Ruan Wei was an exceptionally indomitable person, much as she had been in the Modern World.
Smart, calm, and often priding herself on being hot-blooded.
Damn it.
If she didn't return that sword strike in this lifetime, her surname wouldn't be Ruan!
Her stomach was still churning, and Ruan Wei forced down the nausea with difficulty.
Feng Wuya had already unleashed his sword, and Xiao Xuantong stepped in a fraction of a second ahead of her to catch the first blow, resulting in that ringing clash of metal against metal.
The second strike, the third strike...
"Oh?" Feng Wuya said with a surprised look. Xiao Xuantong was managing to block more than he used to, but he still shook his head and said, "With a Junior Sister around, you've forgotten how to dodge."
This time, Xiao Xuantong flew even farther than before, and the heavy thud of him slamming into the ground crashed straight into Ruan Wei's heart.
End of that flight.
The sound of rushing wind swept right at her face.
Ruan Wei immediately stepped back, her Spirit Sword poised in a defensive stance; she knew she couldn't possibly catch their Master's first strike.
Feng Wuya raised an eyebrow. Weiwei was certainly smarter than that stubborn blockhead of an eldest disciple.
He remembered how Xiao Xuantong had taken a full three days of beatings before he finally learned how to dodge.
There was no helping it; the boy was born with a stubborn streak.
Xiao Xuantong's sword carried the unstoppable breaking-army sword intent.
Although Feng Wuya had taught him, Xiao Xuantong's sword intent didn't actually inherit the same lineage as Feng Wuya's.
Ruan Wei, on the other hand, knew how to make the best of her situation and avoid her weaknesses.
Yet she was still too small.
She only had time to take a single step back. For her tiny frame, that step wasn't even as wide as Feng Wuya's foot.
The Wooden Sword showed no mercy as it flicked her into the air.
Another massive wave of force struck. This time, since her mind was focused on dodging, she failed to block properly, and the sword hilt grazed her knuckles as she went flying backward. Even while airborne, Ruan Wei still had the leisure of mind to think that, at least this time, her Senior Brother wouldn't have to go pick up the sword.
Once again, Xiao Xuantong leaped up, caught Ruan Wei by the collar, and set her down on the ground.
The moment her feet touched the ground, another wave of nausea hit her from the two heavy impacts.
Her legs had turned to jelly.
Xiao Xuantong started to come over to support her, but Ruan Wei waved him off. Leaning heavily on her Spirit Sword, she tremblingly crawled back up. Even after standing straight, her body was still shaking; she hadn't grown to her full height yet, and standing there, she looked barely taller than the Spirit Sword itself.
A quarter of an hour later, Feng Wuya slashed down with his sword once more.
The two of them were sent flying into the air again and again like this.
By the later rounds, Xiao Xuantong could no longer catch Ruan Wei before she hit the ground.
After taking a thoroughly face-planting tumble, Ruan Wei summarized her experience.
When flying through the air, first hug your head, then curl up into a ball and roll a few times upon landing—that way, it wouldn't hurt a bit.
...
Though called a morning practice, it was actually a full morning of unadulterated beatings.
Having lost count of how many times she had been thrown to the ground, Ruan Wei saw stars dancing before her eyes.
"All right, that's enough for today."
Feng Wuya put away the Wooden Sword.
Hearing this, Ruan Wei abandoned all semblance of dignity and collapsed straight onto the ground.
Xiao Xuantong was doing slightly better than her.
At least he was still standing steadily, leaning against the Raven.
Feng Wuya walked over with an amused expression, meeting Ruan Wei's instantly guarded gaze. "What? Didn't you want to learn swordsmanship?"
"Cough, cough—Master, you didn't say that learning swordsmanship meant... this."
The wind was too strong, tangling Ruan Wei's tongue so she could barely get the words out.
"Sword cultivators," Feng Wuya pointed at himself, then abruptly hauled Ruan Wei up to her feet by the scruff, "all fight their way up, one sword strike at a time."
"Once you've tasted a sword strike, you'll know how that sword is supposed to be blocked."
"I was beaten into shape by your Grand-Master, too."
"He certainly didn't give us a quarter of an hour to rest back then. As soon as one person was sent flying, the next one had to go right after. Often, the moment you crawled back, you'd get sent flying again. Your Second Uncle-Master was the most resilient against beatings; he was the one who got sent flying the most."
Cháojiàn chimed in from a distance, "My Senior Brother and I were two of a kind."
As he spoke, the formation sealing away their spiritual energy was deactivated.
Spirit energy began to circulate smoothly through their bodies once more, and the chilly mountain wind gradually stopped feeling cold. Ruan Wei's originally pale complexion instantly relaxed quite a bit, and her body stopped trembling.
"I understand, Master."
Ruan Wei looked thoughtful. "But Second Uncle-Master is a body cultivator—does he need to learn swordsmanship as well?"
