Clang!
The Xuanyuan Heavy Sword slipped from her grip and crashed to the ground.
The sword guard smashed right onto Sushang's toe. Under normal circumstances, the very next second would feature a scene requiring a voiceover from Teacher Tom.
But at this moment, because every thread and bit of computing power in Sushang's brain was processing the massive amount of information shared by her bestie, even the pain signal was stuck outside her skull, unable to get in.
Even in a world possessing the mysterious power of Paths, when ordinary people meet someone who looks exactly like them, they wouldn't let their minds wander towards brain-holes like parallel worlds.
A normal person would first think of coincidence. When the resemblance reaches a certain degree, the second reaction would be to wonder if there is a blood relationship between the two.
Normal people would only think in other directions after ruling out the second option. But given Sushang's brain capacity, it was obviously impossible for her to actively think in such a biased direction.
As her bestie threw out more and more information, Sushang's pupils began to roll like a slot machine, finally freezing into the classic wise gaze of a certain Academy Principal. She began to mutter to herself.
"I remember when I was little, I asked my dad and mom where I came from. Mom said I was picked up from a trash can, and Dad said I fell out of a stone when he was splitting meteoric iron with his sword..."
Back then, the young Sushang had been sad for several minutes after hearing that answer.
Sushang began to employ her world-shocking wisdom to think.
"People often say the truth is hidden in inadvertent jokes."
How many clowns have used April Fool's Day as a cover to say the words 'I like you'?
"Waaah! Little Gui! Was I really picked up from a trash can by my mom?"
Accidentally discovering a heaven-shaking secret her parents had hidden for two hundred years, Sushang turned pale with fright, as if the world had collapsed. She hurriedly grabbed Guinaifen's small hand and spoke with agitation.
"Actually, I have a twin sister, and Mom didn't pick her up back then!?"
As for why Sushang admitted that the 'Sushang' in Little Gui's mouth was the older sister...
That was a Sword Immortal girl!
With elegant and spirited swordsmanship, she helped the Xianzhou find the headquarters of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus.
Taking Little Gui, this deadweight, she infiltrated the place, destroyed the enemy's trump card that could threaten the Cloud Knight troops, and effortlessly captured the future seeds of disaster transferred by the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus at a critical juncture...
Little Gui didn't even need to embellish it too much; just stating her deeds was enough to make Sushang fascinated.
If they were twins, the other party definitely couldn't be her younger sister, it must be the older sister—
Otherwise, wouldn't that make her look like trash!?
"Uh, Shangshang, isn't your imagination a bit too good?"
Sushang's outrageous ability to fill in the blanks made Guinaifen unable to resist roasting her. Half of what she said was a joke!
How did she actually follow that train of thought?
Guinaifen could only say: This flavor is right!
This was the real Shangshang—simple, pure, and easy to fool.
The previous Sword Immortal girl who handled various tricky situations with ease, who gallantly said, 'If the General can't do it, who says I can't?', had a style that seriously clashed with Shangshang's character setting!
"Sigh."
And here she thought her bestie had really fallen in love, that love had salvaged her precarious IQ. It seemed her bestie's ditziness was incurable.
"So, who exactly is the Sister Sushang who was playing with us before?"
Bailu poured some unknown liquid from the small gourd at her waist into the mouth of a comatose Disciples member. Turning around, she flicked her petite yet thick tail, whipping the person into rolling over twice.
Bailu turned her head to look at the naive Shangshang, who had 'rash youth' written all over her forehead.
"It can't really be twin sisters, right?"
There couldn't possibly be such a huge gap between sisters, could there?
"Where is that Sushang? Little Gui, take me to see her quickly!"
Having grown up, the clever Sushang naturally knew that her mom saying she was picked up from a trash can was a joke, but the matter of having a sister... might not be completely impossible.
"Her? She went to execute a mission issued by General Jing Yuan."
Guinaifen rested her chin in her hand, answering while thinking.
Although she knew the bestie who had been by her side for the past while was a fake, she didn't feel much sense of crisis, nor was she panicked.
Guinaifen could be certain that the other party wasn't a bad person. Everything she did was to help the Luofu solve problems, so what was there to worry about?
