The Past Like Smoke

"Let's go!"

Ye Xuan raised his head abruptly, laughing heartily. He waved his large hand with extreme heroism, high-spirited:

"Back to the palace!"

"Although this young master didn't snatch any treasures inside this time, I comprehended a peerless sword art!"

"Tonight, I will properly instruct you two!"

Hearing the word "instruct," Wu Lingxiao and Zi Yao looked at each other, and a seductive blush instantly flew across their faces.

"Really? That's wonderful!"

Accompanied by the rumbling sound of the array operating, the Cloud Dream Boat slowly turned around amidst deliberately created cheerful laughter, cleaving through the thick clouds and sailing into the distance.

Above the Nine Heavens, the astral winds were piercingly cold.

A magnificent white sword light tore through the sea of clouds, streaking across the sky like a meteor chasing the moon, heading straight for the extreme north of the Central Continent.

Within the sword light, Ye Jiuhuang's expression was solemn, even carrying a bit of near-neurotic tension. With one hand wrapped around Bai Qianqiu, the pressure of her Mahayana Realm aura was released without reservation, shattering any birds, floating clouds, and even spatial turbulence that tried to approach along the way.

"Master... it's too fast..."

Bai Qianqiu was suffocated by the violent airflow, her face pale. Even with the spiritual energy of the Mahayana Realm protecting her body, this kind of extreme speed traversing that ignored the laws of space still made her feel her internal organs churning violently, producing a strong dizziness.

Ye Jiuhuang turned a deaf ear. Her gaze was fixed on the towering snow peak that faintly appeared ahead—the Sword God Palace.

This was her dao field, the holy land for sword cultivators all over the world, but at this moment in her eyes, it was just a huge, solid cage.

An iron cage that could firmly lock Bai Qianqiu inside, making it impossible for her to ever contact any man again, thereby exchanging for Ye Xuan's promise of marriage.

"We're here."

Ye Jiuhuang gave a low shout, and the sword light descended sharply.

Above the main peak of the Sword God Palace, the snow that never melted all year round was swept up into thousands of snow waves by the turbulent airflow.

Countless disciples who were practicing their swordsmanship looked up in astonishment, only feeling a suffocating sword intent descending from the sky, as if the sky had fallen, and they fell to their knees with weak legs.

"Respectfully welcoming the Palace Master back to the palace!"

Countless elders and deacons in seclusion were alarmed and hurriedly flew out, prostrating on the ground as if worshipping a god.

However, Ye Jiuhuang ignored these people entirely.

With a wave of her large sleeve, she directly took Bai Qianqiu past the Sword God Main Hall that symbolized supreme power, past the ancestral shrine with flourishing incense, and rushed straight to the deepest and darkest forbidden area of the Sword God Palace—

The Severing Emotion Cliff, the Forgetting Dust Cave.

This was the place where elders of the Sword God Palace who had committed grave mistakes like deceiving their masters and destroying their ancestors faced the wall and reflected on their misdeeds. It was surrounded by peerless killing arrays left over from ancient times, and not even a bird could cross half a step.

"Go in."

Ye Jiuhuang landed, casually waved her hand, and the heavy stone door that had been sealed for a thousand years slowly opened with a dull rumble.

A stale, icy, yet unimaginably dense wave of spiritual energy rushed out.

Bai Qianqiu stumbled to a steady stand, looking at the deep and dark cave in front of her, and then looked at her master whose expression was somewhat frantic, her eyes full of astonishment: "Master, this is a forbidden area... Did your disciple do something wrong?"

Ye Jiuhuang did not answer.

The storage ring on her fair finger suddenly flashed wildly.

Crash!

Countless radiant peerless treasures poured out from the storage ring like dumping worthless garbage, piling up haphazardly at Bai Qianqiu's feet.

Among them was a large pile of supreme-grade spirit stones enough to make old monsters in the Tribulation Transcendence Realm outside fight until their heads bled and trigger sect-exterminating tragedies;

There were Nine-Turn Golden Pills and Dao Comprehension Tea Leaves exuding a refreshing fragrance;

There were ancient sword manuals and solitary copies of secret scripts that had long been extinct in the outside world;

There were even a few semi-immortal flying swords exuding a chilling aura and full of spirituality.

