“No matter what, don’t let these things trouble you.”
Shuang Feixue consoled her disciple.
“Dreams aren’t important. Whether what the person in the dream said is true or false, don’t get obsessed with it. A dream is just a dream. If anything happens, your master will handle it.”
Her voice was very soft, but very firm. Nanxi could feel her body trembling slightly.
There was no doubt it was fear, but her conviction was unshakeably solid.
“Master,” he suddenly said.
“If we lose, if that dragon isn’t trustworthy, if that woman is stronger than we imagine, will you blame me?”
Shuang Feixue was stunned for a moment, then shook her head vigorously.
“No, never. This matter is something I brought upon myself. It’s my own sin, the trouble that woman started. Xiao Xi just appeared at the wrong time.”
“But the plan was my idea.”
“And I support it.”
Shuang Feixue cupped his face, making him look at her.
“Xiao Xi, your master hasn’t done many right things in this life. But taking you away was probably the rightest one. So now, no matter what decision you make, your master will accompany you. If we succeed, we live together; if we fail, we die together.”
Shuang Feixue said it very calmly; for her, it was a matter of course.
But there was one thing she lied about—she wouldn’t let Nanxi die with her.
Nanxi looked at her, looked for a long time, then lowered his head and gently pressed a kiss to her lips.
“We won’t die, absolutely not.”
These few days, Zhang Yiwei hadn’t appeared before the two of them, just sending people every day with some tonics and pastries, attached with short notes saying things like take care of your health, await good news—harmless words.
Shuang Feixue was initially a bit uneasy, worried that the matter from that night had been noticed, but Nanxi seemed very indifferent.
“Even if she knows, she won’t say anything,” the boy commented.
“Zhang Yiwei is a pragmatic person. In the face of a greater crisis, she can put these personal matters aside.”
Nanxi didn’t understand the Zhang family’s eldest miss.
The boy was too confident, and later, he would lose exactly because of this.
Shuang Feixue really didn’t understand these twists and turns.
She just accompanied Nanxi every day in practicing swordsmanship, regulating breath, and nurturing the cold qi.
With Nanxi’s help, her meridians gradually cleared.
Although still far from her peak state back then, at least circulating internal force no longer caused stagnation or stabbing pain.
Occasionally, she could even condense that pure and biting cold qi from before, blooming an ice flower in her palm.
Every time she achieved this, she would stare at that ice flower in a daze, then quietly clench her fist and crush the ice flower.
In the evening, as the setting sun sank in the west, Nanxi and Shuang Feixue left the Zhang residence.
They didn’t tell anyone, didn’t go through the main gate, but flipped over the back wall of the Listening Bamboo Pavilion, following a secluded path toward the Peach Grove.
Shuang Feixue had changed into dark clothing convenient for movement, her long hair tied into a high ponytail, a long sword strapped to her back, and at her waist hidden the key item for breaking the seal this time.
Nanxi was still in his usual plain white attire, only with an extra leather belt tied at his waist, on which hung several small pouches containing the wealth he had saved over these years, and at his waist the long sword he had taken from the Daoist woman two years ago.
The Peach Grove appeared especially deep and secluded in the twilight.
The brilliant peach blossoms of the day had now become hazy dark shadows, layer upon layer pressing on the branches.
There was no wind; the grove was terrifyingly quiet, not even insect chirps could be heard, only the footsteps of the two stepping on fallen leaves, making a rustling light sound.
The pool was just ahead.
The closer they got, the more obvious that chill became.
It wasn’t the cold of winter; it was a deeper, more stagnant chill, like being completely inside an ice cave, surrounded by invisible beasts.
Dragon might.
Shuang Feixue subconsciously gripped her sword hilt tightly. Nanxi, however, stopped his steps and looked up at the sky.
A full moon was rising on the eastern mountain ridge, huge and round, emitting a clear and cold silver light.
The moonlight sprinkled on the Peach Grove, plating those flower branches with a hazy edge, and also illuminating the abnormal faint rippling blue luster on the pool’s surface.
“The time has come,” Nanxi said.
The boy walked to the pool’s edge, squatted down, and pressed his palm on the damp soil.
Cold qi surged from his palm, seeping into the ground like countless tiny roots, spreading toward the depths of the pool.
The water surface began to fluctuate.
At first, it was just ripples, soon turning into surges.
From the center of the pool, strings of bubbles emerged, gurgling, as if something enormous was awakening underwater.
Immediately after, a black shadow broke through the water, the splashes refracting shattered silver light under the moonlight.
Ao Xian stood on the waves.
The dragon girl had changed her attire tonight, no longer that soaked thin gauze, but a close-fitting black scale armor, the scales fine and dense like fish scales, flowing with a dull luster under the moonlight.
