The Tianshu Mirror Revealed (1)
Mu Weiyin seemed to accept the situation and offered no further denial. A silk ribbon shot from the silver-stitched, violet gauze of her wide sleeve, coiled around Lin Qianshuang’s waist, and pulled her clear of Han Shengyao.
Lin Qianshuang caught the ribbon to steady herself; purple gauze spiralled around her wrist, and a wisp of true qi travelled up the silk, brushing over her like a gentle hand checking for injuries.
Leading Mu Xiaochi, Mu Weiyin walked past Han Shengyao without a sideways glance. She stopped beside Lin Qianshuang, folded the girl’s hand firmly in her own, then turned and lifted her gaze to Han Shengyao. “Do not covet her. If you do, you will regret it.”
Lin Qianshuang stared at Mu Weiyin in surprise. The woman’s eternally wooden face was knotted with barely contained anger; the wrist she gripped felt hot and trembled slightly. She was furious.
“Just an ordinary-looking demon cultivator, yet you shield her so. Your little demon disciple truly impresses this seat.”
Han Shengyao’s violet eyes skimmed Lin Qianshuang’s face and she laughed softly. “Mu Weiyin, you had better think about how to retake Tianshu City. Without the Beast-Subduing Tower our array outside the walls can’t hold Taotie. That sly nine-tailed fox, Xuan Luoqing, has sealed the Beast Realm and shows no sign of interfering. The tower was originally built as her cage; it’s only natural she dislikes us.”
Mu Weiyin said coldly, “It’s only to be expected that the Beast Emperor won’t act. A savage like her, once stirred by Taotie’s ferocity, the pair of them would tear the cultivation world apart.”
“Xuan Luoqing…”
Lin Qianshuang brushed the Cold Cicada Zither. “I once met the Beast Emperor; she isn’t half as terrifying as you claim. What crime did she commit to make you all so afraid?”
“Little demon cultivator, you never saw the fox of seven centuries ago, utterly inhuman. If her own treasure, the Cold Cicada Zither, hadn’t sealed her demonic nature and desires, the realm would have been wiped out long ago.”
At the name Xuan Luoqing, Han Shengyao’s face paled. She had still been a child when the previous Demon Emperor told her the old Beast Emperor was a monster to rival Taotie.
Mu Weiyin spoke without emotion. “My own master, Mu Yan, Tower Lord of Tianshu Tower, was slain by the Beast Emperor. Otherwise, I would never have succeeded him, nor have taken the ready-made gift Chen Luoyun handed me when she raised Tianshu City.”
She clenched her right hand, dark eyes misting as the figure before her merged with another. Had the Beast Emperor not accidentally killed Sister Qianyu and sworn never again to set foot in the human cultivation world, that undefeated sovereign would never have repented, never have crushed her own bestial nature and sealed herself inside a magic treasure.
Two black shapes plummeted from the sky.
A deafening crash tore through the quiet grove inside the Zen courtyard. Chen Shangqing crawled from the underbrush, dripping blood. The Purple Heavenly Sword in his hand glimmered faintly, its hilt spider-webbed with cracks, as though it had borne a savage blow.
Lin Qianshuang stepped forward, but Chen Shangqing sharply checked her.
“Senior Sister Lin, don’t come any closer.”
Ignoring the filthy leaves clinging to him, he raised the sword; it flashed into a dome of golden light above his head. Purple Thunder Fire poured from the heavens, striking the shield with a crackling roar.
Lin Qianshuang halted. Why was the Purple Heavenly Sword shielding Chen Shangqing? Studying the spiritual link between them, she realized: Zixiao had acknowledged Chen as its master.
Her lips curved; the mystery was solved. She glanced toward Liang Jingxuan in the sky, openly enjoying the show.
“Zixiao, you dare betray your lord and serve another? Heaven itself will punish you! The spirit inside may change, but the true master of the Purple Heavenly Sword is, and always will be, Liang Jingxuan!”
