You're overthinking things.
Yan Huanyue failed to complete the entrance trial and did not enter the Xuyuan Peak without the grand entrance ceremony. Considering her performance in Tingnan and the precedent set by Tianyan Sect, there was not much discussion within the sect.
On the second day after Yan Huanyue returned to the sect, Song Lingwei asked her to go to Xuyuan Peak for instruction.
The night before, she went to the Heavenly Stele Secret Realm and spent two hours going in and out, which helped her climb three places in the "Reincarnation" ranking.
Since breaking into the inner circle rankings, the importance of talent has become increasingly prominent. It's no longer a matter of simply relying on hard work to achieve success, so the higher the ranking, the harder it is to improve.
Covered in blood and sweat, she returned to the quiet courtyard in the cool night. Without bothering to tidy herself up, she sat alone on the steps of the main house, watching the bright moonlight spread across the courtyard.
A lonely wind blew sparsely through the Tianyan Mountains. She lay on her back on the uncomfortable steps, her whole being seemingly melting into the cool night breeze.
Jiao Gu seemed to have crawled out of the immortal cauldron, lying in the same relaxed posture on the steps beside her, and lazily asked, "Is entering the inner sect just a ridiculous threshold that requires you to go to great lengths to prove yourself to everyone?"
Yan Huanyue's face was still stained with the blood of the demons in the Heavenly Stele Secret Realm, and the moonlight shone on her. She did not speak.
Jiao Gu's fingers gently tapped the stone steps, like the dripping of a water clock, as time slipped away from her fingertips. Yan Huanyue said calmly, "No, my path has only just begun. I should not be preoccupied with this temporary gain. Otherwise, this entry ticket will become the greatest achievement of my life."
The charred bones continued to knock on the stone steps, and gradually, they disappeared.
Perhaps exhausted from inside the Heavenly Stele, Yan Huanyue slept on the stone steps all night, only to be awakened by the chirping of birds in the mountains at dawn.
After getting up and washing up, he changed his clothes and went to Changqing Palace to ask the sect leader when Pei Xuanzhi was expected to emerge from seclusion.
Unexpectedly, Su Xianqing knew her purpose. While practicing his sword on the high platform in front of Changqing Hall, he said, "Master has been busy lately, so please wait a while. As for Junior Brother Pei's matter, he will naturally come out of seclusion when the time comes. You don't need to worry too much. Just go and do your own thing."
As he spoke, he thrust his sword at Yan Huanyue. Yan Huanyue instinctively drew her natal sword to block, but was knocked back half a step. She quickly made a hand seal and flipped over, placing the sword on her left arm in mid-air, and landed steadily on the jade railing of the high platform.
Su Xianqing stood alone in white, his clothes fluttering in the wind.
He sheathed his sword with one hand and made a sword incantation with the other, seemingly quite satisfied that she could stop on the jade railing. He smiled and said, "Or perhaps one day when your cultivation is fully developed, you can directly break open the door to the secret room. At that time, you won't care whether anyone allows you to see him or not."
Yan Huanyue stood on the railing, glancing back at the plaza beyond the platform. If it were her previous self, how could she have escaped from Senior Brother Su's grasp? If she had taken this blow, she would have surely smashed through the jade railing and fallen onto the plaza.
She made a hand seal with one hand, her pink robes shrouded in morning mist, and her hair streaked with dew. "I'm not here to urge Junior Brother Pei when he will emerge from seclusion. I'm here to report on my joining the Xuyuan Peak."
The sword in Su Xianqing's hand vanished into thin air. He walked with his hands behind his back towards the small hall behind Changqing Hall. "When you came yesterday, Master must have heard it. Now that you've come again, he will surely see you. Come, here's some good tea for you to try."
Yan Huanyue landed gracefully and followed Su Xianqing towards the back hall.
Just past a grove of lush weeping willows, a black swallow was seen swaggering and patrolling the four directions from the eaves of the small hall.
