CH 83

Villainous Master (5)

Instead of waking up with the usual hangover from heavy drinking, Song Xu Yi slept extremely well and woke up feeling refreshed and invigorated the next day, thanks to the exceptional quality of wine in the cultivation world.

Having been accustomed to the remarkable aspects of the cultivation world, Song Xu Yi didn’t dwell on it for too long. She got up, stretched, washed up as she usually did, and went down the mountain to attend her class.

Song Xu Yi’s footsteps came to a halt when she noticed that the door to Ning Jing Yu’s room was still closed. She frowned and had a moment of unease as if she had forgotten something important, but couldn’t recall it right away.

However, realizing that her history lesson was almost due, Song Xu Yi shook off her hesitation and decided to head down the mountain first.

Although Song Xu Yi had put in a lot of practice to be able to ride her sword down the mountain, she still wasn’t skilled enough to do it effortlessly. Every time she did it, she had to focus all her attention on her sword.

As Song Xu Yi was getting onto her flying sword, she did so clumsily, and just as she was about to fly down the mountain, she heard the sound of the door opening behind her. In a startled motion, she turned around to see Ning Jing Yu standing at the doorway, dressed in snowy white, and smiling at her.

“Leaving the mountain, are you?” Ning Jing Yu asked.

“Master! You’re out!” Song Xu Yi exclaimed in surprise.

As she gazed at the beaming Ning Jing Yu standing by the door, Song Xu Yi couldn’t contain her delight and let out a joyful exclamation.

“Did you not see me last night?” Ning Jing Yu responded with her customary smile, but her expression suddenly changed when she recalled Song Xu Yi’s earlier comment about her fake smile from the previous night. The smile vanished from her face, and she looked at Song Xu Yi with a blank expression.

This sudden change in Ning Jing Yu’s demeanor caught Song Xu Yi off guard, and she froze for a moment.

As Song Xu Yi gazed at Ning Jing Yu’s beautiful face, memories of a shameful act that she had committed while drunk came flooding back to her like a tidal wave.

How could she have done such a… shameful thing when she was drunk?!

“Is it still possible for me to switch to a different world to do my mission?”

The smile on Song Xu Yi’s face vanished, and her cheeks flushed red in embarrassment.

She called out to the system in her mind, but as expected, there was no response.

For the first time, Song Xu Yi found herself missing the system so much that she was overwhelmed with shame and panic. She lost her balance, stumbled, and the next thing she knew, she had fallen off the flying sword.

As she fell to the ground in a seated position, Song Xu Yi felt as though her body was falling apart. Meanwhile, Ning Jing Yu, still dressed in her elegant white attire, looked as though she could take flight at any moment, she was so graceful.

Song Xu Yi was too embarrassed to meet Ning Jing Yu’s gaze and wished she could bury her face in the ground.

Ning Jing Yu’s smile grew wider and wider as she watched her little disciple’s face flush with shame and anger. She relished in the sight of Song Xu Yi’s embarrassment. She couldn’t quite put into words how she felt whenever she saw her little disciple looking so shy and flustered. It was like a ticklish feather had suddenly sprung up in her heart, causing strange and unexplainable emotions to arise.

Ning Jing Yu had always acted on her own accord, and in the next moment, she followed her heart and reached out to touch Song Xu Yi’s head.

“I don’t blame you,” Ning Jing Yu narrowed her eyes and unconsciously softened her voice. “Just don’t drink any more wine in the future!”

Song Xu Yi let out a frustrated “mmm” and nodded her head, as if she was crushing garlic. While she felt remorseful, she also felt a newfound affection towards Ning Jing Yu. She realized that she had been impulsive and had disregarded her master’s intentions, yet her master was still so generous and kind. She resolved to treat her master better in the future.

After taking several deep breaths to calm down, Song Xu Yi suppressed the feeling of shame and anger in her heart.

Since Ning Jing Yu had emerged from her seclusion, Song Xu Yi postponed her history class training and began to train with Ning Jing Yu. Although Song Xu Yi was already prepared to endure the rigorous training, it seemed that Ning Jing Yu had adjusted her training style after coming out of seclusion. While the training was still challenging, Song Xu Yi did not fall apart as she had before. Ning Jing Yu’s training style had become more tailored to Song Xu Yi’s abilities, building upon her existing foundation and accurately identifying the limits of her endurance.

Song Xu Yi couldn’t tell if it was just her imagination, but she felt as though Ning Jing Yu had become more attentive to her.

Being someone who knew how to reciprocate kindness, Song Xu Yi wanted to find a way to repay Ning Jing Yu for treating her so well. She still remembered the night when Ning Jing Yu had devoured all the pastries she had made without saying a word. To make up for it, Song Xu Yi started cooking meals for Ning Jing Yu in various ways. She even expanded her small vegetable garden and planted a variety of fruits and vegetables to use in her cooking.

After spending time together, Song Xu Yi discovered that Ning Jing Yu only had white clothes. So, she decided to use the prize she won at the Sect Competition to exchange for a rare xuan-colored cloth from the Sect Leader. The cloth was cut into ready-made clothes, which Song Xu Yi gave to Ning Jing Yu. Although Ning Jing Yu had never worn the clothes, Song Xu Yi felt it was time for her to experiment with different styles and colors of the world.

As they spent more time together, Song Xu Yi realized that Ning Jing Yu lacked a lot of common sense in the Immortal Cultivation world. For some reason, she didn’t know why, Song Xu Yi consciously took on the responsibility of communicating with the outside world at the Fallen Cloud Peak. She began to communicate with the various mountain heads in a courteous and foreign manner.

