Lady Cultivator-Chapter 253 - Had Long Known

“Master!” Mo Tiange couldn’t help but call out as her own spiritual aura lashed out of control.

Lord Daoist Jinghe’s expression became dignified. He placed his palm on Mo Tiange’s head, shouting: “Don’t worry—slowly control your spiritual aura!”

A tremendous spiritual aura pressure started to subdue the spiritual aura in her whole body, which almost went out of control following after Qin Xi’s. With a Nascent Soul cultivator keeping watch, Mo Tiange was eventually able to steady her mind and once again took back control over her spiritual aura.

The spiritual aura inside Qin Xi’s body was now charging around violently, riddling the inner part of his body with countless injuries. Mo Tiange, who was pouring her spiritual aura into him, also had a very hard time. Her cultivation level was far below his, so the moment her spiritual aura went into his body, it was immediately dominated, rendering her completely incapable of guiding Qin Xi’s spiritual aura. Moreover, having Lord Daoist Jinghe backing her up only barely allowed her to control her own spiritual aura.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t withstand the attractive force between Yin and Yang spiritual auras. The two kinds of spiritual auras intertwined together; both absorbing her spiritual aura and drawing his spiritual aura to her. Gradually, their meridians were linked, forming a new macrocosmic orbit.

At this point, there was no need for Mo Tiange to guide anything—their spiritual auras automatically mixed together, thus slowly regaining some kind of pattern. The spiritual aura all over his body gradually retreated and once again converged inside his meridians. As he was linked to her, his spiritual aura slowly swallowed all her Yin spiritual aura…

…

When Mo Tiange woke up, she felt a bit confused about where she was, and when she wanted to get up, she felt her vision becoming blurry.

“Auntie!”

After her vision gradually cleared up, she forced herself to squeeze out a smile. “Zhenji?”

Ye Zhenji stared at her, seemingly hesitating to say something. In the end, he only said: “Auntie, grandmaster said your spiritual aura has been exhausted, so you shouldn’t move around for the time being—you should cultivate for several days to recover your spiritual aura first.”

“Is that so?” Mo Tiange asked with a frown. Suddenly, she remembered what happened, so she immediately threw out another question. “How’s your master’s condition now?”

“Master…” Ye Zhenji shook his head. “His condition’s quite complicated; Auntie should ask grandmaster about the details. However, there shouldn’t be any problems. It’s just that he might not wake up for a while.”

“I see…” She took a moment to think then asked again: “How long was I out for?”

“Four hours,” Ye Zhenji said, “Auntie, you should rest a bit longer. Grandmaster said you’re too tired, so you should rest properly to quickly regain your strength.”

Mo Tiange nodded. If her situation was to be described using a rather inappropriate analogy, she was like someone whose spiritual auras had been harvested—her whole body was deprived of spiritual aura, so she needed to meditate slowly and adjust her breathing to quickly recover. After thinking for a while, she suddenly remembered something. “Your master’s injured; as his disciple, you ought to tend to him—why are you staying with me instead?”

Ye Zhenji said with hesitation: “But Auntie, you—”

Mo Tiange said, “I’m fine now, so you should go. You’re your master’s only disciple after all; some things will be neglected if you don’t handle them. You mustn’t be indifferent in this regard, understand?”

“En,” Ye Zhenji also understood this, so when he saw that Mo Tiange seemed alright aside from being rather pale, he said, “In that case, I’ll take my leave first, Auntie. If anything’s wrong, you must definitely tell me.”

“I know. Go; there’s no need to worry.”

Upon sending Ye Zhenji away, Mo Tiange closed her eyes, and she once again fell to bed headfirst. After quite a while, she finally mustered enough energy to stand up and activate the restrictions on Mingxin Residence. Immediately afterward, she entered the Virtual Sky World and began adjusting her breathing.

The late stage of the Foundation Building realm and the peak stage of the Core Formation realm… Although she was only one realm inferior to him from the perspective of the great realms, their spiritual aura had a several dozen fold difference. If it wasn’t because Lord Daoist Jinghe was present, her cultivation level would’ve most likely regressed considering the disparity between their cultivation levels. Fortunately, she merely ran out of spiritual aura now, but both her meridians and dantian were still in good condition. As long as she slowly cultivated for several days, she’d eventually recover her spiritual aura.

