IVYSCP - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

While repairing the window of the woodwork shed, Ling Qingyue noticed that Liu Qingtang's wood carving had gone missing again, and it was the blood-soaked one that had been taken.

"They steal the broken one but leave the finished ones?" Ling Qingyue murmured.

After fixing the window and stepping out of the shed, Ling Qingyue looked up and, from the courtyard, saw the Barrier coalescing overhead. It was inscribed with the sect emblem of Piaomiao Sect, and countless array formations cycled without pause.

Ling Qingyue narrowed her eyes. A barrier formation of this caliber was not something a minor sect outside the Seventy-Two Sects could produce, let alone deploy through its own cultivators.

Could it be that in the hundred years since her death, Piaomiao Sect had risen to join the ranks of the Seventy-Two?

Yu Ting and Lu Yao should have already started patrolling for whatever that thing was last night.

On the corridor across the way, Pei Si glanced at the Barrier above before turning her attention back to the person opposite her.

Whether it was the effect of the Emotion Transference, or because watching Ah Xi swing her sword last night had reminded her of that person, today when she looked at Ah Xi, some of her little mannerisms felt so familiar.

For instance, when lost in thought, she would unconsciously reach for her waist, as if a sword hung there, her fingers brushing the hilt over and over.

Ling Qingyue... used to do that too.

Or was that simply a habit all Sword Cultivators shared? Pei Si tried to recall other sword-wielding cultivators and realized in the end that she only remembered Ling Qingyue.

Pei Si frowned slightly and pressed her fingers to her forehead, rubbing at her temples.

It had been a hundred years since she had turned to the Supreme Detachment Path. The Demonic Qi within her Sea of Consciousness had long since been purged. She had thought she had forgotten that person, yet now she found she could recall even her smallest habits and gestures with perfect clarity.

The effects of Emotion Transference were truly startling.

"Are you feeling unwell?" Ling Qingyue walked over and, seeing her lips pressed thin and her complexion poor, assumed she had fallen ill again.

Pei Si lowered her hand and offered a faint smile. "No."

Ling Qingyue studied her seriously, then reached out to feel her forehead, confirming that she had indeed not fallen sick again.

Pei Si reached up and took her hand, gently kneading the center of her palm.

The skin beneath her fingers was soft and smooth, without the slightest hint of roughness.

While it was true that cultivators rarely bore lasting marks on their bodies, Sword Cultivators always had a thin layer of calluses on their palms. Through endless days and years of sword practice, those sword calluses stayed with them always, and no Sword Cultivator would ever deliberately remove them.

Ah Xi's palms bore no sword calluses. Not only were her palms free of them, but there was not the slightest trace even on her knuckles from years of carving.

Was she deliberately hiding them? But why leave no carving calluses either?

Ling Qingyue felt her hand being turned over and stroked all over. Her reddening ears grew hot and feverish, the heat slowly spreading down her neck and across her cheeks.

"Pei Si, what are you doing?" she asked in a small voice.

Pei Si's lips curved, her tone meaningful. "Ah Xi has such beautiful hands, fair and flawless. Nothing like Chen Jiu's, all thick, rough calluses."

Chen Jiu and Ah Xi were around the same age and had both practiced woodcarving since childhood, but their hands could not have been more different.

The heat in Ling Qingyue's face cooled somewhat, and she asked in a sullen voice, "Do you... like them like this?"

Soft as a ball of dough and nearly strengthless. Her old body's hands had been well-knuckled and powerful, steady on the sword hilt. She had been so proud of them. Never had she imagined a day would come when they would lose out to a pair of tender, pale claws.

Pei Si: "..."

Her original intent had been to probe the matter of the calluses and see if Ah Xi would slip up. How had it turned into this question?

"Mm, they feel quite nice."

Hearing that, Ling Qingyue's mood soured even further. "Oh."

She returned to the woodwork shed in low spirits. Not long after, a knock came at the courtyard gate, and Ling Qingyue heard someone calling for Ah Xi.

She went to open the door and found Xue Zizai and Lu Yao standing there.

Lu Yao handed her an evil-warding talisman and gave her a very serious warning: "Ah Xi, starting tonight, do not leave your home after sunset. This talisman can be placed on your bedroom door."

