Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Does Not Knowing Matter?

Ten Thousand Sword Sect’s Cloud Sword Peak.

A little girl sat cross-legged atop a rock.

Before the little girl, a crystalline longsword floated in suspension.

The sword measured three feet in length, adorned with stream-like engravings resembling tassels.

The entire sword looked exceedingly simple, yet within its simplicity lay an extraordinary beauty.

The little girl was named Xuenuo.

The Qingming Longsword gradually shed translucent snowflakes from its body, its edge becoming sharper, akin to a cultivator who had undergone Body Tempering and expelled all impurities within.

Anyone who had seen the young lady would never doubt her future entry into the Red Beauty List.

Xuenuo had long guessed that once Qingwan stepped onto the path of cultivation, she would be no less talented than herself.

Most Sword Cultivators’ Life-Bonded Flying Swords were external acquisitions, refined until fused with their Divine Souls. This process primarily aimed to strengthen the bond between cultivator and sword.

During her leisure from cultivation, the young lady enjoyed sitting before this flower garden, lost in thought.

“Master.”

Beyond the narrow passageway, there stretched an ocean of flowers.

Jiang Luoyu: “Speak.”

“Xuenuo, even if you helped him establish secondary spirit channels, it would be futile. He will never step into the Cavern Realm.”

[Qingwan, hailing from the Wu Kingdom, is the direct disciple of the Great Elder of Heavenly Profound Gate. At eight years old, she entered the sixth level of Qi Refinement — Sea Observing Realm, ranked ninth on the Azurecloud List.]

“Does not knowing matter?”

Until she fully refined the Qingming Longsword, she could not leave this peak or have any contact with the outside world, lest she accumulate too much karma and dull the sword’s edge.

Amidst the sea of flowers stood an eight-year-old girl.

“I dislike it.” Qin Qingwan shook her head, “But when the Blood Rafflesia blooms four more times, I can see Brother Ming again~~~”

As if recalling something, Xuenuo opened her eyes anew.

The body of the Qingming Longsword emitted a soft white glow outward bit by bit.

Blooming every two years, five blooms would mean ten years?

I haven’t been alive for ten years yet.

The young lady missed home.

In the skies above, a cobalt-blue list appeared with inscribed words—

At that time, on Mind-Clearing Sword Peak, Jiang Luoyu saw all the illusions of Xuenuo and learned about the little boy named Ming.

Even Xuenuo’s breakthrough was due to that boy.

Wiping away her tears, the young lady continued tending to the flower garden.

Just as Xuenuo rejoiced for her close friend, the voice of the Ten Thousand Sword Sect’s Sect Leader echoed from the heavens.

Yet within twenty meters centered around the Qingming Longsword, there emanated a frigid Sword Qi completely opposite to the white light.

Wang Xuan smiled faintly, “After eight years, you will no longer resemble a child. Will he still recognize you?”

Though such secondary spirit channels are costly to construct, they can never match innate spirit channels, ultimately preventing one from achieving greatness, or even stepping into the Cavern Realm.”

Xuenuo closed her eyes and continued refining her Life-Bonded Flying Sword.

His entire life, to you, is but a single spring and summer.

Jiang Luoyu, observing her disciple’s demeanor, naturally understood what she was pondering.

Thinking of her mother, thinking of Sister Xuenuo, thinking of Brother Ming, thinking of the big white goose in the courtyard…

But after arriving at the sect and thoroughly understanding her own constitution, the young lady realized she couldn’t return home, for doing so would endanger her mother and Brother Ming.

Many people within the Ten Thousand Sword Sect believed that the name “Qingming” carried these meanings, indeed quite fitting for the essence of this longsword.

However, Xuenuo, possessing Innate Sword Bone and creating her sword from her own bone, did not need to enhance the connection with her flying sword since the sword was already part of her. The main focus was on refining the sword itself, akin to honing a blade.

“Hmm.” The voice from the clouds sounded distant, yet somehow felt so near.

Every day, the young lady would check on the Blood Rafflesia during her leisure from cultivation, wondering when it would bloom.

An entire season passed, yet the Blood Rafflesia had not bloomed.

Xuenuo asked her master with tearful eyes, “Why doesn’t the Blood Rafflesia bloom? Is it because the disciple didn’t grow it well?”

West of the Heavenly Profound Gate, there were two mountains, very close together, forming a narrow crevice known as the One Line Sky.

“Snowflake Xuenuo wants to ask Master something.” Xuenuo looked up at the sky.

“Do you like Blood Rafflesia so much?” Wang Xuan smiled gently at her disciple.

“Xuenuo, your mind is too scattered.”

Wang Xuan approached the valley and walked beside her disciple.

But one can use heavenly treasures to create secondary spirit channels.

“You and him…will ultimately be separated by immortals and mortals.”

Suddenly, the longsword emitted a resonant tremor, scattering its Sword Qi.

The flower sea was encircled by two mountains, resembling a utopia.

In reality, “Qingming” merely derived from two names.

Another season passed.

The young lady cried and asked her master, “Why doesn’t the Blood Rafflesia bloom? Is it because the disciple didn’t grow it well?”

Between the two mountains, the narrow crevice formed the One Line Sky.

Seeing the words on the Azurecloud List, Xuenuo first froze in surprise, then slightly curved her lips upward.

On this day, the Blood Rafflesia bloomed, and the young lady was overjoyed.

With only four more blooms, she could see Brother Ming again.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you smile so happily in two years.”

Her skin became even whiter, yet this delicate fairness gave no sense of discordance, as if it were the most beautiful skin under heaven, flawless without a single blemish.

This flower garden was planted by the young lady upon her arrival, after she requested seeds from her master.

After two years, the round chin of the little girl had begun to taper slightly, developing towards womanhood.

“Crystal-clear like clear water, elegant flow like ancient inscription.”

They merely speculated where the young lady would rank on the Red Beauty List once she grew up.

Would the woman who had monopolized the top spot on the Red Beauty List for five hundred years finally step down?

The flowers were as red as blood, named Blood Rafflesia.

When the young lady learned from her master that the Blood Rafflesia bloomed only once every two years.

“Master~~” Qin Qingwan ran happily over.

Xuenuo slowly opened her eyes.

Upon learning the truth, the young lady stood frozen in place for a long while, then burst into tears.

The young lady squatted down and carefully watered the flower garden before her.

Her peach blossom-like eyes seemed as if they could ripple the world with just a flicker.

Kissing the moonlight, Qin Qingwan’s eyes twinkled.

“I know him, and that is enough.”