Halfway through the meal, Shadow One quietly approached Shen Qingci's ear and whispered a few words.
Shen Qingci's expression remained unchanged as she simply nodded.
She turned her head to look at Qian Chuan'er. “The secret guards will take you through the teleportation array shortly. Once you arrive in Qinghe County, someone will be there to receive you.”
Qian Chuan'er put down her bowls and chopsticks, cupping her hands in a respectful bow.
Mumu copied her, balling her tiny hands into fists as she cried out in a babyish voice, “Thank you, Big Sisters!”
The corner of Shen Qingci's mouth curved upward. She reached out to pat the girl's head. “Be good. Call us 'Aunt'.”
“Thank you, Aunts~”
After finishing the meal, Shen Qingci called out, “Shadow Seven.”
A female cultivator clad in tight-fitting attire emerged from the shadows. Her expression was plain, and she was a woman of few words. Standing before Qian Chuan'er, she simply said, “Let's go.”
Mumu was getting sleepy after eating her fill, yawning as she snuggled in Qian Chuan'er's arms. Shadow Seven raised her hand and placed it on Qian Chuan'er's shoulder. With a slight ripple in space, the three of them vanished from the hall.
Chi Yuan had remained silent until now. “A-Ci, are we returning to the sect?”
“Yes,” Shen Qingci replied. She took her senior sister's hand, taking the opportunity to give it a few extra squeezes. “Let's head to the Sword-Falling Terrace first.”
“Shadow One mentioned that Master was looking for us just now. Since neither of us was in Yunqi Cave, Master only learned of our whereabouts after questioning the secret guards hidden on Wanjian Peak.”
Chi Yuan smiled. “Alright~”
When the two stepped out of the main hall, they saw Yin Ruozhuo squatting under the corridor in the front courtyard, playing with crickets. Seeing them emerge, he immediately stood up. “Senior Sister, is everything settled?”
“It's settled,” Shen Qingci said. “Thank you for lending us your residence today.”
“Senior Sister, you're treating me like an outsider by saying that.” Yin Ruozhuo waved his hand. “My mother said that Senior Sister's business is the Furong Merchant Alliance's business. What's a single residence? Feel free to order us around as you please, Senior Sister.”
Yin He rose from a stone stool and bowed with his sleeves tucked. “Safe travels, Eldest Young Lady.”
Shadow One raised her hands and placed them on their shoulders. With a ripple in space, the three of them departed from the residence. When they set foot on solid ground again, they were already at Wanjian Peak's Sword-Falling Terrace.
Dusk settled heavily over the peak, and the lights in the side hall were lit.
Jinglian sat cross-legged on a futon, her natal sword resting across her knees. The spiritual light on the blade slowly coiled as she nourished it.
Hearing their arrival, she put away her sword and raised her eyes.
“A-Yuan, A-Ci, why weren't either of you in Yunqi Cave?”
Chi Yuan took half a step forward and recounted today's events from beginning to end. She left nothing out—from Yin Ruozhuo intercepting Qian Chuan'er and her daughter outside the mountain gate, to the questioning in the residence, the Soul-Severing Restriction... and how A-Ci had forced the truth out of her.
Jinglian fell into a long silence after listening.
No anger could be seen on her face; she even curled her lips slightly, but the curve was laced with an undeniable chill.
Smiling from sheer fury was probably exactly like this.
Shen Qingci thought her master was about to draw her sword!!!
Yet, to her and her senior sister's utter shock, their master delivered a final verdict that left them frozen in place.
“That child is not your Eldest Senior Sister's. Lanyi will never have children in this lifetime.”
The string of tension in Shen Qingci's mind snapped instantly.
“What?”
It was rare for her to lose her composure in front of her master, and her expression fluctuated rapidly.
So all the effort she and her senior sister had spent in that residence—the interrogation, the comforting, the promises, and even deploying a Soul Transformation secret guard—had all been in vain?
For the first time, Shen Qingci doubted her own judgment.
Could it be that Qian Chuan'er and her daughter had actually deceived her?
She rarely misjudged people. Had Qian Chuan'er's acting skills truly been so superb that even she was fooled???
Jinglian watched the rapid shifts in her youngest disciple's expression and knew she had overthought things again.
“A-Ci, put those thoughts away. That mother and daughter did not lie to you.”
