The room was so quiet that the sound of melting snow dripping from the eaves could be heard.
Xu Ning’s hand was still held by Shen Yuwei.
Seeing Lu Hanyi, he instinctively tried to step back.
But Shen Yuwei was still suppressing her injuries. His retreat caused her to sway, nearly falling off the bed, so he had to support her again.
Through the layer of plain white fabric, he could clearly feel the soft pressure.
And the faint scent of magnolia.
Seeing Xu Ning retreat and then support, the coldness in Lu Hanyi’s eyes deepened.
“Master.”
She called out again.
Sensing that her master’s condition was not right, she frowned slightly.
Shen Yuwei closed her eyes and regulated her breathing for a few breaths, quickly suppressing the severe pain from her injuries.
She looked at Lu Hanyi, whose face was tense, and forced a smile.
“Hanyi.”
As she spoke, Shen Yuwei released Xu Ning’s hand and raised her sleeve to tidy the hair that had fallen by her temples, while Xu Ning had already moved aside.
She paid no attention to her own injuries and instead studied Lu Hanyi.
“With injuries this severe, why did you still use spiritual power?”
Hearing this, Lu Hanyi was startled.
She hadn’t expected that her master’s first words would be a reprimand.
Shen Yuwei took her hand, her expression serious.
“If not for the fact that your heart meridians are still holding, do you know what would have happened to you?”
Feeling the gentle spiritual power being transmitted from her master, Lu Hanyi bit her lip.
For a moment, she even forgot why she had been angry earlier.
“This disciple just…”
“Just what?”
Shen Yuwei looked up at her.
Lu Hanyi had been under her tutelage since childhood and knew best what this expression on her master meant.
Others only knew that she had gained the favor of a Golden Core True Person, but only she herself knew how Shen Yuwei had taken care of her meticulously over the years.
That slight resistance had just risen, but it was quickly suppressed by the respect cultivated over many years.
She didn’t speak again.
Shen Yuwei sighed. “Hanyi, you are my true inheritor, and I treat you like my own daughter. Your talent and character are both outstanding.”
“But some things, just because you are accustomed to them, doesn’t mean others can be treated the same.”
Lu Hanyi pressed her lips tight.
She knew what her master meant.
But Xu Ning had chosen to stay at Cold Sword Peak of his own volition; no one had forced him.
The sect granted him immortal fate, and she had never withheld his provisions.
She didn’t owe him anything, at least not to the point where her master would accuse her of mistreating Xu Ning.
At this moment, Shen Yuwei took out another jade bottle from her sleeve.
This jade bottle was smaller than the one she had given Xu Ning just now, but a faint golden pattern floated on its surface.
As soon as the stopper was pulled out, the cold air in the room was immediately diluted by a warm medicinal fragrance.
“Take it.”
Shen Yuwei handed the jade bottle to Lu Hanyi.
Lu Hanyi did not take it immediately.
“Master, this is…”
“Meridian Returning Pill.”
Shen Yuwei said, “Although the crack near your heart meridian has been temporarily sealed, it is only a temporary solution.”
“This pill can temporarily stabilize the meridians. In three days, I will reconnect the first severed meridian for you.”
Lu Hanyi’s expression changed slightly.
A pill that can repair meridians is naturally not an ordinary elixir.
Even the Alchemy Hall of the Taiwei Immortal Sect might not be able to refine a single pill of such efficacy.
“Master, this disciple cannot accept this.”
Shen Yuwei looked at her.
“Cannot accept? Do you think your injuries are not serious enough, or do you think this master should not be running around for you?”
Lu Hanyi said in a low voice, “This disciple does not mean that.”
Shen Yuwei placed the jade bottle into her hand.
“I left the sect for several years just to find this medicine for you.”
Lu Hanyi suddenly looked up.
Shen Yuwei’s tone was very calm.
“I just encountered some trouble on the way back and got injured. I thought I could recuperate slowly after returning to the sect, but I didn’t expect to relapse just now.”
She said it lightly, but Lu Hanyi was deeply moved.
For a Golden Core True Person to say “encountered some trouble,” it was certainly no ordinary obstruction.
