Techniques.
The techniques her master gave her in the morning had not yet been read.
She took them out to look.
They were, um, rather plain in appearance.
A tattered booklet, without even a cover, and no high-sounding name written upon it. Flipping it open, there were not even the names of the stances.
"Penglai Sword Technique"
Very well, plain and straightforward.
Looking at the first stance, Ruan Wei recalled the way Feng Wuya had demonstrated it to her back then.
With a turn of her wrist, a broken sword—which Feng Wuya had snapped a few inches shorter that morning so that it now suited her height—appeared in her hand. Imitating the book, Ruan Wei assumed the starting stance.
She remembered the wooden sword Feng Wuya had used when executing his strikes.
Ruan Wei went out into the spacious courtyard.
The wind and sand rustled slightly. At this moment, her body's spiritual power was circulating rapidly. Closing her eyes, she felt the flow of heaven and earth's spiritual qi within this courtyard, her entire person seeming to dissolve into the night.
Moonlight poured over her, making her look like a goddess dancing with a sword beneath the moon, cold and solemn.
First, following the movements in the book, she linked together several transitional stances. A cold light flashed at the broken sword's edge, and the sword, carrying spiritual qi, swept outward. The sword qi came with the wind, and the grass in the corners of the courtyard swayed in the strong gale.
She lunged forward and thrust out with the sword.
Then she immediately frowned. Wrong.
It wasn't like this.
After thinking carefully for a moment, she thrust out with the sword again.
Wrong.
She practiced it several times in a row, but failed to grasp the essence.
Ruan Wei stopped her movements and returned inside her room to ponder.
Time flowed away.
Dawn broke from the sky.
"Ah, looks like I still need to take a few more beatings."
The girl murmured softly.
——
Time always passes quickly, especially for cultivators. Their lifespans are so long that a period of secluded cultivation makes decades blink by in an instant.
At this time, in the fishing village beneath Penglai Mountain.
"Little Master, came to wait for the boat again?"
A fisherwoman doing her laundry looked up to see a figure approaching from afar, and waved warmly in greeting.
"Mhm," the newcomer replied softly. Like pearls falling onto a jade plate, her voice was crisp and pleasing to the ear.
At a glance, the young girl wore a moon-white Daoist robe, her appearance inextricably tied to the color of the sea. Her hair was tied in a Daoist bun, with a warm jade hairpin thrust horizontally through her locks. Her beauty was so striking that even this austere attire could not suppress the glittering radiance around her. Her wide, flowing sleeves were fitted with bracers like those worn by ordinary men, giving her the ambiguous, unisex beauty of a divine statue.
She looked like someone from the sea, or an immortal from the forest.
A red mole between her eyebrows made her look even more detached from worldly affairs, entirely devoid of mortal dust. Her features resembled those of someone from Tongzhou, cool and aloof, unlike the bold and defined features of the people of Penglai, yet she came closer to the goddess of the vernacular tales than any divine statue.
Everyone in the fishing village knew her; she was the young disciple taken in by the Penglai Immortal Sect a few years ago. In the past two years, she often came to the ferry landing, sitting for an entire day without anyone knowing what she was waiting for.
The newcomer was none other than Ruan Wei.
She was now fifteen.
Over the past four years, she had devoted herself to cultivating on Penglai Mountain.
Three months after ascending the mountain at the age of eleven, she had reached Foundation Establishment. The baptism of spiritual qi poured down, washing over her body. At that time, the black snake mark had receded almost to the tip of her finger.
Yet as soon as the three years were up, one night while she was cultivating, Ruan Wei suddenly clutched her chest in agonizing pain. Feng Wuya urgently summoned Cui Yanjun from secluded cultivation, and after acupuncture that left her looking like a hedgehog, they managed to suppress the black snake mark down to her forearm.
After that, she had no choice but to be even more diligent. Judging by the trend, she would only be able to endure through one more three-year period.
Feng Wuya had told her, "Weiwei, work harder."
Once she reached the Golden Core stage, she would be able to hold out for another three years.
Therefore, regardless of bitter winter or scorching summer.
Every day, Ruan Wei rushed toward being beaten and toward the path of getting beaten.
After finishing morning practice with a beating, she attended lectures in the afternoon, occasionally went to the Third Uncle-Master's for a practical training class, and practiced swordplay alone at night.
Over the past four years, she and her Senior Brother had shared weal and woe, without a single interruption.
The results were also very effective.
Xiao Xuantong had just formed his Golden Core a few days ago, and was currently being dragged by Feng Wuya to the back mountain to be taught by the ancestors.
Enduring a few strikes from other people's swords made his progress even more rapid.
He had already learned the third stance of the Penglai sword moves. His body refinement had become even more solid, and he was far too durable. When Feng Wuya beat him now, it took ten sword strikes just to flick him away.
Due to his growing stature, he was now indistinguishable from the Eldest Senior Brother Ruan Wei remembered from her memories.
Ruan Wei was still stuck at the Foundation Establishment Mid-stage, and could only be said to have mastered the first stance of the Penglai sword moves and was currently learning the second.
Feng Wuya said her spiritual power was accumulated enough, but her state of mind was lacking.
He said Ruan Wei had seen too little of the world.
Yet he still refused to let her leave the island.
Ruan Wei knew very well in her heart that her cultivation being blocked was entirely normal.
According to Second Uncle-Master, she possessed an Innate Spiritual Body and therefore an Exquisite Seven-Orificed Heart; she was also naturally clever and adept at discerning human nature. If someone like this tumbled through the mortal world, her advancement would be far faster than being confined to the mountain now.