Shen Qingci looked up, her face filled with doubt.
Jinglian then revealed a past event.
Years after she took Ji Lanyi as her disciple, she rescued Chi Yuan from a pile of corpses and brought her back. Ji Lanyi was the earliest to enter Wanjian Peak, making her the rightful eldest disciple.
Yuhengzi of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion was an old friend of hers. One year, while traveling, she passed by the Azure Cloud Sect and dropped by Wanjian Peak to visit.
As the two chatted at the Sword-Falling Terrace, Yuhengzi spotted the young Ji Lanyi. After staring at her for a long while, she suddenly flipped her hand, produced an ancient mirror, and cast a divination on the spot.
Once the divination was cast, Yuhengzi fell into a long silence.
She said that this girl indeed shared a master-disciple fate with Jinglian, making her the undeniable eldest disciple. Her path of cultivation would be smooth and her comprehension of the sword path exceptionally high, but her astrological chart was plagued by a malevolent star, making her prone to being plotted against in this lifetime.
At the end, she added an even heavier remark.
“A solitary star has entered her fate; her ties to offspring and her red thread of marriage are both severed...”
As Jinglian spoke, a trace of heartache flickered in her eyes.
As her master, she had known her eldest disciple's fate clearly since the very year she was accepted.
Precisely because she knew, she had kept Ji Lanyi confined to Wanjian Peak, only permitting her to leave the peak for sect missions after she formed her core.
The fate of cultivators was not set in stone. If one's cultivation was high enough and opportunities deep enough, it was not impossible to alter one's destiny.
Yuhengzi had also said back then that divination only showed the present; what happened in the future depended entirely on one's own fortune.
But even if there was a possibility of changing fate, her eldest disciple—a sword cultivator at the peak of the Golden Core stage—could never have a three-year-old daughter appear out of thin air.
“Then how did the Sect Master obtain Eldest Senior Sister's essence blood?” Shen Qingci asked.
Jinglian flipped her hand.
Two soul lamps materialized above her palm, their pale green flames burning quietly.
“The sect has a rule: except for disciples from great families who have separate soul lamps enshrined in their clans, the soul lamps of all other disciples must be placed collectively in the Spirit-Passing Palace under the jurisdiction of the Sect Master Peak.”
“This rule has stood for thousands of years, and successive Sect Masters have viewed it as a means to control the entire sect. There is essence blood within the soul lamps. If that essence blood falls into the hands of those with ulterior motives, there are too many ways they can tamper with it.”
“A century ago, I had already grown suspicious of my senior brother. With a Sect Master who is willing to use even his own biological son as a pawn, how could I possibly be willing to leave A-Yuan and Lanyi's real soul lamps in the Spirit-Passing Palace?”
Chi Yuan's heart jolted.
Having been at Wanjian Peak for so many years, she had never heard her master mention this.
“Then, what is placed in the Spirit-Passing Palace...”
“Fakes,” Jinglian said flatly. “They are counterfeits I refined myself. Even the fluctuations of the flames are replicated to be identical.”
“No one within the Soul Transformation stage can distinguish the real from the fake. Only a Void Refining expert dismantling and inspecting them could spot the flaws.”
Sudden realization dawned upon Shen Qingci.
So that was how it was.
The Sect Master indeed had “Eldest Senior Sister's essence blood,” but that essence blood was a counterfeit extracted from a fake soul lamp. It did not belong to her eldest senior sister at all.
But even if the essence blood was fake, what about the child?
She had seen Mumu's features with her own eyes; she did indeed bear some resemblance to her eldest senior sister.
Jinglian saw A-Ci's confusion and continued, “My senior brother is refined on the outside but tyrannical on the inside. He only cares about results, not the process...”
“When his subordinates failed to cultivate a true fetus and realized that the essence blood from the soul lamp could not verify a bloodline connection, what do you think they would do?”
“Cover it up,” Chi Yuan said, her eyes turning cold. “They would find another way to prove they were still useful.”
“Exactly,” Jinglian said. “They wouldn't suspect that I would openly defy sect rules and swap out the soul lamps. They would only try every means to patch the hole and keep the plan moving forward.”
“That child was likely found in the mortal realm. They must have searched all over the Southern Region to find an infant whose features resembled Lanyi's by thirty to fifty percent, and then used medicinal pills to subtly alter her appearance.”
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