“Why not join us and deal with that fickle, heartless woman together, and let her get the retribution she deserves. How about it?”
‘They… Evil Cultivators… are organized. They want to make a move on Changge!’
Ji Ling was startled in her heart, but she quickly made a decision:
“Fine, I agree.”
Looking at Qingluo, who was smiling viciously and joyfully before her, she nodded.
‘Why? Why is it that, as the Xiaoyao Sword Sect’s inside agent, I didn’t receive a single piece of news about them attacking Changge?!’
‘Did Qingluo suspect me? Damn it, during this time, I clearly acted like Jiang Changge and I were incompatible as fire and water, and deliberately distanced myself from her!’
Ji Ling pulled out another pill and hastily swallowed it into her stomach, barely making up for her depleted Spiritual Power. Her figure was like an arrow, sprinting rapidly toward the location of Jiang Changge’s incident. Bursts of burning pain came from her dantian, but it was far outmatched by the extreme urgency in her heart.
She arrived.
She saw it.
Amidst that nearly shattered mountain forest, a blood-soaked Jiang Changge just lay there. The Autumn Water Sword lay fallen by her hand, vibrating silently, as if lamenting. And the chief disciple she had taken in not long ago—the Yun Xuechang she had raised single-handedly—was sprawled beside her, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Get the hell away!”
Ji Ling directly blasted the nearby Yun Xuechang aside. Flustered, she dug out life-saving pills and stuffed them into Jiang Changge’s mouth. But it was no use. Thousands of years of medical experience told her that at this moment, Jiang Changge’s dantian and spirit sea were already nearly shattered. She feared that even the best pills could not save her, who only had a single breath left.
Bleeding from her seven orifices, Jiang Changge tried hard to smile. Ji Ling’s large tears dropped heavily onto her body.
“Junior Sister… I’m sorry…”
Jiang Changge’s eyes, which constantly held a smile year-round, now carried apology and sorrow:
“Please… take good care of… Xuechang for me… The Autumn Water Sword… give it… to her…”
This was her final sentence.
As her voice faded, Jiang Changge’s eyes slowly closed. The smile on her lips froze, and she completely lost her breath.
“Little Ling, suppress your grief.”
Ye Qingyuan, who had hurried over alongside her, sighed and patted Ji Ling’s trembling shoulders.
‘Why… why did you have to die so suddenly… why couldn’t I stop you from being murdered…’
‘And why… was your very last sentence before dying still about her!’
Ji Ling wiped the tears from her face. Amidst her grief, she glared with resentment at Yun Xuechang, who was also crying her heart out beside her. Carefully, she picked up Jiang Changge’s cold corpse, turned around, and left, her back lonely and resolute.
The tenth year after Jiang Changge’s death.
Late at night, inside the Sect Master’s study, candle flames flickered.
“Sect Master, I feel… I can’t hold on much longer.”
Ji Ling lowered her eyes, telling the Ye Qingyuan in front of her with a face full of exhaustion:
“To be honest, the first time I saw Qingluo after Changge’s death, when I heard her showing off the achievement of murdering Changge with others, I wanted to strangle her to death.”
“This undercover job, I really cannot do it anymore. Next time, I just want to kill Qingluo.”
“But Little Ling, you also know that Qingluo was absolutely not the only one who besieged and killed Changge that year!”
Ye Qingyuan said with furrowed brows:
“If you give up being undercover at this moment, we will never again have the chance to dig out more clues about the Evil Cultivator organization, much less bring all the murderers to justice—this is also to better avenge Changge.”
“…”
“Yes, Sect Master, you are right.”
Ji Ling slowly closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh.
“There is one more thing. The past few days, that child Xuechang’s Xiaoyao Sword Arts broke through to the eleventh form. It looks to me like she is also slowly walking out from Changge’s passing.”
Ye Qingyuan said slowly. He stared at Ji Ling in front of him:
“Little Ling, tell me—how do you actually view that child, Xuechang?”
“…”
“…I don’t know either.”
Ji Ling stayed silent for a long time before slowly speaking:
“I… I don’t know. Perhaps, I do hate her—hate that she survived alone, hate that Changge cared so much about her while alive, and even completely changed her own nature for her. Perhaps Changge truly only felt a mother’s love for her… But I really cannot understand why a Jiang Changge who was so uninhibited and unrestrained would change beyond recognition because of a child she picked up.”
“But Sect Master, you can rest assured. Since Changge instructed me to look after her right before passing, I absolutely will not be a detriment to her in any way, nor will I let anyone harm her in the slightest.”
Facing the old Sect Master before her, she stated solemnly, word by word.
Days passed one by one. Ji Ling gradually got used to the days without that familiar, vivid figure who frequently barged into her apothecary.
She became the Sect’s Disciplinary Elder. Her temper became increasingly difficult to talk to, and increasingly eccentric. She became the “Elder Ji” that everyone in the Sect feared. Even her disciples felt utmost awe and reverence towards this gloomy-faced Master, not daring to casually approach her.
Ji Ling gradually put her energy into pill refining and cultivation.
On this day, she bartered for a precious Eight-Turn Soul-Returning Pill from the Medicine King Valley—it was truly precious. Even the rather wealthy Ji Ling had only rented this pill to use for a period of time, just to study it.