In the blink of an eye, these rare treasures piled up into a glittering small mountain.

"This... this is..." Bai Qianqiu was completely dumbfounded, even her breathing stagnated.

Ye Jiuhuang took a deep breath. Her phoenix eyes, which were usually as cold as frost, now revealed an unquestionable, almost pathological strictness, staring fixedly at her disciple:

"Qianqiu, from today onwards, you will be in seclusion here."

"Nothing but cultivation."

"These resources are enough for you to use until you ascend. If it's not enough, I'll go rob, dig, and move more!"

Speaking of this, Ye Jiuhuang's voice suddenly rose, echoing over the empty and cold Severing Emotion Cliff, carrying a heart-trembling decisiveness:

"Until you cultivate to the Mahayana Realm, you are not allowed to step out of this Forgetting Dust Cave!"

Dead silence.

The howling of the wind and snow seemed to freeze at this moment.

Bai Qianqiu's eyes widened, looking at her master in disbelief, as if looking at a stranger.

Mahayana Realm?

She was only at the Nascent Soul Realm now!

From Nascent Soul to Mahayana, there were four heavenly chasm-like realms in between: Soul Formation, Void Refinement, Body Integration, and Tribulation Transcendence!

Even if she was a peerless genius rarely seen in ten thousand years, even with massive resources piled up, it would take at least hundreds, or even thousands of years!

"Master?"

Bai Qianqiu's voice changed pitch and became shrill due to extreme shock: "Are you joking? Mahayana Realm?! How long will that take?!"

She became anxious, ignoring the immortal swords scattered at her feet, taking a step forward, trying to pull Ye Jiuhuang's spotless sleeve, her eyes full of anxiety, grievance, and incomprehension:

"Master, when you accepted me as a disciple, you didn't teach me like this!"

"You said that sword cultivators should forge ahead fearlessly!"

"You said you wanted me to travel the Nine Provinces with my sword and challenge the world's heroes! You wanted me to temper my sword intent in life-and-death struggles, and forge an unsullied sword heart in blood and fire, only then can I achieve the supreme sword dao!"

Bai Qianqiu abruptly turned around, pointing at the vast world covered by wind and snow outside the Forgetting Dust Cave, her eyes red as she argued loudly:

"How can one become a Sword Immortal by working behind closed doors?! Are you trying to ruin me?"

Ye Jiuhuang looked at her agitated disciple. There was no anger of being contradicted as a master on her stunningly beautiful face, nor was there any wavering.

She slowly turned around, casting her gaze towards the boundless sea of clouds in the north in the distance, the corners of her mouth pulling up bit by bit, forming an extremely sarcastic and bitter sneer.

"Travel the Nine Provinces with a sword? Suppress the world with a sword?"

Ye Jiuhuang softly repeated these words that once made her proud, as if chewing on some poisoned, hard-to-swallow bitter fruit.

She suddenly turned her head back. In those stunningly beautiful phoenix eyes that once viewed the world's heroes as nothing, a heavy mist of tears actually welled up. Her voice completely lost its usual coldness, becoming sharp and mournful:

"Your master, I, used to do exactly that!"

Ye Jiuhuang approached Bai Qianqiu step by step, the imposing aura of the peak of the Mahayana Realm pressing down like a tangible Mount Tai, forcing Bai Qianqiu to retreat again and again:

"Ten thousand years ago, with just myself and one sword, I slaughtered my way through the eighteen domains of the Nine Provinces!"

"I beheaded the flood dragons of the East Sea, slaughtered the demon venerables of the Southern Borders, and defeated all the sword gods and sword saints in the world!"

"At that time, who didn't know me, the Sword Sovereign? Who didn't know Ye Jiuhuang? My illustrious name was known far and wide, my sword qi swept across thirty thousand miles, and a single strike of my sword illuminated three thousand continents!"

Speaking of this, Ye Jiuhuang suddenly stopped in her tracks. Her chest heaved violently, and the tears at the corners of her eyes could no longer be suppressed as they slid down her face.

Looking at the stunned Bai Qianqiu, the lofty and arrogant mask she had maintained for ten thousand years instantly shattered into pieces. It was replaced by a deeply ingrained, utterly sorrowful sense of self-mockery and desolation.

"And then what?"

