“Ho ho ho… Fun, fun!”
Beside Gu Qinghan, Yingning—who had once stood only one step away from becoming a Saint and ascending to immortality—revealed a bright, girl-like smile.
She clapped her hands and drifted around Gu Qinghan, spinning in circles.
It was true.
The recent outburst of emotion from Qian Yu, where she rushed up to give Nalan Yunyan a grateful hug, was because of her.
She had briefly amplified Qian Yu’s emotions.
Otherwise, with the girl’s guarded nature where every step was calculated and measured, she would never have hugged someone in public to express gratitude without some sort of interest involved.
It was a pity, however…
This fox’s mental defenses were much heavier than imagined.
Even at a time like this, her mind was still filled with calculations.
She had even resisted a large portion of the emotional manipulation earlier.
Yingning had originally wanted to make her give Nalan Yunyan a deep kiss on her tiptoes just to see her wooden disciple lose her cool.
Speaking of Gu Qinghan…
Yingning, who had been laughing happily a moment ago, suddenly closed her eyes in “agony.”
Not long ago, her disciple had been visibly disturbed by the fact that Qian Yu hugged Nalan Yunyan.
But the moment Qian Yu pulled out that Yi Pan, Gu Qinghan’s attention was entirely snatched away by the Sacred Body carried within it.
She had immediately fallen into a state of realization.
Yingning was heartbroken. ‘This isn’t right, is it?’
According to her calculations, Gu Qinghan’s personality was so cold that she seemed almost too close to the Dao.
In her past life, she had believed Qian Yu twice in a row, and in this life, she could still forgive her and treat her as a friend.
The emotions hidden in her heart should have been quite profound…
How could she be so easily distracted by a Sacred Body?
Was her disciple truly an unprecedented cultivation genius, someone destined to become an immortal?
Yingning didn’t know what to say, and on the other side, Cloud-Weave Star Venerable was equally speechless for different reasons.
She was the Sect Master and a Semi-Saint.
She was one of the few people in this Great Era who would have the last laugh.
Yet at this moment, as she looked at the small plate in Qian Yu’s hand, her heart hammered against her ribs with such force that she almost lost her composure.
She recognized that object.
It was an ancient treasure found in a Secret Realm by Qian Yu’s foolish master during her lifetime.
It was the Yi Pan—a treasure said to be capable of carrying any power in the world.
The woman had claimed she would use it to leave her cultivation to her disciple, but she had died before she could pass it on, her body vanishing without a trace.
Cloud-Weave never expected that it had been left to the disciple, and… that it was actually being used?
Who could understand this feeling of finding a path when all hope seemed lost?
Earlier, when Cloud-Weave Star Venerable had finished comforting Nalan Yunyan and swapped places with her puppet to sneak into the Cave Residence and trick Qian Yu into accepting the possession, she had discovered that the alluring aura of the Sacred Body had vanished.
It was as if it had never existed, leaving not even a trace behind.
Her mood at that time was indescribable; she had briefly thought she was dreaming.
Unable to control her emotions, she had questioned Qian Yu, but the girl had looked terrified.
She had just gripped the hem of her clothes and cried, refusing to speak.
That aggrieved and pitiful appearance had made Cloud-Weave want to slap her to death several times just to vent her frustration.
But now, she was more than thankful for her own calm, thankful for her Dao Heart that never stopped pursuing the Sacred Body, and thankful for the “kindness” in her heart that had spared Qian Yu’s life.
The disappearing Sacred Body… was actually inside this tiny Yi Pan, divided into two parts where Yin and Yang intersected.
And the girl actually wanted to give one of those parts to her?
“Qian Yu! What are you doing? A Sacred Body is precious. How can you just give it away? How did you even separate it? Put it back this instant!”
Despite her extreme excitement, Cloud-Weave Star Venerable had to play her part.
She quickly adjusted her emotions and took Qian Yu’s left hand.
While anxiously checking the girl’s meridians, she scolded her sternly.
That motherly concern—showing no greed for the Sacred Body and only worrying for the sect’s junior—made the surrounding elders nod in praise.
Even the Yao Race Venerables standing in the distance watching the show couldn’t help but feel a sense of respect.
Shock upon seeing a Sacred Body was only human nature.
To realize one’s emotions were inappropriate and quickly adjust one’s mindset was a true manifestation of one’s Dao Heart and cultivation.
Cooperating with such a person was a responsible choice for oneself and one’s tribesmen.
In contrast, the junior from the Nalan Family was different.
From the moment Qian Yu took out the Yi Pan, she had been staring fixedly at the girl, looking as if she wanted to devour her.
Despite possessing a Sacred Body herself, she was so lacking in composure.
It was hard not to wonder if she would have tried to snatch it directly if her elders were present.