Moreover, when that burst of raging fire erupted just now, her master was so out of control—now suddenly this made sense.
Looking at the Meridian Returning Pill in her hand, Lu Hanyi’s fingertips tightened slightly.
She wanted to say that after her severe injury, being trapped on the cold jade bed day after day was not easy either.
But these words reached her lips and then suddenly couldn’t be said.
These past few years, her master had been running around outside seeking medicine for her, and after returning to the sect, the first thing she did was still stabilize her heart meridian.
She thought she had been enduring everything alone.
But she never thought that others were also suffering for her.
Lu Hanyi lowered her eyes, her voice dropping.
“This disciple has troubled Master.”
‘Perhaps not only Master.’
As soon as this thought surfaced, she instinctively avoided looking in Xu Ning’s direction.
Seeing this, Shen Yuwei’s expression softened.
“It’s good that you understand.”
Xu Ning remained indifferent to this scene of master-disciple affection.
This kind of reproach between master and disciple should not have had him present.
But if he retreated now, it would seem guilty; if he didn’t retreat, it would seem like he was watching Lu Hanyi’s embarrassment.
So he could only stare at the ground.
There was a small patch of water on the cold jade floor, melted snow brought in by Lu Hanyi when she walked over barefoot just now.
Shen Yuwei turned to look at Xu Ning.
“Have you packed your things?”
Xu Ning said, “Almost.”
She nodded and said, “Then come with me to Moonlit Cliff.”
Lu Hanyi almost blurted out.
“Master, are you really taking him away?”
Shen Yuwei looked at her. “What’s the matter?”
Lu Hanyi glanced at Xu Ning and forced herself to say, “Although he and I have divorced, he has stayed at Cold Sword Peak for many years after all.”
“Now that my injury just has a chance to turn around, if the person behind it is really within the sect, then Cold Sword Peak’s formation is still the best suited to conceal him.”
These words were very reasonable.
Hearing this, Xu Ning frowned deeply and looked at Lu Hanyi with confusion.
This expression made Lu Hanyi quite dissatisfied.
“Just now he was unwilling to go to Moonlit Cliff, and now he puts on a submissive look—is he putting on a show for Master?”
“Or is he deliberately trying to anger her?”
Shen Yuwei observed the expressions of the two, but did not expose her disciple’s thoughts.
She only asked gently, “Then what identity do you think he should stay as?”
Lu Hanyi couldn’t answer.
She hadn’t thought that deeply.
It was just that Moonlit Cliff was her master’s cultivation retreat.
Even Cold Sword Peak disciples were not allowed to set foot there casually in the past. What right did Xu Ning have to go so easily?
But as soon as this thought arose, Lu Hanyi herself was stunned.
‘What right?’
He had already divorced her.
What right did she have to stop him?
Shen Yuwei said softly, “Hanyi, you cannot sign the divorce papers and still expect him to stay here in his previous position.”
Lu Hanyi’s face turned slightly pale.
“I, I didn’t…”
“I think it’s better for you two to be apart for a while and calm down.”
Shen Yuwei arranged it with a faint smile and looked at Xu Ning beside her.
“What do you think?”
Xu Ning glanced at Lu Hanyi.
She was holding the jade bottle, her face pale, but there was still a hint of the stubbornness he knew in her eyes.
If it were before, at her word, he would probably have stayed.
Stay to tend to her injuries, continue being that dispensable person on Cold Sword Peak.
But now that the divorce papers were signed, he no longer had to stay in that place.
He could no longer entrust his fate to her words.
Xu Ning lowered his eyes and said in a low voice, “This junior is willing to follow Immortal Master Shen to Moonlit Cliff.”
When these words left his mouth, his heart felt a bit lighter instead.
At least this time, it was his own choice to leave.
Shen Yuwei nodded with a smile and raised her sleeve to push open the window in the outer room that had never been opened for years.
A cold wind swept into the room, dispersing the lingering medicinal fragrance and stirring the stray hair on Xu Ning’s forehead.
He looked up.
Outside the window, the clouds were very light, the sky clear as washed, distant cliffs merging with the vast sky into one line.
