Chapter 127 127 The Mural He always knew how to win her heart...
Although the Demon-Slaying Blade was given to her older sister, her sister still made Yu Siran practice with it every day. However, recently Yu Siran noticed a strange phenomenon: the Demon-Slaying Blade had a smell that resembled a kitchen knife.
She wiped and washed the knife repeatedly, but she couldn't get rid of the smell. Even the scabbard smelled like a kitchen cutting board.
Yun Tianjiao saw Yu Siran's confusion but didn't explain. He simply stood with his arms crossed and glared at her every day when she passed by carrying the Ghost-Slaying Blade.
Yu Siran was misled into thinking her sister disliked her smell, so she carefully explained, "Elder sister, it's not me, it's this knife. I don't know what happened, but it's been smelling like a kitchen knife for the past few days, and no amount of washing has helped."
Yun Tianjiao calmly said, "I'm afraid it's dirty and can't be washed clean. Let's throw it away."
Yu Siran: "..."
Zhiwei: "..."
Yu Siran felt wronged. Her sister must have forgotten that she had put a lot of effort into making this knife, using her own hair. How could she just throw it away like that?
Zhiwei felt wronged. He knew that Yun Tianjiao was really angry with him, but even if he went to brothels, what difference would it make? Wasn't he still trying to please her? Besides, he was just a leopard back then, with a brain no bigger than a walnut. What could he possibly know?
Once he regained consciousness and memory, he had already learned everything he should and shouldn't have learned.
Yu Siran hasn't come to see Yun Tianjiao for several days, and the Demon-Slaying Blade has also disappeared.
Yun Tianjiao began to worry, so early that morning he decided to take a walk around Yu Siran's courtyard.
The result was that he bumped into a listless little girl at the gate of the courtyard.
"Silk dyeing, what happened?"
Yu Siran looked listless, but when she saw her elder sister, she suddenly burst into tears.
Yun Tianjiao was startled. "What's going on?"
Yu Siran sobbed, "Elder sister, I... I think I lost the knife I gave you. I've been looking for it for days, but I still can't find it."
The Demon-Slaying Sword? Lost?
Others might not know, but how could Yun Tianjiao not know? Whose Ghost-Slaying Blade is it right now, and how could it be lost? It's probably because she hasn't given him a good look for the past few days, and he's gotten angry and gone into hiding.
Yun Tianjiao was both amused and annoyed. He gently patted Yu Siran's head and coaxed her, "Don't cry. That knife is very spiritual. How could it be lost? Maybe it ran off to some mountain and went to play by itself."
"Really?" Yu Siran's face was wet with tears as she looked at Yun Tianjiao with her round eyes.
"Of course it's true. I'll help you search all over the sect. We'll find it eventually."
Yu Siran always trusted her older sister. Since her sister said she could find it, she naturally could. So she stopped crying and followed Yun Tianjiao to search all over Xuanxiao Sect.
In the end, they actually found it.
The Ghost-Slaying Blade, which had been missing for many days, was found painting on the cliff face behind the Xuanxiao Sect.
He used his own knife as a pen and the steep cliff as paper, and painted more than a dozen pictures in a row.
The first painting depicts a small memorial tablet next to a magnificent procession of carriages passing by. A young girl sitting in the carriage casually points to the tablet, instructing her servants to offer three sticks of incense before it.
The second painting depicts a man carrying a woman in his arms as they fly into the air beside a wildly growing peach tree. Amidst a shower of blossoms, the two gaze at each other.
The third painting depicts a man and a woman boating on a lake, with huge lotus leaves almost completely obscuring the surface, supporting blooming pink lotus flowers.
The fourth painting depicts a girl locked in a golden cage. Beside the cage leans a carefree-looking boy. The girl in the cage beckons to him with her finger and says something with a smile.
The fifth painting depicts a general wearing a silver mask carefully taking a peach blossom branch from his bosom and giving it to a naive little girl.
The sixth picture... the seventh picture... the eighth picture...
Yun Tianjiao looked at each mural one by one, his eyes getting a little hot, until his gaze fell on the last mural.
On the endless steps, a slender figure, carrying something on his back, is climbing step by step towards the summit.
Yu Siran finally recognized the last painting and exclaimed in surprise, "Elder sister, look! This looks like the Heavenly Ladder of our Xuanxiao Sect! But who is that person climbing the mountain? Why does he look like he's seriously injured?"
Yun Tianjiao slowly let out a breath, calming his emotions, before saying, "That knife must have just drawn it randomly, how could it possibly correspond to real events?"
But that was clearly a story that had happened between them.
The Demon-Slaying Blade seemed to have sensed the arrival of the two, hovering before the cliff face and ceasing its carving.
Looking at the Demon-Slaying Blade from afar, Yun Tianjiao seemed to be able to see through the cold, gleaming blade the tall, elegant man standing inside, his expression resentful, his peach blossom eyes glistening with tears of grievance.
He always knew how to soften her heart.
Yun Tianjiao sighed softly and waved to Zhan Guidao, "Aren't you coming back?"
The Demon-Slaying Blade also knew how to back down gracefully, quickly flying back from the cliff face and landing in Yun Tianjiao's hand.
Yu Siran sniffed it with her little nose and exclaimed in surprise, "It doesn't smell like a kitchen knife anymore! It even smells sweet, like peach blossoms. Did it wipe itself with peach petals? What a clever knife!"
Yun Tianjiao glanced at the Ghost-Slaying Blade with a mocking expression. "There are no peach blossoms this season. You probably stole your mother's peach blossom face oil, didn't you?"
Yu Siran sniffed again, "It really does smell like that!"
Yu Siran was overjoyed to have her precious sword recovered. She raised her head and carefully examined the murals on the cliff face again, when she suddenly noticed something.
