In The Cultivation World, Are There Only Demonesses Left?

Chapter 26: Zhu Ming

“Junior Sister... you are too weak.”

Qiu Yuehan seemed to be smiling.

As she smiled, her facial features began to blur, then reassembled, and finally transformed into that of True Person Hanshui, who had raised her from infancy until the age of three.

Xia Lianxue’s beautiful eyes widened uncontrollably as she cried out in shock: “True Person...?”

True Person Hanshui said: “As expected, you are inferior to Yuehan. It was indeed correct that I did not take you as my disciple, otherwise I would have lost face.”

The sword slashed down directly, and Xia Lianxue instinctively stepped back.

Bang!

Her sword fell to the ground.

Her right arm was pierced through with crimson, unable to lift her sword again.

She lost once more.

True Person Hanshui sneered coldly: “Still not admitting defeat!?”

Xia Lianxue pressed her lips together.

A taste of blood spread in her mouth, and crystalline droplets fell from the corners of her eyes.

She opened her mouth but could not utter a word.

Her throat was so dry and hoarse it was unbelievable.

That sense of helplessness swept over her once again—until a man’s voice came from afar.

The voice was calm, as if it were only natural: “The Thirteen Swords of Jade Palace that you practiced are not as good as Qiu Yuehan’s.”

I know, I know.

I know my swordsmanship is not as good as Senior Sister’s.

Don’t say it again! I beg you, don’t say it again!

Sure enough, that voice no longer mentioned it, but instead said: “But is the Thirteen Swords of Jade Palace all that you know?”

What kind of joke is this?

I entered Jade Palace since childhood, practiced the Illumination-of-the-Moon Method, trained in the Thirteen Swords of Jade Palace, and cultivated the sword path.

What else could I know?

What...

else?

The young man said seriously and evenly: “My sword is far superior to the swords of your Jade Palace.”

It was as if the morning bell and evening drum blasted by her ears.

Xia Lianxue could no longer hear anything, so she simply closed her eyes.

She seemed to go to a small courtyard.

The summer heat was sweltering.

Inside the courtyard grew a Luohan pine.

A hot wind blew, swaying the pine, and the leaves fell.

No matter what, she could not pierce the leaves.

She was extremely distressed.

Having already lost all cultivation and fallen into mortality, now even the leaves bullied her.

A handsome but insufferably unruly youth smiled at her and said: “I have a sword technique.

Do you want to learn it?”

One sword.

What sword?

A sword as magnificent and blazing as the summer sun!

So she took the sword the youth handed over.

The pitch-black night suddenly lit up as bright as day.

A thunderclap erupted from the ground, and a wild gale swept away the falling leaves.

Everything, all of it, was obliterated under that one sword.

Crimson brilliance of the rising sun shone upon the window lattice; the flowing wind stirred the gauze.

Xia Lianxue, clad in white as snow, softly murmured like in a dream: “Zhu Ming.”

She opened her eyes, watching as Jade Palace congealed like an ink painting, then faded away like ink dispersing with time.

True Person Hanshui, Qiu Yuehan, Jade Palace—all gradually receded from her.

She whispered: “Young Master?”

Blinking lightly, she awoke as if from a fleeting dream, still in the small courtyard.

She remembered everything from the dream clearly.

Lu Changyuan was smiling at her: “What is it?”

“Did you peek at me while I was bathing?”

Why still remember this matter?

You have already broken through your heart’s barrier, how can you still cling to such a trivial thing?

Lu Changyuan feigned ignorance: “What are you talking about?”

Xia Lianxue slowly walked step by step in front of Lu Changyuan.

Her beautiful eyes locked tightly onto him as she asked: “Young Master, what just happened to me?”

“You were entangled by black qi.

I held your true heart steady, waiting for you to wake up yourself.”

“Young Master did nothing else?”

“No.

Could it be you dreamed of me?”

“Indeed, I dreamed that I lost to Senior Sister...

but with Young Master’s help, I won back.” The fairy smoothed her long dress and said softly: “I used Young Master’s sword technique.

