Chapter Ninety-One: Much Obliged for Your Kindness, Senior

A pale glimmer slowly seeped across the horizon. Only then did the first sun show half its face, as though secretly watching over the countless living things of Bing Prefecture. At that moment, a crow’s cry broke the silence of the land, followed by the pounding of many horse hooves.

Upon those fine steeds sat a group of armored warriors with stern faces, some twenty to thirty in all. The leader was merely an ordinary junior officer under command. It was plain at a glance that this small unit had become separated from the main force, betrayed by their weary eyes and the stiffness gone from their backs.

They had been fighting on foreign soil to begin with and knew nothing of the terrain in Bing Prefecture. Like headless flies, they had been charging about in every direction. Even after seizing refugees for questioning, they had not obtained a single useful clue. Thus this cavalry detachment of a little over twenty men had already been wandering deep within Bing Prefecture for ten days.

A rider beside him swallowed dryly. Seeing the sun gradually rising, he turned and said to the junior officer, “Sir, we have been drifting around here for far too long. Earlier we could still find some food. But now we can’t even find refugees anymore. If this goes on, we’ll have to slaughter our horses for meat. Then it will be even harder to find the Qing Prefecture vanguard.”

The junior officer felt his own heart sink. His expression clearly turned unnatural, but to be exposed like this by one of his subordinates was something he absolutely could not tolerate. So, red with embarrassment and anger, he snapped back, “Shut your mouth! Do I not know the situation? Do I need you to teach me how to do my job?”

“Uh... this...” Seeing their commander speak like that, the barbarian rider fell silent.

“Hm?” As the soldier turned his head to avoid his commander’s gaze, he suddenly spotted a hunched figure not far away and quickly said, “Sir, there’s someone here!”

“Oh?”

The junior officer’s face lit up. They had not encountered a living soul for ages, and the map had already been lost. He could only pin his hopes on this old crone; perhaps she would know how to get out of this place.

“Go! Surround her for me!” He instantly drew the curved saber from his waist and pointed at the old woman.

“Yes, sir!” Without needing to be told, the others already spurred their horses forward.

In the next instant, under the old woman’s panicked expression, she was encircled by the group.

But then came a problem that had troubled them for a very long time: this old woman did not seem to understand a single word of what they were saying. How were they supposed to communicate?

It had been for this very reason that they had not known how to leave this desert.

Faced with the old woman, who sat crouched on the ground in bewilderment, the junior officer furrowed his brows, unsure where to begin.

They had finally found a native of this land. If they killed her now, whom were they supposed to ask?

Just as they rode in a ring around the old crone and hesitated over what to do, the junior officer suddenly saw a horse appear atop a distant dune, with more than one person on it.

This delighted him beyond measure. He thought they were barbarians like themselves. But when the other party rode off, he immediately realized those riders were men of the Central Plains.

At once he ordered, “Quick, chase down that horse!”

The two people on that horse were none other than Su Bai and Gu Fanshuang.

After resting in a house for three hours, they had hurried back on the road. But with two people sharing one horse, it was naturally impossible to sustain a long chase. Seeing that the morning sun had already risen, Su Bai had slowed their pace. He also did not want to overwork the horse. After all, it was their only mount now; if they lost it, who knew how long it would take to return to Qing Prefecture.

Yet when they crested the dune, they saw at a glance a band of barbarian cavalry surrounding an old woman. Su Bai immediately sensed trouble, urged the horse forward, and moved away.

The woman seated in front, Gu Fanshuang, suddenly said, “That old woman feels strangely familiar to me, as if I’ve met her before.”

Su Bai found this odd, but he did not slow his hand on the reins.

Unfortunately, the horse beneath them had already been running for hours. No matter how hard Su Bai lashed it, he could not shake off the pursuers. He could only watch the distance between the two sides steadily shrink.

Still, while the cavalry behind them pursued, Su Bai had Gu Fanshuang repeatedly use hidden weapons to ambush them, roughly gauging their strength.

In the end he stopped fleeing altogether, reined in the horse, and allowed the twenty men to surround him.

Two of them had already died beneath Gu Fanshuang’s flying daggers, and this only made the leader of the barbarian riders burn with rage. He drew his saber at once, ready to hack the two of them down.

At that moment, the same soldier who had first tried to persuade him spoke again, saying, “Sir, please stop!”

“Get out of my way! I’m going to split him open right now!” In his fury, how could the officer listen to any subordinate’s counsel? He slapped the man aside with one hand.

That rider was sent tumbling off his horse by the blow.

Just as the junior officer was about to raise his saber and kill Su Bai, his own mount suddenly refused to obey. It turned out the man he had struck had grabbed the reins from the side.

