A match
The sun had long since sunk behind the western mountains, leaving only a pale, cold moon high in the sky, silently casting its mercury-like light. The Jinghe Courtyard was utterly quiet; not even a whisper of wind could be heard, as if the entire world had fallen into slumber.
Yun Qian still stood by the window, her shadow stretched long and thin by the moonlight.
Her gaze fell upon the boundless night outside the window, calm as still water, yet turbulent beneath.
The wisp of divine consciousness that had been attached to Baichuan had transmitted the entire conversation from the library back to her sea of consciousness.
Bai Chuan's suppressed pain, Bai Ji's icy killing intent, and the words "kill them all" and "eliminate future troubles" were like heavy stones thrown into her once calming heart lake, stirring up a thousand waves.
The Jinghe Courtyard under the moonlight should have been ethereal and beautiful, but Yun Qian had no interest in appreciating the moon at this moment. She looked up at the moon, but what kept echoing in her mind were Bai Ji's resolute and bloody words.
After so many years of seemingly peaceful and quiet life focused on cultivation, she had almost forgotten that everything she was experiencing was actually a book with a pre-written ending.
Bai Yan, Bai Chuan, Bai Ji... these masters and junior brothers who spent every day with her, with their vibrant warmth and genuine emotions, were already marked as characters in the predetermined course of their destinies.
Bai Ji's words, filled with resolute killing intent, struck like a thunderbolt, abruptly shattering the calm she had carefully maintained, cruelly reminding her that this book had its own irresistible trajectory.
Bai Ji will eventually become the complete demon described in the book.
A chill crept up my spine.
Yun Qian suddenly felt an unprecedented fear. She feared that Bai Ji would truly step onto the demonic path, lose his mind, and be doomed forever. She feared that Bai Chuan would ultimately not escape his fate of being sickly and vomiting blood, and be dragged down by his chronic illness. She feared even more that her seemingly omnipotent master, Bai Yan, who actually carried a secret, would meet the same fate as hinted in the book, ending up ashes.
She feared that everyone she cared about would ultimately be unable to escape the tragic ending depicted in those cold words.
More than a decade of companionship has deeply immersed her in the hard-won warmth of her mentor's community.
To her, they were no longer just names on paper, but flesh-and-blood relatives who could cry and laugh, and whom she cared about and felt sorry for.
She could not, and absolutely did not want to, simply watch as a sober observer as they walked step by step down that predetermined path full of thorns and destruction.
She has to do something!
But... what can she do?
She wanted to change their fate! This thought burned in her heart like wildfire.
The word "change" is easy to say, but how exactly do we begin? Where do we break the deadlock?
Could this incident of Baichuan and Baiji seeking revenge be a turning point? In the original story, they haven't descended the mountain for a century, so there's naturally no episode about assassinating a mortal monarch. Therefore, is this sudden change the very fulcrum she's been searching for—the one that will shift her destiny?
Moreover, to be fair, shouldn't that tyrant who treated human life like dirt and sought immortality with the heart of a child be killed?
The indiscriminate killing of innocent people and the cruelty inflicted upon the common people are acts that arouse the wrath of both heaven and man! Moreover, that monarch was the very culprit who directly caused the destruction of Baichuan Baiji's family and their displacement and hardship back then.
Putting herself in her shoes, if she were in her place, she would never have let such an enemy go when she had the ability to take revenge.
Yun Qian didn't think Bai Chuan and Bai Ji were wrong. The hatred of killing one's father and mother is irreconcilable. They didn't succumb to the obsession with revenge from the beginning. Instead, it was only after learning that the tyrant was still committing atrocities and harming more innocent lives that they truly decided to kill in order to protect those unarmed mortals. This was enough to prove that deep down, they still retained kindness and a bottom line.
Her only worry now was whether the two of them would encounter danger on their journey and get injured. However, their opponent was ultimately a mortal ruler, and no matter how many soldiers he had, they were still just mortal beings.
Bai Chuan Bai Ji is, after all, a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He shouldn't be in any danger of losing his life when dealing with mortals.
As for the rules and protective talismans of Cangmin Mountain, Yun Qian thought back carefully and realized that Cangmin Mountain did not seem to have a clear prohibition against cultivators interfering in mortal affairs.
Bai Yan once said that only those who commit heinous crimes that defy the laws of heaven will have their disciple status revoked by the protective talisman. Killing a tyrant who has harmed countless lives and ridding the people of a scourge shouldn't violate the sect rules, right?
However, the worries still lingered.
Will Bai Ji's premature involvement with human lives trigger the latent demonic nature within him, leading to instability in his mind?
Can my attempt to reverse the course of events truly alter the seemingly unbreakable trajectory of the book?
Her thoughts were a jumbled mess, flowing in fits and starts, and Yun Qian's expression grew increasingly solemn.