Ling Qingyue blinked and put on a curious expression. "What's going on?"

Xue Zizai gave a cold hum. "None of your business asking so many questions. Do as you are told."

Lu Yao did not elaborate either and moved on to the next house with Xue Zizai.

Ling Qingyue watched as they distributed talismans door to door, thinking that Yu Ting and Lu Yao must have found nothing during their patrol this morning if they were being so vigilant about handing out evil-warding talismans.

She held the talisman between her fingertips and probed the Spiritual Energy within it. Ling Qingyue raised her brows. It seemed Piaomiao Sect had indeed encountered some great stroke of fortune. To develop so rapidly in a single century, to the point where they could distribute talismans of this quality to every household in the town.

After sticking the talisman onto her bedroom door, Ling Qingyue headed to the study. Pei Si was there, reading.

Observing the proper courtesies, Ling Qingyue raised her hand and knocked, only pushing the door open when she heard the person inside respond.

At a glance, Ling Qingyue saw the book in Pei Si's hands. It was yet another volume on Immortal Realm lore.

She really was that interested in the Immortal Realm?

Ling Qingyue walked over and glanced at the page's content. A flicker of surprise passed through her eyes.

It was actually about Shangtianqiong Sect.

"What is it?" Pei Si set the book down and looked up at her.

Now Ling Qingyue could see the full content. It was about her own deeds, recounting how she had claimed first place on the Heavenly Ranking and won fame with a single sword.

Ling Qingyue did not know how to describe what she felt in that moment. There was excitement, there was elation. She could not tell Pei Si her identity or her past, yet here it was, something Pei Si was already reading.

She moistened her lips, a trace of anticipation in her voice. "This person. What do you think of her?"

Her finger landed on the three characters "Ling Qingyue" on the page.

Pei Si's gaze followed. Her eyes flickered faintly as she drew a soft breath and said coolly, "Nothing much."

The tone was far from warm, carrying a faint, nearly imperceptible note of resentment.

The corners of Ling Qingyue's lips flattened. The words almost burst out of her. "Why?"

What did she mean, nothing much? She had defeated all those people. She had been the champion of that tournament. She had seized every spotlight and was even hailed as the "Little Sword Venerable"!

Pei Si was slightly taken aback by her reaction. Seeing her frowning, angry, and looking a bit wronged and dissatisfied, she thought again of that person who was supposedly "nothing much."

It was so similar.

Pei Si's mind wandered for a moment, and then suddenly a face loomed before her. The faint, elusive scent of wood on the other woman intensified in her breath.

"Why?" she was still asking.

Pei Si lowered her eyes and pursed her lips, pointing to the latter half of the page. "The book says this person was arrogant in life, looking down on everyone, and utterly untamed."

Ling Qingyue: "..."

She refused to believe it. She took the book and read it word for word, only to find it was true. The first half told of her rise to fame with a single sword, and the second half spoke of how she had been conceited, reckless, and arrogant, how she had faced the Formless Demon Lord alone and died, her bones buried in the Cangshan Northern Region.

"This book... is utter nonsense!" Ling Qingyue was so angry her face flushed and paled in turns. Still mindful of how she appeared before Pei Si, she forced herself to hold back her temper. "Don't read this. She was not like that."

Pei Si's lashes lifted slightly. "Oh? Why would Ah Xi say that? Could it be you knew this person?"

Ling Qingyue's heart lurched. She said evasively, "How could I possibly know her? I heard it from Granny Cen. She was very formidable, and a disciple of the Sword Venerable. Not at all what this book describes."

After she finished, she could not help adding one more stubborn line: "Don't believe it."

Pei Si made a soft sound of assent. "In any case, she is someone who has been dead for a hundred years. What kind of person she was does not concern me, nor does it have anything to do with me."

Ling Qingyue: "..."

Pei Si looked up at her again. "Was there something you came to me for?"

Half of Ling Qingyue's heart had already gone cold. "I need to go to the woodcarving shop."

A flat, dry sentence, with no explanation of what she was going to do.

Pei Si nodded. "Mm. Go ahead."

Ling Qingyue walked out of the study and shut the door. She pressed a hand over the dull ache in her chest.

Angry and miserable.

What kind of trash book was this from the Mortal Realm! How could it slander people like this!

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