His furious voice rolled across the heavens. Seated before Taotie’s World-Viewing Mirror, Liang Jingxuan watched the sword protect Chen and felt his lungs ignite with rage. Bound inside his cave while Purple Thunder Fire forged his undying body, he could only glare as the shameless Chen, by what treachery he could not guess, brain-washed the foolish sword-spirit and stole his divine weapon.
“Master, are you hurt?”
Zixiao took human shape, lifted Chen from the ground with careful hands, then thrust a finger at the sky and shouted:
“On Yanqing Mountain I tested you. You wore the mask of a gentleman, yet the moment you feared I’d learned the truth you begged my silence while secretly plotting to wipe my mind and replace me with another spirit! Hear this: I chose my new master of my own will. Liang Jingxuan, I once called you lord, but you are vile and heartless. You murdered every last one of my sect’s disciples to feed your Purple Thunder Fire. I, Zixiao, swear you will pay for their blood in full!”
Liang Jingxuan, scolded into silence, kept his eyes fixed on the World-Viewing Mirror; a familiar silhouette had appeared and would not let him go.
He had watched Zixiao climb Yanqing Mountain to search for someone and assumed she already knew the truth. In a panic he burned every village on the mountain with Purple Thunder Fire, convinced the blaze would bury his secret. Instead, she read the ashes like a book, and Chen Shangqing at her side coaxed the story from him line by line. When he saw the net closing, he tried to kill her and take back the sword; in the desperate heartbeat that followed she declared Chen her new master.
He had hoisted the boulder only to drop it on his own feet, yet he knew exactly who first tugged the guiding thread and who had dug the pit beneath his shoes.
“Lin Qianshuang.”
He tasted the name, and every feeling knotted inside him. He loved her. She was treacherous, fickle, a lantern in wind, yet his heart remained tethered to her light. The Purple Heavenly Sword had been ripped from him, and after the first scalding rush of fury he found, to his own astonishment, that his love for the wicked woman burned even hotter.
Perhaps only a scheme-wrapped, death-immune, protagonist-blessed creature like her could give him the rare thrill of recognition and keep this conquest game worth playing. In short, the very strangeness of this opposition had stoked his urge to conquer.
Liang Jingxuan suddenly understood why the system had tagged Lin Qianshuang as the ultimate boss. The game would never let him cruise home on so-called King’s Aura while dolls threw themselves at his feet; hurdles had to appear, and she was the source of every one. She was special, not a native of this world but a fellow traveler with modern mind and modern wit. Bring her to heel and he would gain the perfect ally; with her help the Secret Realm Map could be pieced together and the road home would lie open.
He had already lost half the match, but the next round he could not afford to drop.
“So the whole mess really was your work.”
The male voice drifting from the sky laughed with reckless bravado, the tone sliding into something vicious.
“It’s only the Purple Heavenly Sword, Lin Qianshuang. Think I care about one little weapon? As long as I wish it, I, Liang Jingxuan, will win something far better! Watch your people well—treasure what little time you have left. When I return I’ll carve the flesh off every one of them while you watch, peel their skins strip by strip. Kneel and beg all you like; it won’t save a single soul.”
It was obviously nothing more than an empty boast, yet it slammed into her heart like a sledgehammer.
The blazing sword-casting pool, the four silhouettes swallowed by fire… they had already reached this stage, and she still had no idea whether the extra’s tragedy would repeat itself.
So even if the male lead no longer loved those supporting girls and the plot had strayed from its original course, the Heavenly Dao still meant to kill those innocent extras, only indirectly?
But how would it engineer their deaths, and could she truly change anything!
Listening to Liang Jingxuan’s arrogant voice echo from the sky, Lin Qianshuang felt the original novel’s scenes flood her mind; cold sweat poured off her as though she were trapped in a nightmare.
[Host, rest assured: once you complete every mission objective, you will be free to leave this world. Hostile target Liang Jingxuan cannot prevent your departure.]