"Naturally he does," Feng Wuya said, brushing the dust flakes off her fleece jacket with a smile. "Is there anyone coming out of Penglai who doesn't know the sword? No matter what path you cultivate, the sword is always a cultivator's ultimate means of self-preservation."
"The great Dao of the world has many paths; sword cultivators are simply those who enter the Dao through the sword."
"Regardless of how one enters the Dao, the Cultivation World only cares about one thing: the strength of the person standing before them."
Cháojiàn walked out of the dense forest, clad in a grey Daoist robe, looking lean and gaunt. Stroke the horsetail whisk in his hand, he said, "Do not confine yourself to a single path. There is no need to fear that learning too much will make your skills messy—only that you will lack them when the time comes to use them."
"Second Uncle-Master." Xiao Xuantong bowed to Cháojiàn.
Cháojiàn nodded in response. "Let's go."
The two of them headed deeper into the forest.
"Is Senior Brother going to learn body conditioning with Second Uncle-Master?"
Ruan Wei wrapped her fleece jacket tightly around herself.
"Mhm." Feng Wuya patted Ruan Wei's head.
The numerous small braids she had tied up today were secured tightly with hair ribbons, feeling a bit prickly to the touch.
"I haven't mentioned this to you before, but your Senior Brother was born carrying the light of the Buddha; body conditioning is practically his innate talent." Feng Wuya retrieved the Spirit Sword Ruan Wei had used today, casually snapped off a few inches of the blade, and handed it back to her. "Back at the ferry fishing village, the moment he descended into this world, I went down the mountain to take him as my disciple and brought him back to Penglai to raise and teach."
Feng Wuya continued, "Though he possesses the Buddha's light, he lacks the root of wisdom. I suppose he must have traded it away in his past life."
"With that silly look of his, it's no wonder he would try to save the world with his own body."
As she listened, completely absorbed, a fragment of lingering memory suddenly exploded inside Ruan Wei's mind.
It seemed to be her Senior Brother, grown to adulthood, still wearing that cold and desolate demeanor. Draped in fluttering long robes, his brows as frosted as snow, he carried the Raven on his back and walked through the deep, secluded mountain valleys, surrounded by dense, sky-obscuring mists. Suddenly, the memory seemed to glitch for a moment; the Senior Brother who had been walking forward abruptly vanished, and in a flash-back, a black bird was shown lying on a distant hillock. Ruan Wei watched as Xiao Xuantong walked toward that bird, then saw her Senior Brother pick it up in his cupped hands, before a flash of bloody light abruptly cut across her vision.
A single raven feather fell right before her eyes.
Ruan Wei abruptly closed her eyes, cold sweat pouring down her face.
It was Senior Brother.
Was this the original ending?
What kind of bird was that? Was it that Demon Race member whom Senior Brother saved in the original novel?
"Weiwei?!"
Ruan Wei heard Feng Wuya cry out in alarm.
Yet she could no longer answer him; her body stiffened rigidly as she fell violently backward.
Her sea of consciousness was plunged into utter gloom.
Here again.
Ruan Wei returned to the Pointer deep within her sea of consciousness. The world collapse index—
75%?
How could it have risen again?
[No reason for the increase can be detected.]
Ruan Wei asked, "Didn't you say we returned to the very beginning of the world?"
The System was equally depressed.
[Yes. The previous ending was caused by the Demon Lord's death, which left Demonic Qi buried beneath Cangshan, refusing to dissipate through the years; after that, Penglai was slaughtered, staining an ancient immortal site with deep grievances; and there were several other reasons as well. In short, the spiritual energy and Demonic Qi of this realm became severely imbalanced, and after the Child of Fortune ascended, this realm perished.]
[It shouldn't be like this. Aside from you, no one else in this world should remember.]
Ruan Wei recalled the scene she had just witnessed—Xiao Xuantong's cold, solitary back, and that single raven feather fluttering down as it took flight.
An unfamiliar, sharp pain pierced through her chest.
"Explain," Ruan Wei took a deep breath, lifting her long eyelashes, her eyes filled with chilling aloofness. "Why did I see Senior Brother?"
"That is not my memory."
"You said that ending was just a script. How could something that hasn't happened yet appear in my memories?"
Her sea of consciousness suddenly churned violently.
Ruan Wei felt a level of discomfort she had never experienced before within her own sea of consciousness.
[Bzz... Ruan... Wei... Bzz—]
Other sounds seemed to be mixed into the electronic voice.
Ruan Wei's eyes widened.
She had heard this before.
[Please ask the host to explore on your own.]
Suddenly, the System acted as though nothing had happened, reverting to its cold, mechanical AI narration.
Her sea of consciousness fell silent once more.
Amidst the profound stillness,
Ruan Wei suppressed the doubts in her heart and quietly gazed at the Pointer, which had begun to sway.
...
"Ruan Wei."
A gentle female voice.
In a hazy daze, Ruan Wei opened her eyes, meeting Cui Yanjun's deep, steady gaze.