Chapter 122: When Has She Ever Not Been Dangerous?

“Martial Uncle, I will tell Master everything exactly as it happened.”

“Then I can rest easy.” Ai Fengling raised his fan to shield his face from the sunlight. During his time at Skysoaring Peak, he rarely rose so early.

His routine was the opposite of everyone else’s. Most of the time, he emerged at sunset and went to sleep at sunrise. As a result, the few disciples who came up the mountain to study with him usually fled in misery before long.

“Then shall Jinwu and I set out?”

“Wait.”

A slightly stern voice rang out. The two men and the bird looked toward the sky, where Shan Hongxing was flying toward them on his sword.

“You…” The fist hidden in Shan Hongxing’s sleeve clenched tightly. He extended a box. “A few days ago, I didn’t think much of it, but what exactly did you do to Little Five’s Longevity Tablet?”

“I—I was the one…”

Yuan Qingling smiled bitterly. In the end, they had still come face-to-face, and judging from Shan Hongxing’s furious, interrogating manner, he had most likely botched the matter.

“The Longevity Tablet is useless for Senior Sister.”

“What do you mean?” Shan Hongxing restrained his aura, and the golden light in his eyes gradually dimmed. “You had better explain yourself! Don’t think that just because you’re crippled now, I won’t dare beat you!”

“Exactly what I said.” Ai Fengling glanced at the still-stunned Yuan Qingling. “Forget it. You stay and listen as well. Push me back into the room. This is hardly a place for such a conversation.”

“Oh. Yes, all right.”

Yuan Qingling understood that Ai Fengling was treating him as one of his own.

“Pathetic.” Shan Hongxing glared at him.

Yuan Qingling had the distinct feeling that this stern and humorless martial uncle was laughing, but whenever he tried to look more closely, the grim expression on Shan Hongxing’s face frightened him into looking away.

“Do you know anything about the Patriarch who founded the sect, Senior Brother?”

“Didn’t he perish?”

“I don’t know the details.” Ai Fengling closed his eyes as though meditating. “Of all of us, Senior Brother, you’re the only one still standing whole and intact.”

“Song Huan… something happened to him too?”

“His mind, certainly.” Ai Fengling laughed aloud, his tone full of mockery. “My legs were injured, Senior Sister’s soul was injured, and you all call him Song the Fool every day. Did you truly never notice that something was wrong with him?”

“He…”

“He thought and worried too much. The formation failed to make him a great cultivator, and when the demons struck, it was essentially a thousand enemies slain at the cost of eight hundred of his own. Otherwise, how could the demons have sent spies into our Profound Cloud Sect who were foolish enough to go straight to Ten-Thousand-Zhang Peak and cause trouble for Senior Sister?”

The more he laughed, the more tears welled in Ai Fengling’s eyes.

“It was fortunate that he was such a fool. Only someone like him could have devised such a bizarre formation. It looks useless, yet it is more effective than anything else. At the very least, his single mind wore down those demons with ulterior motives. The more men they sent, the stupider that fool became—and the easier it was for the demons to act foolishly.”

The corner of Shan Hongxing’s mouth twitched. This was the first time he had heard of any of it.

Since Ai Fengling was willing to speak of the matter, it meant that it had happened a very long time ago.

“When did you find out?”

“Very early on.” Ai Fengling opened his eyes and wiped away his tears. “Senior Brother, I used to be the most heartless of the four of us. Yet Senior Sister hated you so much. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“You appear both cold and deeply affectionate. But ask yourself honestly—when disaster struck, how many times were you there?”

“You knew she was going to the Heaven-Burning Sect.”

“I knew. But I would not stop her. I would not, like you, be unable to bear watching her leap into the fire while doing nothing to prevent it.”

As he spoke, he opened the box. Inside lay a jade tablet.

“…”

After a long silence, Shan Hongxing said, “Do you think I’m a sanctimonious hypocrite?”

“I never said that.” Ai Fengling tossed the box to Yuan Qingling, then looked at the jade tablet. “Do you know what I was thinking when Senior Sister first urged me to take the path of an artificer?”

“What…”

“I was thinking about how to destroy the Profound Cloud Sect.” He gave a cold laugh. “So I added quite a few things to the barrier formation laid down by our predecessors.

“I thought, since the four of us had been chosen by Master to destroy the demons, and since those demons all coveted the divine-demonic opportunities beneath the sect, why not destroy the Profound Cloud Sect and corrupt those opportunities so they could never use them?

“The best way to resolve a problem is to uproot it completely. Only then can one be free of it forever. That was something Master once taught me.

“That is why my sword intent has always been so extreme, and why I created a cultivation method of my own. Every move I use is meant to kill.”

“You’re insane!”

“Look around you.” Shan Hongxing’s reaction seemed entirely within Ai Fengling’s expectations. He was not angered by the accusation and merely continued, “To be honest, there are very few sane people on this mountain.

“Oh, Senior Sister Bai is genuinely sane. As for the rest—even that fool Song Huan is insane. Only a madman could have thought of reducing his own intelligence as a strategy.”

“And afterward?” Shan Hongxing threw down the sword in his hand. What else could he do, having ended up with such a junior brother? It was not as if he could truly kill him. “What did you do afterward?”

“My talent was exceptional, and like my sword techniques of old, it was aimed at killing. Except…” He smiled faintly. “When I faced Senior Sister, I would always leave room for the slightest trace of kindness.”

“I know. If not for what you gave me, I would never have challenged her the moment she awoke.”

“Exactly.” Ai Fengling smiled. “Since I am an artificer, I know a little of everything. And Song Huan, that fool, once asked me to help arrange a formation. Naturally, I was able to discover the aura that ordinary people could not perceive.

“Strictly speaking, the Senior Sister who awoke was no longer truly our Senior Sister.”

“You mean… during those years when the mountain was sealed, the formations left behind here showed traces of two utterly opposite methods of formation?”

“That was the Patriarch guiding me.” Ai Fengling sounded smug, almost as though he were showing off. “Did you not receive any guidance?”

Shan Hongxing glared at him coldly. “Get to the point!”

“The point, yes!” Ai Fengling smiled. He picked up the jade tablet and snapped it in two. Then, urging it with profound energy, he revealed that the Longevity Tablet was now only half a jade tablet.

As for the other half—

“Recognize it? It is your Severed Thought. That sword was broken into two pieces, but it could just as easily have been broken into three.”

Shan Hongxing staggered. He took the Longevity Tablet and looked suspiciously at Ai Fengling.

“How… how could this be? Severed Thought was—was something I found. I found it on the rear mountain. Little Five—Little Five broke it.”

“The Heaven-Burning Sect once possessed a sword. It was the personal weapon of that Patriarch, and it was called Heaven-Burning.”

“Severed Thought…”

“A mother-and-child sword.”

“The mother sword…”

“Heaven-Burning slew too many demons in its time. Its sword aura was tainted by demonic energy and could no longer be restored. The Patriarch had no choice but to attach a section of its blade tip to the broken sword Severed Thought. The remaining blade was melted down and eventually became the Demonic Zither.”

“Why did you…” Shan Hongxing was somewhat enraged. These people had actually concealed everything from him.

“Because my idea was dangerous enough!” The amusement in Ai Fengling’s eyes deepened. His smugness made Shan Hongxing want to punch him. “That fool Song Huan was dangerous enough as well. And Senior Sister… when has she ever not been dangerous?

“Oh, right. Our Senior Brother Fan nearly destroyed the Profound Cloud Sect too. He was another one who had seen the Patriarch manifest his presence.”