Yan Huanyue remembered that it seemed to be a sick swallow that the sect leader had picked up outside the eaves when Xuanzhi was sick. It was a swallow that had been driven out of its nest.
Su Xianqing tilted his head back, whistled, and stretched out his left hand. The swallow quickly flew over and landed majestically on his index finger.
Su Xianqing fed it a pill the size of a grain of rice, and said to Yan Huanyue with a smile in his eyes:
“This is Yun Guan’er. You’ve met her before. She used to like to stay by Master’s window and sometimes she would fly up to the roof beams and act recklessly. These days, perhaps knowing that Master is busy, she doesn’t come close to disturb him and just lingers on the eaves.”
Yan Huanyue tapped Yun Guan'er's fluffy head and said, "Hmm, this is a sick swallow we picked up from outside the eaves of Xuanzhi Guest House. It was kicked out of the nest by its parents, but we never expected it to grow up to be so majestic."
Su Xianqing's expression changed for a moment, and he said in a cold voice, "I know its origin; it only benefited from Junior Brother Pei's influence."
Yan Huanyue muttered to herself, "I'm afraid I've also benefited from his influence."
Su Xianqing frowned and said, "What nonsense are you talking about?"
Yan Huanyue said, "If it weren't for the fact that the sect leader had just returned from the demon's place and thought that Xuanzhi had been refined into a fetus, I probably wouldn't have been raised in Changqing Palace for three years."
Su Xianqing sneered, "Back then, it was because Master was soft-hearted, and it had nothing to do with anyone else. Now, it's just a matter of taking on the responsibility of being a father."
Yan Huanyue remembered what he had said that day, which was nothing more than that he felt that this demon mother and son had almost ruined the sect leader.
He had been prejudiced against Xuanzhi for a long time, but there was nothing else to it, so Yan Huanyue didn't argue with him too much.
After drinking tea under the eaves next to the small hall for a while, before I could even savor its flavor, Pei Hanzhou came out of the hall.
Yan Huanyue hurriedly put down her teacup, stood up and walked down the steps to greet the sect leader, saying, "Sect Leader, Master."
Pei Hanzhou was already fair-skinned, and these past few days of staying indoors have made him appear even paler.
Yan Huanyue thought about Pei Shidi's pale appearance and realized it was because of Master Xiao.
Pei Hanzhou walked down the steps, his face expressionless, but his eyes showed a rare gentleness. "I heard yesterday that you have become my senior sister's disciple. I already know the background of this relationship. I'm sorry to have wronged you."
Yan Huanyue knew he was referring to the fact that he had concealed from her the fact that he had actually completed the trial mission.
She shook her head and said, "Now that my long-cherished wish has been fulfilled, I don't feel wronged at all."
Pei Hanzhou smiled faintly, took out a yin-yang ring engraved with talismans from his sleeve and handed it to her, saying, "This is a gift for entering the family. I should have seen you when you came yesterday, but I was held up by something."
Yan Huanyue wanted to decline, but Pei Hanzhou said, "It is a gift from an elder, so you should not refuse it."
Yan Huanyue accepted it with both hands, and Su Xianqing said with a smile, "Master said that this Yin-Yang Ring is an old item passed down from the Pei family. It is a high-grade protective magic weapon. Giving it to you now is not considered losing it to someone else."
Su Xianqing harbored prejudice against Pei Xuanzhi, but when the Pei family's possessions were passed down to Yan Huanyue, he felt fortunate that his master's and ancestors' possessions had not been lost because of Yan Huanyue's relationship with Pei Xuanzhi.
Pei Hanzhou only urged her to study hard again before returning to the small hall to deal with the various matters that kept coming in.
Yan Huanyue, clutching the Yin-Yang Ring, took two steps forward and asked, "Sect Leader, is Xuanzhi feeling better?"
