Chapter 226: Killing the Master
How exactly should one describe the current atmosphere? To call it merely awkward would be a gross understatement.
Li Sushang's gaze darted back and forth, lingering on the suddenly expressionless Cheng Lingshuang, then shifting toward a deeply pensive Rovel. Off to the side, completely ignoring the trio, Otto stood in silent reverence, his eyes locked affectionately onto the pristine white coffin.
Sushang swallowed hard. Who could have possibly guessed that her aloof master and this mysterious Senior Uncle Rovel shared such a heavy, intertwined past?
Just moments ago, Cheng Lingshuang had been sobbing into his chest like a lost, heartbroken little girl. Now, her master had snapped back to her usual icy demeanor. The whiplash was enough to make Sushang dizzy; it was as if two entirely different souls inhabited the same body. Still, the young swordswoman kept her mouth shut. Pressing the issue now would undoubtedly earn her a brutal, agonizing training session at her dear master's hands.
"Senior Brother," Lingshuang broke the silence, her voice smooth but carrying an undercurrent of intense scrutiny. "Why did you vanish for decades? And..." Her eyes swept over his face, cataloging every familiar contour. "...your appearance hasn't aged a single day."
Rovel let out a soft sigh, finally recounting the chaotic sequence of events that had trapped him in isolation. He spared no detail, laying bare the truth of his long absence.
"So, the rumors about you succumbing to mara... they were actually true?" Lingshuang's composure cracked. A flicker of genuine shock crossed her features. Without warning, she closed the distance between them and seized Rovel by the collar.
Sushang blinked, leaning in slightly, her curiosity getting the better of her. What exactly was her master planning to do?
Rip!
With a sudden, sharp tug, Lingshuang yanked her hands outward. The fabric of Rovel's shirt tore straight down the middle, the buttons popping off and scattering across the floor.
Rovel's chest was laid completely bare. Lean, sculpted muscles and a flawless, powerful physique were suddenly put on full display.
Sushang gasped, stumbling backward. "Ma... Master, what are you doing!" she shrieked, slapping both hands over her eyes. "Men and women shouldn't be so intimate!"
Despite her hands covering her face, her fingers were splayed just enough to let her peek. Her cheeks burned a furious, bright crimson, and nervous tears pricked the corners of her eyes. She was an innocent maiden raised on martial arts and strict discipline; she had never been confronted with a half-naked man in such a brazen manner!
Lingshuang ignored her disciple's flustered squeaking entirely. Her expression remained deadly serious as she reached out, her cool fingertips tracing over Rovel's chest and shoulders. She pressed into the muscle, searching for the telltale purple veins or corrupted flesh that marked the onset of mara.
She found nothing. His skin was warm, healthy, and entirely unblemished. There was not a single trace of Honkai corruption.
"I used the Liangyi Immortal Art," Rovel explained, calmly enduring her invasive inspection. "I managed to fuse the true qi and inner strength within my body. It was a desperate gamble, but inadvertently, it pulled my body back from the absolute brink of succumbing to mara. The process completely refined my foundation, pushing my strength to a much higher level."
He pulled the torn edges of his shirt together, offering a wry smile. "I just didn't expect the hibernation process to cost me several decades."
His smile faded, replaced by a heavy, serious frown. "But that brings up the real question. Master should have found me when I first lost control to the mara. Yet, she didn't kill me. She sealed me instead. After I left for the Northern Barrens... what exactly happened on Taixu Mountain?"
Lingshuang slowly withdrew her hands. She remained silent for a long moment, the weight of the past settling over her shoulders. Finding a nearby chair, she sat down, her gaze dropping to the floor as she began to unravel the history he had missed.
"While you were away in the Northern Barrens hunting demons, Master returned from a trip to Li Island in the East Sea. She brought back a new Junior Sister..." Lingshuang lifted a finger, pointing directly at the still-blushing Sushang. "...Qin Suyi. Her mother."
Sushang blinked, lowering her hands completely. Her mother? She tilted her head, searching her memories. Qin Suyi had never spoken a word about those early days on the mountain. To Sushang, her mother was simply the eighth disciple of Master Red Kite. The details had always been a locked door.
"When Master learned that you had ventured into the Northern Barrens alone, she immediately rushed out after you," Lingshuang continued, her voice tightening. "I begged to follow her. I wanted to find you. But Master deemed my strength insufficient. So, exactly like you did, she abandoned me on Taixu Mountain."
She shot Rovel a sharp, piercing glare, a flash of old annoyance cutting through her calm facade.
Rovel rubbed the back of his neck, a sheepish, awkward expression crossing his face. How was he supposed to know that leaving her behind for her own safety would result in a separation lasting decades? Still, he knew his judgment back then had been absolutely correct. The Northern Barrens were swarming with high-level Honkai beasts; it would have been a death sentence for the Cheng Lingshuang of that era.
"When Master finally returned..." Lingshuang's voice trembled slightly, forcing her to take a slow, deep breath to steady herself. "...she gathered us together. She told us that you had succumbed to mara. And because of that, she executed you in the Northern Barrens."
Even now, the memory was a physical blow. When those words had first left Red Kite's lips, Lingshuang's entire world had shattered. Her vision had gone completely black, her knees giving out as she collapsed into a dead faint right there in the courtyard. She hadn't woken up for several days.
Worse still, Red Kite had absolutely forbidden any of them from retrieving Rovel's remains. She offered no specific details of the battle, nor did she reveal where he had been buried. She simply washed her hands of the matter and immediately threw herself into teaching Qin Suyi the Taixu Sword Qi, acting as if nothing had changed.
