Chapter 233: Protagonist, the Spirit of Spring
As the snow-covered forest lay still, a breeze carried whispers of the coming spring. Yun Yiyi, her hair dishevelled as she leaned against a tree trunk, gazed at the golden aura surrounding Feng Yu with disbelief.
In the Daoist texts, Yun Yiyi had read a saying. Only those cultivators who remained untouched by worldly affairs could cultivate a pure spirit of spring within them, allowing them to bring forth the vitality of spring wherever they tread.
However, throughout history, although many were revered as saints, none could truly attain such a state. To exist in the world meant to be entangled in its affairs—whether it be power, wealth, or obsession. Only newborns, untouched by the world’s influence, could remain pure.
The figure before Yun Yiyi, named Feng Yu, was similar to a blank slate, untainted by worldly concerns. It was no wonder her second sister had willingly abandoned her identity as a lady of the sword sect to follow this person and live a simple life selling wine as celestial partners.
Yun Yiyi had once suspected Feng Yu’s intentions towards her second sister, but now she realized her second sister had been right all along, “You don’t understand my brother Yu.”
Feng Yu had come to rescue her second sister. But then, there was Ye Anping…
Thinking of him, Yun Yiyi felt a pang of sadness and a hint of jealousy. But as she looked at Feng Yu embracing her second sister, she couldn’t tell if it was her jealousy speaking, subconsciously wishing for lovers to become sisters, or something else.
Suddenly, she felt that this person was not a man but more like a girl. Her gaze shifted to her second sister’s face. Knowing her well, if Feng Yu turned out to be a woman disguised as a man, her second sister would likely be furious…
In the end, whatever happened between them—whether they became sisters or lovers—was none of Yun Yiyi’s concern.
At that moment, three streaks of light streaked across the sky, noticing a hint of emerald green amidst the snow below, and descended towards it.
Yun Yiyi felt a wave of relief seeing her two elder sisters alive and well. She approached Yun Xi, suppressed a smirk, and asked,
“Heh, you alright?”
“…I’m fine.”
“Good.” Yun Xi smirked, then took out two high-grade healing pills from her storage pouch and tossed them to her. “Take these, condense your energy, and recover quickly. We’ll stand guard for you. The other elders will probably arrive soon.”
“Um…”
As Yun Yiyi ingested the pills and began meditating to gather her energy, Yun Xi glanced at Feng Yudie and Yun Jiujiu. She wondered where Ye Anping was, assuming he must have been following Feng Yu. But since he hadn’t shown up, she asked,
“Where’s Young Master Ye? And the others?”
Pei Lianxue, who was behind her, also turned her gaze towards Feng Yudie. Not recognizing Feng Yu, she silently inquired with her eyes—Where’s my senior brother?
Feng Yudie pondered for a moment, realizing Ye Anping had yet to appear himself, likely avoiding showing up in front of Yun Yiyi’s group. Reluctant to speak, she puckered her lips and glanced towards Ye Anping’s direction, using facial expressions to indicate the way for Pei Lianxue,
“Mmm…”
Seeing Feng Yudie puckering her lips towards a direction, Pei Lianxue tilted her head, utterly confused.
At this point, Yun Yiyi spoke up: “…Young Master Ye is deceased.”
Upon hearing this, Yun Xi and Pei Lianxue’s expressions froze.
Yun Xi was stunned for a moment, then asked, trying to confirm, “Huh! No way! He really…”
“Um…”
Yun Xi swallowed nervously and looked worriedly at Pei Lianxue beside her, whispering,
“Sister Pei…”
Yun Yiyi also gazed at her with guilt, lowering her head apologetically,
“The responsibility for Young Master Ye’s fate lies with me, so…”
However, Pei Lianxue’s expression remained unchanged. She silently stared at Yun Yiyi for a moment. Then her ears twitched suddenly. Without a word, she turned and dashed into the nearby snow forest.
“Eh! Sister Pei…”
Yun Xi, seeing Pei Lianxue like this, quickly reached out to stop her, but her movement was a bit slow, and she missed grabbing her shoulder. Watching Pei Lianxue run into the woods, she wanted to follow, but Zhang Yihe, who had been silent, reached out to stop her and said,
“Miss Third, let Miss Pei be alone for a while.”
“Ah…”
Yun Xi slowly lowered her outstretched hand, watching Pei Lianxue’s retreating figure gradually disappear into the snow forest. She didn’t say anything more. After all, when the other elders of the Sword Sect arrived, they could find her again.
