“Yes, I just love worrying too much.” Bai Yu caught her underlying meaning, his eyes showing a trace of helpless self-mockery. He was mocking himself. “If my master hadn’t been so headstrong back then, insisting on killing you, the Central Province wouldn’t have lost the Tingyin Sect.”
Although he had failed to calculate her destiny and suffered a backlash, that result only proved that she was someone who should never be offended. Yet, his master refused to listen to his warnings, eventually leading to the sect’s annihilation. Had he not handed over his Soul Blood to her and used the path of music to heal her severe injuries, he would have died that year as well.
Wen Li looked up and leaned back into her chair. “You blame me.”
“No. If I blamed you, I wouldn’t have entrusted Tingyin Pavilion to you.” Bai Yu pursed his lips helplessly. “I know that green mountains do not last forever, nor do emerald waters flow without end. I blame no one; it is simply the human heart at work. Everyone has their own destiny.”
Bai Yu then asked, “Will the one you’ve chosen this time, Xin Jiuxian, share the same fate as the Xin Yingru of the past?”
Back when he first met the two sisters, Xin Yingru and Xin Feiliu, his master and Wen Bai had not yet reached a point of irreconcilable enmity, so he had some interactions with them. Later, after his sect was destroyed and he was left homeless, he saw Xin Feiliu holding a premature infant with nowhere to turn. He saved Xin Jiuxian on the condition that Xin Feiliu become his disciple and inherit his legacy as a music cultivator. He placed the infant’s soul into a Saint Artifact he had brought out from the fallen Tingyin Sect: the Yulan Floating Light Zither.
Afterward, he came to the Southern Province with Xin Feiliu and founded Tingyin Pavilion to preserve the legacy of the Tingyin Sect.
Wen Li’s brows furrowed. “Even you think Xin Yingru’s death was my doing?”
Hearing this, Bai Yu’s expression relaxed. As expected, it wasn’t her.
He let out a soft sigh. “Jiuxian has had no parents to discipline her since she was a child. Ever since her sister’s death, Xin Feiliu’s temperament has become increasingly violent and irritable, and the child grew up the same way. When she inherits Tingyin Pavilion in the future, tell her not to be so obsessive about everything.”
Wen Li’s expression tightened slightly, but she ultimately gave her word. “...Fine.”
She had one more question for him. “The interprovincial array I left in the Southern Province—did you tamper with it?”
Bai Yu looked startled and shook his head. “It wasn't me.”
“Has anyone from the Central Province come here?” Wen Li knew that if he said no, he meant it.
Upon hearing this, Bai Yu understood her meaning and gave a slight nod. “Indeed, someone came to the Southern Province, but I do not know who they were. I could only sense the oppressive aura of someone at the Peak Soul Formation realm. The last place that person appeared seemed to be the Buddhist Order.”
The Buddhist Order.
Wen Li nodded. “Understood.”
It seemed she would have to pay them a visit.
Bai Yu’s eyes, like those of an elegant gentleman, looked toward the cloudy sky outside the cave dwelling. “A pity. I was hoping that on the day of my death and Dao-dissolution, I would be sent off by the glow of the rosy clouds and the resonance of ten thousand sounds.”
“You’re about to die, and you still want to put me to work.”
Wen Li was silent for a moment, her tone one of feigned annoyance as she pulled out Hold On. He knew perfectly well that she had dispersed ten thousand miles of dark clouds just a few days ago to watch the moon; saying this now was clearly just waiting for her to do it again.
Bai Yu’s eyes curved into a smile. “I wonder if I might have that honor.”
“Play another song for me,” Wen Li requested.
“Very well.”
With a flick of Wen Li’s finger, Hold On immediately flew out of the cave dwelling. Shengji, Linghu Ci, and Bai Songxu all saw it. In the next second, just like that night a few days ago, a blade of sword energy was swung forth.
The entire gloomy, gray sky was suddenly pulled open like a curtain as the dark clouds dispersed. That sword energy continued to expand, sweeping away every cloud for ten thousand miles in a curling vortex.
The heavy gloom of the heavens vanished instantly, revealing the bright, clear sun.
The three elders were astonished, but none of them moved to stop it.
The warm rays of the sun shone through the entrance of the cave dwelling onto the floor, reflecting a beam of light onto Bai Yu’s face. He walked outside to bathe in the sunlight and sat down at the peak of the main mountain. Raising his hands, a flash of spiritual light appeared on his lap, manifesting as a dark, ancient guqin.
His slender fingers plucked the strings he hadn’t touched in a long time, and the sound of the zither slowly drifted out.
A melody of free-spiritedness rather than sorrow flew from the cave dwelling on the wings of spiritual energy, spreading throughout the entire Tingyin Pavilion.
“Hmm? Who is practicing the zither?”
“This sound... the composition seems simple, but the artistic conception is transcendent. Such extraordinary grace! I want to play along.”
“I’m joining too!”
One Tingyin Pavilion disciple took out their instrument to accompany the music, then a second, then a third. They didn’t know who was playing, but they all admired the music and yearned to meet a fellow Daoist through sound.
Thus, countless melodies of music cultivators from within Tingyin Pavilion danced together, forming the resonance of ten thousand sounds that Bai Yu had wished to hear.
Master, I have preserved the legacy of the Tingyin Sect and repaid you for raising me.
I have no regrets in this life.
Dressed in a moon-white robe, his fingers moved with the grace of flowing water. His sleeves fluttered as if he had returned to his high-spirited youth in the Central Province; he had found his most beloved Dao.
Wen Li stood outside the cave dwelling, watching him pluck the strings with such vitality. As she watched, his figure gradually became transparent in the sunlight, dissolving into smoke from the bottom up.
“Thank you...”
He looked at Wen Li with a light curve to his lips, raised his head toward the rosy light, and vanished between heaven and earth.
His zither fell onto the cliff of the mountain, lying there alone, a testament that he had once existed in this world.
“Master!”
“Master!”
“Ancestor...”
Bai Songxu knelt behind Shengji and Linghu Ci. The three of them suddenly looked up, their expressions filled with sorrow and their eyes moist. They bowed deeply toward the zither three times.
Bai Yu knew that Xin Feiliu had gone to the Eastern Province to find Wangquan Chumo. He knew she had a knot in her heart and couldn’t wait a moment longer, and he didn't want her to witness his disappearance with her own eyes, so he hadn't told her he would be leaving today. Back then, he had chosen Xin Yingru, but she had joined the Taichu Sect. Later, he chose Xin Feiliu and saved Xin Jiuxian on the condition that Feiliu inherit the mantle of the Tingyin Sect, yet in the end, he had still allowed her to remain a sword cultivator.
This was why, among the three elders of Tingyin Pavilion, she was the only sword cultivator.
Wen Li’s eyes were momentarily dazed, her face showing little emotion. She simply waved her hand to retrieve Bai Yu’s zither. Its master was gone, and the flowing light on the zither instantly vanished, losing its luster and turning into stone.
The zither had an artifact soul; it refused to find a second master and chose to seal itself away.
An old friend.
Another one of her old friends had departed.
With a detached expression, Wen Li handed the zither to Shengji and turned to leave.
Having lived for ten thousand years, there was no one who could accompany her in immortality. She had lost count of the old friends who had died before her eyes.
Immortality...
Longevity without bounds. How wonderful.
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