In contrast to the crude mountain forest where Xu Yuan was, the dueling ground for Tianyan and Ran Qingmo lay atop an offshoot peak of the Tianyuan Mountain Range. Dilapidated, splendid pavilions concealed amid the dense woods spoke of the mountain's past glory.
This was the seat of Heaven Sword Peak, one of the Sword Sect's thirteen peaks.
Yet Heaven Sword Peak had long since been submerged beneath the inexorable torrents of history.
According to the precedents of past Tianyuan Grand Tournaments, a world-renowned duel between the Saintess of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion and the Sword Sect's head disciple should have drawn numerous sect masters to watch. Today, however, spectators on the dueling grounds were few and far between.
A gentleman does not stand beneath a crumbling wall.
The military might of the Prime Minister's Manor left the higher-ups of the Sect Alliance unwilling to risk their lives, so they had merely dispatched several sect elders to observe the proceedings.
None of this, however, was what Ran Qingmo cared about.
Heaven and earth were silent. A winter breeze following the rain brushed through the young woman's long hair, carrying a chilling coolness. Tianyan's earlier words echoed relentlessly in her ears.
[Use that Dao charm of yours to kill him together with me.]
While waiting for Tianyan to arrive, Ran Qingmo stood alone upon the summit, raising a slender hand to feel the mountain currents.
The air was laden with moisture after the rain. Such weather allowed her sword techniques and arts to unleash even greater might, yet Ran Qingmo knew full well that even with the blessing of nature, she was no match for Tianyan.
This was the insurmountable chasm between the Origin Realm and the Transcendent Realm.
Yet to the trade Tianyan had proposed, she had offered only silence instead of an answer.
Kill Xu Yuan.
Even after recognizing the vast chasm of interests dividing him and her, she still could not steel her resolve.
Ran Qingmo lowered her eyelids and pressed a hand to her chest. Her racing heartbeat brought an ever-present sense of suffocation. She wanted to suppress this distressing turmoil, yet found herself utterly unable to do so.
Perhaps, just as Tianyan had said, she was unfit to be the Sword Sect's head disciple. Uncertainty and torment surged and spread through her chest without end.
Until...
That qi dynamic engraved deeply in her mind drifted across the sky.
Everyone's qi dynamic was unique. Ran Qingmo had watched with her own eyes as Xu Yuan grew from a mortal into a cultivator. Even though his qi dynamic had long since turned ominous and chilling, she still remembered it.
Ran Qingmo instinctively turned toward the direction of the surging qi. But the distance was too great; strain her vision as she might, she could only sense the heaven-shaking qi dynamic.
A flicker of confusion surfaced in her dark eyes.
Her shiniang and the others had hidden everything concerning Xu Yuan's arrival from her, but Tianyan had laid it all bare this morning.
An Origin Realm cultivator was to duel Xu Yuan today.
Yet a clash between Xu Yuan and an ordinary Origin Realm cultivator should never have caused such a massive upheaval of qi.
Who was that?
"That is Wen Xinyun."
Tianyan's voice drifted in from beyond the sky.
The petite figure of the young girl materialized beneath the vault of the summit. Looking in the direction of the qi dynamic alongside Ran Qingmo, she spoke in a clear, detached voice: "Just as expected, Xu Changtian still has that same temper of his."
"Wen Xinyun?"
Surprise flickered in Ran Qingmo's eyes.
Tianyan withdrew her gaze and cast a sideways glance at her. Without following up on the name, she simply murmured in a light tone:
"Wen Xinyun cannot kill Xu Changtian. With his disposition, he will likely rush over to us very soon. Ran Qingmo, have you considered the proposal from before?"
"..."
Ran Qingmo remained silent.
Yet amid that silence, frigid ice crystals spread outward from where her snow-white mourning robes touched the ground. In a mere instant, they transformed the mountain peak into a forbidden domain of ice and snow.
Tianyan looked down at what was unfolding below and murmured softly:
"It seems you intend to refuse."
Ran Qingmo tightened her grip on the ink sword at her waist and said, "I can agree to it, but not now."
Tianyan tilted her head and asked, "Why?"
Ran Qingmo glanced toward the distant horizon where the qi dynamic was trembling. "Xu Yuan cannot die at the Sword Sect. At least, not right now. Although he came here for his past promise, given his temperament, he must have other objectives."
"Your illusions about him have diminished somewhat after all."
Tianyan pondered briefly before asking, "Are you worried the Sword Sect will repeat the Wanxiang Sect's fate?"
With her thoughts laid bare, Ran Qingmo unconsciously pursed her lips.
She had witnessed the outcome of the Wanxiang Sect under Xu Yuan's orchestration.
Massive armies pressing upon the borders, subjugating through sheer force.
Back then, the Prime Minister's Manor had deployed forty thousand array soldiers to force the Wanxiang Sect into submission. This time, what the Sword Sect faced was tenfold that number!
If Xu Yuan truly died here, then once the war was lost, nothing would remain for the Sword Sect—not even a dog or chicken spared.
And so,
Ran Qingmo did not deny Tianyan's words: "...Mm."
"..."
A momentary silence fell.
Tianyan looked at her, her gaze seemingly capable of seeing through the human heart. "Admitting defeat before the battle has even begun... In my impression, you were not such a person. Is there really any point in deceiving yourself?"
Ran Qingmo instinctively tried to retort, "I... I'm not..."
"No, you are."
Slowly descending toward the summit, Tianyan treaded upon the void half a zhang above the ground, the hem of her skirt fluttering in the wind. She looked at Ran Qingmo, her words like the whispered temptations of a demon:
"Your words just now were nothing more than selfish desire cloaked in righteousness. If you are truly so torn, why not simply abandon the Sword Sect and defect to his Prime Minister's Manor?"
