“Master… did I say something wrong?” Wen Jiayin twisted the hem of her clothes over and over.
Anyone who knew her would recognize this as a sign she was nervous.
“No, of course not!” Xinyun quickly composed herself, using a serious tone for the first time since they’d met.
“Jiayin, the path of a sword cultivator isn’t easy.
Your constitution is a bit lacking, so before I can help you improve it, you’ll need to work even harder than others.
It’ll be tough.
In comparison, becoming a dan cultivator or a spell cultivator would suit you much better, and I believe you’d achieve success faster.”
Xinyun’s words were the result of much consideration, every word for Wen Jiayin’s sake, and they really did hit on what Wen Jiayin had been thinking before.
But… things were different now! Whether it was dan cultivation or medical cultivation, Wen Jiayin had only chosen them to avoid the main characters’ drama and to keep from becoming cannon fodder in the future war between gods and demons! But now that she’d taken the female lead as her master, there was no way she could escape all the messy drama to come.
One wrong move and she might die on some ancient battlefield or in a secret realm.
At this point, she only had two choices: either find a new master, or work hard to get stronger.
As for the first option… she looked at Xinyun’s concerned eyes and just couldn’t bring herself to say it.
Wen Jiayin simply couldn’t hurt someone who was so good to her.
So she could only choose the second option.
There was a consensus in the cultivation world: among all the professions, sword cultivators were a huge bug! The best fighters, the ones who always challenged those above their level, who never backed down from close or long-range combat—they were all sword cultivators! The sword intent of a sword cultivator could give any cultivator a massive headache.
And right in front of her was the number one sword cultivator in the cultivation world.
If she didn’t cling to this thigh now, when would she? “Master, everyone says you’re the best sword cultivator in the world.
I want to be strong too, so I want to learn swordsmanship from you.
Is that not okay?” Wen Jiayin tugged on Xinyun’s sleeve, shaking it as she acted cute.
Of course it’s okay! Not just swordsmanship—if Wen Jiayin asked, Xinyun would give her life.
“Jiayin…” Xinyun felt her throat go dry.
“You really… want to learn the sword?”
“Yeah, Master, I can handle hardship!”
Xinyun didn’t even know how she agreed to Wen Jiayin, or how she coaxed her to sleep.
She sat by Wen Jiayin’s bed, dazed for a long time.
After a while, she placed the toys she’d bought in the mortal world—things little kids might like—by Wen Jiayin’s pillow, then left in a bit of a daze.
She hadn’t brought up sword training.
Part of it was that Jiayin’s constitution made sword cultivation difficult, but that wasn’t the real reason.
She had plenty of spiritual herbs to improve Jiayin’s body to a top-tier constitution, and she remembered that in a few years, a secret realm would appear in the South Sea, where ancient dragon blood would be found.
With that treasure, she could temper Jiayin’s body to be no weaker than her own innate spiritual body.
The real reason was a hurdle in her heart, one that had almost become a heart demon.
“Pick it up.” Even now, she could still hear her own cold voice from back then.
She saw herself kick a small figure away.
The child’s sword slipped from her hand, and she fell hard to the ground.
Xinyun hadn’t held back much; the child might have even suffered internal injuries.
But even so, she didn’t go over to check on the child.
Instead, she coldly told her to pick up the sword and continue.
It was a heart demon.
The heart demon had taken advantage of her shaken state of mind to show her scenes from her past life.
Back then, when they first met, she didn’t know that the person who’d betrayed her had already been replaced.
When facing Jiayin, she couldn’t help but feel a bit of hatred.
“Ugh…” The child tried to pick up the sword, but her hands were bruised and trembling badly.
As soon as she got hold of the sword, it slipped out again.
This time, she couldn’t hold back and started to sob.
“Why are you crying? If you can’t even handle a little bump, why bother learning the sword?” Xinyun had no extra kindness for her enemy from her past life, but she had to admit she was a little shaken, because this child was so different from the one in her previous life.
The child must have really broken down, because for the first time, she raised her voice at her master: “I never wanted to learn the sword! You forced me, and you insisted on being my master.
I wanted to join the Dan Peak master, or at least Qinglian Peak if that didn’t work out.
Who wants to be here? I hate snowy days the most…” And here, it was snowy all year round.
These words left Xinyun completely confused, because she remembered that in her past life, Wen Jiayin had knelt in front of her, insisting on taking her as master and learning the sword, even if it wasn’t suitable.
After that, the two parted on bad terms, and a few days later, it was Wen Jiayin who came to apologize, saying she shouldn’t have spoken to her that way, that she’d just blurted it out in a panic, and asked for forgiveness.
Was it really just something she blurted out? No, it wasn’t.
