VAP - Chapter 87
Chapter 87: Flawless Cold Bone, The Peerless Sword Venerable (11)
As the first and possibly only batch of disciples from the Lingtian Sword Sect to study on Wushuang Peak, Mu Xingluo and the others had the honor of receiving guidance from the Wushuang Sword Venerable, Yun Yijiu.
When others asked about it with envy, all six would say they had benefited immensely, that the Venerable’s abilities were as vast as the sky, beyond compare.
A long time later.
When these six disciples had all become great powers in the cultivation world, the two Venerables, Wushuang and Duyue, had long since ascended, leaving behind only countless legends and material for storybooks in this world.
By then, whenever they were asked about this period, the disciples would fall into a daze for a moment before shaking their heads and sighing with complex expressions.
—What does it mean for the past to be too bitter to recall? This was it.
To receive the guidance of the Wushuang Sword Venerable was the dream of every sword cultivator in the world, and these six were no exception.
No matter how nonchalant Yun Yijiu was, she was, after all, a great power who had lived for nine thousand years, possessing extraordinary talent and terrifying comprehension. When it came to mastery of the sword Dao, if she claimed to be second, no one would dare claim to be first.
With such a temporary master to guide them, the young cultivators’ sword techniques and forms improved by leaps and bounds, like bamboo shoots after the rain. Every day, they were a little stronger than the day before.
This was, of course, a good thing—if only the two great masters wouldn't constantly show off their affection.
The sword cultivators of the Lingtian Sword Sect were all immortal cultivators. To follow the heavenly Dao, they tended to be more restrained.
The friendship of gentlemen is as mild as water, and Dao companions treat each other with the respect of honored guests—this was the ideal they revered.
For this reason, these young disciples, who had spent most of their lives cultivating, had almost never seen a pair of Dao companions who were as… lovey-dovey as the Wushuang Sword Venerable and the Duyue Demon Venerable.
They would be condensing their spiritual energy below, and a glance up would reveal the two Venerables on their seats, whispering to each other, one chuckling softly while the other nodded.
They would be demonstrating their self-created sword forms opposite them, and an inadvertent glance would show the two Venerables a few dozen feet away, leisurely feeding each other spirit fruits, the atmosphere around them sweeter than the fruit itself.
During their mid-session break, they would sit and meditate. After circulating their spiritual energy for a full cycle and exhaling, they would open their eyes to see the two Venerables leaning against each other, sitting quietly with their eyes closed, their cloud-like sleeves overlapping.
The six disciples: “…”
And they had to pretend they saw nothing.
This was just too cruel!
The Venerables never made any overly intimate gestures, yet they possessed a kind of seamless aura that no one could disturb.
It was like this all the time, every single day.
If not for the fact that these young cultivators had firm Dao hearts and had not yet opened their hearts to love, they probably would have rushed out of the mountain gate to find their true loves immediately.
After a while, they gradually got used to it.
They even joked with each other: What’s the big deal? We’ll just treat it as tempering our Dao hearts. After this trial, we’ll be immune to all demons—isn’t that wonderful?
Yue Du had no idea she had become a tool for tempering the Dao hearts of her visiting students. Even if she knew, she wouldn't care; she would, at most, laugh it off.
Although it seemed Yue Du was preoccupied with her romance all day, in reality, the public displays of affection were just a front. She was busy searching for the “turning point” on Mu Xingluo.
But the more she searched, the more doubts arose.
It wasn't that there was nothing unusual about Mu Xingluo.
Mu Xingluo was the absolute protagonist of a grand heroine story. Her luck was second to none, and she had more than her fair share of fortuitous encounters.
The results of these encounters were also manifested in her body, her sword Dao, and her Dao soul.
As a vessel for rare and precious treasures, any special aspect within Mu Xingluo could potentially be the manifestation of the turning point.
The information was convoluted and difficult to discern.
What was useful, and what was irrelevant?
Which one was the turning point indicated by the divination?
Regardless of whether these special traits were mentioned in the original story, Yue Du had no intention of glossing over them.
She could uncover the truth bit by bit. There was still time; it wasn't yet a situation so dire that she would lose her composure.