From that day forward, a suffocating, icy shadow fell over Taixu Mountain. The warmth had been violently ripped away.
"But the reality is, Master didn't strike me down. She sealed me away in that cavern..." Rovel's brow furrowed deeply. He ran a hand through his hair, his mind racing to connect the fragmented pieces of Red Kite's logic. Why lie to her own disciples? Why force them to grieve?
"And then?" he pressed, leaning forward. "What happened after she announced my death?"
"A few years passed," Lingshuang said, her tone flattening into a hollow recitative. "My state of mind broke through and entered the Taixu realm. I successfully comprehended the Sword God technique. We continued our training. But then, one afternoon... Senior Sister Wanru began to show the signs. She was succumbing to mara."
Lingshuang closed her eyes, the vivid nightmare playing out behind her eyelids. "I remember that day with perfect clarity. Master didn't hesitate for a single second. She summoned her blade, fully intending to execute Senior Sister Wanru on the spot. But before the strike could fall... Senior Sister Chaoyu threw herself directly in the path of the blade."
"Chaoyu begged," Lingshuang whispered, the phantom echoes of her martial sister's desperate pleas filling the quiet room. "She begged Master on her hands and knees, pleading with her to at least wait until Wanru had completely lost her mind and succumbed to the corruption entirely before ending her life."
Lingshuang opened her eyes, staring blankly ahead. "In the end... Master lowered her sword. She did not strike."
"However, that moment of mercy broke something within the order," Lingshuang continued. "Although Master spared her, she completely stopped descending the mountain to eliminate demons. She locked herself away, only occasionally traveling down to the nearby villages with Chaoyu to purchase essential supplies."
"Meanwhile, Wanru's condition rapidly deteriorated. The purple, corrupted veins of mara crawled up her neck, taking over half of her face. Half of her hair lost all its color, turning a dead, stark white."
"It was during the peak of this crisis that Master suddenly vanished from the mountain. She left without a word, refusing to tell anyone where she was going or what she intended to do."
"Seeing an opportunity, Senior Sister Su Mei secretly slipped away as well, leaving right behind Master's back. But Su Mei returned much earlier. And when she came back, she brought something with her. Something specifically designed to kill an immortal."
Lingshuang's eyes narrowed into dangerous, glacial slits as she uttered the cursed name. "The blood of a huodou."
The room seemed to drop several degrees in temperature.
"She gathered us all together," Lingshuang said softly. "She used her silver tongue to convince everyone that Master had to die. Including me..."
Lingshuang's voice trailed off. She stopped speaking entirely, lifting her chin to lock eyes with Rovel.
"Senior Brother," she asked, her tone eerily calm, though the absolute rigidity of her posture betrayed her internal storm. "Do you believe I took part in the attack?"
Her gaze bored into him, intense and unblinking. Resting on her lap, her fists were clenched with such immense force that her knuckles had turned bone-white. It was painfully obvious to anyone watching; she was standing on a precipice, desperately needing to hear one specific answer from the man sitting across from her.
Rovel held her gaze. He didn't need to overthink it. He looked past the cold exterior of the Sword God and saw the stubborn, loyal junior sister he had spent years personally guiding.
"If you truly took the lessons I taught you to heart," Rovel said gently, a soft smile touching his lips, "then I believe... you probably didn't raise your sword against her. Am I right?"
The tension bleeding out of Lingshuang's shoulders was almost physical. Her stoic mask finally cracked, her expression twisting into one of deep, raw agitation. "Every single word you ever spoke to me, Senior Brother—I remember them! I remember all of them, crystal clear!"
She leaned forward, the words spilling out in a rushed, desperate confession. "When Master finally returned to the mountain, the ambush was sprung. Senior Sister Wanxi used her arts to strip away Master's sense of sound, while Junior Brother Yanqing shattered the light, plunging the area into absolute darkness. They sacrificed everything just to force a momentary opening for the rest of us to strike."
"I had my blade drawn. I was in position. But then... I heard your voice in my head. You once told me: 'If you truly feel this is your own will, and that the absolute time has come for your sword to be unsheathed, then go ahead and strike.'"
A bitter, self-deprecating laugh escaped her lips. "So, in the end... I lowered my sword. I knew the truth. I knew Master hadn't succumbed to mara, and I couldn't lie to my own heart just to justify murder. But..." Her voice cracked, heavy with centuries of guilt. "...I didn't step forward to save her, either. I just stood there and watched. Probably because... deep down, I still couldn't forgive her. I couldn't let go of the fact that she had killed you."
"The battle was a massacre," Lingshuang whispered, staring at her empty hands. "Even blinded and deafened, Master was too strong. But then, Senior Sister Su Mei unleashed the blood of the huodou, splashing it across Master's wounds to completely paralyze her immortal regeneration. Even then, Master gathered her remaining strength. She could have wiped us all out with a single, final strike. But right as she prepared to unleash it... Senior Sister Chaoyu stepped forward, throwing herself in front of the group."
Lingshuang closed her eyes, a single tear finally escaping to track down her cheek. "Master saw Chaoyu. And for a fraction of a second... she faltered. She pulled back her power."
"And in that exact moment of hesitation... Su Mei drove her blade straight through the center of Master's brow."
Silence reclaimed the room.
And just like that, through betrayal and a fatal moment of mercy, the invincible immortal of Taixu Mountain, Master Red Kite, finally fell.
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