Chapter 58 — Heartbreak
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 7 of 7
Facheng had gone two steps when he suddenly turned back and said with a smile, "Junior Brother Zhang, when you have a moment you really ought to go see Senior Sister Lu Xueqi of your sect. She's been terribly worried about you!" He wore a faintly mysterious expression as he exchanged a smile with Fajing, and the two went off together.
Zhang Qingyue stood stunned a moment, then could not resist glancing toward where the Canglan Sect's Xiaozhu Peak contingent stood nearby. This time Master Shui Jing of Xiaozhu Peak had not come; the female disciples were led by their senior sister Wen Pei, taking orders from Daoist Cangyan and Tian Buhui. Lu Xueqi was standing among them even now.
After more than a month apart, Lu Xueqi looked somewhat thinner -- whether from her wounds, he could not tell -- but seen from here, Zhang Qingyue still felt a shock of beauty. This woman seemed born to loveliness, of a beauty unmatched in the world; even grown thin, she was like a single cool dewdrop gently revealed among blooming lilies, forlorn and a little proud, adding all the more to her clear elegance.
Most of the female disciples of Xiaozhu Peak were women of striking looks, drawing countless eyes from all around. Apart from the old monks of Fanyin Temple, who kept their gaze fixed straight ahead, the male disciples of the Canglan Sect, Fenxia Valley, and the rest all glanced this way, some openly and some not, and Lu Xueqi drew the most eyes of all. Yet just now she had regained her old cold pride; when her gaze chanced to brush across Zhang Qingyue, it rested on him only a moment before moving on, with no other expression.
Zhang Qingyue felt a vague sense of loss, though after a while he was rather glad of it. He had always been somewhat in awe of this icy, beautiful woman, and now that she paid him no mind, he felt relieved instead. In no time at all, his attention was caught by Tian Lingsu's giggling laughter, and he could not turn it away again.