“Senior, there’s no need to be surprised. I, too, have met cultivators before. Calling you ‘senior’ is only proper.”
Lin Yin understood and walked over to sit at the table.
Her two jade-like hands intertwined nervously, unsure how to begin.
“Senior, what do you think of my disciple?”
Lin Yin looked up and saw the Master gazing into the room with eyes full of kindness.
Unconsciously, her fingers clenched tighter.
She recalled how, as Lingjian Peak’s Chief, she had been so absorbed in cultivation that she rarely paid attention to her disciples. She had truly failed them.
After a brief pause, she said, “Your disciple is very honest and obedient.”
The Master smiled faintly at her words.
“Yes, my disciple is honest and listens well. Back when I could still wield the hammer, he told me he wanted to make a living, so he followed me.
Over the years, I’ve taught him everything I could, and he’s endured many hardships.
But senior, what about your disciple?”
Lin Yin involuntarily lowered her head, thinking of her own disciple, Jiang Che.
She remembered picking out sect robes for him as a child, how he helped her handle affairs around the peak.
She recalled his extraordinary talent, surpassing his peers on the peak.
Though he had done wrong, if only he could humble himself and admit his fault, as his Master, she would find a way to protect him.
But Jiang Che was stubborn, insisting he was not at fault!
“My disciple listens well too, but he’s done wrong and refuses to admit it…”
“I see. Have you considered that you should trust your own disciple?”
Lin Yin fell silent, not understanding why she hadn’t trusted Jiang Che from the start.
“Sigh, I’ve never met the disciple you describe.
But you said it was three years ago, and that left a deep impression on me.”
Hearing this, a spark of hope flared in Lin Yin’s eyes as she fixed her gaze on the Master.
“Three years ago, that night, for some reason the dogs were barking especially loudly. Our shop is close to that alley, so naturally, we heard it. I also heard people talking, though I couldn’t catch what they were saying. It seemed like someone was screaming, but the barking drowned it out.
The next day, when I went to check the alley, all that was left were torn clothes and bloodstains.
If that person was your disciple, then he was probably attacked by stray dogs.
So, we don’t really know what happened. But if the child ended up like that, could it be that he’s already dead?”
His words echoed what the blacksmith Hao Tian had said, only the Master added a possible conclusion.
As that possibility was spoken aloud, Lin Yin felt a deafening ringing in her head, as if struck by a heavy hammer.
Her face turned as pale as paper.
Her heart felt gripped by an icy hand, stopping its beat for a moment.
She had thought about this outcome but was too afraid to face it.
Seeing her sudden pallor, the Master knew she understood and stood to pat her shoulder.
He sighed and said, “Go back now. It’s been three years. If there was any news, it wouldn’t have taken this long.”
Lin Yin’s ears buzzed; she no longer heard what the Master was saying after that. Only one cold conclusion remained in her mind—“dead.”
Her lips moved slightly, but her throat felt filled with rough gravel, unable to make a sound.
A chilling void named despair instantly filled her entire being, then drained her dry.
She rose, dazed and stiff as a marionette.
Her gaze lost focus, her once delicate features now a mask of emptiness.
She forgot to say goodbye or respond to the Master’s words, only instinctively staggering toward the door and disappearing into the night.
The Master watched Lin Yin vanish into the darkness, the flickering firelight casting shadows across his aged face.
In his cloudy eyes was a faint, barely perceptible regret as he whispered to himself, “Is saying it like this… really enough?”
At that moment, an invisible pressure suddenly descended!
Even the candle flames began to flicker wildly.
A figure appeared without warning, stepping out from the trembling shadows, starkly out of place in the humble, dimly lit forge—yet seeming born to dominate the scene.
It was a woman.
Unlike Feng Yaqin’s fiery, rose-like seductive charm, her beauty was like a winter’s cold moon, like towering snow-capped mountains.
She wore a long palace robe of white satin, intricately embroidered with dragon patterns in dark gold thread.
The fabric shimmered with a cool luster, as if moonlight had solidified into cloth.
Her jet-black hair was swept high into an ancient-style Phoenix Crown set with Spirit Jade, a few wisps falling at her cheeks, accentuating her flawless, porcelain-like skin and lips cold as cherry blossoms.
The Master showed no surprise upon seeing her, only deep respect immediately filling his expression.
He reined in his emotions, clasped his hands firmly, and bowed deeply—his posture that of a worldly subject paying utmost homage to a sovereign:
“Your humble servant greets Your Majesty.”
The woman simply stood there, erect and unyielding like a pine tree, radiating an aura that commanded all beneath her.
She was the Female Emperor of the Dayan Dynasty!
Her gaze settled on his bowed head but did not immediately grant him permission to rise.
Her clear, emotionless voice echoed through the forge, each word like an icy pearl dropping onto a jade plate:
“Not bad. Quite a performance.”
The Master maintained his bow, voice steady.
“Your Majesty flatters me. I only spoke the truth.
That Xianshi was clearly deeply attached; her obsession has become a Heart Demon.
Though painful to sever, it’s better to cut the past away than to chase a… hollow illusion.”
His meaning was clear—Jiang Che was dead, a fact better faced sooner than later for Lin Yin.
Yet, as his last word fell—
The forge’s temperature plummeted.
The furnace flared with a sharp “puff,” its light violently flickering as if suppressed by an unseen force.
The Female Emperor’s icy, deep phoenix eyes suddenly narrowed, thunder seeming to explode within her pupils!
The cold majesty vanished, replaced by terrifying wrath.
The air around her distorted with the fury bursting forth.
“Bang!”
An invisible force radiated sharply from her, the nearby anvil emitting a dull clang.
“You think Jiang Che is dead?!!!”
Her accusation was no longer calm and detached.
It roared with storming fury and an unspoken, deadly sharpness, like celestial thunder striking the silent forge!
“Your Majesty, please calm yourself. I meant no offense.”
The Female Emperor drew a deep breath, as if to inhale all the gloom from the forge into her lungs.
“Jiang Che is not dead. I will find him before that wretched Lin Yin!”
The Master on the ground stiffened, his head nearly burying in the dust.
He sighed silently, a long, helpless breath filled with regret.
In his heart, he thought, “Alas… the mighty Renhuang’s grace is spent chasing after one man so stubbornly. Let us hope she does not repeat her grandmother’s tragic path.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.