IVYSCP - Chapter 32

Chapter 32

At the mention of Liu Qingtang's death, Nie Wenxiao closed her eyes, her hand on the table slowly clenching into a fist.

Ling Qingyue recalled what Lu Yao had once said: "They say the Sect Leader has always believed Elder Liu's death was her fault. She feels she let Elder Liu down terribly."

Looking now at Sect Leader Nie's expression of barely restrained grief, could it truly be so?

"Some matters are not meant for outsiders to hear." Nie Wenxiao opened her eyes. "But since you both have shown kindness to Piaomiao Sect, there is no harm in telling you."

What Nie Wenxiao did not say was that the more important reason was the Immortal Venerable sitting before her.

"When the previous Hidden Moon Lord was still alive, my master met her once at the Sea of False Dreams. My master helped her obtain a soul conch, and she in turn was willing to grant my master a single glimpse into the workings of heaven. So my master asked about Piaomiao Sect's future path. The Hidden Moon Lord told her that the fate of Piaomiao Sect, whether its legacy would flourish or be severed, would be decided within a hundred years, and that the yin-yang balance of the twin lotuses could break this impasse."

The twin lotuses referred to Nie Wenxiao and Liu Qingtang.

"After my master returned from the Sea of False Dreams, she entered secluded cultivation to try to comprehend the jade slip containing that revelation. But not long after, Piaomiao Sect was attacked by the Demon Race. My master sustained grave injuries protecting the sect. At the end of her life, she passed the jade slip and the Sect Leader's decree to me, and told Qingtang and me that we must lead Piaomiao Sect further."

"Qingtang and I took the jade slip into secluded cultivation for a time. Qingtang could not sit still and practiced her saber off to the side. I studied the words 'yin-yang balance' and wondered if it meant the two of us, one in light and one in shadow. I shared my thoughts with Qingtang, and she found them very reasonable. It happened to be the time for the next Heavenly Ranking Tournament. Qingtang told me to use the Sect Leader's position to stabilize the sect while she used the tournament to let the other immortal sects see Piaomiao Sect, to make them remember Piaomiao Sect."

Ling Qingyue thought to herself: The biggest dark horse of that tournament had been Liu Qingtang. Chi Que had lost to Liu Qingtang. Ying Ying had lost to Liu Qingtang. Even she herself had nearly lost to Liu Qingtang. Piaomiao Sect had become a blazing topic among cultivators.

"Qingtang did not seize the top rank at that tournament, but Piaomiao Sect was truly remembered by many. Elders and guest elders from some sects began approaching me to exchange pleasantries and build ties. Qingtang and I both felt we had chosen the right course. From then on, Qingtang would often go to spar with cultivators from various immortal sects. During that period, quite a number of cultivators came to join Piaomiao Sect, almost all drawn by Qingtang's renown. I could also sense that Qingtang's cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds through match after match. The last time Qingtang returned, she said she intended to go to Shangtianqiong to answer a challenge, to fight Ling Qingyue once more. If she could defeat the top-ranked name on the Heavenly Ranking at Shangtianqiong, even more people would see her and see Piaomiao Sect."

Ling Qingyue: "..."

Pei Si glanced at her and caught the indignation in her eyes.

Nie Wenxiao lowered her gaze and continued: "But not long after she left, her soul lamp went out. I traced her aura, but she had not gone to Shangtianqiong. I do not know where she went, nor what befell her. I failed my master's trust. It was I who failed to look after my junior sister."

As she spoke, Nie Wenxiao's voice grew choked. She raised a hand to wipe her eyes, her fingertips visibly wet.

Ling Qingyue cast a look at Pei Si.

A sect leader was weeping before them.

"Forgive me. I have been discourteous."

Nie Wenxiao blinked and when she raised her eyes again her composure had returned, though the rims of her eyes were still faintly red.

Pei Si spoke evenly: "Liu Qingtang regained consciousness once and told us some things. Coincidentally, there is another matter regarding Liu Qingtang that you ought to know."

Ling Qingyue looked at her in admiration. So composed. Worthy of a senior of such standing.

Nie Wenxiao assumed a listening posture.

