Inside the medical hall, the lamps had not gone out all night.
When Elder Bai came out, he was extremely exhausted. He shook his head at Chao Taichu. “The situation is extremely critical. His cultivation… I’m afraid it cannot be preserved either.”
The sword that pierced Su Liuyun’s body had gone straight through his chest, almost severing his heart meridians. It was clear the one who struck had intended to kill him outright.
If Chao Taichu had not turned Kunlun’s treasury upside down and taken out many precious items to keep him barely alive, Su Liuyun would not have escaped death.
Chao Taichu’s expression was extremely grim. “Then… even the Baiyu Duanxu Ointment won’t work?”
Elder Bai sighed. “She injected sword qi into his body and shattered every inch of his tendons and bones. If they were merely broken, they could be rejoined. But shattered… even if his life is preserved, I fear he will never stand again. No different from a cripple.”
Elder Bai’s tone was sorrowful, yet his eyes began to glimmer faintly: sword qi is a natural byproduct released when sword cultivators wield their swords. For powerful sword cultivators, using sword qi to overturn a crowd is nothing unusual. However, sword qi spreads freely, sweeping wide and dispersing everywhere—extremely difficult to control with precision.
Yet she had shattered every meridian in Su Liuyun’s body with sword qi, not a single inch off!
What terrifying control!
The Kunlun Sword Sect was full of sword fanatics, but clearly, among those present, only Elder Bai could appreciate such artistry.
She had been absent-minded since yesterday, and now her frail figure looked even more on the verge of collapse.
Ever since Chao Jinsui returned, everything had changed. How could the one who ended up crippled be Senior Brother Su? He was clearly supposed to be the final victor!
Then movement came from inside, followed by the startled cry of a young attendant.
—It turned out Su Liuyun had just opened his eyes, only to hear Elder Bai’s verdict.
His mind shook violently. In his head, only one sentence remained: no different from a cripple.
At once, veins bulged across his forehead, blood surged upward, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
He tried to rise, but pain wracked his entire body, and he knocked over the vase beside the bed.
Chao Xiaotu rushed inside in a panic and saw Su Liuyun’s face pale as golden paper. “Senior Brother!”
Su Liuyun’s vision spun wildly. In disbelief, he still tried to crawl up.
Elder Bai reacted swiftly, stepping forward and striking him unconscious at once. “If he gets any more agitated, even a Daluo Jinxian won’t be able to save him.”
Su Liuyun… had really become a cripple just like that?
When they walked out of the inner chamber, silence filled the air.
Chao Taichu was silent for a moment, then spoke, “Seal off the news for now. Whoever spreads it will be expelled from the sect immediately!”
He was furious beyond restraint. “Where is that wretch!”
Lingsan said, “The Young Sect Master is already waiting outside. Sect Master, will you still see…?”
“Let that wretch kneel outside! When she’s thought it through, then she can get up!”
✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦
Chao Xiaotu’s thoughts were in chaos. Everything was different from her previous life, and she was desperate to force everything back onto the right track.
This feeling made her urgently want to do something.
She lowered her voice and quietly said something to the young gatekeeper.
The young attendant looked very flustered. “Senior Sister Xiaotu, didn’t the Sect Master say not to let word spread?”
She glared at him. “Stop talking nonsense. Go send word to the Su family. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility!”
✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦
Chao Jinsui had Xiao Yanjing tucked in her sleeve—because Xiao Yanjing had been ordered to monitor her, so when she came to see Chao Taichu, it shot onto her wrist with a whoosh and coiled around it tightly.
She had no choice but to bring it along.
Lingsan looked troubled and relayed the message. “The Sect Master refuses to see you. He told you to kneel outside…”
Chao Jinsui adjusted her sleeve and asked, “Other than making me kneel, did he say anything else?”
“N-no, nothing else.”
Chao Jinsui nodded, but instead of kneeling, she glanced at the people inside and outside the medical hall and was about to turn and leave.
The next second, Chao Xiaotu’s furious voice rang out:
“Chao Jinsui, Senior Brother’s meridians are completely shattered—he’s about to become a cripple, and you don’t feel even the slightest bit of guilt?”
Chao Jinsui paused mid-step and carefully examined her own feelings, only to find that not only did she feel no guilt—she was rather pleased.
After all, it had gone exactly according to her calculations.
The stab had been extremely precise.
But the disciples standing guard inside and outside the medical hall were all stunned: Senior Brother Su… had really become a cripple?