However, she was prone to straying onto the wrong path. Thus, in the pursuit of the Dao, priority was not a matter of first come, first served; tempering the mind was even less about speed.
Cháojiàn and Feng Wuya shared the same view: Ruan Wei needed to establish her Daoist path at the very least, and only descend the mountain after experiencing the Golden Core's inquiry into her heart and the Dao.
Ruan Wei was not in a hurry to begin with.
It was Ruan Nanzhi.
Over the past four years, she had used up an entire stack of Communication Talismans, yet she had never received a reply from Ruan Nanzhi.
The last time Ruan Wei tried to hire a boat to go out to sea by herself, she was caught red-handed by Feng Wuya. Having raised Ruan Wei for several years, he couldn't bear to punish her too harshly this time. Cháojiàn took her to the back mountain to be disciplined by the ancestors for a few days, and after taking a beating, the child became much more obedient.
Moreover, in the past two years, the borders of the Cultivation World had grown increasingly turbulent.
The Demon Race frequently invaded, and the Penglai Immortal Sect was no longer as secluded as written in the original plot.
The sect's mobile personnel—specifically referring to Feng Wuya, Cháojiàn, and Cui Yanjun—frequently went out.
The three of them took turns being borrowed by various major sects in Tongzhou to tour and lecture back and forth.
Occasionally, all three would venture out together.
Leaving behind two left-behind children and an unknown number of ancestors in secluded cultivation in the back mountain.
The Fourth and Fifth Uncle-Masters whom Xiao Xuantong spoke of had still not been met to this day, but they had mailed welcome gifts for Ruan Wei.
"Little Master."
The fisherwoman called out to her.
At this moment, Ruan Wei was sitting cross-legged by the dock, gazing blankly at the calm sea.
Hearing her call, she turned her head to look at the fisherwoman.
The fisherwoman smiled, her eyes bright. "You come here to look at the sea every day. Are you waiting for some ship?"
Ruan Wei was pretty, looking just like an immortal fairy, and everyone in the fishing village loved to chat with her.
Hearing her question, Ruan Wei fell silent.
"I am waiting for Master, and... Junior Brother and Junior Sister?"
Her tone was full of uncertainty.
Ruan Wei vaguely remembered that it should be around this time.
In recent years, she would always inexplicably fall into a deep sleep, and her mind would constantly accumulate memories that did not belong to her. When she woke up again, she always found that the world's corruption index was steadily rising, currently at 85%.
The System in her mind had completely crashed.
Come to think of it, it had been a very long time since she last heard its cold AI voice.
However, even without its reminders, Ruan Wei was trying her absolute best to change this ending.
Through various tests, Ruan Wei discovered that, bound by the Heavenly Dao, she could not bluntly state that the Demon Race would cause chaos; she could only offer veiled and circuitous hints.
Over the past four years, whenever she had the chance, she would hint to her Master explicitly and implicitly about the demonic threat at the borders. Feng Wuya was also quite perceptive and had been running outside even more frequently in the last two years.
If she remembered correctly, the Chang Family twins should be the ones Feng Wuya was bringing back from this trip.
The Chang Family was the fuse that ignited the initial war between immortals and demons.
They were the first aristocratic family in the Cultivation World to be slaughtered by the Demon Race.
With thousands of clan members in the vast family, they exhausted all the strength of their lineage just to send the last two children out through a Teleportation Array. At that time, Feng Wuya, who was in charge of that line of defense, only managed to save these two children.
He brought the two back to the Penglai Immortal Sect, took them in as disciples, and educated them painstakingly.
Only, such a bumpy road ran through to the very end.
Suddenly, the Communication Talisman vibrated, and Ruan Wei channeled spiritual qi into it.
"Weiwei? Are you down the mountain?"
Feng Wuya's voice came through.
"Master?" Ruan Wei replied. "I'm at the fishing village."
The other end seemed somewhat noisy. Saying "wait a moment," Feng Wuya seemed to rustle his robes as he walked, his footsteps audible in transit. "Go to the Teleportation Array by the peach grove. I'm sending you something."
Ruan Wei raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
The other end seemed somewhat guilty. After a long moment, Feng Wuya answered, "Just... sending some fun... people."
He had the guilty air of someone about to have a third child, terrified that the second child would refuse.
"Junior Brother and Junior Sister?"
"... Both of them."
They were here.
Ruan Wei understood. With a swift movement, she retrieved her Spirit Sword from her Mustard Seed Bag and flew on the sword toward the Teleportation Array at the other end of the peach grove.
On the distant sea, a light boat drifted gracefully along the waves.
Amidst the peach grove.
"Left three, right four, the peak holds the spirit."
Reciting the incantation, Ruan Wei said to Feng Wuya on the other end, "It's ready, Master. Open the array."
The other end gave a hum, and amidst spellcasting, the Communication Talisman was cut off.
In an instant.
Flowers and leaves scattered in all directions. The wind on the island was already strong, and here in the peach grove, the vegetation rustled violently from the shockwave of spiritual power.
Ruan Wei narrowed her eyes as she looked toward the center of the array.
The ball of spiritual light was too dazzling, forcing Ruan Wei to turn her head away.
When she looked back again, two fallen figures were already lying at the center of the array.
Looking closely, the two children were covered in blood.
Ruan Wei was greatly startled.
Good grief, Master, you couldn't even change their bloody clothes before throwing them to her?
She hurried to run toward the two of them. Heavens alive, her two fragile Junior Brother and Junior Sister couldn't possibly kick the bucket right here, could they?