Chapter 217 — Homeland
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 1 of 7
At the foot of Canglan Mountain.
The sky was high and the clouds were pale. Standing at the mountain's base and gazing upward, one saw only a vast expanse of azure; a gentle breeze drifted past, and the spirit rose at its touch.
Lu Xueling watched for a long while. No one was about, and naturally no one would notice that at this secluded spot at the mountain's foot, a beautiful young woman stood quietly contemplating the sky. The clear wind came, and the hair that fell to her shoulders stirred softly, brushing across her somewhat thin, delicate face.
Master Shuijing's parting words echoed ceaselessly at her ear: "In those years, from the conversations between Senior Brother Daoyan and Senior Brother Wan, we learned that every generation's true master of the Canglan Sect, while still of sound mind, would tell this secret to the disciple chosen to succeed him. And the deathbed command handed down by the patriarchs of every generation was this: for the reputation of the Canglan Sect and for the sake of all living things under heaven, to prevent the creation of further slaughter, when matters reached the final extremity, the successor disciple might kill his master."
"This time, for some reason, Senior Brother Daoyan did not tell Xiao Yichen this secret. My conjecture is that there can be only two reasons. First: before Senior Brother Daoyan resolved to tell Xiao Yichen the secret, he had already been consumed by the demon spirit of the Ancient Sword of Immortal Slaying. Second: Senior Brother Daoyan trusted in the depth of his own cultivation—especially after that fierce battle ten years ago, when he deployed the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation and yet suffered no backlash from the inner demon—and so believed he could withstand it again this time. By the time the demon spirit truly turned upon him, it was already too late."
"Yet though matters have come to such a pass, we, as disciples of Canglan, cannot stand aside no matter what. Tian Buhui has vanished, and Sister Su is utterly distraught; only I can make this perilous decision. I only hope that everything will end upon the mountain, and that you need not be drawn into it. But if they are indeed found at the mountain's foot, then you too must do your utmost to bear this great charge. The spirits of the patriarchs of Qingyun in every generation will surely watch over us, master and disciple both!"
Lu Xueling slowly opened her eyes and drew a deep breath.
Turning her head to look afar, the towering ranges behind her stood lofty and upright, distant peaks rolling in dark blue, and up close the jagged crags jutted forth—everywhere grace, everywhere scenery.
Rising sheer into the clouds, supreme beneath heaven.
This was Qingyun!
At the corner of her lips, a faint, warm smile slowly surfaced. This range of mountains, after all, was the place that had raised her to adulthood—where her revered masters were, her intimate sisters in the sect, and all that she had once possessed. Memories.
She turned and strode away, her white robes like snow, fluttering as she moved. So vast was heaven and earth, the firmament boundless; even peerless beauty and unmatched heroes were perhaps no more than a single grain in the endless sea.
And yet—strangely—this was the first time she had been sent down the mountain at her master's command with no clear destination at all. Though she bore a weighty charge, she did not know where she was to fulfill it; thinking on it, there was something almost laughable.
Tianxuan rested quietly in her hand, yet it brought no familiar feeling—or rather, it had long since become a part of her body. Its faint blue radiance was already sheathed within the scabbard. One woman, one sword, walking at an unhurried pace.
Where should she go?
Heaven and earth were so vast!