Nevertheless Jianhai’s expression didn’t change in the slightest, he remained
entirely unaffected
, for no matter how eccentric he was, Jianhai was in the end hundreds of years old and had tempered himself through countless life-and-death trials throughout his long life; he certainly wouldn’t be intimidated by his disciple’s killing intent or anger.
Consequently, seeing her reaction, he decided to hit while the iron was hot, his expression growing gentler as he continued, “I know that it’s painful, and I know it hurts you to not know Mikael’s state, only knowing that he is
extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely
far away, but—”
“NO BUT!!! I NEED TO GROW STRONGER AND THIS IS WHAT I WILL DO!!!!” roared Lian’er, cutting Jianhai mid-sentence, yet the old man wasn’t offended; on the contrary, he was even slightly happy, for at the very least she was willing to talk and not focus 1000% of her energy on cultivation like during the previous times he visited her…
“Is it truly the case? Let’s say that you do grow stronger, even
far stronger
, even reaching the Soul Formation Realm—will it change
anything
? Will you be able to reach Mikael!?”
Jianhai’s words, which exposed the uncomfortable truth Lian’er refused to acknowledge, destabilized her, and for a moment her composure wavered.
‘She is finally seeing reason!’ Jianhai thought joyfully, feeling as though this was the first good news he had received since that…
dreadful exploration
of the Realm of Broken Skies where Mikael disappeared.
A disappearance that had brought with it
so much darkness…
Wanting to press his ‘advantage,’ Jianhai continued to speak, this time in an even gentler tone, “Look, I know that you are angry, sad, and drowning in guilt for not having ‘saved’ Mikael—letting him get caught up in the now completely broken Dimensional Gate activation, and—”
He took a small pause, his voice growing heavier before he continued, “I am the same!”
“!!!”
Lian’er’s shaken gaze grew sharper as her attention fully snapped onto her Master while he went on, “I wasn’t even there at the
Realm of Broken Skies
, only learning afterward that my disciple was lost—so far away that reaching him within our lifetime is, for all intents and purposes, impossible…”
Sigh.
A regretful sigh escaped him, laced with both sorrow and restrained anger.
“Learning that… it was a shock,” he admitted while regretfully shaking his head, “but mindlessly cultivating like this is
certainly not
the path to bringing him back!”
“No matter how long you cultivate, no matter how
desperately
you push yourself, reaching the speed needed to bring him back before old age claims you is something that is… profoundly impossible!”
“If we want to bring him back, we need another way.”
Jianhai then took a deep breath before finishing his ‘speech’ on a gentle note, “So please come with me and let’s go search for a
real way
to find him, stop destroying yourself by cultivating like that…”
“...”
Lian’er didn’t immediately answer his words, instead looking downward and letting her bangs fall to cover her visage as she remained silent…
Seeing her like that, Jianhai could only hope that his words had truly reached her heart, after all while what he said was somewhat… maladroit, he was genuinely speaking from the heart; he didn’t want her to continue down her current…
frantic
cultivation.
After all, Lian’er’s current cultivation pace since 3 months ago was like riding a rocket, with her going from the Peak of the Spiritual Foundation Realm to then triggering the Qi Baptism Tribulation.
A Tribulation that all cultivators who reached the Peak of the Spiritual Foundation Realm needed to endure—and more importantly survive—which would allow them to reach the next Major Realm, the Core Formation Realm.
Lian’er survived this Tribulation and even reaped immense benefits, allowing her to reach the 1st layer of the Core Formation Realm, but that wasn’t all, as she instantly continued with her cultivation and then reached the 2nd layer of the Core Formation Realm.
Her pace of progress was truly unprecedentedly rapid, to a point that other Heavenly Geniuses could only be jealous, and this even more so considering that she didn’t consume any Heavenly Wonder—it was
purely her determined and frantic
cultivation that brought her here, still—
Jianhai couldn’t bring himself to be happy with it!
It was clear that Lian’er’s mental state was
extremely dangerous
, and cultivating in such a state was doubly so, something easily observable from the bloodied state of the Cultivation Abode…
Which was why he hoped, from the bottom of his heart, that his disciple would accept his offer and stop with her self-tormenting cultivation; these were his feelings as he anxiously waited for her answer.
“...”
Lianyu continued to stare at the ground for long seconds that slowly transformed into minutes, with Jianhai patiently waiting for her answer, and as the time she spent lost in her ‘thoughts’ grew longer and longer, he grew more hopeful.
‘If she is thinking, there is hope she will recognize reality and stop with her self-destructive thoughts!’
“Get… out…” suddenly Lian’er’s voice resounded.
“What?” A shocked exclamation escaped Jianhai, who didn’t expect, not even for a single second, that
these
would be the words to leave her mouth after she had spent minutes in thought, “This… Lian’er, think things through, continuing like—”
“Get out!”
