VAP - Chapter 84
Chapter 84: Flawless Cold Bone, The Peerless Sword Venerable (8)
In the hall.
Yun Yijiu, whose gaze was vacant, lost in thought: “…”
Yue Du, who had just learned her hidden identity was a descendant of the Yun clan: “…”
After a brief silence, Yun Yijiu slowly said, “Are you Yue Zhuo?”
This question involved her System identity, so Yue Du couldn’t answer, nor could she give a reaction based on her own subjective will.
But Yun Yijiu lowered her gaze and looked at her for a long while before saying, “This Venerable One understands.”
Yue Du said carefully, “The situation is very complicated.”
Yun Yijiu: “Is it all related to your restrictions?”
Yue Du: “Yes.”
If that was the case, then there was nothing to be done.
Yun Yijiu used her own spiritual energy to probe the condition of Yue Du’s body, but she couldn’t detect the existence of any restrictions, so she could only set the matter aside for now.
“This Venerable One’s hall contains countless ancient texts. Perhaps there are relevant records among them.” Yun Yijiu withdrew her hand and said with her eyes lowered, “You… don’t be anxious.”
Yue Du wasn’t anxious at all. She just gazed at the Wushuang Sword Venerable’s ice-and-snow-like profile as she contemplated, and at the faint shadows her thick lashes cast beneath her eyes.
Then she thought with a sense of helplessness, How could the Main System’s methods possibly be found in a small world?
She shook her head, and just as she was about to say there was no need to search, she suddenly paused.
Wait.
If it were anyone else, wanting to search ancient texts and secret records would be perfectly normal, but why was this also Yun Yijiu’s first reaction?
She, who had always understood that she didn’t belong to this small world, who knew about her other selves in different small worlds, should have realized that this restriction came from outside the world!
Unless—she didn’t know.
Yue Du furrowed her brows. Recalling Yun Yijiu’s behavior since they’d met, the guess in her heart gradually became clear.
Yun Yijiu’s arrogance, which treated all things as nothing, stemmed from the symbolic personality of this fragment, rather than the indifference of an unknown existence from outside the world, as it had in the previous two worlds.
Her already vague self-awareness had been suppressed.
Perhaps even her power had been tampered with. Otherwise, with her ability to crush everyone, the Sect Master of Lingtian Sword Sect would never have dared to covertly threaten me in her presence.
Without a doubt, the Main System was responsible for all of this.
Yun Yijiu noticed her expression was off and tilted her head slightly. “Why the alarm?”
Yue Du opened her mouth, only to find that, as expected, she couldn’t speak. She was quite vexed.
…If the Main System were in front of her right now, it would already be dead. Dead!
Speak of the Main System, and the Main System appears.
“Ding! Main quest issued: Assist Host Yun Yijiu in ascending within ten years. Note: This is the final quest for this world. All points will be awarded upon completion.”
The mechanical voice echoed faintly in the System’s auditory senses, like a lingering ghost.
This quest’s requirement could be said to be the most concise and clear, but it was also the most troublesome.
In the original plotline, Yun Yijiu had the aptitude of a single Gold Spirit Root and was born with a Cold Sword Bone, making her perfectly suited for cultivating the sword path.
If anyone in her generation was to be the first to ascend, it was definitely Yun Yijiu.
But, just as everyone in the world knew now, the Wushuang Sword Venerable, who everyone had been optimistic about, was stuck at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Stage, unable to advance an inch for nine thousand years.
The original story didn’t specify the reason, only stating that although Yun Yijiu appeared ethereal and otherworldly on the surface, devoted to the Dao, she had long been driven mad by the torment of her hopeless cultivation prospects and inability to ascend.
She wanted to ascend. No matter what, she wanted to.
Finally, Yun Yijiu found a way.
On the night of the Heiluoyue, when the yin-attribute spiritual energy was at its most abundant, she would sacrifice nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine disciples of the Lingtian Sword Sect, then use a sword cultivator with the same single Gold Spirit Root aptitude as herself as the formation’s eye to set up the Heaven-Ascending Grand Formation and send herself to ascension!
She had planned this for a long time but had never found the opportunity.
Because a disciple with aptitude equal to Yun Yijiu’s—or even just one with similar talent—was simply too hard to find.
A once-in-a-millennium find.
Seeing her lifespan nearing its limit, Yun Yijiu grew increasingly anxious.
Finally, she got Mu Xingluo, who had been baptized by heavenly fire.
There was no more suitable formation’s eye than Mu Xingluo.
The single Gold Spirit Root was a necessary condition, and what’s more, a rich and abundant life spiritual energy flowed within her body, perfectly corresponding to Yun Yijiu’s innate Cold Sword Bone.
Yun Yijiu was overjoyed at finding her target, like someone clutching their last life-saving straw. She kept a firm watch on Mu Xingluo.
She had to wait. She had to wait for the elusive Heiluoyue phase, and she had to wait for Mu Xingluo’s body to be strong enough to withstand the impact of being the grand formation’s eye.
For this purpose, from the moment the female protagonist began cultivating the sword path, Yun Yijiu had been secretly observing and protecting this hope for her ascension.
The several times the female protagonist encountered a fatal crisis, it was she who helped her resolve it; when the female protagonist hit a bottleneck in her cultivation, it was also she who offered guidance.
This so-called assistance was, in reality, only to ensure the formation’s eye didn’t die and that her cultivation realm was high enough.
Yun Yijiu had once tried to suppress Mu Xingluo’s brilliance in secret, wanting to keep her from becoming too famous to make things more convenient later.
However, the female protagonist was the female protagonist, after all. How could her experiences be ordinary? Yun Yijiu tried a few times and found it was impossible to keep her in obscurity, so she could only give up in the end.