Just as Feng Yudie was about to go after her, there was suddenly a loud explosion in the sky.
Boom–
A figure glowing with golden spiritual light descended from above, landing directly on Yun Xi and carving out a ten-foot-long trench on the forest floor.
It took Feng Yue and Zhang Yihe a moment to react before they turned to look. Hu Tianyue lay twitching in a deep pit, glaring at the sky, muttering under her breath,
“Tsk, that old geezer is really hard to deal with, tsk-”
Subconsciously reaching behind her to push herself up from the pit, she felt something soft. Turning her head, she saw Yun Xi beneath her, her face buried in the ground.
Hu Tianyue blinked:
“Third, Miss, you don’t need to pick me up down there… What’s your cultivation level anyway?”
Finally coming to his senses, Zhang Yihe quickly stretched out his hand and warned,
“Third Miss! Watch out for Elder Hu!!”
…
In the depths of the snow forest, on the branches of a snow cedar tree, Ye Anping held onto the trunk with his left hand, biting the iron whistle he used to signal his junior sister, waiting for her to find him. At the same time, he watched the commotion on Yun Yiyi’s side.
Upon seeing Hu Tianyue falling from the sky and landing on Yun Xi, he shuddered as if feeling the pain himself. His features contorted, and he murmured,
“Hiss… Is she really that unlucky?”
Ye Anping sighed softly, not dwelling on it for too long. Hu Tianyue had not managed to keep Zhuang Yan, which was within his expectations. In fact, if Hu Tianyue had succeeded in keeping Zhuang Yan, it would have been quite troublesome. He would have had to figure out a way to extract Zhuang Yan from her grasp.
Although he didn’t witness it, he could easily imagine that during the explosion at the furnace, Zhuang Yan must have sacrificed one of his arms to retrieve the unfinished Evil Pill from the furnace forcibly. While the pill was shattered, it was still usable. He would undoubtedly seize the opportunity to secretly visit the forbidden grounds of the Sword Sect and use the partially refined Evil Pill to create an evil body for his disciple Yun Kunwu. Once Yun Kunwu possessed that incomplete evil body, his mind would be consumed by resentment.
Ye Anping was certain that the first person Yun Kunwu would kill would be his master, Zhuang Yan. But that was a matter for later. For now, he needed to take his junior sister to the secluded cave at the peak of Qiongfeng Mountain to obtain the first reward of the Sword Sect incident—the Snow Qiong Ten Thousand Spirits Sword.
Ye Anping lowered his head to look beneath the snow cedar where he stood. His junior sister had already approached the tree trunk, looking up at him with her bright orange eyes, eagerly awaiting his descent. She didn’t call out to him or prepare to climb the tree. Instead, she stood silently under the tree, waiting for him to come down.
Ye Anping descended from the tree and approached his junior sister from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her from the ground in a princess carry. He gave her a gentle weigh-in.
Compared to when he carried Feng Yudie, who felt light as if there was an unknown force guiding her, his junior sister felt significantly heavier. He could feel the muscles in her arms and every inch of flesh on her body.
However, this weight was not just a matter of heaviness. It was a refined sense of density. It was similar to holding two swords of similar length. A well-made sword felt heavy but balanced perfectly in hand, while a poorly crafted sword felt light and unstable as if it might fly away when swung.
Ye Anping joked and asked, “Junior sister, have you gained weight? Have you been eating a lot with Yun Xi?”
Pei Lianxue hugged her senior brother’s neck and glanced down at her waist before asking, “Have I eaten a lot? Would you prefer me to be thinner, senior brother?”
“It’s better if you’re a bit plumper. I used to tell you to eat more, but you wouldn’t,” He replied.
“In that case, I’ll eat more from now on,” she said with a smile in her eyes.
After seeing her smile, Ye Anping placed her back on the ground. Then, he glanced back at Yun Yiyi, noticing that Hu Tianyue seemed to be helping Yun Xi and Yun Yiyi with their injuries.
“Junior sister, come with me to meet someone,” He said.
“Okay,” She replied.
With that, Ye Anping summoned his flying sword, stepped on it, and pulled his junior sister into his arms. They flew out of the snow forest and found a secluded spot where Hu Tianyue wouldn’t notice. Then, they soared into the sky, heading towards the highest peak of Qiongfeng Mountain on their flying sword.