She was pondering if Sword Immortal Sushang might be a member of some secret organization like [Schicksal], born during the Xianzhou's time of crisis, shouldering the heavy responsibility of saving the common people—that's how it always played out in scenic fictions.
"A mission issued by the General!"
"Yep, and she accepted it in your name, oh."
Since Sword Immortal Sushang was impersonating Shangshang, it meant she knew of Shangshang's existence. When acting under her identity, she had farmed a super huge amount of war merits for Shangshang.
Once the war was over and it came time to award merits, with the credit on 'Sushang', it was hard to say how many ranks she might be promoted.
Giving away such huge war merits for free—it couldn't just be to see Shangshang's dumbfounded and overwhelmed expression when facing a promotion, right?
Sword Immortal Shang and Shangshang must have some unknown intimate relationship!
This was the basis for Guinaifen proposing that they were twin sisters. Otherwise, without kith or kin, who would give you a war merit gift pack for free?
"A mission issued by the General personally!"
Little Pillow's eyes went wide. She hadn't even spoken to the General yet, while that suspected sister Sushang had interfaced directly with him.
"Let's go help her!"
Sushang excitedly shouldered the Xuanyuan Heavy Sword and dragged her bestie's hand, rushing outward.
Publicly, as a Cloud Knight, she was duty-bound to help execute the General's mission.
Privately, she couldn't wait to figure out the other party's identity!
"No, wait, do you know where she is?"
Sushang's mind wasn't sharp, but she had brute force. Guinaifen had no room to resist and was dragged into a run, feeling somewhat torn between laughter and tears.
"Hehe... I don't know."
Stopping abruptly, which caused Guinaifen to crash into her back and nearly made them both tumble, Sushang scratched the back of her head and laughed awkwardly.
Bailu shook her head and sighed, flicking her tail as she hopped to their side, her small hands on her hips in a posture exactly like a certain emergency food:
"At a time like this, it's this young lady's turn to step in!"
Guinaifen and Sushang exchanged a glance. "Does Lady Dragon High Elder have a way to find Shangshang... uh, Shangshang's sister?"
Let's just call her that for now.
"I don't have a way, but it does!"
Bailu pulled out a mechanical puppy from somewhere. It was none other than the Ingenium beast specifically used for tracking people and items—Diting.
Bailu took out the gift Sister Sushang had given her, which still retained Sister Sushang's scent. The Diting sniffed it, circled on the spot a few times, and finally ran towards the direction of the Artisanship Commission.
"Bark, bark! (Sir, this way!)"
"Go, let's follow!"
Handing the comatose Disciples of Sanctus Medicus members over to the Cloud Knight squad, Bailu used her status as the Dragon Lady to temporarily commandeer Sushang away from her team.
In principle, this wasn't according to the rules.
But Sushang was currently just an ordinary Cloud Knight Private Second Class, of no importance, so commandeering her was no big deal.
Similar to the design of the other six delve Commissions, the Artisanship Commission also possessed eight frequently used entrances and exits corresponding to the Eight Trigrams directions, along with a varying number of small doors.
The rescued artisans and equipment were temporarily stationed in front of the main gates. Guinaifen, Bailu, and Sushang chased the Diting, entering from the Alchemy Commission side through a small door.
They didn't encounter much obstruction along the way; the monsters on this path had obviously been cleared out.
Boom~!
"Shangshang, Lady Dragon High Elder, did you hear an explosion?"
Guinaifen stopped and looked up into the distance.
"Is there something wrong with your ears?"
Bailu looked sideways grumpily at the Diting that had run back. Behind it were Mara-struck Ingenia damaged by Guinaifen's firecrackers.
Anyone with ears could hear that explosion, okay!?
She didn't know why a street performer would carry explosives with her, but she finally understood why the Realm-Keeping Commission deacons were always chasing after Guinaifen.
"I'm not talking about my firecrackers! Someone is fighting in that direction. Look at Little Diting's appearance; it's very likely the other Sushang."
"Then what are we waiting for? Hurry!"
Sushang dragged her bestie and Bailu, sprinting towards the sound.
Expending the strength of nine bulls and two tigers, Sushang climbed up a high platform, finally using the high vantage point to see the distant scene.