In any case, the act of sacrificing nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine disciples was already a huge affair that couldn’t be hidden. Adding Mu Xingluo to the mix wouldn’t make much of a difference.
And during this process, Mu Xingluo gradually realized something was wrong. She began to investigate Yun Yijiu’s intentions and ultimately succeeded in turning the tables and killing her on the night of the Heiluoyue.
Furthermore, the Wushuang Sword Venerable’s cultivation base was reverse-transferred to Mu Xingluo through the incomplete grand formation, allowing her to leap into the Tribulation Transcendence Stage in one go.
…All of the above was the “Yun Yijiu” of the original worldline.
But the actual Wushuang Sword Venerable didn’t care about her lifespan at all, nor had she ever looked for a way to break her shackles and ascend to immortality.
Naturally, she had no interaction with Mu Xingluo whatsoever.
Thinking of this, Yue Du also figured out the Main System’s intention.
It still wanted to weaken the protagonist. No, this time it was more ruthless—it wanted to get rid of the protagonist directly.
Want to ascend?
If you want to ascend, you have to sacrifice the female protagonist. Even the villainous Yun Yijiu, who had searched for information for several thousand years, couldn’t find another way, let alone them, who only had a short ten years.
Yue Du found it very tricky.
Since she was with her lover anyway, Yue Du didn’t bother to hide her emotions. Yun Yijiu watched her expression shift and change, blinking softly.
Hmm.
For some reason, she felt a little stirred.
She wanted to see her make even more expressions.
Yun Yijiu mused blankly to herself, but her face remained cold and impassive, like ten-thousand-year-old glacial ice.
Yue Du didn’t immediately hint at anything to her host.
She had more or less figured it out. The Main System’s move was very insidious.
It suppressed the host’s power, and of course, there was a reason for it.
If the host possessed her full power, she might just ascend on the spot with a single word (see: Qi Jiu), or wait until the ten-year deadline and then ascend on the spot.
Therefore, it needed to suppress her power to increase the quest’s difficulty, forcing them to have no choice but to act against the protagonist.
There was another possible reason, though it was just Yue Du’s guess: the Main System was preventing her from abandoning the quest in this small world.
If the host were omnipotent, abandoning the quest would clearly be feasible; after all, it would only lower her System rating. But now, with Yun Yijiu’s self-awareness compromised and her power weakened, Yue Du really couldn’t bring herself to abandon her here.
Without her world-transcending power, Yun Yijiu would really die when her lifespan ended.
Who knew what would happen if one “her” died?
Yue Du didn’t dare to gamble.
But that didn’t mean she had to choose between Yun Yijiu and Mu Xingluo.
Ten years. To be safe, she would shorten it to five.
In these five years, she refused to believe she couldn’t find a way!
Besides that, there were also some other trivial matters.
Yue Du received a paper crane from the Sect Master of the Minghe Sect. He had naturally heard from Gu Ling and the other demon venerables that Yue Du had followed the Wushuang Sword Venerable, so he sent an inquiry.
The tone of the inquiry was quite calm. Yue Du replied simply:
“Regarding the matter previously discussed with the Youming Demon Venerable, you and I both know it was for the sake of cultivation. However, upon seeing the Wushuang Sword Venerable’s face during the grand competition, this Venerable One was stunned by her celestial beauty and my heart was captivated.”
“Demon cultivators act as their hearts desire, so this Venerable One has followed her to the Lingtian Sword Sect. Things having come to this, it is impossible for this Venerable One to have ties with another. Since we have not yet exchanged our birth characters, the marriage agreement is void.”
Finally, Yue Du remembered something and sneered. “Besides, even if this Venerable One had not fallen for someone this time, the agreement would still have to be called off. If the Demon Venerable doesn’t find it too troublesome, you may go and see what your esteemed son has done. I would be most grateful.”
The paper crane leisurely flew far away.
Yun Yijiu stared at it: “…”
Yue Du hadn’t mentioned the Duyue Demon Venerable’s verbal marriage agreement with the son of the Minghe Sect Master, but seeing her expression, she likely had her own intelligence network and could find things out.
“I don’t know that person,” Yue Du clarified.
Yun Yijiu nodded. “Mm.”
She knew, but her heart still had to feel a little sour.
…Even though she didn’t know why she felt sour.
Yue Du propped her chin on her hand and looked at her, suddenly asking with a smile, “Does the Venerable One desire long life?”
“Long life?”
“Ascension. To enjoy immortal essence forever and never fall into the underworld. Isn’t ascension the purpose of cultivation?”
Yun Yijiu didn’t think much about it and said flatly, “This Venerable One has cultivated for over nine thousand years. My heart is already as still as water. Obtaining long life is fine; not obtaining it is also of no consequence.”
As she said this, her pure black eyes were still empty, revealing her unique arrogance even in the face of death.
…Or perhaps her terminal laziness was acting up. Even though she would return to chaos in less than a few hundred years, she was too lazy to find a way to ascend.
That sounded so much like Qi Jiu.
Yue Du smiled thoughtfully and suddenly moved closer.
“Even if it means we will be separated?”
Yun Yijiu frowned, seeming to have only just thought of this problem.
“Venerable One,” Yue Du sighed, raising her hands to rest them lightly on her shoulders. “I want to ascend, but if the Venerable One is unwilling, how am I to stay with you?”
Taking a step back, even if Yue Du chose not to ascend, she would still have to watch helplessly as Yun Yijiu departed before her.
Yun Yijiu was silent for a moment, then said, “…This Venerable One has never promised you anything.”
“Then are you promising now?”
This time, the silence was longer.
After a long while, the Wushuang Sword Venerable, Yun Yijiu, closed her eyes slightly. “I promise.”
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