Chao Xiaotu stepped forward, her face filled with grief and indignation:
“Have you forgotten?”
“Chao Jinsui, when you fell into the demon den back then, it was Senior Brother Su who saved you!”
Chao Jinsui suddenly understood.
Because of that great dream, her memories of this life had grown somewhat blurred.
That was something that happened many years ago.
At the time, she was still young and escorting a batch of magical artifacts back to Kunlun for the first time, when they encountered the demon race on the road.
She was surrounded by demons and forced into the Demon Realm.
Outnumbered and outmatched—and even more despairingly, her strength gave out, and she accidentally fell into the Myriad Demon Pit.
At the time, she thought she was doomed.
Then, in her hazy consciousness, she felt a young man lift her up and carry her.
Her awareness was too blurred then—she could not remember what happened at all.
But the Myriad Demon Pit was a place where survival was nearly impossible, yet she emerged from it completely unharmed.
—Still clutching a rather perfunctory grasshopper made of straw.
When she woke up, the first person she saw was Su Liuyun.
Thus, Su Liuyun brought her back to the sect, and everyone knew that Su Liuyun had saved her life. She had always remembered this favor.
Later, because of Chao Xiaotu, their relationship began to deteriorate.
But before that, she had shown Su Liuyun much care.
She did not like Su Liuyun, but because of the debt of gratitude, she gave him the sword manual she had treasured;
Even later, when she often caused trouble for Su Liuyun because of Chao Xiaotu, it was mostly guidance—his sword technique had almost been shaped entirely through her instruction.
But after everything she had experienced, this favor no longer counted for much in her heart.
After all, even a favor had been repaid.
However, when she turned her head, she found many people looking at her with strange expressions.
Lingyun, Lingsan, Chao Xiaotu… many familiar disciples, and even a familiar young man.
—That was the little beggar she had picked up from the mortal world ten years ago, named Wuya.
Back then, he had no parents and no one to rely on. If she had not made an exception to take him in as a disciple, he would have starved to death on the streets. From then on, he had followed her everywhere, calling her Master.
But now, he too stood among those people, looking at her with an unfamiliar gaze.
Within the crowd, someone whispered,
“Young Sect Master, after all, Senior Brother Su was sincere to you and once saved your life. Even if he was at fault, it shouldn’t have come to crippling him.”
“Back then, Senior Brother Su nearly died saving you. We all saw it.”
Lingsan said timidly, “Young Sect Master, the Sect Master is very angry today. If you just leave like this, he will never forgive you.”
“You should go admit your mistake!”
Her gaze shifted to Wuya. “Wuya, do you also think I should go admit my mistake?”
The young man remained silent.
After a long time, he suddenly lifted the hem of his robe and knelt down.
He did not answer her question. He had tacitly agreed.
He only urged, “Master, if you bow your head now, the Sect Master may still be willing to protect you.”
“You know… we cannot hide this from the Su family for long.”
Silence filled the air.
Chao Jinsui’s eyes were icy cold.
She recalled something from long ago, her voice gentle, “At sixteen, when the demon race invaded.”
—More than ninety Kunlun Sword Sect disciples out on training were trapped to death on Zhulin Road. The one leading them was Su Liuyun. It was she who risked her life, broke in alone, and brought all ninety back.
“At eighteen, when Chao Xiaotu entered the Sword Tomb and accidentally triggered the mechanisms, I took several sword strikes myself and dragged Chao Xiaotu back.”
At nineteen, half the sect’s disciples were poisoned, their lives hanging by a thread. She went to the Five Poisons Valley, broke through countless restrictions, and obtained the antidote;
Her tone did not fluctuate in the slightest as she laid out each matter, one by one, plainly and directly.
Everyone present—every single one of them—she had taught their swordsmanship; she had saved their lives.
Scar after scar marked her body, wound upon wound.
Anyone could say she was wrong, but these people had no such right.
Those who met her gaze all lowered their heads.
She said softly, “A life repaid with a life is enough to repay it ten thousand times over.”
Silence filled the surroundings.
That solitary figure standing alone, amid wind and snow, was so slender it seemed like a faint shadow that could vanish at any moment.
Wuya suddenly felt a surge of panic rise in his heart and hurriedly grabbed the hem of his master’s cloak.
Until someone said in confusion, “B-but you are the Young Sect Master.”
The moment the words left his mouth, the person beside him stopped him.
But she had already heard it.
She closed her eyes, only feeling that she wanted to laugh.
If it had been before, she would have felt disappointment, would have felt pain. But after the lesson of that great dream, she no longer held any expectations at all.