Clang!
The Xuanyuan Heavy Sword in her hand dropped to the ground again. Before, it smashed her right toe; this time, it smashed her left toe. But Little Pillow remained indifferent.
"L-L-Little Gui, Lady Dragon High Elder, hurry, come up and see the Immortal!"
The trembling vocal cords and incoherent tone revealed the shock the speaker was suffering.
"What, what? Immortal?"
Bailu moved her short legs and scampered up, then immediately screamed out: "Wah!"
"Then pull me up quickly... Holy shit!"
As the most down-to-earth internet streamer of the three, Little Gui couldn't help but curse directly.
In the distance, above the sea of clouds of the Xianzhou, a beautiful figure, like an ink plum braving the frost, stood suspended on a sword.
The battlefield before her no longer looked anything like the Artisanship Commission. Not a single object was intact; walls and stones were neatly sliced into who knows how many segments. Even the vast majority of the floor tiles she stepped on were covered in sword marks.
She could barely see the white-dressed girl unfolding a sword array. Seemingly standing on the hilt of a sword erected high on the ground with one foot, she was in reality standing suspended in the air.
The white-dressed girl stepped on the sword array, dodging and shifting with elegance and agility. Countless strands of sword qi, flying swords, and sword shadows painted a peerless scroll in the sky.
Energies of deep ice blue and clear aquatic blue—two similar colors—clashed continuously. The entire battlefield was already littered with frozen broken swords and remnant hilts.
"T-T-This..."
Sushang's mouth gaped wide enough to stuff a fist in. She was dumbstruck by the scene before her eyes, completely unable to speak.
"Sword, Rise!"
The moon-white skirt hem fluttered. The girl let out a gallant shout, her pupils glowing with golden light. A thousand void swords formed an array in response, emitting crisp and clangorous sword hums.
Clear and melodious, yet it vibrated Bailu's eardrums until they itched and hurt. She covered her ears with her small hands.
"...So amazing!"
A thousand void swords floated in the boundless vastness behind her. The place where the Ruoshui sword in her hand pointed was precisely the domain of cold wind and snow of the Ancient Mirror Illuminating Spirit rolled up around Jingliu.
Gulp!
Guinaifen swallowed hard, her gaze shifting back and forth between Li Sushang and Shangshang.
Sushang was already completely mesmerized!
When the girl spun her body while stepping on the sword, the jade hairpin in her hair came loose. Her black hair danced with the sword qi, like a banished immortal who dined on rosy clouds and drank dew.
Especially since that white-dressed girl had a face exactly the same as hers!
She felt like she was simply dreaming.
Sword shadows lunged at the opposing white-haired beauty like ice dragons leaving their nest.
"New Moon Halo Seven Stars—"
The Extreme Cold Domain spread instantly. Cold air surged like waves. Even from a distance, the three of them felt their bodies stiffening from the freeze.
"Tranquil Moon Spectral Transmigration."
A voice, cold yet mixed with madness—or perhaps even the madness was frozen by that chill—rang out. Several solid crescent-shaped strands of sword qi, a hundred zhang long, were slashed out by the white-haired beauty.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Thousands of sword shadows collided with the ice blade crescents, emitting explosive booms, the clang-clang of blades striking, and the sound of ice crystals shattering.
"Aba aba aba..."
Sushang seemed to have lost the ability to speak.
How could she help with this?
Could she even withstand the aftershock of a single strand of sword qi if she went in?
Sushang's already dull brain turned into paste.
She wasn't sure of that Sword Immortal Shang's identity, but an idiot's intuition brought her a sense of intimacy.
Maybe she really was her sister!
Sushang really hoped that was the truth.
In that case, she could cling to her sister's thighs. In the future, maybe she could also become a Sword Immortal xia like that!
Cool!
Too cool!
Immortal!
...Uh, she couldn't think of any more adjectives.
The deafening explosions ceased, ushering in a brief peace. But the changes in the surrounding temperature and her accelerating heartbeat told Sushang that this seemed to be merely the calm before the storm.
"It is time to decide the winner."
The white-haired beauty raised the heavy ice sword in her hand.
____
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