Chapter 29: The Destined-to-Be-Abandoned Good-for-Nothing (9)p1
Gui Mian’s appearance didn’t seem unusual to the other elders observing through the Water Mirror. They only saw the little girl sitting by the campfire, her face becoming increasingly flushed.
But her gaze was fixed on the ground at her feet, and she didn’t even seem to notice the other Sword Sect disciples talking to her.
“Gui Mian?”
Qiongying, the leader, called out to her again. Seeing her sitting motionless on the ground, she beckoned, “It’s too close to the forest over there. If there’s danger at night, you might not have time to react. Come closer.”
Even though the disciples had agreed to take turns keeping watch, and Gui Mian had already demonstrated her strength during the day, in the senior sister’s eyes, this little disciple of Mount Lingyu still needed special care.
She spoke, but the person who usually responded and obediently followed instructions hesitated for a moment. Then, hugging the sword in her arms, she said softly, “I won’t go over, Senior Sister.”
She had been able to move freely during the day because she had learned from Su Mingxiu how to control her spiritual energy to levitate and even use her tail to briefly propel herself into the air. It had taken her a lot of effort to maintain this perfect disguise.
But now, she found that she had no strength below her waist. If she stood up rashly, others would definitely notice something was wrong.
Hearing her words, Changsheng, who was sitting on a tree not far away, sneered and mocked Qiongying: “She has Master’s Floating Duckweed sword to protect her, she can walk sideways in this secret realm without worry. What kind of monster can harm her? Some people just worry too much.”
Qiongying ignored him. Instead, it was her junior sister who retorted: “Yeah, when her ordinary iron sword broke, Master was willing to give her a replica of the Floating Duckweed sword for protection. Unlike some people, who keep bragging about how favored they are by their master, but then get punished to cleaning duty for a month after breaking a single spiritual sword on the Platform of Enlightenment—”
“You!”
Changsheng narrowed his eyes. Even Changqi, who was standing under the tree, changed his expression upon hearing these words.
But Gui Mian didn’t hear any of this. She even unconsciously moved further into the shadows, away from the Sword Sect disciples, as if she didn’t know that she was the cause of their argument. In the darkness, her shadow was almost completely obscured by the trees.
She shifted her tail slightly, thinking her movements were very subtle. But in the quiet night, even the crackling of the fire was absent, so her movements were clearly audible to all the disciples.
Qiongying opened her eyes and looked over. Seeing Gui Mian’s boots shuffling on the ground, she initially thought she was just restless in her sleep.
She politely looked away, but after listening for a while, she felt something was off and subconsciously called out to her again: “Gui Mian?”
The rustling sound stopped abruptly.
Her junior sister’s soft and gentle reply came, with a hint of a sniffle, as if she had just been woken up: “Hmm?”
Qiongying thought she was overthinking it and was about to say it was nothing when she heard one of her junior sisters nearby exclaim: “Did you guys hear a strange sound? It’s like… a snake?”
“Snake?!”
Many female disciples gasped, their spiritual swords reflecting sharp arcs of light in the darkness.
At this moment, Gui Mian felt the paper she was clutching in her hand become warm. Just as she was about to unfold it, Su Mingxiu’s voice reached her mind: “Say you’re going to scout the area, leave this spot.”
Gui Mian did as she was told, word for word.
“Eh?”
Qiongying exclaimed subconsciously. “It’s too dangerous to go alone… I’ll go with you…”
Before she could finish, she realized that Gui Mian had already vanished from her spot, and the strange rustling sound also disappeared.
Qiongying wanted to follow, but at this moment, Changqi and Changsheng, who had long been annoyed by being with them, immediately proposed splitting up. After a moment of hesitation, Qiongying saw that her two junior brothers couldn’t wait to disappear. She smiled wryly. When she wanted to find Gui Mian again, she was already gone.
Outside the secret realm.
Su Mingxiu appeared to be meditating, but she had already split into two avatars. One went to the sect’s library, searching for a way to solve Gui Mian’s strange condition. The other, using her authority as a Sword Sect elder, silently opened the entrance to the secret realm with her divine sense and entered.
Her current state was quite peculiar. She didn’t have the cultivation of the Great Ascension stage, but she could still use techniques like the thousand-mile journey she had mastered at the Great Ascension stage and the avatar technique she had learned at the Spirit Severing stage.
However, without the support of her cultivation, the effectiveness of these techniques was greatly reduced. But no matter what, a lean camel was still bigger than a horse. This was why, despite her cultivation only being at the Nascent Soul stage, her status and treatment in the Sword Sect hadn’t changed much.
But right now, Su Mingxiu didn’t have time to dwell on this. She asked the system in her mind: “You must have a solution, right?”
System: “Of course I do. Do you want to hear it?”
—
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