So beyond Cold Sword Peak, there was not only endless wind and snow.
Xu Ning withdrew his gaze and bowed low to Lu Hanyi.
“Immortal Master Lu, take care.”
Lu Hanyi’s fingers holding the jade bottle suddenly tightened.
But this time, Xu Ning did not wait for her to speak.
The next moment, a flying sword rose through the wind.
Cold Sword Peak rapidly receded beneath his feet.
He had finally left Cold Sword Peak, which had trapped him for so many years.
Lu Hanyi stood in the room, not moving.
The window was still open, cold wind pouring in wave after wave.
Melted snow continued to drip from the eaves.
Drip.
Another drip.
Only then did the wind and snow seem to finally react, falling rustling from the gray-white sky again.
Lu Hanyi watched the fine snow cover the window sill, her long eyelashes trembling slightly.
How had she never known before that the snow on Cold Sword Peak was so cold?
—
Moonlit Cliff is on the eastern side of the Taiwei Immortal Sect.
Unlike the blade-like wind and snow of Cold Sword Peak, here the clouds and mist were very light, and by the cliff was a crescent-shaped clear pool.
The pool water reflected the moon, shimmering with a faint silver light even during the day.
The two landed in front of a bamboo cottage.
“You will stay here for now.”
Shen Yuwei walked ahead, meticulously introducing the dwelling to him.
“I live alone on Moonlit Cliff, so there aren’t many rules. But you must not enter the forbidden area behind the cliff, and you must not touch the moon’s reflection in the pool.”
“If someone asks about your identity…”
When she reached this point, Shen Yuwei paused, then smiled lightly at Xu Ning.
“Now that you and Hanyi are settled, it’s not convenient to use the previous explanation anymore.”
“Would you be willing to become my disciple?”
Xu Ning shook his head.
“…No, there’s no need. Thank you for your kindness, Immortal Master Shen.”
He hadn’t yet recovered from the tension of flying on a sword at high altitude.
Shen Yuwei looked at him with some surprise.
“You refused quite quickly.”
Xu Ning said helplessly, “Immortal Master, have you forgotten? I want to return home.”
Shen Yuwei shook her head with a wry smile. “The immortal sect also does not prevent disciples from returning home. If you are concerned about Hanyi, just say so directly.”
“Or is it that you are afraid of me?”
Facing those smiling eyes, Xu Ning bowed with his hands clasped.
“Of course not.”
Shen Yuwei didn’t tease him further and turned to enter the bamboo cottage.
The furnishings in the courtyard were very simple, even rustic, yet they revealed a sense of living.
Xu Ning stood by the door, not actively going inside.
Shen Yuwei sat behind a bamboo table and gestured for him to come.
“Come, sit.”
Only then did Xu Ning sit down at the table.
The two faced each other across the bamboo table.
Shen Yuwei looked at him, her expression still gentle.
But there was no longer the leniency in her eyes from Cold Sword Peak.
“Xu Ning.”
“This junior is here.”
“I am grateful to you for taking care of Hanyi.”
“I will also remember the grace of saving her.”
Shen Yuwei tapped the table with her fingertip. “But there are some things I must clarify.”
Xu Ning’s heart sank slightly.
She said softly, “You originally had no spiritual root, correct.”
“Yes.”
Xu Ning did not deny it.
“Cold Sword Peak tested your spiritual root, and the Alchemy Hall also examined your constitution.”
“Your Warm Jade Body is rich in vitality, but it does not belong to the five elements and cannot gather spiritual energy.”
“Logically, you should not have been able to cultivate in this lifetime.”
After a pause, Shen Yuwei’s gaze fell on his wrist.
There were still unhealed blood scabs there.
“But now, you have suddenly developed wood-type spiritual power.”
“Not only can it repair Hanyi’s heart meridian, but it also stirred up my old injury.”
Shen Yuwei looked at him and finally asked the question.
“Tell me.”
“Where exactly does the spiritual power in your body come from?”
Xu Ning’s fingertips curled slightly.
Before his eyes, it was still empty.
That line of pale green characters did not appear again.