In the next few days, aside from visits from Ye Zhenji or Lord Daoist Jinghe, Mo Tiange was always inside the Virtual Sky World adjusting her breath.

The Virtual Sky World was abundant in spiritual aura. It was because of this coupled with the many miraculous curative panaceas Lord Daoist Jinghe sent over that Mo Tiange only took about three to five days to recover.

When Mo Tiange left the Virtual Sky World this time, she went to the main hall of Shangqing Palace, where she found Lord Daoist Jinghe sitting and gazing at the sky, seemingly thinking about something.

“Master?”

Lord Daoist Jinghe regained his train of thought and shifted his line of sight towards her. “Oh, Tiange, are you alright now?”

“En.” Mo Tiange hesitated for a long time, but she eventually walked over and took a seat across from Lord Daoist Jinghe. “Senior Martial Brother Shoujing… Is he alright?”

“He’s fine.” Upon saying that, Lord Daoist Jinghe’s gaze seemed to be suffused with some deep thoughts. He looked at her for a long time as if he was trying to discern her thoughts before he finally spoke again: “You seem to not be surprised at all.”

Mo Tiange didn’t understand what Lord Daoist Jinghe meant. “What should I be surprised about?”

Lord Daoist Jinghe chuckled and said, “From what I remember… you’ve worshipped me as your master for so many years, but you’ve never met your Senior Martial Brother Shoujing, and I also almost never mentioned his name in front of you.”

Mo Tiange was stunned. Now she realized what he was trying to say, so she lowered her head and stayed silent.

Lord Daoist Jinghe heaved a sigh and smiled again. “It seems… I don’t have to say anything—you already knew everything.”

“…” Mo Tiange might’ve been silent, but she didn’t lose her composure.

She recognized Qin Xi, but she never met Qin Shoujing. That day when she saw him once again, she didn’t harbor any doubts regarding him being a Core Formation cultivator. Today, she even asked so openly about Senior Martial Brother Shoujing’s condition. So, what did this all mean?

After finishing the wine in his cup, Lord Daoist Jinghe once again looked at her. “Can you tell Master; when did you first find out?”

Mo Tiange’s head remained lowered. She just silently fiddled with the jade pendant hanging on her waist. She used to wear this Spirit-Concealing Pendant on her neck, but it was snatched by Ruan Mingzhu inside the Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation. When she woke up afterward, Ye Zhenji gave it back to her.

One side of this jade pendant was engraved with delicate cloud patterns. However, the center of the other side was engraved with a tiny “Qin.” She obtained this jade pendant when she was ten years old and since then, it never left her body. When she had free time, she used to hold it in her hand, wondering what kind of person its previous master was and whether he harbored ill intentions or not. When she entered Xuanqing School, she did have some hopes of meeting Master Daoist Shoujing, but she never had a chance until the demonic beast riot, when she entered Zhong Muling’s Virtual Sky World…

“It was the year the demonic beast riot occurred, when I followed Senior Martial Sister Suxin to the battlefield…”

Lord Daoist was surprised. “So early?”

Mo Tiange looked down and smiled, but there was no smile in her gaze. “At first, I never thought… it wasn’t until that year when I followed Senior Martial Sister Suxin to the battlefield and went to Luoyan Cliff, and I accidentally entered my great ancestor’s Virtual Sky World. My great ancestor told me that during the several days Senior Martial Brother Shoujing went missing, he actually entered my great ancestor’s Illusory Sky Formation by accident. Great ancestor told me that a youngster surnamed Qin… came looking for me. I thought it was Senior Martial Brother Shoujing, but in the end, the one I saw was ‘Senior Martial Brother Qin.’”

“So you became suspicious?”

Mo Tiange shook her head. “At that time, I just thought the matter was very strange. When we later left the Virtual Sky World, it was obviously Senior Martial Brother Qin who was injured, but I only heard about Senior Martial Brother Shoujing being gravely injured so he returned to Mount Taikang. Sure enough, after that, I’ve never heard any news about Senior Martial Brother Qin again.”

“…” Lord Daoist Jinghe was silent for ages before he finally spoke again. “It was no wonder all these years that you’ve never asked about ‘Senior Martial Brother Qin.’”