Lian’er repeated the same words as earlier, but this time louder and sharper!
Whoohm.
At the same time a dark and heavy aura emanated from Lian’er, weighing down onto the Cultivation Abode as a small part of the darkness in her heart manifested into reality, causing the air to grow heavier while the light illuminating the room dimmed.
“I…” Jianhai began to speak, but he cut himself off, seeing Lian’er’s current dark aura, and ultimately didn’t continue, ‘I won’t push any further today, this was already good progress compared to the earlier times I visited her, at least this time she was open to conversation…’
Swish.
With these thoughts Jianhai turned on his heels and soon walked out of the Cultivation Abode, leaving these words behind, “Please think about what I said.”
Clank.
The stone ‘door’ slid shut with a dull, heavy sound, obscuring Jianhai’s departing figure from Lian’er’s view and sealing the Cultivation Abode once more.
A thick and oppressive silence returned, leaving the crazed beauty utterly alone amid the bloodied room, surrounded by the unmistakable traces of the suffering she had inflicted upon herself during her cultivation.
For a brief moment, she didn’t move.
Then—
“Hehe…”
A soft, broken giggle escaped her lips as she slowly tilted her head upward, her bangs slipping aside to reveal her eyes—eyes in which immense malice churned and twisted, no longer concealed by any pretense of sanity.
Her lips curled into a mocking smirk, the corners trembling as the giggle grew louder, sharper.
“Hehe… hehehe… HEHEHEHEHEHEHE—!”
Lianyu erupted into a loud, demented laugh as she lurched forward, clutching her stomach instinctively, her shoulders shaking violently while her laughter echoed endlessly within the confined stone chamber.
“HHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE—!”
The laughter rang on for several long minutes before gradually dying down, fading into ragged breaths as her body stilled, silence once more returning to the Cultivation Abode but now far heavier than before!
Lian’er then slowly straightened, “Stupid…” she muttered, her voice odd and distorted, “So stupid.”
Her gaze drifted downward, unfocused, as Qi once more began to gather around her body, responding eagerly to the warped will driving her forward.
“Power is all that matters. Without it, even if I find Mikael, I won’t be able to protect him! Like before!” her gaze hardened.
And then, without a shred of hesitation, she sank back into her cultivation, the white mist immediately turning turbulent around her, as though even the Qi itself had learned to mirror the madness taking root within her heart…
Minutes ago, Jianhai had left his disciple with relatively positive thoughts, and that remained the case even though he had been ‘chased out’; the reason was simple—this old man
finally felt
that things were going in the right direction.
This time, Lian’er wasn’t entirely closed, as could be seen from the fact that he was able to have a conversation with her and even made her fall into thought over the words he said—something which was miles ahead of his earlier visits, where she was focused at 1,000,000% on cultivating and ignored him
no matter what!
This made him believe that things were finally progressing in the right direction, unfortunately—
That wasn’t the case,
not at all!
Jianhai’s words were rational and logical and could have convinced Lian’er
if and only if
she was in the right state of mind, being fully able to think and understand reality, sadly—
With her current twisted mindset, what happened was actually the total opposite!
His words further convinced her unstable and twisted mind that she was
definitively right
and that she needed to grow stronger at ALL COSTS!
What consequences the further deterioration of her already twisted mentality would have on her own cultivation and on the world at large was still to be seen…
End of Volume 4: Wandering Sword Sect
Author Note:
Enjoying the story?
A quick
review
or
follow
helps more readers discover this world.
A few words from me below.
———
Slightly shorter chapter than usual sorry about that, but—
I actually have a good reason, which is twofold, first of all the Volume 4 couldn’t end in the same chapter as Volume 5(they need to be separated by a chapter, so I was kinda obligated to not write more, or at least not in this chapter)
Of course that would only be valid if I had some backlog for further chapters which isn’t the case at all(I don’t have a single word left so… yeah.)
The second reason why the chapter is shorter(actually doesn’t really matter because of reason 1 but whatever) is because I was planning my Volume 5.
I already had an idea of what Volume 5 would be about in extremely large lines but now that it’s time to write it, I needed to think this through and plan things more which is the main thing I did today and to be honest, I am extremely satisfied with the current plan and hyped for Volume 5.
I believe that Volume 5 is probably the most ambitious one I ever wrote(before it was Volume 4 the most ambitious, considering that it was a kind of ‘soft reset’ for which I created a new verse(with the Akashic Records Universe and all that)
I believe Volume 5 is even more ambitious(and hard to write) because I will need to ‘juggle’ a bunch of relatively complicated subjects together and ideally write them well together(which will be particularly hard considering some will be on aspects I never wrote about but—)
Even if it’s hard I will still write it as I have in mind(I won’t change my current plan to another because it’s ‘hard’ to write…)
Anyways I will stop boring you with my rant, I am simply in a good mood which is why the Author Note is this long.
———
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— End of Chapter —