Chapter 2: Fragments of the Sword Formation Diagram

Bai Shuangshuang stood frozen in place, caught in a dilemma.

‘Who would run into the courtyard in the middle of the night? Isn’t that just asking to be caught? She must be planning to escape the marriage.’

“This idiot—how did she get out?”

Someone on the other side muttered, jolting Bai Shuangshuang back to reality.

‘Hell, why didn’t you say so earlier? I really am an idiot!’

In a flash of epiphany, Bai Shuangshuang had a stroke of inspiration.

She suddenly pulled her lips into a silly grin and, with a thick tongue, shouted toward the crowd.

“Xi Chun! The sun’s burning your butt! Why haven’t you called me to get up yet!”

As for who Xi Chun was? It didn’t matter; at least she remembered that name from her memories.

A petite figure immediately rushed out of the crowd.

From the voice, it was the gentle maid who had spoken up for her earlier.

“Oh my, Second Miss!”

Xi Chun hurried over and pushed her back through the door crack.

“How did you get out? It’s cold at night—what if you catch a chill? Come back to the room with me, there’s a good girl~”

She tiptoed and expertly ruffled Bai Shuangshuang’s hair, coaxing her like a three-year-old, half dragging and half carrying her back inside.

Closing the door, Xi Chun turned around, smiling at her with eyes full of indulgence and even a hint of… overflowing maternal love?

“Alright, alright, no one’s around. Second Miss can shout all you want~”

Bai Shuangshuang: “?”

‘Shout whatever? Shout what?’

Before she could react, her body moved on its own.

Like a kitten finding its owner, she lunged into Xi Chun’s arms, nuzzled her head against the other’s chest, and called out in a soft, sticky voice.

“Mama~”

Bai Shuangshuang froze, petrified.

‘I, the dignified Senior Brother of the Qingyun Sword Sect, am actually hugging a girl half a head shorter than me and calling her “Mama”?!’

“There, there~ Second Miss is such a good girl~”

Xi Chun patted her back, soothing her gently.

“Shall we go back to bed? Mama will tuck you in with a little blanket~”

“…Okay~”

Bai Shuangshuang didn’t dare show any abnormality.

She could only stay stiff, like a marionette being stuffed back into bed.

Not until she heard the door close and Xi Chun’s footsteps fade completely did she spring up from the bed, cover her face, and let out a silent wail.

‘It’s over. Completely over.’

‘If Senior Sister ever finds out that her junior brother hugged a young girl and called her “Mama”…’

‘This has to be buried deep in my stomach. I’ll die before I let it slip!’

Another agonizing fifteen minutes passed before Bai Shuangshuang got up again.

This time she had learned her lesson.

She rummaged through the chest and found the thickest outfit, wrapping herself up like a round dumpling, even covering most of her head.

Again she peeked through the door crack, again she furtively stuck her head out.

The sky was already growing light.

She had to escape the city before the Bai Family reacted; otherwise, once the wedding procession arrived, she would have no way to flee even if she grew wings.

She crouched low, kept to the wall, and silently slipped through the corridor.

The original owner might have been foolish, but she hadn’t wasted those years.

She knew exactly where the dog holes were in the Bai Mansion, which door guards were the laziest, and when the shift changes occurred.

She was just about to reach the side gate.

Cras.h—

She kicked something—a piece of broken porcelain.

The sharp sound cut through the silent dawn.

“Who’s there?!”

Footsteps immediately ran toward her.

Without a second thought, Bai Shuangshuang turned and dashed into the nearest room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Lucky—no one was inside.

She leaned against the door, hand over her chest, not daring to breathe loudly.

Only when the footsteps outside gradually faded did she let out a sigh of relief and look around.

This was the Bai Family Ancestral Hall.

The eternal lamp burned faintly, illuminating the rows of memorial tablets.

The air was thick with the scent of incense and candles.

The original owner—a foolish maiden and a concubine’s daughter—had never been allowed into the ancestral hall in her lifetime.