“That old woman definitely can’t help us leave this place. These two may be the key to getting back to the main force. Please show mercy, sir!”

“If you dare say one more word, I’ll cut you down too!”

By then he was already ablaze with fury, and he actually swung his blade straight at the man who had blocked him.

The man dodged too slowly. His right arm was instantly drenched in blood.

Gu Fanshuang frowned at the sight. She had not expected this man to sever another’s arm simply because of his own rage. Su Bai, however, only lifted his brows. Since this wasn’t happening to his own people, and he was no Bodhisattva, he simply watched with indifference.

The other barbarian riders were somewhat reluctant at the sight, but none dared speak up. They could only lower their heads and pretend not to see.

With no one left to hinder him, the cavalry leader raised his bloodied saber and ordered, “Kill them!”

Naturally, Gu Fanshuang and Su Bai understood his words. They immediately leaped down from the horse and assumed their defensive stances.

“Kill!”

The riders around them surged forward like startled swallows skimming the waves, twenty curved sabers ready at any moment to claim their heads.

Su Bai and Gu Fanshuang stood back to back, shared a knowing smile, and shouted in unison, “Move!”

A blast rang out beneath their feet. With a burst of speed, they shot toward the riders, as graceful as a lone goose crossing snow, and as swift as a white steed passing through a gap in time.

One of the barbarian men hurled his curved saber straight at Su Bai.

Su Bai remained calm and unhurried. In midair, he twisted his body, and the saber brushed close past his back. Just as it seemed the blade had missed, a hand suddenly caught the hilt.

Su Bai’s right hand, reaching around behind him, clamped onto the hilt. With a sudden swing of his arm, the blade’s edge pointed forward, aimed directly at the barbarian rider who had thrown it.

A flash of steel spun into a flower in the air. Blood sprayed all around, and a head dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.

The sound was neither loud nor soft, yet it made the barbarians instantly go still.

On the other side, Gu Fanshuang’s twin blades were stained with blood. Her long hair veiled half her face, and cold light burst from her eyes as she looked upon the riders as though they were already corpses. Standing amid wind and sand, she seemed even sharper, even more murderous, until Su Bai could not help but stare.

He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue and finally snapped back to his senses, thinking, This killing technique is being reinforced by divine sense. It can affect other people’s minds!

As soon as he broke free of the divine-sense control, Su Bai looked at Gu Fanshuang again and found nothing wrong. She was simply more ruthless than usual in her attacks.

The barbarian riders now wore blank expressions, making no move to resist, each stretching out his neck and waiting for Gu Fanshuang to pass by and reap them.

“Huh?” Not far away, the old woman let out a surprised sound when she saw that Su Bai had broken free of her divine sense so quickly. After a curious glance in his direction, she shifted her gaze back to Gu Fanshuang.

Before long, all twenty heads rolled down the slope, while the headless bodies collapsed beside the horses’ hooves.

Gu Fanshuang stood holding her twin sabers before the old woman. Thin streams of blood dripped slowly from the tips. Her eyes were empty and dull, like a marionette.

The old woman then took a few slow steps toward Gu Fanshuang.

Seeing this, Su Bai immediately rushed forward, wanting to stop her from harming Gu Fanshuang. The next moment, however, a force pinned him in place so completely that he could not move even half a step. He clenched his teeth and forced his left leg to step forward, only for that same force to surge again and slam him to the ground.

“Gah!” Su Bai roared in fury, dragging himself forward on all fours toward Gu Fanshuang.

The old woman smiled with disdain and walked leisurely to Gu Fanshuang’s front, extending a slender right index finger to lightly touch the point between her brows.

Gu Fanshuang tilted her head strangely, as though she did not understand the old woman’s purpose. In the next instant, she clutched her head with both hands and screamed. Seeing her in such agony, Su Bai shouted, “We have no grudge against you. Why must you do this, senior?”

“What I do is not for a brat like you to judge,” the old woman said with a cold snort, not even turning around.

At the same moment, Su Bai’s head seemed to take a heavy blow. His pupils widened, and he fainted on the spot.

Gu Fanshuang crouched with both hands over her head. The screaming gradually died away. Her whole body was soaked in sweat, and her hands and legs twitched uncontrollably.

The old woman took a jade bottle from her sleeve, poured out a red pill, and held it before Gu Fanshuang, saying, “Take this pill and your depleted blood and qi will recover. I was somewhat impatient and forgot that your current cultivation is not yet sufficient to bear such great power.”

Gu Fanshuang did not reach out to take it. Instead, she drew a deep breath and said, “Thank you, senior. It’s just that this junior is not seriously injured, and I would be unworthy of such a medicine.”