She dejectedly spread out the hands that had once held the number one sword in the world, smiling mournfully.

"Even if I became the number one in the world, even if I was invincible across the realm."

"Didn't I still kneel before your husband? Begging for his forgiveness like a dog?"

Bai Qianqiu opened her mouth, but the thousands of words she had prepared were all stuck in her throat at this moment.

She looked at her master before her, a woman of peerless might, yet so incredibly fragile. In her mind, the shocking scene from the secret realm resurfaced: the supreme Sword God, kneeling in the dust, weeping and begging Ye Xuan to come back to her.

The number one sword in the world could not sever a single thread of love.

Her sword could suppress all living beings, yet it could not suppress the slightest bit of hatred in a person's heart.

"I suppose... that's true," Bai Qianqiu murmured, her momentum instantly weakening.

Ye Jiuhuang let out a long sigh. The sharpness in her eyes dissipated, turning into endless weariness and the heavy marks of time.

She reached out and gently stroked the top of Bai Qianqiu's head. Her movements were so gentle that she didn't seem like a strict master, but rather a wounded elder advising a younger generation.

"Silly child..."

"The greatest cultivation in this world has never been the Dao of the Sword, but the Dao of Love."

Ye Jiuhuang turned around, with her back to Bai Qianqiu. Gazing at the mottled sword marks on the cave wall, she spoke faintly.

"Meeting Ye Xuan is your fortune, but also your tribulation."

"He is a man of ultimate passion and true nature. Back then, who knows how many proud daughters of heaven he enchanted; even I was not immune."

Hearing this, Bai Qianqiu's heart stirred. She thought of Ye Xuan's resolute figure as he went to face death in the secret realm, and how he didn't hesitate to burn his divine soul to protect her. A wave of sweetness and piercing pain washed over her heart.

But immediately after, doubt welled up in her mind.

"Master," Bai Qianqiu asked cautiously, "since my husband is so passionate and true, why... why does he have such deep resentment towards you? To the point that... it could even be called hatred?"

Hearing the word "hatred," Ye Jiuhuang's body trembled slightly.

She closed her eyes, and two trails of clear tears slid down silently.

"Because that is the price of ultimate passion, and also its fatal weakness."

Ye Jiuhuang turned back, looking profoundly at Bai Qianqiu. Word by word, she dissected that man's soul, as well as her own past sins.

"If a man loves a woman unconditionally, loving her to the point of losing his dignity, loving her so much that he rips his heart out and holds it in his hands for her to see..."

"That woman, more often than not, will not cherish it."

"She will feel that all of this is a given. She will think that no matter what she does, no matter how capricious she is, or even... if she sacrifices him for the sake of the so-called Grand Dao or her so-called dreams, he will always stand right there waiting for her, and will always forgive her."

A miserable smile crept onto the corners of Ye Jiuhuang's mouth; it was a mockery of her own past foolishness.

"Back then, that was exactly what I thought."

"But..."

Ye Jiuhuang's voice choked with sobs.

"When I truly lost him, when I turned my head only to find no one behind me."

"It was too late even to cry."

"That kind of pain hurts ten thousand times more than having ten thousand swords pierce the heart."

Listening to her master's confession, Bai Qianqiu's heart was greatly shaken.

Although she had not experienced those things herself, as a woman, she could feel the agonizing remorse in Ye Jiuhuang's words.

Ye Jiuhuang took a deep breath to calm her emotions. Staring fixedly at Bai Qianqiu, her gaze became exceptionally stern.

"Qianqiu, you are my only disciple, and also the person he cares about the most right now."

"Listen to your master's advice."

"Never, ever make the same mistake I did."

"Do not act recklessly just because he spoils you. Do not think you can do whatever you please just because he loves you now."

"A person's heart can grow cold. And once it grows cold, it can never be warmed up again."

Bai Qianqiu nodded heavily, her expression incomparably resolute.

"Rest assured, Master!"

"Since I have recognized Ye Xuan as my husband, I will absolutely never betray him in this lifetime!"

"No matter what Grand Dao or eternal life, in my eyes, they do not amount to even a ten-thousandth of him!"

"I will enter secluded cultivation right here! Even if I cultivate until the end of time, I will not spare another man a single glance, and I will absolutely not let him feel the slightest bit of insecurity!"