Xinyun could tell the difference between the truth and words said in anger.
Wen Jiayin had meant every word.
She really didn’t want to take her as master, and she really didn’t want to learn the sword.
“Why…” Outside the memory, Xinyun muttered to herself, “Why does Jiayin want to learn the sword now?”
“Why? Why else?” The heart demon sneered sharply.
“She never didn’t want to learn the sword—she just hated you.
She didn’t want to learn the sword because she hated you.
Don’t you get it? At the apprenticeship ceremony, she didn’t even look at you.
You forced her to be your disciple! You’re already half-crippled, but you still won’t let her go.
I never knew you could be so shameless!”
Xinyun struck the dark shadow with her palm, scattering it.
The heart demon cursed and was sealed back where it belonged.
Yes, she had gone against Jiayin’s wishes and tricked her into coming back, but she swore it would only be this once.
If she let Jiayin become someone else’s disciple, call someone else master, act cute to someone else, or even fall for someone else… she couldn’t stand it.
Maybe she was already obsessed, but if she hadn’t developed this obsession, how could she have a heart demon?
“Just this once, Jiayin…” Under the bright moon, Xinyun whispered.
The next morning, Wen Jiayin woke up feeling refreshed.
All the fatigue and pain she’d accumulated since transmigrating was gone, and she was full of energy.
She felt like she could run around Lingjian Peak twice without a problem!
“What’s this?” Wen Jiayin saw a package on the nightstand by her bed.
It hadn’t been there yesterday, so it must have been left by her female lead master.
She thought it might be some kind of treasure, but when she opened it, she was completely shocked.
A clay whistle, a rattle drum, a bamboo dragonfly, a slingshot… and a bunch of little trinkets she couldn’t name with her limited knowledge of history.
But just the things she could name, piled together, made it obvious what they were—toys.
It was easy to guess that her master had prepared these for her, the little kid.
Wasn’t her master supposed to be especially strict with disciples? She actually gave her such frivolous things? Wen Jiayin spun the rattle drum in her hand, making a “dong dong” sound.
She really couldn’t keep seeing her master as the character from the book, or she’d keep getting her expectations shattered.
Wait, what time was it now?
The sunlight outside was especially bright—was it already noon? Sleeping in on her first day at Lingjian Peak would really ruin her image! At this point, Wen Jiayin still didn’t know that it had taken her almost a whole day to draw qi into her body—she thought it was just the next morning.
After getting dressed, she opened the door.
Thankfully, the sun wasn’t directly overhead, but without a clock or anything, it was hard to tell the time.
No one was in the courtyard.
Wen Jiayin walked to Xinyun’s door and called out twice, but there was no response.
“Maybe she went to practice swordsmanship?” Wen Jiayin changed direction and headed toward the bamboo forest.
Sure enough, before she even reached the usual training ground, she heard something.
As soon as she got there, she saw Xinyun sheathing her sword.
The moment the sword entered the scabbard, all the bamboo leaves floating in the air instantly froze, then exploded with a “bang.” The sparkling ice crystals looked especially beautiful in the sunlight.
If Wen Jiayin’s cultivation was high enough, she’d realize that each of those exploding ice bamboo leaves had been split into equal fragments.
She couldn’t see that now—she just thought it looked really cool.
“Jiayin.” The moment Wen Jiayin approached the bamboo forest, Xinyun sensed her and waved her over.
“Master!” Wen Jiayin ran over on her short legs.
“Master, that move just now looked amazing!”
“You’ll be able to do it too someday—maybe even better than me.” Xinyun saw the undisguised admiration in Wen Jiayin’s eyes and felt a tickle in her heart.
“If I can be half as good as you, I’ll be satisfied!” Better than her master? Yeah, right.
This was the female lead who never backed down from anyone in the cultivation world before she was betrayed by her disciple.
Wen Jiayin had big dreams, but she wasn’t delusional.
“By the way, Master, were those toys for me?”
“Yes.
I’ve never had a disciple before, so I didn’t know what kids like.
The stall owners in the mortal world recommended them.
Do you like them?”
Wait, they were bought in the mortal world? Wen Jiayin thought they’d been taken from some elder or peak master with disciples, but her master actually went out shopping for them? A mighty tribulation-stage cultivator picking out toys at a mortal’s stall, not knowing what to choose… That scene was just… kind of cute!
“I love them! Thank you, Master!” Seeing the expectant look in Xinyun’s eyes, even if she didn’t like them, she’d have lied and said she did.
How could she not, when her master was this cute?
Jiayin is so cute.
Her sweet smile made Xinyun feel like even the voice of her heart demon was being healed away.
Of course, she never imagined that one day she’d be labeled as “cute” by her little disciple.
