After hearing Lu Li’s inner voice, Feng Lingshuang was momentarily speechless and choked with emotion.
‘Master… he cares about me. Even in another life, Master still cares about me.’
This realization made her almost forget everything.
She wanted nothing more than to recklessly tear off her veiled hat and throw herself into his arms.
However, just as her emotions were on the verge of breaking through the dam, Lu Li’s thoughts quietly shifted.
Cold shards of ice began to mix into that warm current, causing her to feel as if she had suddenly fallen into an icy cellar.
‘Sigh, that girl Feng Lingshuang… ‘
Lu Li’s heart carried a complex sigh.
‘It would naturally be a lie to say I don’t care about her. After all, she was my first disciple.’
‘But if I say I do care, she committed such a treacherous act… ‘
“Hmm? A treacherous act?”
Feng Lingshuang’s eyes widened as she looked at Lu Li in front of her with disbelief.
‘Sigh… Killing Husband to Attain the Dao, seizing my Dao Fruit… in the end, it is still a resentment that is hard to calm. When she confessed to me back then, I naively thought she was different from them.’
‘But who would have thought a rebellious disciple is still a rebellious disciple? Perhaps this is the Fate of the Duanqing lineage? Disciples killing their masters, loved ones harming their kin… ‘
‘Perhaps in her eyes, the perfection of the Sword Dao was far more important than me, her Master… ‘
Hearing Lu Li’s thoughts, Feng Lingshuang’s weeping came to a sudden halt.
Her entire being seemed to be frozen in an instant, and even her blood seemed to stop flowing!
Beneath the veiled hat, the color drained from her face, leaving her as pale as paper!
“Wha… what?!”
‘I… I married Master? We became marriage partners? And then… for the sake of pursuing the ultimate Sword Dao, for the sake of so-called “perfection,” I… I personally killed or… I personally killed Master? Using the sword Master gave me, I took Master’s life and Dao Fruit?!’
No!
Impossible!
This was absolutely impossible!
Master treated her with kindness as heavy as a mountain, as if he had given her a new life!
She respected him, loved him, relied on him, and regarded him as the only light in her life!
How could she… how could she do such a thing to him, an act worse than a beast, something that neither Heaven nor Earth could tolerate?!
This would cause her ten million times more pain than simply killing her!
A massive shock, a sense of absurdity, and an overwhelming sense of guilt and self-doubt swallowed her instantly.
She could not believe, or rather, she refused to believe everything she heard in her mind!
There must be a mistake!
The strange System must have made an error!
But those thoughts were so clear, carrying an etched, bone-deep pain and lingering fear.
It did not seem like a fabrication at all.
‘Completing herself, resolving the Fate of several lifetimes of entangled resentment between us? Heh… ‘
Lu Li’s inner voice finally turned into a very soft sneer, filled with endless exhaustion and sorrow.
‘With a Fate like this… I think it is better if I do not meet her again… ‘
Feng Lingshuang froze on the spot, as if she had turned into a stone statue.
The ecstasy of finding Master earlier had long been shattered by this appalling “truth,” leaving only boundless cold and fear.
She opened her mouth, but could not make a sound.
Her throat felt as if it were being squeezed tightly by an invisible hand.
‘It wasn’t me… Master has misunderstood something? That wasn’t my doing… something must be wrong…’
Yet deep in her heart, a faint voice questioned:
Was her Sword Dao truly so obsessed that she could discard everything?
Was her pursuit of “perfection” really… above all emotional ties?
Two completely different thoughts tore at her mind, nearly causing her to collapse.
Meanwhile, after releasing those negative thoughts, Lu Li also seemed to fall into silence.
He lowered his head, focusing on circulating Spirit Energy, as if the stormy thoughts in his heart just now had never happened.
However, the aura around him unconsciously carried a faint layer of detachment and loneliness.
He both craved to hear even a word or two about Feng Lingshuang from “Jian Mingzi” to confirm her well-being, yet deep down, he was filled with resistance and fear because of the bloody end of his former life.
He was afraid of being dragged into that doomed cycle of Fate once again.
Thus, the atmosphere in the Stone Pavilion became extremely strange.
Both were preoccupied with their own thoughts, tormented by heavy and painful memories, yet they had to maintain a surface-level calm.
For a moment, only the slight sound of the night wind blowing through the eaves of the pavilion and the overly clear, suppressed sound of their breathing remained.
Feng Lingshuang could “hear” the dead silence in Lu Li’s heart and the complex emotions churning beneath it.
As for her own heart, it was already a mess of crumbling earth and sky.
She did not know how to face this sudden “truth,” and even less how to face her Master, who was so close yet felt as if he were worlds away.
Just as this suffocating silence and awkwardness continued to ferment, nearly pushing both of them to their limits—
“Senior Uncle Jian Mingzi!”
“Sect Ancestor! So you were here!”
Several clear and anxious calls from afar broke the dead silence of the Stone Pavilion.
A few young men and women wearing the core disciple uniforms of the Heavenly Sword Sect were walking quickly from the other end of the garden path.
Their breath was pure and their steps light, showing their cultivation was clearly not ordinary.
The leading woman had star-like eyes and a prominent temperament.
Her gaze immediately fell on Feng Lingshuang in the Stone Pavilion, and a look of relief appeared on her face.
“Mingyue?”
Feng Lingshuang subconsciously raised her head.
Her veiled hat moved slightly, and her voice still carried a trace of lingering sob and hoarseness, but she quickly switched back to her usual cold tone.
“Why… why have you all come looking for me here?”
The woman named Mingyue walked quickly into the pavilion.
First, she cast a wary, scrutinizing look at Lu Li, who was half-kneeling on the ground treating Feng Lingshuang’s injury.
But seeing the other party’s extraordinary clothing and demeanor, and that there was no ill intent, she retracted her gaze slightly and bowed to Feng Lingshuang.
“Sect Ancestor, the Sect has sent an urgent message to the post station. The matter is of great importance, and the Sect Leader has ordered us to find you immediately to discuss it.”
She paused and added.
“We searched everywhere in the city but couldn’t find a trace of Senior Sister. Fortunately, we sensed the Sword Qi Mark Senior Sister left here and found our way. Senior Sister, your foot… “
Her gaze fell on Feng Lingshuang’s ankle, which was being held by Lu Li, and then she looked at Lu Li with question.
This sudden turn of events caused the two people immersed in their own worlds to snap back to reality.
Lu Li composed himself and stopped the circulation of Spirit Energy.
He rose calmly and nodded slightly to the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples, his posture neither humble nor overbearing.
“I am Lu Li, the Peak Lord of Duanqing Peak of the Xuling Sect.”
Feng Lingshuang forced herself to suppress the stormy emotions in her heart.
Using the “exit” Mingyue provided, she quickly organized her thoughts.
She took a deep breath and tried to keep her voice steady.
“Thank you for your concern, Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters. I accidentally sprained my foot just now. Fortunately, True Person Lu Li stepped in to help. It is no longer a problem.”