“Inside the Virtual Sky World, my great ancestor once chatted with another Deification senior in front of me. They said Senior Martial Brother Shoujing had a Yang Spiritual Bead inside his body but at that time, I had no idea what a Yang Spiritual Bead was. When Senior Martial Brother Qin came looking for me, great ancestor said Senior Martial Brother Qin possessed double spiritual roots, metal and fire spiritual roots, which were both Yang in nature, and that he possessed a Yang Spiritual Bead… From that moment, I started to be doubtful.”

Many Qin Shoujing-related matters weren’t secrets at Xuanqing School. For example, the matter about him having double metal and fire spiritual roots—even ordinary part-time disciples all knew about it. Besides, even though she didn’t know what a Yang Spiritual Bead was, from what her great ancestor said, she understood it must be a kind of rare spiritual treasure in this world—what was the chance of two people having it at the same time?

At this point, another smile emerged on Mo Tiange’s face. “Some matters might look very normal when we don’t think about them, but when we do, we’ll immediately notice that they’re riddled with holes. After I had those doubts, I thought about everything carefully. That so-called Senior Martial Brother Qin—which part of him resembled a low level cultivator? When he was in Yunwu Sect, he didn’t like to talk with us low level cultivators probably because our cultivation levels differed too much, so he had nothing to say. When my secret was discovered and I was forced to flee from Mount Yunwu with my second uncle, we were besieged by a group of Foundation Building cultivators. However, when Senior Martial Brother Qin arrived, he was able to immediately save us. I originally thought he had some kind of secret technique he couldn’t tell me about, but after I thought about it again, everything made sense if he was a Core Formation cultivator.”

Lord Daoist Jinghe revealed a small smile and said, “Master also thought we wouldn’t be able to keep you in the dark for too long, but all these years, I never heard you mention this matter, so I thought we really managed to keep you in the dark.”

“…The most important thing was that if Senior Martial Brother Qin indeed existed, why did nobody on all of Mount Taikang recognize him? When I didn’t have any doubts, I would always find some excuse for Senior Martial Brother Qin, but once doubts emerged in my mind, I realized everything made sense if Senior Martial Brother Shoujing was Senior Martial Brother Qin.”

Lord Daoist Jinghe heaved a deep sigh. “Then why didn’t you say anything all these years?”

Mo Tiange, who’d been keeping her head lowered, stared at her toes in silence. After a long time, she finally said softly, “… Master, to be honest, at that time, I felt very uncomfortable—I didn’t understand why he did this in the end… At that time, I was still very young. Throughout my whole journey, Senior Martial Brother Qin watched over me, so initially, I was extremely thankful to him. However, I suddenly found out about this matter—I then remained constantly suspicious about what he was trying to achieve.”

Lord Daoist Jinghe had been listening to her quietly, but now, he frowned and shook his head. “You’ve always been steady, but you were young after all, and you’re also rather paranoid, so when you suddenly found out about this matter, it was inevitable you’d be frightened and think of the worst. What about after that?”

“After that… I paid attention for a long time and sure enough, if I didn’t purposely ask about him, there was practically no trace whatsoever of Senior Martial Brother Qin throughout the entire Xuanqing School. At that time, I even wondered if his name was also fake.”

Lord Daoist Jinghe said with a smile, “His name’s real. It’s just that before forming his Gold Core, Xi’er also never used his real identity when he traveled around. After he formed his Gold Core, according to school rules, he no longer used his given name and instead used his Daoist name. Not to mention outsiders, but only a few know about his given name even among our own disciples.”

Mo Tiange also smiled. She didn’t know whether or not she should feel a bit relieved that his name was real at least.

Lord Daoist Jinghe spoke again: “It’s been several dozen years already, but you’ve never spoken about this—in the end, are you still feeling hurt about the matter, or have you forgiven him?”

Mo Tiange took a moment to think then said slowly, “… According to his identity, he’s Master’s blood-related junior and direct disciple, and I was accepted by Master as a disciple because of him. According to cultivation level, he’s a Core Formation cultivator and he obviously has a huge chance of successfully forming his Nascent Soul, while I have yet to form my Gold Core. What kind of position am I in to decide if I should forgive him or not?”

Upon hearing what she said, a deep wrinkle formed on Lord Daoist Jinghe’s brows. “You’re humbling yourself like this… Could it be that you still harbor some grievances in your heart?”