After Tianyan departed, silence fell upon the side hall.
Frowning, the Seventh Elder of the Sword Sect leaned back into the stone chair behind him and asked softly,
"Second Elder, what do you think of this girl?"
Moonlight spilled inside, his voice echoing through the towering, tens-of-zhang-high hall, followed by a figure slowly emerging from the lightless shadows.
Staring in the direction where Tianyan had left, the handsome elder surnamed Liu said quietly,
"She noticed me just now. To possess such cultivation at her age... the techniques of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion are truly unfathomable."
The Seventh Elder glanced sideways at the handsome elder who had walked up beside him and murmured,
"That lass Qingmo isn't lacking either. Compared to her, she only lacks time."
With that, he paused, then added,
"Besides, you know I wasn't asking about her cultivation."
The handsome elder surnamed Liu narrowed his eyes. Looking through the hall doors, he took in the bustling prosperity beneath the city of the Sword Sect's mountain gate and sighed softly.
"She comes with ill intent. The thing we least wanted to see has come to pass after all. I fear great calamity looms over our Sword Sect."
The Seventh Elder swivelled his stone chair, his brow furrowed. "Do you mean Xu Changtian coming in person to our mountain gate, or do you mean her genuinely moving to slay Xu Changtian with her own hands?"
"Both."
"..."
A long silence ensued.
The Seventh Elder took a deep breath and said instinctively,
"If the Sect Master were still here..."
"Pingdan, the Sect Master has already passed away. Anything said now is too late." The handsome elder interrupted him, his tone flat. "If the Sword Sect is to carry on, we can only rely on ourselves."
Rustle...
Hearing this, the Seventh Elder tightened his grip slightly, leaving an imprint on the armrest, and asked in a heavy voice,
"Luo Wei... how is she doing right now?"
"She spent the entire afternoon watching over the Sect Master's corpse in the back mountain. Even now, we haven't received any transmission from her side."
"What about Qingmo?"
"She was clamoring to go to Di'an, but we stopped her."
"..."
The Seventh Elder rubbed his temples in irritation. "In such turbulent times, one is the Acting Sect Master and the other is the eldest disciple, yet both are behaving like this. Isn't this just reckless folly?"
The handsome elder surnamed Liu remained silent for a moment.
"The Sect Master and Qingmo were like father and daughter, and with Luo Wei, he shared decades of marital devotion. We ought to understand—"
*Bang!*
The Seventh Elder slammed his palm onto the table before him, glaring at his old friend beside him, his voice tightly suppressed with emotion:
"Understand my ass! Where does our Sword Sect have the time or leisure for their personal sentimentality right now?! Besides, as the eldest disciple, that girl Qingmo should have been taught jointly by the Sword Masters of all six peaks. But the two of them always acted unilaterally, knowing nothing but blind overprotection and doting. Look at what that girl has turned into now!"
Having reached this point, the Seventh Elder's suppressed rage seemed impossible to contain any longer. Pointing toward the direction of Di'an, he roared:
"Clamoring to go to Di'an—what could she possibly accomplish going to Di'an?! Make her stance clear and forcefully kill Xu Changtian like that Saintess? If she truly intended to kill Xu Changtian, there's no way she would kick up a fuss to go to Di'an with merely an Origin Realm cultivation!
"Old Liu, we've both lived through those years. We know what that girl is thinking in her heart—she just wants to go find that brat to demand an explanation!"
*Huff... pant...*
Heavy, furious gasps trembled slightly.
The Seventh Elder paced back and forth in the hall with irritation.
The handsome elder surnamed Liu looked at the man before him and sighed softly.
"In this matter, we bear responsibility as well."
Regarding the way the Sword Sect's eldest disciple was groomed, though these elders had voiced dissatisfaction to the Sect Master in the past, none had ever persisted.
That was because the eldest disciple becoming the future Sect Master was an unspoken consensus among the entire upper echelon of the Sword Sect, and if this future Sect Master remained ignorant of the ways of the world, the authority of these elders and Sword Masters could expand.
Since the Sect Master and Luo Wei insisted on their pampering style of upbringing, the elders naturally had not opposed it with all their might.
Yet all of that was predicated on peaceful times.
No one could have imagined that Xu Yinhe would actually dare to defy all order and reason, thoroughly inflaming the contradictions between the imperial court and the sects to ignite a civil war in Great Yan.
The handsome elder surnamed Liu took a deep breath and murmured,
"However, this is no longer the time to dwell on right and wrong. Our gaze must look forward."
"Can't look forward at all."
The Seventh Elder named Pingdan seemed ready to throw his hands up in defeat. With fatigue in his eyes, he asked in a low voice:
"Old Liu, let me ask you something: have you ever thought about why the Sect Master's corpse was in the hands of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion?"
"..." The handsome elder remained silent.
"Looks like you have."
