A Lone Light in the Cold - Chapter 3

To my astonishment, he did return them. With an outrageous amount of interest.

Before leaving, Xie Qinghong handed over a bag of spirit crystals and told Martial Uncle Kunning to make sure I recovered properly.

One spirit crystal was worth a hundred spirit stones.

I stared blankly at the bag in my hands. I was rich.

Kunning rapped me on the head. “Yu Jun, girl, what are you staring at?”

“The Sword Venerable put you in charge of the graves, and you managed to get hurt this badly? And pick a fight with Xie Zhiyao? Why must you be so stubborn about your work?” He stroked his white beard and launched into another lesson on the art of slacking off at work. Opposing your superiors was just asking for trouble.

“Wait…” His hand stopped on his beard, and his tone turned grave. “Yu Jun, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for Sword Venerable Qinghong. Why else would you take his instructions so much to heart?”

Impossible. I denied it at once.

Only then did he relax. “Sword Venerable Qinghong has achieved so much at such a young age. You have no idea how many noble young ladies are chasing after him. He’s the prized bun everyone wants a bite of, and ordinary people can’t hope to have him.”

Xie Qinghong’s talent now swept all before it in the cultivation world. He’d stolen my thunder the moment he’d made his debut. Add a genuinely handsome face, and it was no wonder all the major powers wanted him.

Seeing me behave so obediently pleased Kunning immensely. “You’ve been badly injured, Yu Jun. Stay here and recuperate for a while. You need light food, nothing too strongly flavored. What would you like for dinner?”

I hesitated. “Buns?”

Kunning said nothing.

Martial Uncle Kunning led the Medicine Sect with his outstanding medical skills. Kind and compassionate, he treated all living beings equally.

The original Yu Jun had been at death’s door after eating a poisonous herb by mistake. Kunning was the one who had pulled her back from the brink.

What he didn’t know was that the person who woke up was no longer the old Yu Jun.

Come to think of it, he and I had quite a connection. When I was still Xie Fuhan, all I thought about was cultivating, and I got injured constantly.

He might grumble, but he always did everything he could to heal me.

As for my overpowered protagonist of a father, he hadn’t even given me a proper look when almost half my shoulder was being eaten away.

Naive as I was, I’d actually blamed my own lack of skill for getting hurt.

Father. What a joke.

“Have you heard? Sword Venerable Qinghong sent Senior Sister Xie to reflect on her conduct at No-Thought Cliff for seven days!”

“The sect leader’s daughter? I’ve never heard of her being punished. What happened?”

“They say she was disrespectful at Divine Lord Fuhan’s grave…”

The two medicine boys outside walked away, their gossip fading with them.

Had Xie Qinghong really gone mad? He’d actually punished Xie Zhiyao.

Xie Hao was the sect leader, but he spent most of his time traveling. The sect’s venerable elders weren’t keen on managing affairs either, so Xie Qinghong wielded considerable authority.

Still, Xie Zhiyao was the sect leader’s daughter. Most people turned a blind eye to her spoiled behavior.

For her, seven days of reflection at No-Thought Cliff was already a severe punishment.

I couldn’t understand why Xie Qinghong had done it.

Wasn’t trouble at my grave exactly what he wanted to see?

I lay in bed, hoping to sleep a little longer, but the pain kept me awake.

Then something unusual inside my body caught my attention.

This body should have been incapable of cultivation. Yet I could sense a few threads of spiritual power within it.

There wasn’t much, but it was purer than any I’d ever encountered.

I was ecstatic. After checking over and over, I was certain. This really was spiritual power.

Drawing spiritual energy into the body. The very first step in cultivation!

Just then, Kunning came in carrying a porcelain bowl.

“Yu Jun, take your medicine.”

I frowned. Before I could speak, he assumed I was trying to get out of drinking it and trotted out his favorite saying.

“Bitter medicine does you good.”

I drained the medicine and hurriedly set the bowl aside.

“Martial Uncle, I can cultivate!”

He swayed, almost tripping over his own feet.

Disbelief covered his face. “What?!”

To prove it, I deftly formed a hand seal. Pure white spiritual energy danced at my fingertips.

That perfectly pure spiritual power earned me a place among the inner disciples without any trouble.

Before I left the Medicine Sect, Kunning crammed my storage ring with pills for every imaginable purpose.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Martial Uncle, how could I possibly use all these?”

He gave me a long look, then sighed. “You think I don’t know you?”

My heart tightened. Instinctively, I felt he wasn’t speaking to Yu Jun.

He was speaking to Xie Fuhan.

When I looked at him again, his expression was perfectly normal. He began fussing over me.

“Now that I’m sending you into the inner sect, remember: cultivation comes first.”

I nodded in wholehearted agreement.

He paused, then added, “And remember this as well. Those men in the inner sect may all look perfectly respectable, but every man in this world is a pig or a dog. Don’t get caught up in worldly love. Concentrate on cultivating.”

Trying not to laugh, I objected, “But aren’t you a man too, Martial Uncle?”

…

His beard bristled. “Since when did you learn to talk back, girl?”

I’d been wondering which familiar face would become my master now that I’d entered the inner sect.

I hadn’t expected Xie Qinghong.

I stared at him expressionlessly. “Have you taken a wrong turn, Sword Venerable?”

The amusement in his eyes made me feel uncomfortable all over.

“Am I not allowed to take a disciple?”

I looked at him coldly. You wanted me to call you Master?

Dream on.