"What kind of master are you, really? If it weren't for me carrying his Life Plate, I'd probably never even know if my disciple died!"
"If my disciple dies, the lineage of the Mandarin Duck Sword Sect will be cut off, and my parents' final wishes won't be completed. How can you feel okay about this? My mother couldn't bear to pass the Yuan Sword to even me, yet she taught it to you, an outsider, and instead taught me the Mandarin Duck Sword learned from a man. Now you've become some so-called Lotus Sword Venerable and forgotten your roots, forgotten how you promised my mother before she died?"
"Guan Chujun, I hope you understand a bit. It's not that Master wouldn't teach you the Yuan Sword, but that you simply couldn't learn it, so she had to find another path. It was you who thought yourself not inferior to men and forced yourself to learn the Mandarin Duck Sword. In the end, even when the Master passed away, you only learned the basics, yet you dare to take disciples and mislead them."
The Fairy coldly responded to the Immortal Sword in her hand, interrupting the endless chatter.
"Bullshit! I just didn't care to learn it. This lousy Swordsmanship is only a treasure to the likes of you, a country bumpkin. Did you forget when you learned swordsmanship at my place? Even with empty fists, I could beat ten of you!"
"Later, when I took up the sword, you never failed to admit defeat."
The Fairy's tone was very calm, but the words pierced into the mouth of the angry woman opposite like a sharp sword, causing her to fall silent.
"I won't argue with you about useless things; my precious disciple is about to die, do you know?"
"I know."
"What good is knowing? Knowing didn't stop him from almost dying, did it? If you truly knew, you wouldn't let him face such danger!" The voice on the other side became increasingly high-pitched and passionate. "I saw his Life Plate about to shatter and came out of such deep sea, killed so many evils to return to the land, contacted you immediately, and you casually replied with 'I know.' Tell me, why would you let him be in such peril if you knew?"
"He never told me he needed help. He only asked me how to deal with someone of a higher realm than him."
"What did you say?"
"I said just do like your master would."
The woman on the sword side fell silent for a while, akin to the eerie calm before a volcanic eruption.
"He Shutong, why are you so arrogant? Why would you have him learn from me when there was nothing wrong? Does he have to plead with you for help when he's in danger? Don't you know you're his master?"
"Firstly, whether he asks for help or not, I would save him. Secondly, I'm not his master; that's merely your perverse joke. He calls me master, but I've never accepted it. Truth be told, I'm at most his uncle."
"I don't care! Since I agreed to let you stay for ten years to comprehend your mundane world, you must fulfill the promise you made to me and ensure my disciple's safety!"
"He's not the ten-year-old child you have in mind." The Fairy raised her head, looking towards Chuyun City, and replied lightly.
"What do you mean?" You Su's master hurriedly asked with concern.
"An Evil Cultivator has set their sights on him..."
"What? An Evil Cultivator? You let him face an Evil Cultivator alone? All I asked was for you not to interfere when he fought with those kids. After all, growing up like me meant fighting others from a young age, but I never said you could ignore even the Evil Cultivators!"
"Do you want to listen?" The master's tone was cold and impatient.
The person on the other end had to reluctantly put aside her temper, her tone slightly calmed, "Speak quickly!"
"I immersed myself in the mundane world and long locked away my Profound Qi unable to use a bit of it. By the time I noticed he was targeted by an Evil Cultivator, I had already seen the corpse of the Dream Centipede."
"Dream Centipede? You mean this blind kid saw the Dream Centipede himself and killed it?"
"Yes, he even seemed to have feigned cooperation, deceiving that Evil Cultivator."
"Is this kid really that clever?"
"You're thinking, if he were so clever, how could he not have realized you're a woman after all these years, just because you couldn't hold back from making that joke forever?"
"Cut the nonsense, keep speaking!"
"In my view, he's a stubborn person. Once he falls into a misconception, he's prone to losing calm thought."
"All because he can't see through that I'm a woman?"
"Not only that, but he's never thought to ask for my help, not because he doesn't want to, but because he genuinely thinks I'm a master who needs his protection. It's solely because I've told him many times that I have no cultivation, and he's deeply believed this."
"The widely known Lotus Sword Venerable, is your skin so thick? Needing a child's protection?"
"I've never deceived him; I indeed have no cultivation. How he chooses to think is his matter."
"He Shutong, I don't even know how to criticize you."
"You can't scold me. He can't hide under your protection forever. If you wanted, you wouldn't leave him alone to seek that so-called truth outside the Five Continents. The cruelty of the cultivation path, he will experience sooner or later, and this Evil Cultivator is the best Philosopher's Stone delivered to him."
"It's my fault to him..."
"Apologizing to me is of no use; you should tell him yourself after returning alive."
Another long silence, yet internally, the Fairy was also touched. Regardless of how she mocked, the silent woman was still her best confidante, the only one she could really talk to.
At this moment, the other person was alone, hibernating in the most treacherous corner of this world.
She pursed her cherry lips, broke the silence first with a softened tone:
"You can rest assured, he crossed a major realm and counter-killed that Evil Cultivator."
"Ha, isn't that because I taught him well!" The woman on the other side resumed her vigor, her tone quite proud. "When I created havoc on the Divine Mountain back then, wasn't it you who persuaded me, otherwise who dared to stop me?"
The Fairy didn't continue to mock the other side: "There is just one peculiar thing."
"What is it?"
"I couldn't use Profound Qi to sense the details of that battle and only saw from afar, as he was about to lose, he erupted a mighty force to win instead. Perhaps he has his own secrets and fortuitous encounters unknown to us."
"When he was young, I knew every color of underwear he wore. How did he start having secrets when left to you? Can you even teach disciples?"
"My disciple is the leading genius Wangshu Fairy, while your disciple is merely a novice barely entering the Spirit Platform Realm."
"Haven't you heard 'do not mock the young' wisdom? Hey, I'm serious, if my disciple doesn't fancy you, why not let your so-called prodigy female disciple learn the Yuan Sword and be You Su's companion? That would fulfill my parents' wishes and continue the Mandarin Duck Sword Sect's lineage, saving you, an old hag, from spoiling my sweet disciple."
"If you don't want me to continue protecting your disciple, you could simply say so, no need for such nonsense to annoy me."
"Don't, don't, come on, I was kidding, isn't that okay?"
"Besides, you should know that there's more than just me who knows the Yuan Sword."
"That's bullshit! My mother only passed it to you and no one else."
"When You Su was fifteen, he found himself a junior apprentice. His talent in Sword Dao is exceptional; even with the Yuan Sword, typically practiced by females, he could teach others."
"What are you saying?! This kid found a wife for himself?"