The disciple wished he were even thinner and weaker than she remembered...
Yan Huanyue concealed the expression in her eyes and asked, as was her usual habit of curiosity, "Senior Sister Han, do you know why the Sect Leader summoned me?"
Han Shuangying said, "I don't know. You should go quickly and not delay the time."
Yu Zhao gave Yan Huanyue a cold glance.
Yan Huanyue responded with a "Yes," bid farewell to Han Shuangying and Gu Yuxiao, and went out first. Taking advantage of the gloomy sky, she grabbed an umbrella and left the teahouse for Changqing Palace.
The Tianyan Mountain Range stretches for over 800 li, and the Tianyan Sect only used the thirty-six peaks of the eastern corner of the Tianyan Mountain Range to establish its sect, which is already over 100 li long.
Beyond the Tianyan Sect lies the majestic Tianyan Mountain, with its deep forests and vast mountain mists, where countless independent cultivators and Taoists have built huts and secluded themselves.
During the best seasons, hermits would often bring flowers and tea to the Tianyan Sect to visit, tour the palace, and discuss philosophy.
The Shouzhuo Plain where Changqing Palace is located does not belong to the Thirty-Six Peaks of Tianyan, but is a gentle mountain plain in the northern part of the Thirty-Six Peaks.
Shouzhuoyuan was not originally called Shouzhuoyuan, but Xiaoyaozhou. It was only after the sect leader crossed the lake and ascended the peak eighteen years ago that he had to change its name.
The outer disciples' dormitories, the Nine Halls of Heavenly Evolution, the library, and guest rooms are all located here. The climate is pleasant and the scenery is especially beautiful.
From Shouzhuo Plain, descend ten zhang through the mountain pass to reach Bailicheng Village and Town within the territory of Tianyan Sect.
Compared to the quiet, almost boring atmosphere on the other peaks, Shouzhuo could be considered the most lively place in the Tianyan Sect.
Disciples from various peaks often use the excuse of going to the library to look up scriptures to visit this place, or chat with fellow disciples they get along with.
As Yan Huanyue traveled, she frequently looked back at familiar places. When she passed by Lake Buzhui, she saw three or five Tianyan disciples enjoying the rain under a wooden pavilion with wooden wind chimes hanging by the lake. She stood in the rain with an umbrella and performed the Lanjuan incantation to pay her respects.
A young man in a gray brocade robe stood beneath the pavilion, brandishing his sword at her. He tilted his head slightly and asked with a smile, "Junior Sister Baoying, are you going to have a meal? Shall we go to the dining hall together and bring some food to eat in the pavilion?"
The young man who spoke to him was Ning Wuyang, the third disciple under the sect leader. He often led missions from the Wenshi Hall down the mountain, and the people around him were disciples under the elders of the Wenshi Hall.
When she entered the Zhijing Hall to cultivate at the age of three, Ning Wuyang was also cultivating there. Seeing that she was young, he often liked to tease her. Even after she became a disciple of the sect leader, he still took good care of her.
The "Baoying" he called her was her nickname.
Yan Huanyue's parents were originally outer disciples of the Tianyan Sect. Perhaps due to their poor natural aptitude, they made no progress in their cultivation over many years and had no hope of entering the inner sect.
In order not to waste his life, he asked to leave the mountain, took the fifty taels of silver given to him by his master, and went to Yunjing to find a way to make a living.
Just then, a demon suddenly caused chaos in Yunjing, and the two were captured by the demon. In the end, they died at the hands of the demon in order to save the people. Yan Huanyue was cut out of her mother's womb by that demon.
If it weren't for the timely arrival of Pei Hanzhou, the sect leader of Tianyan Sect, Yan Huanyue would probably have perished along with her parents.
Her mother was captured and tortured to death by the demons while protecting Yu Zhao's mother as she fled into the protective formation within Yunjing City.
When the Yu clan returned east to worship their ancestors, only Yu Zhao's mother and a few family members with little to no cultivation remained in Yunjing.
That demonic calamity was averted by the desperate efforts of these two young men whose cultivation levels were not even high enough to qualify them as inner disciples.