It was very powerful.”

Lu Changyuan shrugged: “I already told you my sword is formidable. In a few days, I’ll take you back to Jade Palace. You can win again. That will make two victories.”

“I have always believed in Young Master.”

The fairy’s lips curved, for once with a trace of charm.

Like peonies blooming amidst the azure sky after rain, elegant and refined, yet with a tender beauty that seared the bones.

“I am a nobody’s orphan. If not for True Person finding me, I would have died. True Person raised me for three years.”

Lu Changyuan was stunned.

Raised Xia Lianxue for three years?

Then in her heart, what difference was there between True Person Hanshui and a mother? No wonder it bred a heart demon.

The fairy turned her head, stretched out an arm as white as porcelain, and gently plucked a leaf from the Luohan pine: “So I was very jealous of Senior Sister, because True Person did not care about me.”

“And now?”

Xia Lianxue revealed a breathtaking smile: “Now I am still jealous. But now I dare to admit it. I am indeed jealous of Senior Sister. Even Young Master feels that Senior Sister is better than me, don’t you?”

Why did this woman suddenly seem like she had changed personalities?

“Thanks to Young Master, I have overcome my tribulation. When I enter the Fourth Realm again, I will be able to directly charge into the Fifth Realm.”

Between the Fourth Realm and the Fifth Realm lay the difference of Dao and state.

Xia Lianxue had fallen from high to low, and this counted as her tribulation.

Now that her heart’s tribulation was past, the Great Dao was smooth and unobstructed, right before her.

Although she currently had no cultivation, she was already one close to the Dao.

There was even a sense of being out of sync with this heaven and earth, and with time itself.

What Dao exactly was she intending to enter?

Lu Changyuan narrowed his eyes, but after thinking, felt there was no need to know: “That’s good. We should go seize the pill now.”

【Two days remained until the Heaven-Mending Pill emerged】

Xia Lianxue tilted her delicate head slightly: “It is still raining outside. I will fetch an umbrella.”

Very soon, the fairy opened an oiled paper umbrella.

Lu Changyuan asked: “Why only one?”

“Should I have brought two?”

“Forget it, one is fine.”

Xia Lianxue smiled faintly, seeming to return to the gentle, serene immortal fairy Lu Changyuan had first met.

Clad in a green dress, the fairy opened the umbrella.

Her beauty seemed to step straight out of an ink painting, making Lu Changyuan slightly dazed.

“Young Master, what are you looking at?”

Lu Changyuan replied: “You are beautiful. So I look at you more. Being beautiful is for others to look at, isn’t it?”

“Young Master is rather honest.”

“Honesty is one of the most beautiful virtues of mankind.”

Xia Lianxue was not angry, but instead gestured that it was time to leave.

Rain pattered softly upon the oiled paper umbrella, producing a soothing melody as the droplets leapt down to the ground.

Lu Changyuan suddenly had a sense of danger, but not one concerning life and death—rather, something else entirely.

“Perhaps we should get another umbrella.”

Xia Lianxue shook her head, making the hairpin in her hair sway gently as well: “Actually, there is only one.” She had already come to Lu Changyuan’s side: “Let’s just squeeze together.”

“Then let’s squeeze together.”

To share an umbrella with a fairy in a green dress—this was an honor many would never even dream of.

The two reached the front gate.

Suddenly Xia Lianxue spoke: “Was it white?”

Lu Changyuan had long expected this question.

He smiled as he looked at her: “What was white?”

By logic, this question should have been deflected by Lu Changyuan.

But the fairy’s tone was light as a feather: “My body. I suddenly remembered, when Young Master dispelled the demon for me earlier... did you see all of Lianxue’s body?”

Not only did I see it.

I touched it too.

Very soft.

Perfectly fitted.

Lu Changyuan inexplicably broke into a slight sweat: “Saving lives is most important. In front of a healer, there is no distinction between man and woman.”

“Was it beautiful?”

“In the healer’s eyes...”

Xia Lianxue bit her words firmly: “Was it beautiful?”

“Beautiful.”