“Martial Aunt, Senior Sister, this Yi Pan naturally forms Yin and Yang. After putting the Sacred Body inside, it naturally split into a Yin side and a Yang side. Senior Sister Nalan’s Thunder Spirit Saint Physique is fierce enough, but it lacks endurance…”
“I DON’T WANT IT!”
As if provoked by something, Nalan Yunyan—who had been feeling a stir in her heart over Qian Yu’s hug just a moment ago—suddenly bristled.
Her eyes were fierce as she interrupted the explanation.
“She’s right. Yu, how can you just give this away? You’re being far too reckless!” Cloud-Weave Star Venerable chimed in.
‘If you’re going to give it, do it in private. Why make it so public? Besides, who does Nalan Yunyan think she is? Why should she share a Sacred Body with me?’
“Martial Aunt, there is something you don’t know.”
Qian Yu looked at Nalan Yunyan with confusion.
She had never seen such a vicious look in the other’s eyes before.
But now was not the time to worry about that.
She turned to Cloud-Weave Star Venerable and asked, “Martial Aunt, do you remember where this Yi Pan came from?”
Of course Cloud-Weave knew.
She had been there when it was found.
Over ten years ago, she and Qian Yu’s master had traveled the world together, exploring various Secret Realms.
This item was discovered in the tomb of an ancient Saint.
That Saint had many treasures, yet Qian Yu’s foolish master had ignored the piles of Venerable-grade and even Saint-grade weapons just to take this single Yi Pan.
Thus, Cloud-Weave remembered it vividly.
“Then do you remember what Master said when she obtained this Yi Pan?”
Cloud-Weave shook her head.
Her mind back then had been filled with how to use the other Saint’s treasures.
Who cared what that drunkard was rambling about?
It was likely just about using it to pass her cultivation to her disciple so she would have a fallback later.
“She said she wanted to use this to leave her most precious things to the two people she cared about most.”
‘There was such a thing?’
Cloud-Weave arched an eyebrow.
But “two people”?
Aside from you, the disciple, who else could that drunkard care about?
She was about to speak, but in the next moment, after realizing something, a memory so distant she had almost forgotten it suddenly flooded her mind.
The person that drunkard cared about most… It seemed, perhaps, it wasn’t impossible for it to be her.
To be more precise, just like Qian Yu, she had been raised by that woman since she was a child.
That was hundreds of years ago.
At that time, she was only a few years old, and that drunkard already looked the way she did in her memories.
Cloud-Weave had joined the sect first, so the older woman had actually called her Senior Sister.
But because the woman was older, Cloud-Weave had essentially grown up under her care.
A dozen or so years were truly insignificant in the face of hundreds of years of turmoil, and most of her memories with her so-called Junior Sister were of being distant and estranged.
But thinking back now…
Were their actual experiences really as cold as they were now?
When the woman adopted Qian Yu, hadn’t she brought the girl to see her?
Hadn’t she been comparing Qian Yu to Cloud-Weave when she was small?
“I haven’t raised a brat in a long time, so I’ll raise another one for fun. Look, doesn’t she look just as stupid as you did when you were a kid?”
The woman in white, holding a wine flask and playfully hitting Cloud-Weave on the head—her messy, informal appearance had been blurred, but it now reappeared before her eyes.
The world seemed to go blank for a second.
Cloud-Weave Star Venerable was suddenly stunned, unable to hear any sound.
She wondered if the reason she had ignored Qian Yu all these years, to the point of being somewhat disgusted by her, was because of this…
She actually cared deeply about the Junior Sister who raised her, yet hated her enough to wish she would die sooner.
That was why she hated Qian Yu so much.
Qian Yu had taken the place that originally belonged only to her.
Why should a Half-Yao be raised as a child by that woman?
Why should she be compared to her younger self?
“This Sacred Body of mine actually came from a jade stone left behind by Master, but ever since I obtained it, I have felt a faint sense of unease.”
Saying this, Qian Yu produced the Dao Origin Primordial Fetus she had taken from Tang Qiurou earlier. It had already turned into a piece of ordinary jade, but with Cloud-Weave’s Semi-Saint cultivation, she could still precisely capture the residual aura of the Sacred Body.
“It wasn’t until I saw you yesterday, Martial Aunt, that I realized… perhaps the other important person Master mentioned was you.”
“Is that so…”
Cloud-Weave Star Venerable narrowed her eyes.
Just now, the moment she remembered those things about Qian Yu’s master, she actually had an impulse to let Qian Yu keep the Sacred Body.
It was as if she had become that person’s Senior Sister again, and Qian Yu truly was her Martial Niece.
But now, hundreds of years of obsession with power and the desire to become a Saint through the Sacred Body swept away all that useless warmth.
Who cared what that dead woman thought?
If the woman saw her as the person she cared about most, then that was for the best—it gave her a perfectly reasonable excuse to accept the Sacred Body. Heh.
“Yu, you’ve truly put your Martial Aunt in a difficult position.
However, since this was her final wish, I have no choice but to accept it, no matter how reluctant I am!”