“Whenever you encounter a difficult question, Senior Sister simply refuses to answer. I can’t tell whether you’re avoiding it or tacitly admitting it.”
Su Zhan turned her head to look at Li Xingyue beside her and spoke softly.
“An ambiguous attitude like that can easily lead to misunderstandings.”
“What does Junior Sister think?”
Li Xingyue asked.
“I want you to tell me everything, without holding anything back.”
“Those words… sound a bit strange coming from you,” Li Xingyue laughed.
“It seems that if Junior Sister decides to be rebellious, you can be quite troublesome.”
“I don’t want any more innocent people to die—not you, not anyone else. That’s why I won’t tell you everything, even if you misunderstand me and think I’m a bad person.”
After she finished speaking, the small courtyard fell into complete silence.
It was so quiet they could hear the wind rustling through the trees and the sound of each other’s breathing.
“…I don’t think someone who eats sugar-coated hawthorns while secretly wiping away tears is a bad person,” Su Zhan said in a low voice.
Li Xingyue’s expression froze once again.
The atmosphere that had been building completely collapsed with that one sentence.
She sighed, her face showing genuine helplessness and embarrassment for the first time.
“…Junior Sister cultivates the Ruthless Dao?”
“Yes,” Su Zhan nodded.
“This really is…” Li Xingyue let out a soft sigh.
No wonder everyone said that people who cultivated the Ruthless Dao were difficult to get along with.
Sword cultivators who followed it were even worse.
Their words always carried a strange sense of suffocating bluntness.
She had thought Su Zhan had already walked far away that day, but she never expected the girl would secretly turn back and watch her from a distance.
And now, this girl had casually brought the matter up so directly, leaving her completely at a loss for how to respond.
Was she too wooden? Or too straightforward?
This stubborn, silly persistence, along with the outwardly obedient but inwardly unyielding personality, was truly similar in some ways.
“In the past, Yan’er and I often had differing opinions. We would argue frequently, and neither of us could ever prove who was right.”
Li Xingyue said, “I never used my position as senior sister to pressure her, and she never acted willfully just because she was the junior sister. We could stay locked in disagreement for an entire day, but we always managed to resolve things in the end.”
Su Zhan raised an eyebrow and looked at Li Xingyue again.
She wasn’t stupid; she could hear the slight loosening in Li Xingyue’s tone.
“How did you resolve it?”
Su Zhan asked.
“It was simple. We used our fists to convince the other. Whoever won got to have their way,” Li Xingyue said calmly, smiling at Su Zhan.
“If Junior Sister truly wants to know everything, that’s fine. But you have to defeat me first and prove you have the ability to bear it.”
Su Zhan understood.
That made sense.
This was a sect that had fought demons and monsters for years.
Naturally, they solved their problems through strength.
“Alright,” Su Zhan said softly.
Compared to using her brain, she much preferred using her hands.
Another breeze blew past.
The scabbard hanging at her waist suddenly felt lighter as the sword was drawn.
The blade rang against the guard with a clear, spring-like hum.
Su Zhan swung her sword, the blade tearing through the wind like it was ripping cloth, only to come to an abrupt stop in mid-air.
Her sword had been blocked.
Or more accurately… it had been caught.
Facing Su Zhan’s completely dishonorable surprise attack, Li Xingyue handled it with ease, as if she had anticipated it.
It was as if… she had experienced this exact situation countless times before.
“You really are so similar,” Li Xingyue sighed with a smile.
“Even the angle of your strike is exactly the same.”
“However, this place isn’t suitable for sparring. Come with me, Junior Sister.”
She released her grip, took a step back, and without looking at the strange expression on Su Zhan’s face, turned and walked toward the other side of the courtyard.
Su Zhan remained silent.
Just where was this sudden sense of substitute literature coming from?
She had only swung her sword casually to test the waters.
How could Li Xingyue find a way to reminisce even from that?
That being said, from the brief exchange just now, she realized Li Xingyue’s strength was not to be underestimated.
She didn’t know her exact cultivation realm, but it was likely higher than Ning Yao’s.
At the very least, Su Zhan wasn’t completely confident she could defeat her.
But that was only normal.
After all, Li Xingyue was the only surviving disciple of Fangcun Sect.
Since she had been able to suppress the demons alone for several years, there was no reason she would be overpowered by Su Zhan, who was essentially a paper tiger with high cultivation but limited experience.
Su Zhan followed Li Xingyue, turning left and right until they arrived at a wide, open clearing.
The area sat at the edge of the dense forest. Though called a clearing, it had clearly been forcibly carved out.
Wooden stakes of varying heights stood all over the ground, their cuts smooth.
The smallest required two people to wrap their arms around, longer than an ordinary natal spiritual sword.
The entire area was covered in dense sword marks.
To turn a place into this state using only sword qi required not only years of accumulation but also considerable strength.
Li Xingyue stopped in front of a wooden stake that had an obvious dent in it.
She stood on it and smiled openly at Su Zhan.
“Since this is a spar, we should set some rules. We will only fight on top of these wooden stakes. Stop at the right moment and don’t hurt our relationship.”
“I am a few years older than Junior Sister Su and have the home advantage, so it is only right that I give you three moves. Therefore, Junior Sister, you may attack first.”
Su Zhan stepped onto a wooden stake roughly a hundred steps away from Li Xingyue and assumed a stance.
“Senior Sister isn’t going to use a sword? Isn’t this underestimating me too much?” she said softly.
When they first met, she remembered Li Xingyue holding a sword, even though it had been chipped and blunted. In such a large sect as Fangcun, how could there not be even a single usable sword?
Moreover, Su Zhan noticed that Li Xingyue showed no intention of using a weapon at all.
She was going to fight with her bare hands.
“It’s precisely because I’m not underestimating Junior Sister Su that I’m not using a sword,” Li Xingyue sighed gently.
“Is that so?”
Li Xingyue shook her head with a smile and offered no further explanation for Su Zhan’s slightly displeased tone.
After smiling, she straightened her expression and cupped her hands toward Su Zhan.
“Li Xingyue of Fangcun Sect. Please provide guidance.”
“Su Zhan of Qingyun Sect. Please provide guidance.”
With that, spiritual energy circulated within Su Zhan’s body.
However, she did not launch a sudden attack.
Instead, she focused her mind, gathering power while looking for an opening in Li Xingyue’s defense, or waiting for a momentary lapse in concentration.
This should be her first real formal spar.
The previous ones in the sect had ended too quickly for her to gain much experience.
Even now, she wasn’t entirely sure how much of her current cultivation she could actually display.
The girl narrowed her eyes, slightly spread her legs, lowered her center of gravity, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.
Her grip on the sword tightened.
It might have been a gust of wind, someone letting out a breath, or perhaps simply the blink of an eye.
Almost instantly, Su Zhan seized the opportunity.
The moment Li Xingyue closed her eyes, the girl’s figure vanished from her original spot.
Then, when Li Xingyue opened her eyes, a white phantom suddenly burst out from her blind spot.
The morning light reflected off the girl’s natal spiritual sword, creating a blinding glare.
So similar, Junior Sister Su.
Li Xingyue thought silently.
They clearly weren’t the same person, so why did they resemble each other so much?
Was this the will of fate, or was the heavens sending her a punishment for the sins she had committed?
“Well done, Yan’er.”
She watched the sword light rush toward her and whispered to herself.