Yun Zi'an's eyes turned red. Having been bullied terribly by Zhang Jingyun in the past, she had dreamed countless times of becoming a princess and appearing before Zhang Jingyun.
With graceful manners and a noble aura, surrounded by a throng of palace maids, she would slowly step down from a luxurious carriage, proudly raise her head, and cast a disdainful look at Zhang Jingyun.
Zhang Jingyun would look at her in shock, then kneel down in fear and trembling, kissing her shoes and becoming her servant.
"Why has this beautiful dream turned out like this?" Yun Zi'an cried out in her heart. "Attacked by spirit wolves, injured in the leg, and left sitting on the ground..."
"I have never lost face since returning to the imperial palace, yet the one time I look pathetic, it just had to be seen by Zhang Jingyun."
"Is he my nemesis?"
Yun Zi'an hurriedly rubbed her aching nose and said with a hint of a sob, "I'm fine. I can stand up by myself."
With that, Yun Zi'an stubbornly used her scabbard to prop herself up against the ground, slowly rising to her feet. After walking a few steps, when she reached Zhang Jingyun, she could no longer keep going and dropped to her knees right in front of him with a soft thump. Her kneeling posture was even more standard than that of a palace maid trained since childhood.
The two of them faced each other, and the surroundings suddenly fell silent. The atmosphere was awkward to the extreme, and Yun Zi'an's cheeks blushed so brightly it seemed as though they might drip blood. She desperately wished to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Humiliated again! Was this damned body really so excited the moment it saw its former master? Yun Zi'an clenched her teeth tightly and cursed inwardly: "Zhang Jingyun, just how thoroughly did you train her?!"
Of course, Zhang Jingyun had no idea that Yun Zi'an's mental activities were so complex; he merely thought this little princess was rather arrogant.
He sighed helplessly, reached out a hand, and said, "Junior Sister Yun, let me carry you down the mountain."
Emotionally, Yun Zi'an was ten thousand times unwilling to accept Zhang Jingyun's help, but reason told her that without it, the situation would only become more embarrassing.
The nighttime mountain forest exuded a mysterious aura, and moonlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves like a veil of silver.
Yun Zi'an raised her head slightly and took a deep breath. The crisp air of the mountain forest, mixed with the fragrance of earth and the scent of vegetation, allowed her spirits to relax slightly.
Then, she slowly extended her hand. That hand trembled slightly, appearing exceptionally fair under the illumination of the moonlight.
Although the male disciples of the Tandao Sect all said that Yun Zi'an possessed peerless beauty, for some reason Zhang Jingyun felt completely nothing for her; he even felt that Senior Sister Lin Bingzhi, who was cold and loved to lecture others, had more charm than Yun Zi'an.
Therefore, when Zhang Jingyun grasped Yun Zi'an's hand, not a single ripple stirred in the depths of his heart. With a slight exertion of force, he easily hoisted her onto his back.
Yun Zi'an's body shuddered slightly as she anxiously and hurriedly straightened her spine.
The two of them walked for a long time without communicating. To break the awkwardness, Zhang Jingyun asked, "Junior Sister Yun, why did you run up the mountain?"
"I..." Yun Zi'an awkwardly scratched her cheek. "I was originally checking whether the children in the village had cultivation talent with Senior Sister Gu, when little Ning suddenly ran over and said his older brother was trapped on the mountain, asking me to help search for him."
"I thought it was a very simple matter, so I came without thinking much. As a result, after rescuing his older brother, we drew the attack of a pack of spirit wolves."
"So that's how it was!" Zhang Jingyun had a cold and aloof personality. Although he had changed a lot over the past two years, he still wasn't very good at chatting. After replying with that sentence, he didn't say anything further.
The two of them fell into silence once more. As they were about to return to the village, Yun Zi'an suddenly asked, "Senior Brother Zhang, have you ever checked anyone else's talent?"
Zhang Jingyun answered without hesitation, "No."
"Really none?"
"Probably none. I don't remember."
Yun Zi'an let out an "oh," and a dense look of hatred instantly flashed through her eyes. Back then, after Zhang Jingyun bought her back, he had checked her talent once. That time had been far more thorough than how she checked the children; it hadn't just ended with a tap on the forehead.