They activated the life-protecting array and awaited rescue. Before dying, they ignited their spiritual veins to boost their cultivation, truly stepping onto the threshold of becoming inner disciples.
That night, Yu's mother huddled inside the formation, watching Pei Hanzhou silently pick up the tiny blood infant who had been lying at her feet outside the edge of the formation for a long time, and use a piece of fine silk to wipe the bloodstains off the child.
Suddenly, Yu's mother rose up with tears streaming down her face and rushed out of the magic circle. She snatched the baby and immediately promised to marry her son to the child. She even wanted to name her "Nian'en" afterward, but Pei Hanzhou rejected the idea.
After all, if anyone should feel gratitude, it should be the Yu family, not this child.
The name Yan Huanyue was decided by Pei Hanzhou after he found the notes of the Yan couple.
The notes record the joy and anticipation of the two young people who had just graduated from their master's school, from the initial surprise and anticipation of learning about the pregnancy to the careful consideration when choosing a name.
The couple considered many names but were not satisfied with any of them. They only used "Baoying" as a nickname for their child until half a month before their deaths, when they finally settled on the name "Huanyue".
"Senior Brother Yan pondered for a long time, but did not want to name the child 'Washing the Moon'. He said, 'My heart is like a clear river, reflecting the vastness of the clouds by day and washing the clear moonlight by night.' After arguing for many days, and tempting me with a banquet in a jade pavilion, I had no choice but to agree."
The daytime is sparsely clouded, the long night is brightly lit; though my heart may be troubled at times, I hope that Bao Ying will keep her spirits shining, and not let herself suffer or feel inferior.
This is the last note written by her mother, Jiang Yingyun.
No one knows whether the two young parents in Yunjing City, who were still full of curiosity about everything before them, had attended that grand banquet together before they died.
They may not have known that twenty years later, when their daughter returned to Yunjing, she heard people criticizing their rescue efforts for being insufficiently thoughtful, thorough, self-aware, and lacking in dignity and wisdom.
Some people listed countless brilliant schemes to exorcise the demon and save people. Some said they should try to survive, some said they should run away first, and some said they could submit to the demon.
People are all very clever, people are all very resourceful, people talk a lot and make solemn vows, as if anyone in their situation could do better than them.
They may not have known that while their own talents were not exceptional, their child, though also among the worst in cultivation, possessed a rare pure spiritual body.
Many years after their previous life, their daughter, also favored by Heaven, died in Yunjing, just like them.
She was tortured by the people she saved, and then beheaded by the children they had saved years ago.
Pei Hanzhou took Yan Huanyue back to Tianyan Sect and cared for her for three years.
It wasn't until his senior sister, Song Lingwei, the peak master of Yuanxu Peak, emerged from seclusion that he forcibly took Yan Huanyue away from him and sent her to the Zhijing Hall to begin her cultivation.
During the years Pei Hanzhou took her to Changqing Palace, everyone called her by her childhood name. It wasn't until she went to Zhijing Hall that everyone realized she was actually a person with a famous name.
But by then her nickname had already become a common name, and many people still called her by it. However, as she grew older, fewer people called her by that name, but some people still continued to call her that, and Ning Wuyang was one of them.
Yan Huanyue's gaze lingered on the faces of the people below the pavilion. "Dear senior brothers and sisters, the sect leader has summoned me. Please forgive me for not being able to accompany you today."
Ning Wuyang had just returned from outside and hadn't yet visited Changqing Palace, so he asked out of curiosity, "What does Master want with you?"
Although Yan Huanyue already knew the answer, she said, "I don't know. Senior Sister Han only said that the sect leader summoned me. I'll take my leave now."
Having said that, he continued walking in the rain, and soon landed on the jade steps in front of the Changqing Hall.
When she arrived at the eaves of the main hall, Su Xianqing, the sect leader's chief disciple, happened to come out of the hall.
Just as she remembered, Su Xianqing didn't speak to her, but simply took the umbrella from her hand and gestured for her to go inside.
Yan Huanyue wiped the thin layer of rain off her face with her sleeve, lifted her skirt, and stepped into Changqing Palace.