Lin Qianshuang stared at the four portraits on the favorability panel, her heart twisting. “What about them?”
[You’ve already done enough. They’re nothing but characters in a novel; they don’t merit your care or genuine concern.]
“If I’m going to change things, I’ll see it through to the end. Before I leave this world I’ll kill Liang Jingxuan, no matter what it takes.”
Murderous intent flickered in her eyes; the Thousand Rain Sword in her grip answered, a dark-blue shimmer racing along the blade, cold air seeping outward.
“Pretty sister, why are you sweating? It’s not even hot.”
A small hand tugged her sleeve. Mu Xiaochi lifted the edge of her own sleeve and gently wiped the perspiration from Lin Qianshuang’s forehead, giving her a soft, silly smile.
Lin Qianshuang came back to herself; the cloth clung to her back, soaked through, while the sky stretched overhead, pristine and blue. Liang Jingxuan’s prying gaze had vanished.
Weariness washed over her. As though craving comfort, she drew Mu Xiaochi into her arms, rested her head on the child’s shoulder, and quietly closed her eyes.
Mu Xiaochi’s face flamed crimson. Flustered, she looked to Mu Weiyin for guidance.
Mu Weiyin gave a slight nod and lifted a finger to her lips.
Reassured that her sister wasn’t angry, Mu Xiaochi dimpled in a sweet smile and began to pat Lin Qianshuang’s back with small, gentle strokes, the way one soothes a frightened animal.
“Only the swagger of a good-for-nothing,” she murmured, “and it scared you this badly.”
Han Shengyao caught Lin Qianshuang’s reaction. Lifting her gaze languidly toward Mu Weiyin, she said, “Tianshu City’s grand formation draws power from the lives of several thousand rogue cultivators living inside your walls. My people there are still on standby. Let’s be clear: I don’t care what special ties you, the City Lord, once shared with the Penglai Immortal Sect leader. Once I move, I will show mercy to no one.”
Mu Weiyin watched Han Shengyao turn and leave, her own emotions unruffled, as though carved from ice. Perhaps she truly was cold by nature. After learning Xiao Lanle was not “that person,” she listened to the Demon Lord’s threat without the slightest worry; the possibility that Xiao Lanle might die even left her feeling relieved, even pleased.
Calmly she reasoned that it must be because Xiao Lanle had grown too close to her late friend, so a part of her wished the girl would simply vanish.
Was this… jealousy?
The feeling spread like venom, quietly corroding her heart. It was more than the after-effect of temporarily sealing the twelfth level of the Path of the Emotionless Sword.
Mu Weiyin brushed her fingers across her cheek, eyes lost in thought.
Chen Shangqing had overheard every word of their exchange; luckily, neither the Tianshu City Lord nor the Lord of the Demon Realm seemed to consider him worth noticing and left him unmolested.
Junior Sister, she actually intends to activate the Celestial Myriad Phenomena Instrument and seal Taotie by sacrificing the lives of a few thousand people…
Zixiao gripped Chen Shangqing’s hand, scowling. “What are you dithering for? I’ve heard your heart. If you want to stop her, go. Stop fussing like an old woman!”
Startled, Chen Shangqing realized Zixiao’s human form had vanished, leaving only a dark-purple longsword resting in his palm.
A man who was even harder to read than a sword… he would become a laughing-stock if anyone heard of it.
He laughed softly, as though a weight had slipped from his shoulders. Heaven had granted him this second life; how could he play the turtle that hides in its shell? He must face the danger and fight, or spend the rest of his days in regret.
Purple Heavenly Sword and Chen Shangqing vanished from the spot. Lin Qianshuang felt the ripple, lifted her head from Mu Xiaochi’s shoulder, and locked eyes with Mu Weiyin.
Mu Weiyin stepped ahead. “Time to leave. By now, Taotie should be outside Tianshu City. Guard Xiaochi and take care.”