"Liu Qingtang said she once met a person. She lost to them in match after match. That person repeatedly challenged her to duels in secret realms, sharpening a blade, and Liu Qingtang was that blade. I believe the extinguishing of Liu Qingtang's soul lamp, and everything she later endured, is connected to that person."

Pei Si's fingertip touched the table, and the gazes of both Ling Qingyue and Nie Wenxiao followed its movement. Pale golden spiritual energy slowly formed a mark on the tabletop.

Nie Wenxiao could not understand it, but Ling Qingyue knew what it was.

"This was found on Liu Qingtang's spiritual platform. This mark is controlling her soul. I do not know what this mark truly is. Sect Leader Nie, you must not act rashly. If the one behind this is alerted, Liu Qingtang may be in grave danger."

Nie Wenxiao clenched her jaw and forced down the fury in her heart. "I understand."

As they spoke, Ling Qingyue sensed the space around them flooded with surging spiritual qi.

Nie Wenxiao sensed it as well. "We have passed through the Heavenly Gate."

Past the Heavenly Gate, they were now in the Immortal Realm.

Returning to the Immortal Realm stirred a sense of familiarity deep within Ling Qingyue. This was a place she knew.

And in the very next moment, the spiritual energy within her body suddenly surged, rising like a swelling tide. Ling Qingyue knew she was about to break through. Tentatively, she asked, "Sect Leader Nie, is this skyship of yours sturdy?"

Nie Wenxiao: "?"

What did that mean?

"She is about to break through," Pei Si explained simply. "She is asking if your skyship can withstand a lightning tribulation."

Nie Wenxiao: "..."

She rubbed the sweat from her palms and, with equal tentativeness, asked, "May I ask what kind of lightning tribulation?"

A Nascent Soul lightning tribulation might be manageable, but a Soul Formation tribulation would probably be too much. Yet this person was the Dao Companion of an Immortal Venerable. Surely it would not be Nascent Soul...

Just as Nie Wenxiao was considering whether to bring out the sect's treasures to protect the Immortal Venerable's Dao Companion, she heard an awkward, halting reply.

"Foundation Establishment."

Nie Wenxiao nearly thought she had misheard. "What?"

Ling Qingyue: "..."

How could she possibly bear to repeat something so humiliating!

Pei Si pressed her lips together in a suppressed smile. After Ling Qingyue shot her a disgruntled look with a wrinkled nose, Pei Si cleared her throat and said to Nie Wenxiao, "Sect Leader Nie, please step outside first."

Nie Wenxiao asked no further and rose to leave.

"Pei Si."

"Mm?"

"You too, out."

Pei Si paused a beat and looked at her steadily. "Though I have old injuries, this lightning should not be able to harm me."

Ling Qingyue: "..."

Oh, aren't you impressive.

After a brief stalemate, Pei Si sighed and also stepped out.

The Piaomiao Sect cultivators on the skyship were clustered together in lively chatter. Seeing their Sect Leader emerge, they straightened up one by one and offered proper salutes.

Nie Wenxiao nodded. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed the Immortal Venerable's figure.

"Are you... not staying inside?"

Pei Si watched the tribulation clouds slowly gathering and spoke evenly. "I was thrown out."

Nie Wenxiao pressed her lips together and said nothing more.

Half an incense stick of time later, the tribulation clouds above the skyship pressed down in a dark, heavy mass. Three bolts of purple lightning flickered within them, each as thick as a person's waist.

Lu Yao's mouth fell open. "What kind of lightning is this?"

Feng Jian stood beside her. "Three heavenly lightning bolts. A Foundation Establishment tribulation?"

A cultivator's breakthrough tribulation grew stronger and more numerous with each realm: three for Foundation Establishment, nine for Core Formation, twenty-seven for Nascent Soul, eighty-one for Soul Formation, and one hundred twenty for Tribulation Transcendence.

"Foundation Establishment?" Lu Yao stared at a single bolt that could scorch her black and doubted it wholly. "Impossible. There is no Foundation Establishment tribulation this terrifying."

Nie Wenxiao on the other side shared the same doubt. She turned her head to ask the person beside her, "I have never seen a tribulation like this."

Pei Si narrowed her eyes. "Mm."