The interior of the hall was arranged as before. Several pots of jade orchids with green leaves and white flowers were placed on several tall square tables in a pleasing manner. On the gilded wooden table under the south window, there was a three-legged bronze incense burner, which was covered by a waterfall of white smoke, like a celestial cauldron for alchemy.
The sect leader, Pei Hanzhou, sat alone in the hall, dressed in a blue robe embroidered with the pattern of the Azure Waves.
Yan Huanyue concealed her hands in her sleeves and walked into the hall without looking to the side. She bowed to Pei Hanzhou, who had risen from his high seat, and said, "Greetings, Sect Leader."
Pei Hanzhou slightly raised his hand, and a warm spiritual force supported her elbow. Pei Hanzhou pointed to a row of chairs on the east side and said, "No need for formalities, please sit down."
Yan Huanyue turned and walked towards the chair on the east side. Almost immediately, she saw the light blue gauze curtain hanging on the door of the inner room on the east side, which was about ten steps away.
Through the soft, warm orange light of the candles flickering in the room, she could vaguely see the silhouette of a boy sitting quietly inside a gauze curtain, wrapped in a cloak.
Her memories of her past life became clear in an instant. Inside the ethereal gauze curtain, even though he was still wearing a cloak, his figure seemed even thinner and weaker than she remembered.
She secretly withdrew her gaze, walked to the chair, and sat down with her back to the gauze curtain not far away.
Pei Hanzhou did not return to his high position, but instead paced back and forth in the hall with his hands behind his back.
Yan Huanyue kept her eyes down, waiting for Pei Hanzhou to say what he was about to say.
Finally, Pei Hanzhou walked up to her and tentatively asked, "Huanyue, you have a special constitution. If you could become a Daoist partner with someone, you might be able to save their life. Would you be willing?"
The sect leader in her previous life had asked the same question, but she found it somewhat puzzling and asked in return, "May I ask, Sect Leader, has something happened to Senior Brother Yu?"
At that time, the sect leader replied, "It's not your Senior Brother Yu."
Yu Zhao, who had been engaged to her for seventeen years, would never have agreed. So she declared, "Since we have a previous vow, I only wish to become your Daoist partner in this life."
That day, the sect leader didn't say anything more, but simply told her to go back.
It was only afterward that she learned that the person in the sect leader's household was his only child.
When the sect leader went down the mountain to eliminate demons, he met a demon and they traveled together for a while.
It wasn't until he wanted to ensure that disciples of all sects could continue their cultivation even without joining the Heavenly Patrol Bureau, that he crossed the River of Supreme Goodness at the Mingde Sect, climbed the Gentleman's Peak three times, and suffered damage to his cultivation. On his way back to the sect alone, he was abducted by a demon and forced into dual cultivation, which resulted in the birth of this child.
The succubus and he cultivated together to refine their primordial yang energy and improve their cultivation. After having a child, she began to refine the fetus in her womb.
She was halfway through her cultivation, but she could not completely refine the essence, so she had no choice but to give birth to the child, which made the child weak and frail from birth.
After the child was born, she sent him to a family in Chang'an for adoption. The succubus only told the sect leader that the child had been refined.
When the child was sixteen or seventeen, his adoptive parents sent a message to the Tianyan Sect, saying that the child from back then was still alive.
Yan Huanyue knew that the sect leader had not told her the truth beforehand because he did not intend to use past favors to pressure her.
Yan Huanyue had already understood these things in her previous life, and she had no more attachments to Yu Zhao. She only wanted to become his Daoist partner. There was always a time when they would separate. If she could save the sect leader's son, there was nothing she couldn't do.
She remembered hearing Fu Yinhuan's words before she died: the sect leader's son was on the verge of death, and the sect leader, in order to save him, exhausted all his cultivation, turning his hair white overnight, which allowed the demons to take advantage of the situation and attack the Tianyan Sect...
A thousand thoughts raced through her mind in an instant, but Yan Huanyue nodded almost without hesitation and replied, "This disciple is willing."
The hall fell silent for a moment, with only the faint sound of a cool breeze passing through the doors and windows. The white smoke from the incense burner on the table was blown around, distorting its original form as it drifted, gathered, and dispersed in countless ways.
A note from the author:
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