She both hoped that Baichuan and Baiji would understand this deep-seated hatred, yet feared they would be harmed as a result. A thought popped into her head: perhaps... she could simply handle it herself? With her current Nascent Soul stage cultivation, killing a few mortals should be cleaner and more efficient than Baichuan and Baiji's actions, and would also ensure their safety to the greatest extent possible.
The problem is, she has never been down the mountain, and she doesn't even know what the monarch of the Li Kingdom looks like. Once she's down the mountain, how will she find that specific target in the vast sea of people?
bother.
Yun Qian's brows furrowed even more, almost forming a knot.
Regardless, she needed to first ascertain their current strength. Yun Qian composed herself and made up her mind. Tomorrow, she would have a match with them to see how much progress they had made in their recent cultivation.
Yun Qian stood by the window all night until the sky began to lighten. She took a deep breath, as if she had made up her mind, turned around, picked up a brand-new wooden sword, and walked out of Jinghe Courtyard.
This was the first time she had taken the initiative to wield a sword since that tribulation. Even when mentally rehearsing sword techniques, she subconsciously avoided them, as the six bolts of lightning that nearly shattered her primordial spirit had left her with lingering fear.
At the summit of Cangmin Mountain, snow remains year-round. Standing here, one feels as if transported to a pristine world of ice and snow, overlooking the magnificent scenery of Cangmin Mountain.
The biting mountain wind ruffled a strand of Yun Qian's hair, but she felt no cold at all. Her gaze was calm as she raised her hand, drew her sword, and slowly began to practice the Cangmin Sword Technique from beginning to end.
The Cangmin Sword has no fixed sword manual or moves, but it has its own unique essence of "Six Paths and Nine Forms".
The Six Paths refer to the six different sword intents contained within the Cangmin Sword, which are six sword orientations derived from different dimensions such as intention, angle, and momentum. The Nine Forms are nine unique sword techniques and offensive and defensive postures derived from these six sword intents.
The essence of the Cangmin Sword lies in its ability to move with the mind; when the mind moves, the sword arrives.
When Yun Qian first learned this sword technique, Bai Yan once said: "Six paths and nine forms, combined into one sword." Legend has it that there was a senior sword cultivator in the history of Cangmin Mountain who was able to cycle through these six paths and nine forms in a single day, mastering the eighty-one sword techniques.
At first, she didn't understand what level of mastery the "eighty-one sword strikes" represented. It wasn't until she fully grasped the essence of the Cangmin Sword Technique that she realized it would take her two hours just to complete one round of the six paths and nine forms, condensing it into "one sword strike." Only then did she truly understand how swift and focused that senior's sword must have been, and how pure and focused his mind must have been.
Even now, having entered the Nascent Soul stage, it still takes her nearly half an hour to complete such a refined "sword strike." This demonstrates just how astonishing that senior's swordsmanship was.
Just as Yun Qian finished her second sword strike and adjusted her breathing slightly, she keenly sensed Bai Chuan's aura approaching from afar.
Bai Chuan and Bai Ji had completely different cultivation habits. Bai Chuan was used to going to the mountaintop early in the morning to practice his sword, breathing in the pure energy of the newly born world, before going down the mountain to tend to his precious medicinal herbs. Bai Ji, on the other hand, preferred to study formations in the quiet of the night and often slept a little longer in the morning.
Yun Qian turned around as she finished her movements and saw Bai Chuan approaching on his sword. He landed lightly on an open space not far from her, the snow barely making a sound.
"Why are you practicing your sword here today, Senior Sister?" Bai Chuan's tone carried a hint of surprise, his gaze falling on the new wooden sword in her hand.
Yun Qian did not answer, but simply flipped her wrist, raising the wooden sword in her hand, the tip of the sword pointing in Bai Chuan's direction. Her tone was calm but carried an undeniable meaning: "Bai Chuan, come here, let's have a match."
Before she finished speaking, she moved, darting forward like a flowing cloud, her wooden sword slicing through the cold air, aiming straight for Baichuan.
Although startled, Baichuan remained calm. Almost instinctively, he raised his sword to parry. With a soft clang, the wooden swords clashed, and Baichuan steadily blocked Yun Qian's first probing strike.
Yun Qian's cultivation level far surpasses Bai Chuan's. In this competition, she naturally restrains most of her spiritual power and sword aura, suppressing her strength to a level similar to his.
However, although Baichuan was a healer, he never slacked off in his swordsmanship training. Now he could wield a steady, sharp, and well-structured sword. Several exquisite changes of move and on-the-spot responses, with tricky angles and precise timing, even slightly exceeded Yun Qian's expectations.
Yun Qian had never seen other Foundation Establishment stage Cang Min disciples wield this sword technique, so she could only use her own Foundation Establishment level as a reference. In comparison, Bai Chuan's understanding and application of Cang Min's sword intent, in terms of its proficiency and inspiration, was indeed in no way inferior to her back then, and even surpassed her in some moves.
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