Pei Hanzhou stopped in his tracks without turning around, his tone becoming somewhat indifferent, "He will emerge from seclusion sooner or later, you don't need to worry about him for now, just focus on your cultivation."
Yan Huanyue wanted to ask what time it would be, but Pei Hanzhou's attitude made her hesitant to ask.
Watching Pei Hanzhou disappear into the palace gate, she put the Yin-Yang Ring into her sleeve and then bid farewell to Su Xianqing.
Su Xianqing glanced at Yan Huanyue, then at the closed door of the small hall, and was also somewhat curious about Pei Hanzhou's attitude.
He guessed that Pei Xuanzhi must not have rested properly in the dark room, having destroyed all the communication talismans left by his master. The candles connected to the array must have worried his master greatly.
A doting mother often spoils her son, and a doting father often raises rebellious children; they're all ungrateful bastards...
After leaving Changqing Palace, Yan Huanyue headed towards Xuyuan Peak. She rode her sword into the air and was about to reach the summit when a sword aura suddenly attacked her.
She instantly flipped and leaped up, dodging the sword energy. Before she could catch her breath, several sword energies were already approaching her.
Without a second thought, she clenched her right hand and summoned a slender, straight horizontal sword. With a single hand gesture, she created a barrier and defied the sword energy to move against the flow of the sword.
The barrier was quickly shattered by the sword energy. She swiftly used countless blades of wind to cover herself and quickly created another barrier.
In this way, after repeated attempts, by the time they had half-fallen and half-flew to the top of Xuyuan Peak, their clothes were torn, their hair was flying, and there were several bloody cuts on their bodies.
"Even the most wondrous teachings and the path to immortality are easily obtained by the world, so they are hard to cherish. Yan Huanyue, now that you have stepped into the inner sect, you should always remember how you came to seek teachings today, facing the sword formation and with blood wounds. In the future, you must not easily waver in your heart during all kinds of hard training and tempering, and fail to live up to the 'me' of today."
From the summit, no other mountains are visible, only a sea of clouds churning. Above the summit, Song Lingwei's voice echoes through the forest, through the clouds and on the wind, reverberating throughout the entire Xuyuan Peak.
Yan Huanyue glanced at the wisps of cloud swirling around her skirt, then looked at the towering stone gate tower in front of her, which was shrouded in mist and only revealed a sliver of lamplight. Apart from the peak, everything was white.
She sheathed her sword, nodded, and said, "Yes, disciple will never waver."
In an instant, the clouds and mist in the ancient stone gatehouse dissipated, revealing two towering pillars carved with wondrous objects of heaven and earth, and on the stone plaque above the gatehouse, the ethereal and elegant characters "Xu Yuan" were carved.
Looking up from the tall gatehouse, there is a winding road leading upwards, which leads to a place that is hidden by a sea of clouds. A jade chime comes from afar.
Yan Huanyue straightened her tattered clothes, stepped onto the stone steps, and walked for a long time, lost in the mist. The path was winding and solitary, with nothing but white and silence. She could only hear her own heartbeat and breathing, not knowing whether she was moving forward or backward.
As the bloodstains on his body gradually healed, his disheveled hair was gradually moistened by the mist, and his mind gradually calmed down.
She walked for an unknown amount of time before suddenly stopping. She lifted her skirt and sat on the stone steps to regulate her breathing. When she stood up and looked back, she saw that the thick fog had dissipated, and in the hazy mist, there was a tall, soaring pavilion.
Beside the hazy, indistinct green bricks and gray tiles, a blurry figure of a young girl leans against a bamboo, waiting.
Yan Huanyue immediately quickened her pace and ran over. The thin mist dissipated in an instant, and her vision became clear. She called out to the girl, "Senior Sister Zhao."
As always, Zhao Liujin leaned against the bamboo without a care in the world, waved his hand dismissively, and said, "Junior Sister, you should call me Senior Sister from now on. My master ordered me to pick you up. I thought you would walk slower than usual for such a short distance."
