Jiang Qingyi had no idea how she had managed to walk out of the Medicine Hall.
She flew back to Lingqian Peak like a walking corpse.
The only thing filling Jiang Qingyi's mind was that her master had just thirty years left to live.
She could not imagine what a world without her master would look like.
A world with no master in it.
Then what meaning would such a world even have?
Without her noticing, Lingqian Peak had appeared before Jiang Qingyi's eyes.
"I can't do this... I can't face Master with a look like this. Master would be heartbroken."
Jiang Qingyi patted her own cheeks, drew a deep breath, and forced a smile onto her face, as though she knew nothing at all.
When Jiang Qingyi returned to the courtyard, she found her master sitting in the yard.
The afternoon sunlight fell across Xiao Mo's paper-pale face, and the girl felt her heart being sliced open.
If she could, she would gladly bear all of that suffering in her master's place.
"Master, what are you doing out in the yard? You should be resting properly."
Jiang Qingyi landed on Lingqian Peak and ran toward her master.
Xiao Mo smiled. "I can't stay cooped up in that room forever. It's too stuffy. I need to get out and get some air."
"Then let your disciple keep you company."
Jiang Qingyi rolled up her sleeves, poured her master a cup of tea, then stepped behind him and gently kneaded his shoulders with her small, pale hands.
"Qingyi, there's something I'd like to run by you and get your opinion on."
Just as Jiang Qingyi was forcing down the tangled thoughts crowding her head, Xiao Mo spoke.
"Master, just tell me straight. Whatever it is, Qingyi will agree to it." Jiang Qingyi's eyes curved into crescents as she said it with a smile.
Xiao Mo patted her little hand. "I'd like to go out and travel for a while. Will you come with me?"
"Go out and travel?" Jiang Qingyi blinked, looking at her master in confusion.
"That's right." Xiao Mo nodded. "I want to leave the Dragon Spring Sword Sect and see more of this world. Qingyi, are you willing to come with me?"
"Qingyi is willing!" Not a trace of hesitation. "Wherever Master wants to go, Qingyi will always be right there with you!"
"Good." Xiao Mo nodded with a smile. "Then go pack. We set out tomorrow."
"Mm! Qingyi will go pack right now!"
Jiang Qingyi hurried into her room and began packing their luggage.
As far as Jiang Qingyi was concerned, she wanted this too—traveling the mountains and rivers with her master, setting all the sect's business aside.
And what if, while they were traveling, they came across some powerful cultivator who could heal her master's injuries?
Or what if they stumbled onto some stroke of fortune, and her master's wounds simply healed?
It wasn't impossible.
At the very least, it held far more hope than staying cooped up in the Dragon Spring Sword Sect forever!
Early the next morning, Xiao Mo and Jiang Qingyi left the Dragon Spring Sword Sect.
They did not bid farewell to a single soul.
Xiao Mo did not really know where to go himself; he simply headed north with Jiang Qingyi, on and on.
They reached a town and bought a horse carriage.
Jiang Qingyi drove the carriage, while Xiao Mo sat inside.
The two of them passed through one town after another.
Sometimes they lodged at inns.
Sometimes they camped out in mountain caves.
Before they knew it, a month had gone by.
Neither of them knew how far they had traveled, but at least they had left the borders of Liang Kingdom.
In the second month after leaving the Dragon Spring Sword Sect, just as the carriage was rolling along a road at the foot of a mountain, a woman stepped out and stood before the two of them.
"Who are you?"
Jiang Qingyi fixed her eyes on the woman in front of her.
The longsword Xuanshuang was already in Jiang Qingyi's hand.
"Qingyi, she's an old acquaintance of mine." Xiao Mo's voice came from inside the carriage.
Xiao Mo pushed the curtain aside and stepped out.
Jiang Qingyi hurried to help her master down.
"Qingyi, go fetch some water," Xiao Mo said to her.
"But Master..."
Jiang Qingyi shot a glance at that cold woman.
She knew her master was trying to send her away.
But this person looked like she had come with ill intent.
"It's all right." Xiao Mo patted Jiang Qingyi's little hand. "Master will be fine. Do as you're told."
"......" Jiang Qingyi pressed her lips together, gave the woman one last look, and only then turned and walked off with the water skin.
"I'm curious. Why did you help me?"
Xiao Mo looked at Xiachan as he asked.
Two months ago, when Xiachan had come to find Xiao Mo, he had wanted to kill her.
But over the time since they left, Xiao Mo had come to realize that something did not add up.
If Xiachan truly meant to tell Qingyi the "truth," she would not have come to him at all.
There was no need for such an extra step.
She could have gone straight to Qingyi.
So Xiao Mo had reached a conclusion.
Xiachan had come to warn him on the spur of the moment.
Her aim was to make him take Jiang Qingyi and leave the Dragon Spring Sword Sect.
"Because that winter, when I was about to starve to death, it was the Madam who saved me."
Xiachan spoke in a slow, measured voice.
"And now Prince Xiao's Manor has spared neither expense nor favors—they've brought in the Blood Butterfly Pavilion.
Originally, the Prince intended to tell Jiang Qingyi the truth of her birth, make her hate you, shatter her Dao heart, and let all your years of effort come to nothing.
But since the Blood Butterfly Pavilion has taken the job, there's no need for any of that.
The Prince asked me to pass on a message to you, young master: this is the last mercy he shows you, as your father."
"Heh heh heh... The Blood Butterfly Pavilion. Once they take a contract, someone dies—they never stop until the deed is done." Xiao Mo laughed. "Then let the Blood Butterfly Pavilion come and try... cough, cough, cough... cough, cough, cough..."
Xiao Mo broke into a violent fit of coughing.
"Pff!" Xiao Mo spat a mouthful of blood off to one side, then drew a medicine bottle from his robes, tipped out a pill, and swallowed it.
Xiachan looked at Xiao Mo's half-dead state and frowned. "That innate sword bone was transplanted into you against your will in the first place. It has nothing to do with you. You need only have cultivated properly, and your future would have been immeasurable.
And now look at you—more dead than alive.
Do you really think it was worth it, young master?"
"What isn't mine will never be mine, and I don't want it. I only want to come into this world clean and leave it clean, just like my mother."
Xiao Mo looked at Xiachan with a smile.
"Back then, my mother picked you up out of the snow. Do you think that was worth it?"
Xiachan: "......"
"You'd best go." Xiao Mo waved a hand. "My disciple is back."
Xiachan turned to look. Jiang Qingyi was standing behind a tree, staring at her without blinking.
"The Madam was a good person. But good people don't always get good returns." Xiachan turned and vanished into the forest.
Once Xiachan was gone, Jiang Qingyi came running over. "Master, what did that person want with you?"
"She told me someone wants to kill us, and they've called in the Blood Butterfly Pavilion." Xiao Mo patted Jiang Qingyi's head. "So? Are you scared?"
Jiang Qingyi clasped the back of her master's hand and shook her head hard:
"As long as Qingyi is with Master, Qingyi isn't afraid of anything."