As for Yun Yijiu—
The host was no help in this regard. After all, her power was suppressed. The Yun Yijiu of the original plotline couldn't see anything, so naturally, she had no way of starting either.
…All she could do was show affection with her lover and provide cover.
Time in the small world of Qianhong gradually flowed by. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.
Being unable to communicate with her host about matters not belonging to the Qianhong Divine Province, having to play the part of Yue Zhuo in front of outsiders, and with the Main System as silent as if it were dead—
Under these various factors, Yue Du would sometimes experience a sense of trance and confusion, as if she, too, belonged to this small world, fitting in perfectly.
As for the mission, there hadn't been much progress either. The anomalies Yue Du could confirm didn't seem to have anything to do with ascension.
Yue Du decided to conduct a more detailed search. If she still found nothing this time, it could only mean her line of thinking was wrong, or Yun Yijiu's divination was flawed.
Of course, the probability of either was not high.
Until one day, Yue Du received a communication from the group chat channel.
At that moment, she was immersed in meditation, comprehending the “Dao” of the Five Elements cultivation method.
Suddenly, the communication from within the system disrupted her rhythm.
“Beep! This is Turasu, requesting to establish a cross-world communication with 0996, Yue Du.”
Yue Du knew this function existed, allowing two systems to communicate across different small worlds, but it had strict limitations on time and content.
It was strange. The system group chat had no time limit and few restrictions on content, yet a simple two-way chat, which should have been easier, was heavily restricted.
Yue Du had pondered this question before and could only attribute it to the Main System’s inexplicable ways.
She broke out of her meditative state and accepted the communication.
“This is Yue Du. What’s the matter?”
The leopard woman’s frantic voice immediately sounded in the two-way chat channel: “Yue Du, Yue Du, are you in a cultivation world right now?”
“Yes.”
“That’s great! Can you help me find a tracking spell? I’ll pay you in points! Ah, I’m so mad, how did my damn host get lost—”
Yue Du: “…”
What was going on?
But her voice sounded urgent, so Yue Du didn't ask too many questions. She found the manual for a tracking spell and sent it over. Turasu said, “Talk later,” and disconnected.
Yun Yijiu sensed something was amiss and turned to look. Yue Du spread her hands, indicating that it was something she couldn't talk about.
Yun Yijiu understood and lowered her eyes. “If there is anything you need my help with, you must tell me immediately. If you cannot explain, then a hint will suffice. I will understand.”
Yue Du smiled. “Don’t worry. If I ever run into something I can’t handle, I won’t try to tough it out on my own.”
Yun Yijiu gave a faint hum of acknowledgment and said no more.
A short while later, Turasu connected again and transferred the promised points to Yue Du.
Yue Du also learned from her what had just happened.
It turned out that the small world Turasu was currently in was a world with highly advanced technology. Her host had gone missing and was very likely being held by an enemy in a place that could block system signals.
Unable to detect her host's location and with her host not by her side, she couldn't open the system store. Left with no choice, Turasu had to seek help from her friends, borrowing a method from the mystical side, which was the opposite of the tech side, to find her host.
After hearing this, Yue Du offered a few words of comfort to her colleague, who had finally found her host, and then the communication time was up.
However, she didn't resume her meditation. Instead, she fell into deep thought.
Although the probability was extremely low, sudden situations like this could still happen.
It seemed that in every new small world, she should try to learn all sorts of miscellaneous little tricks. Who knew when they might produce an unexpected effect?
More noteworthy than this was the mention of the tech side versus the mystical side.
Yue Du realized her previous blind spot: she had trusted the system's own detection capabilities too much.
Nominally, a “system” was an absolute AI lifeform and should belong entirely to the tech side—but Yue Du didn't think so.
She didn't think of herself as just a string of data.
Since she was a living being, she couldn't possibly possess perfect abilities, especially now that she was in a human shell. In a cultivation world, there were too many things that couldn't be observed without practicing the corresponding techniques.
However, what the mystical side couldn't do, the tech side could, just as what the tech side couldn't do might be effortless for the mystical side.
Yue Du needed an absolutely objective “tool.”
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