Recalling this memory, Yun Zi'an couldn't help but clench her fists. She had been flipped through and examined like an object, with no secrets and not a shred of dignity.
Even though she was later found to possess a rare spiritual qi resonance, she hated Zhang Jingyun to the extreme all the same.
Yet now... the humiliation she would never forget in her lifetime had been forgotten by the perpetrator, Zhang Jingyun.
When only a short stretch of the road remained before the village, Yun Zi'an strongly insisted on walking on her own.
Looking at Yun Zi'an, Zhang Jingyun instantly understood her concerns.
Yun Zi'an was worried that if others saw them looking like this, it would give rise to gossip, and Zhang Jingyun himself likewise did not wish for such a thing to happen.
Thus, he nodded gently and let Yun Zi'an down.
The instant her feet touched the ground, Yun Zi'an's body swayed slightly, but she quickly steadied herself. Clenching the Bishuang Sword in her hand tightly, she limped along behind him.
Not long after Yun Zi'an and Zhang Jingyun set off again, they returned to the village. Gu Lingbo was standing at the entrance, anxiously looking out.
When she saw Yun Zi'an's figure, she was wild with joy, hurried over, and said excitedly, "Junior Sister Yun, why were you gone for so long? Are you hurt?"
Yun Zi'an smiled politely and said softly, "I went up the mountain and ended up fighting with some spirit wolves. I'm sorry to have worried you, Senior Sister."
"No! It was me who didn't take good care of you." Gu Lingbo slapped her forehead, her tone filled with self-reproach. "I shouldn't have let you go up the mountain alone."
As she spoke, she stepped forward two or three steps to carefully support Yun Zi'an. Seemingly remembering something, Yun Zi'an turned back and said to Zhang Jingyun, "Thank you, Senior Brother Zhang, for your rescue this time."
Her tone was quite polite, yet cold to the extreme. Even Gu Lingbo could sense that Yun Zi'an's attitude toward Zhang Jingyun was very different from how she treated others.
She looked at Yun Zi'an and then at Zhang Jingyun, wanting to ask if the two of them had a past grievance, but the words stopped at the tip of her tongue.
"Junior Brother Zhang, I'll take Junior Sister Yun away first." Gu Lingbo exchanged a brief word with Zhang Jingyun, and then supported Yun Zi'an as they walked further and further away.
...
Ever since the parting that day, Zhang Jingyun and Yun Zi'an were like two parallel lines—one poured all their heart into cultivation, while the other remained stuck in a bottleneck unable to break through.
Through unremitting effort, Yun Zi'an had already mastered the Phantom Star Frost Moon Sword Technique, but she could never advance any further to reach the state of pure mastery in the Moon-Seizing Sword Technique.
"A little bit off, it's always just a little bit off!" While practicing the Phantom Star Frost Moon, Yun Zi'an couldn't help reciting the words Zhang Jingyun used to reprimand her with in the past.
Back then, how had she broken through that final bit to achieve perfection? Oh! It was when Zhang Jingyun struck her from behind with his scabbard.
It was one thing to be beaten as a servant, but now that she was a princess, she could never use that method again.
Midway through Yun Zi'an's practice, Second Senior Brother Song Lian suddenly walked over and called out, "Junior Sister, you're still practicing the sword!"
Hearing this, Yun Zi'an hurriedly stopped, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and smiled as she replied, "I always feel like I haven't completely mastered it, so I'm practicing a bit more."
"You haven't mastered the Phantom Star Frost Moon Sword Technique yet?" Song Lian said in surprise. "I think you're already using it extremely well."
Was this the difference between an peerless genius and an ordinary genius? Yun Zi'an fell silent. If she hadn't been trained by Zhang Jingyun, perhaps she would be just like Song Lian, thinking she had completely mastered the Phantom Star Frost Moon Sword Technique.
Song Lian continued, "Junior Sister, stop practicing for now and come with me to the Martial Arts Arena."
Yun Zi'an asked in confusion, "What are we doing at the Martial Arts Arena?"
"Zhuo Zhenru, the eldest miss of the Zhuo Family, has arrived and wishes to spar with the sword cultivators of our Tandao Sect, so Master is calling us over."
"I heard that this eldest miss has fought over a hundred sword cultivators and has never lost once." A trace of excitement flashed across Song Lian's face. "I really want to have a serious fight with her and see."