person had also come up from the outer sect disciple step by step, and they were from the same root.
We are all born of the same root, why are we so eager to harm each other?
Shen Qingyan stammered "But...but..." for a long time without coming up with anything coherent. Finally, an elder covered his eyes and pulled him away, saying, "If you can't bear it, then close your eyes."
Shen Cangyu: "???" What about me?
Since she was going to die either way, she caught a glimpse of a direction out of the corner of her eye and, while everyone was still trying to appease Shen Qingyan, ran towards the outside of the Discipline Hall.
As soon as I rushed out the door, a chill hit me.
Before she could even catch her breath, she suddenly felt a chill on her head, a red line piercing through it, followed by a throbbing, swollen sensation. The next moment, fragments of memory exploded, flying past her eyes.
White fragments scattered in the air, like snowflakes, like willow catkins, like butterflies...
Watch your step.
Shen Cangyu heard someone speaking in her ear, and the next moment, she slipped and almost fell flat on her face. Fortunately, the person next to her picked her up and unloaded the heavy cargo box from her back.
"You're a disciple of Qizhenfang, right? What brings you here?"
She looked up and saw Pei Wenjing amidst the swirling snowflakes.
A note from the author:
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
