Chapter 28: 28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

The Fang Luo Sect eventually cleared out a room for Atian to stay in. Enduring the cold glares of the others from the Beihai Sword Sect and under the constant surveillance of Liu Yan, Qi Han extracted an iron flower that had already burst open inside the flesh from her chest. The blooming petals were completely embedded in her flesh and blood; even for Qi Han, it took quite some effort to remove it entirely, leaving behind a mangled, bloody wound.

No wonder it hurt so much.

Atian looked at the hidden weapon placed on the tray, then looked at the layers of white gauze wrapped around her chest. Her self-perception as a young lady of a noble family began to sound the alarm.

Ancestor above, she wouldn't be left with a scar, would she?

Immediately after, she thought that even if there were a scar on her chest, others wouldn't see it, and the heart that had just been raised settled firmly back into place.

I am someone who has seen great storms and waves, after all.

She lay on the bed covered by a quilt, staring at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of pain coming from some disciple being beaten outside the window. The cooling sensation of the medicine on her wound dispersed the sleepiness she had finally managed to gather.

Atian was no stranger to this room near the grand plaza. She had spent most of her time before the age of three here, living on Luofu Mountain yet isolated from the Fang Luo Sect.

This was also normal. Not all children of cultivators had the talent for cultivation. Cultivating immortality is about the Heavenly Dao and one's own affinity; it cannot be forced through bloodlines. If they have aptitude, they stay; if they don't, they are sent away. This is the norm for how cultivators treat their children.

Of course, during their infancy when their talent cannot be discerned, both sides can still leave behind beautiful memories.

Before the day the great fire was ignited, Atian only had beautiful memories of Qi Han. However, things that are too beautiful are rarely real.

That's right, Atian is Qi Han's daughter, but that is of no importance.

She didn't care about this before going up the mountain, nor could she suddenly become so fragile after an injury that she would want to rely on her parents. Furthermore, Qi Han was not a person one could rely on.

By comparison, her fellow disciples of the Beihai Sword Sect were the true "own people."

"You don't like it here either, right, Wanjie?" she whispered to the black Sword placed at the head of the bed while hiding under the quilt.

Wanjie let out a soft chime in response.

So, enduring the pain of her wound being pulled, she lifted the quilt. Wanjie immediately hopped in. One person and one Sword hid in the warm bedding, as if they had returned to their own little world.

With Wanjie in her arms, Atian was finally able to fall asleep this time.

However, just as she was sleeping soundly, a melodious sound of music drifted in from outside the door, breaking her dream. Atian opened her eyes groggily. She didn't know how long she had slept, but judging by the pitch-black sky outside the window, it was at least midnight.

The music continued, exceptionally clear in the silent night. As a wounded patient whose sweet dream was disturbed for no reason, a nameless fire instantly surged high in Atian's heart.

Playing in the middle of the night, do you want to get chopped!

She scrambled up, grabbed the pillow on the bed, and threw it hard at the door panel. The pillow hit the door with a "clatter," and the annoying music indeed vanished.

With the interference of the music gone, Atian fell back into the bedding and yawned. Sleepiness struck again. Before completely surrendering to the embrace of sleep, she let out a sigh in her heart:

I didn't even feel pain when throwing things; this medicine is really effective.

On this side, Atian continued to sleep soundly; on the other side, Qi Han, who had been subjected to a pillow attack by his daughter, staggered away from the door panel he had been leaning against. Only, his thin figure looked somewhat lonely in the night.

"When she was little, she clearly had to listen to me play the bamboo leaf to fall asleep..." he muttered, walking slowly toward the direction of the rear quarters.

Only, halfway there, Qi Han stopped. His wife had left the mountain gate after that incident, and he didn't want to return to the alchemy room where he had imprisoned himself for fifteen years. After thinking for a moment, he changed direction and stepped toward the residence of Wei Sheren.

As the Sect Leader of the Fang Luo Sect, Wei Sheren not only occupied the largest alchemy room alone but also possessed three alchemy furnaces, living a life of luxury every day. Just like now, when Qi Han arrived, he was smiling and wiping a furnace.

"Oh my, you performed so well today," Wei Sheren said, sniffing the green smoke rising from the furnace while wiping it, looking completely infatuated, almost pressing his face against the furnace. "Wipe it clean, wipe it clean..."

Qi Han was already used to his master's disgraceful behavior. He stepped over the threshold and leaned dejectedly against the door frame, watching Wei Sheren without a word.

"What? You saw her?" Wei Sheren understood this eldest disciple he had raised single-handedly better than anyone; seeing his dejected look, what else was there to understand?

"I saw her, I saw her..." Qi Han smiled. "In the blink of an eye, she's already a grown young lady."

"How is she?" Wei Sheren became interested upon hearing this.