Yan Huanyue looked back and was secretly surprised to find that the stone steps she had walked for so long were only nine short steps.
Zhao Liujin turned around and shuffled back, asking, "Last time I told you about finding Jiang Xian in Tingnan and mentioned my name, did he help you?"
Yan Huanyue followed behind her and said, "I've never seen anyone named Jiang Xian in the Xuntianliao. Are you referring to the Jiang family of Yishan, Senior Sister?"
Zhao Liujin let out a long "Eh!" The swaying man suddenly straightened up and cursed, "That Jiang scoundrel is making up stories to show off his abilities again."
Everyone in the sect knew that she was unpredictable, so Yan Huanyue had no interest in asking about it.
After uttering that curse, Zhao Liujin didn't say anything more about Jiang Xian. Instead, he asked with great interest, "Junior Sister, I heard that there are Xuanjiang people in this Grand Ceremony?"
Yan Huanyue said, "There is one."
Zhao Liujin clasped his hands together and laughed, "It seems there really are signs of heading north to slay the demons."
Yan Huanyue raised her eyes and looked north. "Maybe."
After paying her respects to Song Lingwei and her fellow disciples in the Xuyuan Hall, Song Lingwei first took her to the meditation room to teach her cultivation methods.
Song Lingwei said that it is not good to try to do too much, so he stipulated that he should listen to the teachings once every three days, and spend the rest of the time studying on his own, and take a day off every ten days.
Song Lingwei was the person in the world who reached the peak with multiple spiritual roots. From the first day, he taught Yan Huanyue the method of "multiple spiritual roots as one". Yan Huanyue listened to the teaching once every three days, and with her own day and night practice, she tried it for nearly three months before she gradually figured out a trace of the way of the five spiritual roots as one spiritual root.
Its supreme secret lies in the four words "all five spirits are me," which sounds simple but is difficult to cultivate.
On the day of the heavy snow at Xuyuan Peak, she had just drawn out the "Five Spirits in One Line," but due to the excessive gathering of internal and external spiritual energy, her spiritual sea turbulently, and she suffered some internal injuries.
Song Lingwei helped her stabilize her spiritual energy and said, "What's the rush? You were born with innate spiritual energy, which makes it easy for your spiritual sea to be disturbed. When you came, you knew to stop and rest by the steps when you were tired. How come you haven't rested for a single day since you entered the Void Origin Palace? There are endless mysteries and profound books in this world. This physical body shrine is exhausted, and everything is empty. Go and make up for the rest you've had these past few days."
Yan Huanyue also knew that she had overexerted herself. In addition to cultivation, she would also go to the Boundary Stele Secret Realm to look for clues about Pei Xuanzhi's amnesia. The sudden turmoil in her spiritual sea, which had been stable in the past, was indeed due to her repeated efforts.
This minor internal injury, though insignificant, serves as a warning against being too hasty.
Now that he has regained consciousness, he voluntarily stopped to rest and recuperate for a few days.
She had only just entered the sect and was practicing internal cultivation, so she rarely went down the mountain. The others were either cultivating or undergoing trials and were all quite busy. So she rode her sword down through the wind and snow, intending to go and ask Pei Xuanzhi about his situation again.
The stone door to the dark room was wide open, and the wind, carrying snow, rushed in, but it was all blocked by an invisible barrier.
Pei Xuanzhi sat silently by the jade platform and said to Pei Hanzhou, who had been waiting for many days, "Father, you are busy with your affairs. Go and rest first. Senior Sister Yan said she would pick me up. I will not go back until she comes to pick me up."
After he emerged from seclusion, he followed the proper etiquette of a son and escorted Pei Hanzhou back to Changqing Palace. However, after leaving Changqing Palace, he did not return to his residence but instead went back to the secluded chamber where he had been in seclusion.