She kicked Wuya’s hand away, then strode forward in large steps.
As if trying to shake something off.
Behind her, the disciples of the Kunlun Sword Sect all suddenly felt a sense that they were about to lose something.
The Young Sect Master they were familiar with, whom they admired and relied upon, who always spoke with gentle laughter—she walked away without hesitation, as though she no longer held even the slightest attachment, as though she would never look back again.
The feeling was too intense. Wuya suddenly sprang up and chased after her!
His voice trembled. “Master!”
She turned back. Amid the wind and snow, her cold apricot eyes held no trace of gentle warmth.
She said, “Get lost.”
✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦
At a corner, she unsurprisingly ran into Chao Xiaotu—after all, it had been she who deliberately brought up that stale, long-past life-saving favor just now.
Of course. If Chao Xiaotu ever stopped using such ghostly tricks, she would not be Chao Xiaotu.
Chao Jinsui said coldly, “If you ever dare to draw your sword against me openly and uprightly, I might think a little more highly of you.”
“Now, get out of the way.”
Chao Xiaotu said resentfully, “Just wait. Once the news spreads, the Su family will rush here. You think after harming Senior Brother Su like this, you can still walk away unscathed? When the time comes, let’s see how arrogant you can still be!”
Chao Jinsui said calmly, “I’ll be waiting.”
Even if it were a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, when had she ever feared?
She stepped forward to leave. Chao Xiaotu sized her up for a moment, then suddenly seemed to notice something and hurried after her, “Chao Jinsui, where is your sword?”
She could hardly suppress her excitement, as if she had discovered some great secret. “Your sword… it’s gone?!”
Chao Jinsui paused, her tone a little strange, “You’ve reminded me.”
Although Chao Xiaotu was just a decorative pillow, Chao Taichu doted on her and gave her only treasures.
Didn’t Chao Xiaotu have a sword on her?
Chao Jinsui raised a hand. “Sword, come.”
Under Chao Xiaotu’s stunned gaze, her sword immediately began to hum and tremble, then shot up into the air.
A famous sword chooses a worthy master. The slender, elegant sword named Qiushui descended obediently into Chao Jinsui’s hand right in front of Chao Xiaotu.
It was like a slap across the face—a sword cultivator’s sword had betrayed its master so easily!
Chao Xiaotu’s lips trembled with rage. She looked at the Qiushui Sword, then at Chao Jinsui, her face alternating between pale and flushed.
Chao Jinsui weighed it in her hand. The Qiushui Sword was slightly easier to use than Chao Taichu’s sword. Though it still didn’t quite suit her, it would do.
“What, going to run to Chao Taichu to complain again?”
Chao Xiaotu gritted her teeth. “Don’t look down on me!”
“There’s something I’ve wanted to say for a long time.”
Chao Jinsui smiled slightly. “I do look down on you.”
She stepped forward, and Chao Xiaotu immediately shrank back in fright.
“Why do you think I only dealt with Su Liuyun before? You think I was afraid of you?”
That was exactly what Chao Xiaotu had always thought.
After all, she was Chao Taichu’s most beloved daughter, while Chao Jinsui was nothing more than the lowly child of a mortal in her father’s eyes. Since childhood, Chao Jinsui had always yielded to her, avoided her—even when causing trouble, she only dared target Su Liuyun.
Wasn’t it only natural that Chao Jinsui feared her?
But the next sentence drained the last trace of color from Chao Xiaotu’s face. She trembled with rage.
“I never bother with trash who can’t even draw their sword.”
Xiao Yanjing in her sleeve had been about to sleep, but was woken by the sound of the sword. Now it widened its tiny bean-like yellow eyes, peering out uncertainly at her, almost thinking that at this moment she had been possessed by its master.
That biting, vicious tone—the disdainful gaze as if looking at ants on the ground—enough to make every demon in the Myriad Demon Pit crawl out and beat up his arrogance…
But clearly, that did not happen.
After saying that single sentence, she returned to her expressionless state, ignored Chao Xiaotu, and turned to leave.
Xiao Yanjing suddenly felt a hint of goodwill toward this righteous cultivator.
How vicious! What bearing!
The next moment, as if sensing something, Chao Jinsui lifted her head.
At the summit of Kunshan, a clear and radiant sword qi shot straight into the clouds. Amid the rolling white mist, it was like a great river reflecting the moon.
All who saw it stopped in their tracks.
“It’s Senior Brother! Senior Brother has come out of seclusion!”