Qi Han's expression softened. He was naturally very delicate-looking, though he had become so thin now that his features were gaunt. "Her eyes and brows are like her mother's, her nose and mouth are like mine."

"Isn't that very good?" Wei Sheren put down the rag and walked over to pat his eldest disciple on the shoulder.

"... Master," Qi Han hesitated, but couldn't help asking, "Did you... did you know all along that she would come this time?"

"What? You really take your master for a deity?" Wei Sheren glanced at him and patted his belly. "Speculating on Heavenly secrets is the business of those old fogies at the Taixuan Sect. Don't you know the results of us alchemists trying to force a deduction? It only harms others and oneself."

"Master, you just insulted yourself as well; we are also Daoists, after all." Qi Han calmly pointed this out.

Wei Sheren was frustrated by his lack of progress. "It is precisely because you are always obsessed with these irrelevant details that you have been stuck at this stage for so long!"

Qi Han stopped talking; his cultivation had indeed not made much progress over these years. Seeing his half-dead state, Wei Sheren ultimately didn't have the heart to say anything more.

"Sigh..." he sighed. "I just saw a young girl in the Beihai Sword Sect's group who looked just like you, so I wanted you to go try your luck."

"I'm afraid, Master," Qi Han looked at the rafters. "I want to see her in the Beihai Sword Sect, yet I am afraid to see her in the Beihai Sword Sect."

His eyes were vacant, as if he had fallen into memories. "When I sent her away, she was so small; she could lose her life if I wasn't careful. If I don't see her, I worry she's dead; if I see her, she has stepped back into this whirlpool."

"She shouldn't have come back, she shouldn't have come back..."

Qi Han muttered, sliding down to sit on the floor.

"Master, I have been thinking, thinking over and over, have we gone too far on the path of trying to fathom the will of Heaven?"

He reached forward and grabbed Wei Sheren's sleeve, his knuckles turning white from the force.

"If we hadn't cast that divination back then... if we hadn't tried to pry into the will of Heaven... if we knew nothing at all..."

"Then Jing'er, the child of Yunhua and me, would just be a child with a Natural Sword Bone. We could have happily sent her to the Beihai Sword Sect, and it wouldn't matter if we saw her rarely... or if she had no talent at all, I would have found a good family for her to live a life free from worry..."

Wei Sheren sighed again. Even though it was a bit difficult for his physique, he squatted down to look his most beloved disciple in the eye and said earnestly, "Han'er, there are no 'ifs' in this world, nor is there any regret medicine."

"Just as you said, we have gone too far on this dead-end path of prying into the will of Heaven. Unfortunately, it is a road to nowhere; once you step on it, there is no way to turn back."

Qi Han trembled all over upon hearing this. His hand, which was clutching Wei Sheren's clothes tightly, was grabbed by the wrist by the latter.

"Fifteen years ago, I told you, for her own good, it would be better to kill her and let her break free from this skin."

"But that is my Jing'er, Master!" Two lines of tears slid down Qi Han's cheeks. "I couldn't bring myself to do it, even knowing that I would also..."

"Since you couldn't bear for her to die, then we let her live," Wei Sheren continued. "Putting her in Shengxian Town and letting her be taken away by mortals was all for this one purpose. It would be best if she never stepped into the cultivation world, but since she has returned, we must not lose our composure."

Speaking of this, a rare look of solemnity appeared on Wei Sheren's chubby face. "You just act as her Senior Brother, act as her Senior Brother for a lifetime, so that no one can link her to your daughter. That disciple under the Fang Luo Sect slandered her as a Natural Demon Seed today; that is actually a good identity. You might as well make it official!"

"But my Jing'er is not a Demon Seed!" Qi Han subconsciously retorted.

"Of course she is not a Demon Seed. The Great Dao is fifty, the Heavenly evolution is forty-nine, and man escapes with one. The world only knows that there is always a glimmer of survival in the dark, but they do not know that the extreme of life is death, and the extreme of death is life..." Wei Sheren's tone softened. "She is not a Demon Seed, but rather a pure Dao Seed. But if this matter gets out, with her current cultivation, she really won't be able to survive."

"Master!" Qi Han called out shortly.

"Shh... keep your voice down, don't let 'them' hear," Attendant Wei covered his mouth, looking up at the rafters as if he could see the vast, boundless starry sky outside, "Rest assured, I will go find Duan Xuan to have a talk. I understand him; he was able to protect Bai Xinli back then, so there is no reason he would stand idly by regarding Jing'er. If there is any fault in this matter, it is not with you, your wife, or Jing'er..."

Speaking to this point, his tone could not help but turn sorrowful, "The only one at fault is this old man who tried to catch a glimpse of the heavenly secrets."