She said nothing ill of the old woman at all. She knew very well what level of expert stood before her. Even her own third uncle likely had not reached such a realm. With a mere thought, a person like this could decide another’s life and death. Gu Fanshuang dared not treat her lightly.

“There is no need to be so guarded. My interference is due to you.”

Gu Fanshuang had now recovered somewhat and slowly rose to her feet. Hearing this, she said in disbelief, “Because of me?”

The old woman nodded and looked Gu Fanshuang over from head to toe, the satisfaction in her eyes plain to see.

Then she said directly, “I wish to take you as my disciple. I wonder what you think?”

“Huh?” Gu Fanshuang had not expected this senior to come straight out and ask to accept her as a disciple. For a moment, she did not react.

“There is no need for such surprise.” The old woman turned her back, paused, and continued, “My name is Qian Biman, and I serve as a Grand Elder of the Moon-Sound Sect. The cultivation art I practice is exceptionally special; only those whose constitutions match it may cultivate it, and in my entire life I may choose only one person to accept as my final disciple.”

At this point, Qian Biman let out a long sigh. “I do not possess my master’s once-in-a-millennium fortune. Even after obtaining such peerless martial arts, I could only barely reach the Thousand-Path Realm. I have truly failed the trust she placed in me.”

Then she turned back around, eyes brimming with hope as she looked at Gu Fanshuang. “I swore that I would find an ideal successor with extraordinary martial aptitude. For that reason, I roamed the lands from north to south. Yet those who can cultivate my art are already one in ten thousand, let alone those who are genuine prodigies in the martial path.

“But it is not too late. I have finally met you. Only you can perfectly inherit my legacy and become the Moon-Sound Sect’s Grand Elder, the guardian of the sect. With your talent, it would take only a dozen years or so to reach my realm. Even the current Chief Gu would struggle to match such speed of advancement.”

Seeing her so fervent, Gu Fanshuang clenched the hem of her clothes.

“Senior,” Gu Fanshuang said after hesitating for a long while, “being able to reach the Thousand-Path Realm in a dozen years is certainly something anyone would want. But there is no free lunch in this world. Since you offer such generous conditions, there must be some price I would have to pay, yes?”

“Oh? There is indeed.”

Qian Biman had not expected Gu Fanshuang to endure such temptation. Raising a brow, she looked upon this would-be disciple with even greater esteem.

As she spoke, Qian Biman glanced toward Su Bai, who had fainted not far away. At that instant, Gu Fanshuang’s heart leaped into her throat.

Sure enough, in the next moment Qian Biman said calmly, “If you join my Moon-Sound Sect, you must never again have any contact with men. That is the only condition I place upon you.”

“This...” Gu Fanshuang lowered her head and said nothing.

Qian Biman fixed her with a steady gaze, her voice carrying an undeniable authority. “How could the love between man and woman compare to the grand path of martial cultivation?

“You must think carefully. If you miss this chance, I can simply find another suitable candidate of equal talent. But if you miss it, then you will never be able to climb to the summit for the rest of your life.

“Stand atop the highest peak and survey all beneath you. Right now you think he is not bad, but what of the future? For the sake of some affection whose outcome is still unknown, will you abandon centuries of lifespan?”

Qian Biman coaxed and reasoned, laying out all the advantages and disadvantages before Gu Fanshuang. She believed Gu Fanshuang was not the sort of person who would cast everything aside for emotion. No—rather, she did not believe there was anyone in the world who would give up the martial path for mere love.

“Thank you for your kindness, senior. I am deeply honored. It is just that I have always kept my promises. I promised him that we would never be separated for life, so I cannot leave him at a time like this.”

Gu Fanshuang lowered her head and seemed to pour all her strength into those words to Qian Biman. “If I had not made that promise to him, I would definitely have entered your sect without a second thought. Surely, senior would not wish to accept a disciple who breaks her word.”

“You!”

Qian Biman had never before suffered such humiliation before a junior.

So many people had broken their heads trying to obtain even the title of her nominal disciple. To take her as a final disciple was the dream of countless others, and yet she had been refused by this yellow-haired little girl!

“In that case, I understand,” Qian Biman said, folding her arms over her chest. “You are right; I was indeed being unreasonable. And forcing someone to become my disciple does not fit my usual manner either.”

Phew. Gu Fanshuang finally let out a breath of relief.

“Since it was you who promised him never to be apart, would killing him solve this problem?” Qian Biman said leisurely while picking at her fingernails.

The moment Gu Fanshuang heard this, she immediately lifted a foot and rushed toward Su Bai, only to feel the earth beneath her feet turn like a swamp. She could not move even half an inch.

“No!”

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