Ding Pingdan retrieved the registration document Tianyan had just handed him from his Sumeru ring and tossed it onto the desk.
"Tianyan just made her intention to slay Xu Yuan abundantly clear. The Overseeing Heaven Pavilion will inevitably use this to direct pressure onto our Sword Sect, and in Qingmo's current state, she can't disprove it at all.
"Old Liu, we... are about to become their blade."
Having said this, Ding Pingdan slumped back down into his stone chair and waved his hand at the handsome elder.
"Go check on Luo Wei. If even as Acting Sect Master she lacks a sense of responsibility, then as the Sword Master of Weapon Peak, I have no desire to manage affairs anymore either."
Seeing this, the handsome elder surnamed Liu let out a quiet sigh in his heart.
A leader's demoralization could lead to a total collapse of morale, but that did not apply to higher-ups like them. Ding Pingdan acting this way was not to shirk responsibility, but to force his hand into making Luo Wei surrender power.
Over these past days, Luo Wei's conduct had already disappointed these Sword Masters and elders. As a mother and a wife, she was qualified, but as the leader of the Sword Sect right now, she was thoroughly unfit.
Clenching his fist slightly, the elder surnamed Liu took one last look at the old man in the stone chair, walked out of the side hall in silence, and made his way quietly to the lush bamboo grove in the back mountain of the main peak.
Moonlight cascaded like a waterfall.
On the open clearing before the Sect Master's residence,
the elder saw a beautiful woman bathed in the pure white moonlight.
Expressionless, her cold gaze stared at the starry night sky.
Beside her stood a crude earthen mound.
Cold and desolate.
Seeing this, the handsome elder could no longer conceal the complicated emotions in his eyes.
Unity was the pillar of the Sword Sect's resurgence.
To preserve that unity, the Sword Masters of the six peaks would concede benefits and compromise on many matters rather than infighting.
Yet now,
that tradition might have to be broken.
What they needed now was a leader to guide the Sword Sect forward without looking back, not a woman who locked herself away because her husband had passed...
"Wenzhou, is the general council about to begin?"
Luo Wei suddenly turned her head. Her dark eyes were deep and lifeless, her voice hoarse. "...It took quite an effort to coax Qingmo into cultivating, which delayed me a bit."
Parting his lips, Liu Wenzhou said softly,
"Luo Wei, the Sect Master shouldn't be buried here."
Luo Wei offered a fleeting, bitter smile.
To uphold the overall interests of the Sword Sect, once someone attained the rank of Sect Master, they had to step outside their clan of origin; after death, they would not be buried in their clan's ancestral grounds, but in the Sect Master's Mausoleum.
"For as long as I remain Acting Sect Master, I want to keep him company a little longer."
"..."
Rustle...
Boots crunched against the grassy lawn, casting long shadows under the slanted moonlight.
Liu Wenzhou stepped closer at a slow pace.
"Luo Wei, you are not in a good state right now. Let me go to tonight's general council in your stead."
Luo Wei's slender eyelashes fluttered slightly, and then a faint look of realization curved her lips. "...I'm sorry. It seems I've worried you all."
Liu Wenzhou looked directly into the beautiful woman's slightly reddened eyes and said frankly,
"Luo Wei, your current condition is not suitable for attending tonight's general council."
Luo Wei lowered her eyelids.
"Do you truly view me, Luo Wei, as such a fragile woman?"
"...It is the truth."
"Wenzhou, I prepared myself the moment he rushed off to Di'an."
Luo Wei glanced at the earthen mound beside her, recalling the smile of that clumsy, rough bastard while he was alive, and unconsciously looked away again. "...Just now, my heart was merely thrown into disarray by how sudden the news was. Besides, if I collapse, wouldn't his death have been in vain?"
"..."
After her words fell, silence lingered for a long time.
Liu Wenzhou walked up to the grave mound, bent down, and lightly touched the icy tombstone with his fingertips. Lowering his eyes for a moment, he cautioned in a low voice:
"Usurping power was never my intent, Luo Wei."
"I know."
"Yet can you truly represent the Sword Sect right now to face all that hostility?"
"Yes."
"Even if they make an issue out of the Sect Master's death, can you remain completely cold-blooded?"
"Yes."
"..."
A mountain breeze swept gently past, rustling the bamboo leaves.
Liu Wenzhou slowly stood up. Glancing at the woman beside him, he took a deep breath, his eyes darting toward the small seclusion pavilion deep within the bamboo grove.
"Very well, I will believe you. Straighten your appearance, take Qingmo, and let us head to the main hall together."
"Qingmo?" Luo Wei frowned.
Liu Wenzhou looked back, his eyes calm and cold.
"She is the eldest disciple of the Sword Sect. Things having come to this, the Sect Master is dead, and the Sword Sect is plagued by troubles without and within—just how much longer do you intend to protect her?
"Luo Wei, war is already upon us."
Chapter 753