Two days later, Pei Hanzhou realized what had happened. He chased after him all the way back and learned that he had been waiting for Yan Huanyue...
Pei Hanzhou finally couldn't help but say, "You can no longer get too close to her. I have already found a talisman for you."
Pei Xuanzhi thought of the surge of emotion that had been forcibly suppressed by the restraint talisman, and knew that he had guessed the reason why the candlelight would flicker every now and then.
He sat with his feet dangling on the edge of the jade platform and sneered, "I have a family and a home, what need do I have for unnecessary talismans? Father is being far too controlling. Did you not tell her about my coming out of seclusion, or did you say something that made her unwilling to come?"
Pei Hanzhou patiently said, "Xuanlang, you're gradually getting better. You promised me that once you were feeling better, you wouldn't bother your Senior Sister Yan anymore. Now that you're an adult, you shouldn't be spending time with her anymore..."
Pei Xuanzhi looked as if he had just realized something, and after a moment, he said calmly, "What a pity, I forgot. Now that things have already happened, if you ask me not to see her again, wouldn't that be forcing me to be a heartless person?"
At the time, it was just his father's repeated instructions, and he never nodded once, so it can't be considered a breach of faith.
Pei Hanzhou frowned and said, "You've forgotten everything from the past, yet you dare to..."
Pei Xuanzhi showed no shame whatsoever, and instead said casually, "After I lost my memory, she took care of me. You all say she is my wife, and I like her too. Naturally, I thought it was all a matter of course."
He distorted the facts, and Pei Hanzhou naturally wouldn't seek confirmation from anyone.
With things having come to this point, Pei Hanzhou was experiencing waves of throbbing pain in his temples and was no longer in a position to ask any more questions.
Before long, someone outside the barrier tried to break in.
Pei Hanzhou made a hand seal to dispel the barrier. Yan Huanyue stumbled a few steps, bursting in covered in snow and frost, her face flushed and white breath coming out. Looking at the surprised Pei Xuanzhi, she couldn't help but smile with delight, saying:
“Junior Brother Pei, when I saw the stone gate wide open, I thought you had gone back. Luckily, I wanted to come in and take a look. I didn’t expect that I would run into you today when I came down the mountain to pick you up from seclusion.”
Only then did he have time to bow to Pei Hanzhou and say, "Greetings, Sect Leader."
Pei Hanzhou closed his eyes, his headache worsening. "You're so busy cultivating, why did you bring him here? Doesn't he have legs of his own?"
Yan Huanyue looked at Pei Xuanzhi, who was sitting on the edge of the jade platform with his feet dangling, his head hanging down and not looking at her anymore, so her expression was unreadable.
She said, "My junior brother Pei and I are a couple who are of one heart and mind. It's nothing to pick him up once."
Pei Hanzhou opened his eyes and asked, "Even if Xuanlang recuperates, he can't be as healthy as a normal person. Do you truly consider him your devoted husband?"
Before Yan Huanyue could speak, Pei Xuanzhi jumped down from the edge of the jade platform, his features cool and aloof. He stood respectfully, his cloak drawn, and said, "Thank you, Father, for helping me with my seclusion and recuperation. It's snowing heavily and the wind is cold. I will escort you back."
Yan Huanyue arrived amidst the wind and snow, her entire body flushed pink, like a glutinous rice ball coated in peach blossom juice. She vaguely sensed something amiss between the two, and her clear black and white eyes looked at Pei Xuanzhi, searching for answers.
Pei Xuanzhi walked to her side to block the wind, without any outrageous expression or behavior. Instead, he quietly looked at Pei Hanzhou, waiting for him to say something next.
Pei Hanzhou waved his hand and said, "Go back on your own. From now on, you must be able to take responsibility and not do anything against your conscience. Otherwise, I will never forgive you."
Pei Xuanzhi remained calm and said humbly, "You're overthinking it."
Yan Huanyue felt that the atmosphere was even colder than before.
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