Ran Qingmo took a deep breath and coldly retorted, "I... I am only the Sword Sect's head disciple. I have no right to make such a momentous decision for the entire Sword Sect on behalf of Shiniang and the others."
Tianyan, stripped of all emotion, let her words cut like a razor-sharp blade straight to the core: "Is that so? Yet when faced with the Immortal Law of Equal Taxation handed down by the imperial court, it was your Sword Sect itself that chose to take up arms and resist rather than stretch out your necks for slaughter. Doesn't your current hesitation directly defy the strategic resolve of the entire Sword Sect? If this isn't your selfish desire cloaked in righteousness, what is?"
Saying this,
Tianyan cast her gaze down toward the vast sea of forest belonging to the Tianyuan Sword Sect beneath their feet, her voice languid:
"Ran Qingmo, the way out Xu Changtian leaves you is mercy offered only after armed suppression. But how many Sword Sect disciples do you think will die in the course of this conflict? How many soldiers of the Prime Minister's Manor will perish? And where will the hatred born of these deaths go? Can it all be laughed away and forgiven simply because you and Xu Changtian end up together? Be a little less naive. Debts of blood must be paid in blood!"
Every single word pierced straight to the heart.
Tianyan's words dragged everything Ran Qingmo had instinctively tried to forget back into the light. Her dark pupils trembled faintly as the cold, somber frost surrounding her began to melt away.
It did not take long, but it was enough for the Sect Alliance dignitaries on the observation terrace to notice the anomaly.
"Qingmo, what is wrong?"
The Sword Sect Grand Elder presiding over the tournament instantly appeared before Ran Qingmo, asking with deep concern.
Ran Qingmo did not reply. She hung her head, her delicate frame trembling slightly, looking as helpless as a child who had done something wrong.
Seeing this, the Sword Sect Grand Elder immediately realized that the change in her sect's head disciple stemmed from the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion Saintess not far away.
Just now, the two of them must have exchanged voice transmissions concerning some hidden truths!
After a moment of silence, the Sword Sect Grand Elder demanded coldly, "Saintess, what have you done to my Sword Sect's head disciple?!"
Tianyan met the white-haired old woman's eyes, her voice completely devoid of inflection: "I merely informed her of some truths that you intentionally hid from her—truths regarding Xu Changtian."
"..."
The Sword Sect Grand Elder was struck instantly speechless.
The repercussions of the Sect Master and Luo Wei's overprotection of Qingmo were so immense that she lacked any ground to reprimand the Saintess, who had pushed Qingmo to the brink of an inner demon.
Because from the standpoint of the Sect Alliance, all of this was necessary.
She parted her lips to speak, but the Saintess's crisp voice reached her first:
"Grand Elder, the hour has come. You may announce the start of the duel."
The Sword Sect Grand Elder instinctively glanced toward the Alliance dignitaries watching the proceedings, then looked back at her own distraught head disciple. Just as she was about to find an excuse to stall for time, she felt a gentle tug on her sleeve, followed by a trembling voice softly whispering into her ear:
"I'm fine. Just start..."
The Grand Elder turned, intending to dissuade her, only to see the young woman's slender hand tighten its grip on the hem of her robe. Ran Qingmo lifted her eyes, an unyielding stubbornness gleaming in the darkness of her pupils:
"Start."
"..."
Silence reigned.
The Sword Sect Grand Elder sighed in her heart, nodded, and flew away from the ring. Standing aloft in the void, she announced loudly:
"The identities of both parties have been verified.
"Overseeing Heaven Pavilion Saintess versus Sword Sect Head Disciple—activate the array!"
Rumble—
As the Sword Sect Grand Elder's words fell, the entirety of Heaven Sword Peak gave a shuddering rumble. Wisps of sword astral qi rose with the wind. The badly damaged mountain-guarding array, like an old man on the verge of the grave, nevertheless drew upon its glorious past to hoist a protective canopy across the sky.
Beneath that pale blue canopy woven from sword astral qi, Tianyan's clear gold eyes radiated divine light as she looked down upon the plain-robed woman gripping her sword below:
"Ran Qingmo, the old will eventually pass away. The world's future belongs to our generation, and you will inevitably arrive at this juncture. When that time comes, no one will decide the Sword Sect's future for you. So no matter how conflicted and troubled you feel right now, remember: this is your last chance."
Listening to the young girl above, Ran Qingmo slowly lifted her gaze. Her long, dense eyelashes fluttered as she gripped her sword and murmured softly:
"I've made up my mind."
As she spoke,
She dispersed her technique, and the translucent frost around her collapsed silently to the ground, dissolving into nothingness.
Tianyan was right.
The Sword Sect today could not compromise with the imperial court.
And as such, a war between the Sword Sect and the Prime Minister's Manor would inevitably break out in Hongnong.
Regardless of who emerged victorious,
She and he could never return to how things were.
Because debts of blood had to be paid in blood.
Therefore...
"Tianyan, I—"
"What are you two plotting?"
A familiar male voice rang out atop the mountain peak, cutting Ran Qingmo off without the slightest warning.
She instinctively looked back,
Only to find that the familiar, handsome man had somehow bypassed the sky's sword astral qi array and stood right behind her. Taking an instinctive step back, she stared intently at the man carved deeply into her memory, her voice faltering slightly:
"...Xu Yuan, why... why are you here?"
"Why shouldn't I be here?"
Xu Yuan looked at the young woman's widened eyes, curving his own in a smile as he spoke in a gentle tone:
"Why, could you two be discussing something I'm not supposed to know, Mr. Ran?"
Chapter 772