"Huh? Eldest sister, the women in these paintings all look a lot like you!" Her eyes darted around, and then she realized something. "I know, tomorrow is your nineteenth birthday. This knife must have known that and came here early to paint this picture as a birthday gift for you!"
Yun Tianjiao's gentle smile froze on his face when he heard Yu Siran mention "his nineteenth birthday".
In this life, she also couldn't escape the curse of turning nineteen. She vaguely remembered that the Xuanxiao Sect was wiped out on Yu Sishu's nineteenth birthday.
But what exactly happened that day remains unknown. This majestic immortal sect, which had been passed down for hundreds of years, seemed to have been completely erased without a trace, leaving only ruins that concealed all its secrets and became a mystery passed down through generations.
The once clear sky suddenly darkened, and dark clouds began to gather towards the Xuanxiao Gate, quickly obscuring the sun, with flashes of lightning occasionally appearing.
Yun Tianjiao looked up at the sky and realized something was wrong. He said to Yu Siran, "Silan, let's hurry back to the front of the mountain. This might be a heavenly tribulation!"
"Heavenly Tribulation? Is it... is it Father's?" Yu Siran panicked and was pulled by Yun Tianjiao's hand, running towards the front of the mountain.
Yu Lanshan's cultivation had been stuck at the late Nascent Soul stage for many years. Some time ago, he mentioned to his wife and daughter that he felt his cultivation seemed to be loosening up and that he might be able to break through.
Breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage leads to the Deity Transformation stage, which is almost like taking a step into the ranks of immortals. However, it also comes with great risks. The Deity Transformation tribulation is extremely dangerous, and if one fails to overcome the tribulation, one will die and perish.
Therefore, the whole family was both expectant and nervous. Liu Ruqing secretly searched for all kinds of rare and precious materials for her husband, and Elder Xiyuan studied the Dharma Protection Techniques every day in order to lend a helping hand when his senior brother was undergoing tribulation.
Even though Yun Tianjiao knew that this was just Zhu Jing's memory, she was still nervous. As the dark clouds pressed down lower and thicker, she was inevitably affected by the remaining threads, and her heart pounded faster and faster.
"It's too late!"
As a muffled thunderclap echoed across the sky, Yun Tianjiao abruptly stopped and pulled Yu Siran towards a nearby cave.
"Elder sister, are we... are we not going back to the front mountain?" Yu Siran appeared calm, but her eyes, which kept glancing out of the cave, betrayed her unease.
"It's too late. The tribulation has already begun. We need to hide immediately and not expose ourselves to the tribulation." Yun Tianjiao said as he took out a talisman from his Qiankun bag and set up a barrier inside the cave.
Just as the protective barrier was set up, there was another loud bang, this time even louder than the last one, which shook the entire cave and caused many pieces of rock to fall down.
Yu Siran cried out in surprise, covering her head and hiding in Yun Tianjiao's arms like a little rabbit with its ears drooping. Where was the spirit of her who once bravely ventured into Wuwang Cliff alone?
It's just that she didn't have an older sister back then, but now she has an older sister to rely on.
Yun Tianjiao held Yu Siran in his arms and patted her head gently to comfort her.
The third lightning strike was even more ferocious, and Yun Tianjiao couldn't help but worry that the simple barrier set up by the talisman wouldn't be able to withstand the last few lightning strikes.
The moment she began to worry, the Demon-Slaying Blade was drawn from its sheath, hovering above the cave, radiating golden light that enveloped the two of them, adding another layer of protection to their barrier.
Each lightning tribulation was stronger than the last, but to Yun Tianjiao's ears, the thunder in the later stages seemed less loud than before, clearly indicating that the barrier erected by Zhiwei was taking effect.
"Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen... thirty-one... fifty-six... seventy-two..."
Yu Siran nestled in her sister's arms, quietly counting the thunder outside. She counted to eighty-one before the outside finally quieted down. Soon after, the sunlight shone down again, and the Xuanxiao Gate, which had been shaking the earth just moments before, returned to calm.
"It's over?!" Yu Siran happily poked her head out.
Once Yun Tianjiao was certain there would be no more lightning tribulations, he reached out and recalled the Demon-Slaying Blade, gently stroking its blade twice before saying, "Thank you for your hard work."
The Demon-Slaying Blade trembled slightly, whether from the gentle caress of that delicate hand or from the injury sustained while resisting the lightning tribulation, it was unclear.
The two sisters emerged from the cave and hurried towards the front of the mountain, eager to know how their father was doing.
"Elder sister, do you think Father successfully survived the tribulation?" Yu Siran asked.
Yun Tianjiao found it very strange. Usually, when a cultivator fails to transcend the tribulation, it is accompanied by rain and strong winds, because the cultivator dies and his cultivation dissipates, inevitably leaving behind deep resentment. Judging from the current sunny and calm weather, Yu Lanshan has most likely successfully transcended the tribulation.
Since he successfully survived the tribulation, with his Nascent Soul stage cultivation, why would he watch the Xuanxiao Sect be destroyed without any power to retaliate?
Therefore, when faced with Yu Siran's question, Yun Tianjiao did not answer, but simply said, "We'll find out soon enough."
Back at the front of the mountain, the two headed straight for the courtyard where the sect leader and his wife lived. As soon as they entered, they saw Liu Ruqing, who was pale, and Elder Xiyuan, whose lips were bloody and who was obviously seriously injured.
A sense of foreboding immediately arose in Yun Tianjiao's heart.
Yu Siran couldn't wait to ask, "Mother, how is Father? Did he successfully overcome his tribulation?"
Liu Ruqing opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
Elder Xiyuan looked at Yun Tianjiao, tears streaming down his face, "Sishu, your father... he's gone!"
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