This was her first time here.

“Is that all?”

Bai Shuangshuang curled her lip.

Bai Shuangshuang might not have seen much of the world, but Bai Shuang certainly had.

She stretched and turned to leave.

Just then, an extremely familiar fluctuation of spiritual power seized her heart like an invisible hand.

Bai Shuangshuang’s steps halted.

She followed that fluctuation and saw, beneath the central offering table in the hall, a yellowed scrap of paper lying there.

The material of the paper, the patterns drawn on it, the faint sword aura emanating from it…

Even if it were burned to ashes, she would recognize it!

Bai Shuangshuang walked over involuntarily, her trembling hand picking up the scrap.

“…How is this possible?!”

She gasped.

This was a remnant map of the Qingyun Sword Formation—the protective grand formation of the Qingyun Sword Sect.

Although it was the sect’s highest-level secret, as her master’s most favored disciple, she had been allowed to glimpse parts of it, so she couldn’t be mistaken.

But the Qingyun Sword Sect was thousands of miles away in the Great Yan Dynasty, and it had long been burned to ashes.

How could this remnant map appear here?!

“Bad news! The Second Miss is missing!”

“Find her! Everyone split up! If the Second Miss runs away, we’ll all be in deep trouble!”

The steward’s frantic shouts suddenly came from outside.

Bai Shuangshuang snapped back to reality.

No time to think.

She clutched the remnant map tightly, stuffed it into the inner pocket of her clothes, and slipped out through the back window of the ancestral hall.

Taking advantage of the morning mist, she wound her way to the side gate.

The gatekeeper was dozing against a pillar, his head bobbing as he drifted off.

Bai Shuangshuang held her breath, slipping past him silently.

The moment she stepped out of the Bai Mansion’s main gate, she let out a long sigh.

Free…?

No.

Leaving the mansion was only the first step.

If she couldn’t escape Lingxi County Town, she would eventually be caught.

Bai Shuangshuang didn’t dare linger.

She lowered her head and sprinted toward the city gate.

She ran until her lungs felt like they would burst.

Every step left her panting.

Back in the day, she could fly a sword a thousand miles in a day and cross mountains and rivers like flat ground.

Now she could barely manage a short run without collapsing.

Furious, she pinched her own thigh hard.

“Dead legs, run! Faster!”

The day had fully brightened.

The city gate would open any moment.

She just had to blend in with the commoners heading out to work, and she could shake off the Bai Family’s pursuit entirely.

As for where to go after escaping? She didn’t know.

But it was better than being dragged back to marry that libertine as a concubine.

—

Outside Lingxi County Town

At the end of the official road, three fine horses came slowly forward in the faint light, their hooves crisp, stirring up wisps of breeze.

The lead horse was a white steed with exquisite saddle and bridle.

Mounted on it was a young maiden of about thirteen or fourteen, wearing a goose-yellow shirt under a moon-white cloak, with a jade pendant at her waist that swayed gently with the horse’s steps.

Half a body length behind, on a fierce black horse, sat a woman in her twenties.

She was dressed in a neat, form-fitting outfit, with a sword at her waist.

Her eyes calmly swept over the trees lining the official road, her right hand never leaving the sword hilt.

On the last horse was a woman in her forties, slightly plump, with a bulging bundle hanging from the saddle.

As she urged her horse forward, she chattered endlessly.

“Young miss, do slow down. The road is wide, but you never know when an unruly stone might appear…”

“Nanny, you’re lecturing again~”

The young girl didn’t turn back.

Her voice was crisp, like dewdrops falling into a mountain stream, carrying a hint of playfulness.

“The road is perfectly flat. You take care of yourself—”

“Don’t you think so, Sister Qingluan?”

She turned and blinked at the woman beside her.

The woman in the form-fitting outfit curled her lips slightly at the words but said nothing.

She just gently pressed her calves against the horse’s flanks, closing the distance a little more.