After learning Ning Jing Yu’s birthday from the Sect Leader, Song Xu Yi kept track of the date and prepared an elaborate birthday banquet for her. She even invited a few of Ning Jing Yu’s close acquaintances to come to Fallen Cloud Peak to celebrate the occasion…

……

Song Xu Yi has been putting in a lot of effort to please Ning Jing Yu, despite receiving very little feedback or acknowledgement in return. The Sect Leader even remarked that she was “warming up a stone”. However, Song Xu Yi remained undeterred, as she found joy in being taught by Ning Jing Yu and was doing everything out of her own desire, rather than expecting anything in return.

Unbeknownst to Song Xu Yi, Ning Jing Yu was quietly observing her actions.

Ning Jing Yu found Song Xu Yi to be an incredibly peculiar individual. With a single water spirit root, Song Xu Yi was quick to grasp various techniques in the Immortal Cultivation World. Yet, she was also diligent in a manner that was hard for most people to achieve. Despite already mastering many cultivation techniques, Song Xu Yi still insisted on practicing them repeatedly, always striving for perfection.

Ning Jing Yu believed that even without the single water spirit root, Song Xu Yi had the potential to become an outstanding spirit cultivator.

Song Xu Yi had an easy-going nature, and despite not having exceptional beauty, her smile was enchanting. Her eyes always sparkled with stars, no matter how many hardships she faced. She was loved by the entire Xuan Shu Sect and despite her high status, Song Xu Yi remained humble. Ning Jing Yu had even witnessed her sweeping the leaves for an elderly woman cleaning the Outer Sect.

But what made Ning Jing Yu feel even more peculiar and happy was Song Xu Yi’s affable behavior towards her.

Song Xu Yi treated everyone well, but she seemed to take even better care of her than others. She cooked for her, decorated her room in secret, gave her gifts, and even celebrated her own birthday. The Sect Leader, who had disciples all over the world, envied having such a dedicated disciple.

At first, Ning Jing Yu was upset by the amount of attention Song Xu Yi paid to her. It went against her plan of not being tied to anyone, which she thought would be a disadvantage in the future.

While in seclusion, she even had a vision of the prophesied image, in which Song Xu Yi turned the sword on her while she crushed Song Xu Yi’s throat with one palm. Moreover, there was a strange presence in Song Xu Yi’s soul that she could sense but couldn’t expel, so she had to seal it.

Despite her efforts to rationalize it, she still couldn’t bring herself to approach Song Xu Yi, as she didn’t consider her to be a being worth her attention.

Ning Jing Yu convinced herself that she kept Song Xu Yi only because of the mystery and water spirit root in her body. She intentionally disregarded Song Xu Yi’s pleasing nature, hoping that she would withdraw, but Song Xu Yi seemed oblivious to her attempts to distance herself and continued to treat her kindly.

Over the years, Song Xu Yi’s continuous pleasing had caused Ning Jing Yu to lose her objectivity for the first time.

As for the entity in Song Xu Yi’s soul, even though it appeared to be a living being, it had extremely low spiritual intelligence and posed no threat. Ning Jing Yu saw no reason to be concerned about it.

At some point, Ning Jing Yu’s attitude towards Song Xu Yi changed without her realizing it. She began to genuinely smile at Song Xu Yi and paid even more attention to her cultivation than her own. This resulted in Ning Jing Yu spending less time in seclusion than before.

However, this change in Ning Jing Yu’s behavior caused a lot of pressure on Song Xu Yi. The more she interacted with Ning Jing Yu, the more she realized that Ning Jing Yu was a rare genius and that even if there were ten of herself, she wouldn’t be able to match half of Ning Jing Yu’s level after twenty years. Song Xu Yi also believed that Ning Jing Yu was the key to fighting the new Demon Lord, so how could she scheme a plan on her behalf?

If Ning Jing Yu had possessed greater power, she would not have succumbed to destruction after only two decades.

Thus, Song Xu Yi began to persuade Ning Jing Yu to focus on her seclusion and training.

Initially, Ning Jing Yu assumed that Song Xu Yi would be delighted for her advice in cultivation, but to her surprise, Song Xu Yi began encouraging her to retreat into seclusion.

Is the little disciple questioning her own abilities? She had always feared loneliness, but wouldn’t she be alone during her mountain meditations?

Ning Jing Yu was close to becoming enraged. She was frustrated with Song Xu Yi for being too affectionate when she was intoxicated and too reasonable when she was sober.

Ning Jing Yu’s mind flashed back to a memory of a young girl in a farmhouse, frightened and alone, crying out for her parents at the sight of her own shadow under the eaves. She pondered on this memory, lips pursed in thought.

With Ning Jing Yu finally persuaded to enter seclusion, Song Xu Yi let out a sigh of relief.

She maintained a consistent routine for her daily cultivation, meditation, and rest.

On the third night of Ning Jing Yu’s seclusion, the clear and sunny weather abruptly transformed into a heavy thunderstorm.

Song Xu Yi was puzzled about the sudden downpour’s source, as one needed considerable skill, comparable to the Sect Leader, to manipulate the weather. She doubted any powerful cultivator would bother using techniques to create a rainstorm just for amusement.

Due to the rain, Song Xu Yi decided to postpone her plan to descend the mountain and went to bed early. However, in the middle of the night, the wind howled outside, the trees cast shadows on the window, and she heard a sudden snapping sound. Startled, she opened her eyes and saw a masked woman in white standing at the foot of her bed, gazing at her with an expectant expression.

Song Xu Yi, however, did not let out a scream as the woman would have expected.

“It’s a dream, right?” Song Xu Yi closed her eyes again and murmured in a small voice, turning around sleepily, “How could Master do something as childish as pretending to be a ghost like this…”

A certain Ning Jing Yu who was frozen at the foot of the bed childishly pretending to be a ghost: …