Three bolts indeed matched a Foundation Establishment tribulation, but the lightning should not be this powerful. Within the rolling thunder there seemed to be the very fury of the Heavenly Dao.

Nie Wenxiao began to worry whether the skyship could withstand it.

"Should we truly not go look?"

Before she finished, the person beside her was already gone.

Nie Wenxiao: "..."

Pei Si reached the door of the room, considered for a moment, and did not enter. Instead she set a formation upon the door.

In an instant, spiritual qi from dozens of li around surged madly toward them. Even the spiritual energy within the spirit stones powering the skyship was drawn over.

The skyship lurched. Nie Wenxiao silently used her own spiritual energy to steady it.

"Feng Jian, take your junior sisters farther away."

"Yes."

Inside the room, Ling Qingyue sat cross-legged on the bed. Spiritual energy churned ceaselessly through every meridian in her body. A fine sheen of sweat covered her forehead and neck. She clenched her teeth, her expression pained.

This was not right. How could breaking through hurt this much?

On the side of her face she could not see, black-red dark markings were slowly crawling upward, spreading from around her eyes down along her cheeks.

The thunder drew nearer. The sky around the skyship had gone dark.

Lu Yao swallowed and edged closer to her senior sister. She had never seen a tribulation this terrifying. It was more frightening than her senior sister's Core Formation tribulation. She felt that a single bolt could scatter her very soul.

The first heavenly lightning bolt gathered its force. A barrier enclosed all the Piaomiao Sect cultivators within it.

A cluster of heads lifted, all looking in one direction, their gazes burning upon their Sect Leader.

Nie Wenxiao snorted at them and tossed out a remark. "What a spineless lot."

The heavenly lightning struck down with terrifying speed. A flash of white light blinded everyone, and the skyship shuddered.

Even Nie Wenxiao, standing before her sect's cultivators, could feel the impact of this heavenly lightning. She could sense that this lightning was no weaker than a Nascent Soul tribulation.

Then the person inside...

Pei Si, nearest to the room, was similarly affected. She frowned, her eyes full of worry as she looked toward the room.

After the thunder dissipated, Pei Si heard a stifled groan from within, and the sound of a table and chair toppling.

Her hands at her sides clenched tighter and tighter until she could bear it no longer and pushed the door open directly.

In the next instant, a burst of spiritual energy accompanied by an angry shout came straight at her face. "Get out!"

Pei Si quickly shut the door and turned her head to dodge the blow.

"You..." Her steps halted. The look in her eyes shifted from worry to shock.

Ling Qingyue was curled on the floor. The clothes she wore were not high-grade ritual robes and had been reduced to ash by the heavenly lightning. Her back was a mass of bloody wounds.

But that was not what shocked Pei Si. It was the demonic markings covering half her face and half her body, black-red and hideous, writhing over her skin as though alive.

"Don't look..."

Ling Qingyue knew how wretched she must appear. To have this wretched version of herself reflected in the eyes of the person she loved made her feel even more humiliated. This feeling was worse, more agonizing than being struck by lightning.

"Don't look..."

Pei Si felt a sting in her nose. She turned her head away, raised a hand, and cast a spell to clothe Ling Qingyue in a ritual robe.

She stepped forward, lifted her into her arms, and guided the spiritual energy gathered all around to encircle Ling Qingyue.

Only after absorbing some of the spiritual qi did Ling Qingyue recover a bit of strength. She lowered her eyes, unwilling to look at Pei Si, and turned her head to conceal the demonic markings covering half her face. Then she reached out to push Pei Si away, her voice hoarse, bearing a faint, barely perceptible sob. "Just go outside first."

Pei Si did not move. Her arm around Ling Qingyue tightened instead.

The thunder drew closer. The second heavenly lightning bolt was about to fall.

Ling Qingyue startled and pushed at her again, harder, her tone urgent. "Get out, now!"

This lightning was ferocious beyond measure. Pei Si still carried old injuries. She could not stay here.

Pei Si grasped Ling Qingyue's hand tightly. With her other hand, she cradled Ling Qingyue's face, her fingertips gently stroking her cheek.

Her voice held the tenderness Ling Qingyue loved. "Don't be afraid."

"I will bear the remaining two for you."

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