Her long hair was tied up with a bone hairpin, revealing her slender neck and the pair of jade-like dragon horns on her forehead.
Her face was paler than last time, but those golden-brown vertical pupils were startlingly bright, burning with suppressed anger and a hint of excitement.
Two hundred years.
She had finally waited for this day.
“Begin.”
Ao Xian’s voice was somewhat hoarse, her gaze fixed dead on Nanxi.
“I will suppress the seal for three breaths. Within three breaths, you must break the array eye.”
Nanxi nodded, about to circulate the cold qi, when at that moment, the sword at Shuang Feixue’s waist, warm like jade, began to glow.
A gentle, milky white light.
Shuang Feixue was startled, then reached into the cloth pouch.
She took out the sword; it was a short sword, the sheath silver-white, engraved with cloud patterns.
At this moment, the sheath was heating up, that warmth transmitting through the sheath to her palm, as if something inside was awakening.
“How is it starting on its own…”
Shuang Feixue was stunned.
As for Ao Xian, her expression didn’t change much.
“Ignore that sword; focus on the matter at hand.”
The three had no time to think further, because Ao Xian had already begun the countdown.
“Three.”
She formed hand seals, her body surging with black light.
The pool water began to rotate with her as the center, forming a huge vortex.
In the depths of the vortex, those transparent chain phantoms appeared again, emitting creaking sounds of unbearable strain.
“Two.”
The light from the sword sheath grew brighter, almost shining through.
And Nanxi felt a force surging within the sword sheath, gentle yet vast, resonating with the cold qi in his body.
“One!”
Ao Xian let out a sharp cry, and those chain phantoms were forcibly pried open a crack.
In that instant, the boy instinctively gripped the sword hilt from his master and pulled hard.
The sword was drawn from the sheath.
There was no earth-shattering momentum, only a gentle white sword light like moonlight.
That light was very soft, very quiet, like the warm sun of early spring afternoon, gently sprinkling over the pool.
But wherever it went, those indestructibly solid chain phantoms melted silently like ice and snow meeting fierce fire.
Not cut, not shattered, but melted.
As if they had never existed in this world.
The sword light touched the center of the pool, sinking into the water.
The next moment, the entire pool lit up, emitting a milky white light from the depths.
That light grew brighter, finally turning into a pillar of light shooting into the sky, illuminating the night sky like daylight.
Within the light pillar, Ao Xian’s figure slowly rose.
The scale armor on her body began to peel off, turning into pieces of black scales scattering into the water.
The dragon horns on her forehead cracked inch by inch, turning to powder.
Her form twisted and deformed in the light, finally dissipating completely.
No, not dissipating.
It was reshaping.
When the light gradually faded, the one reappearing in mid-air was a completely different Ao Xian.
She wore a black long skirt, the hem adorned with fine silver scale patterns.
Her long hair cascaded like a waterfall to her waist, the dragon horns on her forehead gone, replaced by a small silver dragon pattern imprinted on her brow.
Her appearance had also changed, shedding that demonic beauty, gaining a bit more aloof and ethereal temperament.
But those golden-brown vertical pupils remained, the burning light within even stronger than before.
Free.
Truly free.
Ao Xian slowly landed, standing at the pool’s edge.
She lowered her head to look at her own hands, then raised her head to look at Nanxi, her expression complex beyond description.
“The transaction is complete.”
She finally said only these four words.
Nanxi was still holding that sword; the blade warm like jade, entirely milky white, with a shallow golden vein on the spine, like naturally formed patterns.
At this moment, the light on the sword body was gradually fading, turning back into that unremarkable short sword.
He sheathed it, and that warm sensation also disappeared.
“Now, it’s time for you to fulfill your promise.”
Shuang Feixue stepped forward, blocking in front of Nanxi, vigilantly looking at Ao Xian.
Ao Xian didn’t answer.
Because she suddenly turned her head, looking toward the depths of the Peach Grove.
Almost at the same time, Nanxi and Shuang Feixue also sensed it.
A cold, slippery aura was spreading from within the grove, coiling around their skin like a snake.
Peach blossoms rustled down.
A vermilion figure slowly stepped out from the grove, walking very slowly, very leisurely.
The moonlight shone on her enchanting face, on that familiar robe, on the faint smile at the corner of her lips.
Madam Xuanji stopped at the pool’s edge, raised her head to look at the renewed Ao Xian, then looked at the master and disciple on the shore, finally resting her gaze on the sword sheath in Nanxi’s hand.
“An immortal sword—quite rare in the current world.”
She raised her head, her gaze meeting Nanxi’s.
“I see you’ve had enough fun, so shall we begin?”
As the words ended, a snake-like chain sword coiled out from her waist.