But on this day, when she finished taking inventory of the day’s medicinal herbs, she discovered that the Eight-Turn Soul-Returning Pill—which was carelessly set down in an unclosed box—was gone. In its place was a completely naked girl who looked to be only three to five years old, sporting fuzzy, pale-gold rabbit ears, timidly huddled in the corner of the room, staring at her.
She looked at the cage on the side used this month to hold the medicine-testing rabbits—in the rabbit cage numbered sixteen, the rabbit had just so happened to vanish into thin air. And she also remembered that the rabbit’s ear color was the same as the girl’s before her, its fur color also pale-gold.
‘It’s over…’
Ji Ling’s heart instantly turned freezing cold.
‘The sight before me, I don’t even need to think about it—it must be that this rabbit stole and ate the pill I didn’t store away properly, and then was enlightened by the medicinal power, transforming into this little Rabbit Demon.’
She racked her brains, but truly could not think of a method to extract the medicinal power back out from the rabbit’s body. Left with no choice, she rushed to Xiaoyao Peak overnight to seek help from Ye Qingyuan, hoping this knowledgeable Sect Master could provide some assistance.
“This… An ordinary rabbit ate your precious pill, and was actually not blown to bits from being overly full, but successfully achieved Transformation? Is it because the Eight-Turn Soul-Returning Pill’s medicinal power is gentle, or did this little rabbit inherently possess sentience?”
Looking at the rabbit-eared girl in her arms, Ye Qingyuan clicked his tongue in wonder after listening to Ji Ling’s recount.
But after analyzing it heavily, he still couldn’t figure out the reason behind it. He merely stroked his white beard and shook his head:
“Not to mention me, I’m afraid that even in the Medicine King Valley, no one can extract absorbed medicinal power from a demon’s body again—it is simply unheard of.”
He patted the shoulder of Ji Ling, whose face looked like she had nothing left to live for. A kind and wise light flashed in his old eyes:
“Little Ling, I see that you have an affinity with this child. Why don’t you give her a name and raise her on your Danxia Peak? That would be a good deed as well. What do you say?”
Ji Ling originally wanted to refuse outright. But Ye Qingyuan’s next sentence blocked her mouth:
“If you raise this child, I will cover half of the compensation to the Medicine King Valley.”
Thus, Ji Ling began to raise this child.
She didn’t want to have too many ties to this little Rabbit Demon who caused her to lose so many Spirit Stones, so she used the homophone of her given name rather than her surname, “Ning”, to make a surname for her. As for the little Rabbit Demon’s name, she simply picked “Sixteen”—for no other reason than she was too lazy to think much, and this Rabbit Demon girl happened to be the sixteenth of that batch of medicine-testing rabbits.
Ning Sixteen was very timid, and very shy. In the process of raising her, Ji Ling expended no small amount of energy. But fortunately, she had the prior experience of pondering how to raise a child together with Jiang Changge—compared to that silly disciple of Jiang Changge’s whose brain lacked a string, this timid, soft, and sweet Rabbit Demon girl was actually not that difficult to raise.
The relationship between Ji Ling and Ning Sixteen slowly grew close. She would care about Ning Sixteen’s smiles, concern herself with her body, pay attention to her cultivation and studies, worry about her being bullied by other disciples, and in the deep of night, she would quietly get up to check if she was covered properly by her blanket.
She seemed to… somewhat understand the feelings Jiang Changge had when facing Yun Xuechang back then.
That was absolutely not romantic love, but rather the doting affection of watching a child one personally raised grow bit by bit, unable to help but care deeply and meticulously protect them.
Later on, Yun Xuechang and Lin Qianqian went out together for Evil Purging. When she returned, she brought back a stunningly beautiful and delicate Dao Companion, as well as a cute, exquisitely carved daughter—this actually surprised Ji Ling somewhat. After all, no matter how she looked at it, that blockhead Yun Xuechang didn’t seem like someone who had awakened to romance, let alone have a daughter with someone.
And Yun Xuechang’s daughter—that little girl named Rongrong—became very good friends with Ning Sixteen. Ji Ling herself also slowly observed that it seemed Yun Xuechang’s Dao Companion, that young woman named Hua Yan’er, had a relationship with Yun Xuechang that was… somewhat rocky?
She couldn’t help but offer a word of warning to that young woman named Hua Yan’er. The reason was none other: she had too many regrets in her own heart, and simply did not wish for others to be like herself.
Further on, Yun Xuechang brought Hua Yan’er and her daughter Hua Xiangrong to her door, telling Ji Ling: if she continued going undercover, there would be danger, and urged her to stop.
Upon hearing this news, Ji Ling’s greatest feeling was a sense of relief.
‘I can finally avenge you personally, Changge.’
Upon receiving Qingluo’s secret message to set a time to meet, Ji Ling silently chanted this in her heart.
‘There’s no need to endure anymore, no need to pretend to be cordial with the murderers who schemed against you…’
‘Even though there are still many enemies who have yet to face justice, I will find them one by one and slaughter them with my own hands to avenge you and wipe out this grudge.’
The night was deep. The black-robed woman flew into the air, speeding toward the agreed-upon location.
Her eyes shone brightly in the pitch-black night sky—filled with the long-dormant flames of vengeance.