Chapter 232 — Killing Intent
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 7
Lu Xueling stood to one side, not daring to speak. Master Shuijing stood in silence for a long while, then suddenly shook her head, as if unwilling to dwell on it further, and turned to walk down the mountain. Watching her retreating figure, Lu Xueling called out, "Master, where are you going?"
Master Shuijing paused, then said, "My mind is made up regarding Wen Pei. Go and tell her. But..." Her voice caught, and she turned back, a trace of tenderness appearing on her face. Looking at Lu Xueling, she said, "What about you yourself, Xueqi? Have you ever thought about your own happiness?"
Lu Xueling started. "What?" Then understanding dawned, and her face paled slightly. Slowly she revealed a helpless smile and said in a low voice, "Master, this disciple's fate is poor. I dare not entertain vain hopes."
Master Shuijing gazed at her peerlessly beautiful disciple—white robes fluttering, all the more ethereal and unearthly—yet the sorrow etched upon her face had accumulated to depths beyond knowing.
A sudden, inexplicable ache gripped Master Shuijing's heart, and she called out, "Xueqi."
Lu Xueling raised her head and looked at Master Shuijing, who said calmly, "Xueqi, your path in love has been arduous, yet you refuse to turn back. There is nothing I can say to you as your master. But we have been master and disciple, and I do not wish to see you like this. If a turning point should come in the future, I will bear the burden of Canglan Sect's rules on your behalf. You need not worry."
Lu Xueling trembled violently and could not help crying out, "Master..." Yet for a moment she did not know what to say.
Master Shuijing smiled at her, then sighed once more and turned to leave. In moments her figure vanished beneath the rocky mountain steps, and only the mountain wind carried the faint whisper of her low murmuring: "Ask the world—what is love..."
Lu Xueling stood where she was, her heart in turmoil, sorrow upon sorrow, tender anguish turning over and over within her, yet she could reach no conclusion. Only in that dazed moment did a thought suddenly rise in her mind: not long ago, in that abandoned mortuary outside He Yin City, Tian Buhui seemed to have said something very similar to her.
Mount Huqi, the Nether King Sect.
A lovely figure appeared in the mountain tunnel that housed the Nether King Sect's main hall. Unlike everything around her, all gray and dreary, this figure seemed to shimmer with dazzling light as she moved, bringing a splash of color to the oppressive atmosphere of the place.
Nether King Sect disciples passed through the corridor from time to time, and scarcely one was not drawn to her. Yet wherever her gaze swept, they all hurried away, as if afraid of any further contact with her. Even within the Nether King Sect, she was evidently a special existence.
And she was indeed special—brows and eyes like a painting, infinitely charming and alluring. Though she lacked a measure of the seductive air of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox, Xiao Bai, she seemed to possess a measure more of gentleness. Even so, given her former identity as Young Master Miao of the Enchantment Sect, Jin Pingyue now standing openly within the Nether King Sect's domain still seemed somewhat jarring.
But Jin Pingyue clearly did not care about the gazes around her. To her, being the center of attention seemed long since a habit. At the end of that catastrophe of beast-demons, in the ancient Demon-Suppressing Cave amid the hundred thousand wild mountains of the southern frontier, she had barely escaped and returned to the Central Plains. The twists and turns of that journey no one knew, and she had spoken of them to no one.
At this moment, she had only one destination: the Nether King had summoned her.