The Gift

It was over. Surging origin qi still hung thick across the firmament, and the embers of war continued to burn in the Tianyuan Mountain Range, sending plumes of black smoke spiraling into the clouds. Yet the shadow of doom had, for the moment, departed these immortal peaks shrouded in mist for a thousand years. The Sword Sect was safe. For now. Standing high in the void, sword in hand, Luo Wei looked down upon the utter devastation below. Before her mind could fully ease, an ill-timed voice rang out from the spectator grounds: "Sect Master Luo, I believe you owe us an explanation for that final strike of yours." "..." Luo Wei glanced back. Meeting their gazes, she fell silent for a moment and sighed inwardly. One had to take responsibility for one's actions, and she would have to pay a price for that strike just now. Even though everyone present understood full well how catastrophic the consequences would have been had Xu Yinhe and Li Yaoxuan descended upon the Sword Sect's mountain gates at the same time, openly stabbing an ally in the back in the heat of battle remained unforgivable to the Sect Alliance as a collective whole. Now that the martial contest had ended, the Sect Alliance's internal political strife was about to begin. Exhaling a long breath of turbid air, Luo Wei sheathed her sword and was about to say something to the Pavilion Master of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion before her. But she saw Tianye casually wave her sleeve and dismissively shake her hand. "If you intend to apologize, Sect Master, there is no need. Even without your strike, I was already prepared to let Xu Changtian leave." Luo Wei froze upon hearing this. She had never expected that the woman representing the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion would speak up on behalf of the Sword Sect. Yet the voice from the spectator grounds did not subside. Seeing Tianye intervene, the speaker took on a deferential tone, though his words yielded no ground whatsoever: "Since the Pavilion Master chooses not to pursue the matter, it would hardly be our place to overstep. However, the impact of Sect Master Luo's strike does not concern only you, Pavilion Master. She caused us to miss the opportunity to surround and kill the rebel chiefs." "Surround and kill?" Tianye suddenly chuckled. Glancing sideways at the elder who had spoken from the spectator grounds, the corner of her lips curled into a mocking smirk. "Did my ears deceive me just now? Who do you think you are to surround and kill Li Yaoxuan and Xu Yinhe? Or do you possess some hidden trump card I failed to discern? Or perhaps you are simply being generous with someone else's life, expecting me to risk mine against the two of them?" "..." The speaking elder froze, his expression stiffening. The previous Pavilion Master of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion had always been cold and taciturn, prioritizing the pavilion's interests above all else in every interaction. By all reason, she should have joined them in applying pressure right now, forcing the Sword Sect to compromise and pay an appropriate price. Seeing that the man had fallen silent, Tianye gave an uninterested chuckle. "If you wish to hold someone accountable, show me cultivation capable of confronting Li Yaoxuan and Xu Yinhe directly. If you have none, and you persist in making a racket, I wouldn't mind offering one or two of you as sacrifices to heaven." The elder's face darkened, shifting between indignation and hesitation. He wanted to lash out, but lacked the courage, leaving him no choice but to cast an imploring glance toward Wen Xinyun in the sky above. Wen Xinyun ignored him entirely, murmuring, "Sect Master Luo's decision just now was correct. The emergence of those beyond-Saint has altered the nature of warfare to a certain degree. The price required to slay Xu Yinhe and Li Yaoxuan here is not one we can afford." Seeing that all three leading figures at the pinnacle of the Sect Alliance had made their stances clear, the elder had no choice but to bow his head sullenly and reply, "...Understood, Mister Wen." The rules of righteousness were weapons meant for equals to challenge one another. Once tacit agreement was reached at the very top, accountability from below ceased to matter. Watching Luo Wei slowly descend, Tianye asked with an amused smile, "I thought you would bite into the Sword Sect and never let go." Wen Xinyun replied in a flat voice, "Wasting the Sword Sect's energy on this matter serves no purpose. Their pressing priority is to guard against the four hundred thousand troops of the Black Scale Army north of Hongnong. Furthermore, even if she had not intervened, I likely would have stopped you. Now is not the time for a decisive battle." Tianye chuckled softly. "On this point, our stances are surprisingly aligned." Wen Xinyun gave a noncommittal response. "If Li Yaoxuan had truly been stirred by Xu Yinhe into trading pieces with us, the plots I laid over twenty years ago would have gone to waste. He should not expend his remaining embers in this war between dynasty and sects. This Emperor of Great Yan ought to rot away in Di'an, dragging along that already decrepit body of his." "You want him to drag Xu Yinhe down to hell with him, don't you?" Tianye's beautiful eyes flickered with contemplation. Wen Xinyun smiled faintly. "To slaughter the comrade who stood by his side his entire life as he reaches his end—such a curtain call is quite grand for him, is it not?" "Are you certain it can succeed?" "Naturally." Wen Xinyun's answer was absolute. "Time changes everything. Perhaps Li Yaoxuan was indeed tempted just now by Xu Yinhe's proposal to fight side by side at the end of their lives. But had he truly remained faithful to the ideal they once shared, he would not have hesitated the moment Xu Yinhe made the offer, much less allowed Luo Wei the opportunity to unleash that strike. Li Yaoxuan... personally abandoned the final opportunity Xu Yinhe created for him." "..." Tianye responded with silence. The biting wind high above whipped at their robes. Wen Xinyun turned her gaze toward the now-vanished black hole of the teleportation rift and said languidly: "Still, it is not difficult to understand. The emergence of those beyond-Saint has altered the nature of modern warfare to a certain degree. The devastation wrought by two beyond-Saint powerhouses bent on death would have inflicted irreversible damage upon the Sword Sect's mountain gates. Once the Sword Sect, this central command, was destroyed, the four hundred thousand Black Scale troops north of Hongnong would sweep south with unstoppable force. The Sect Alliance would likely collapse all the way back to the Mount Qilin region before it could establish a new defensive line. "Li Yaoxuan could not accept such an outcome. "Hongnong is vast and prosperous, fully endowed with all kinds of mineral wealth. If the Xu family of the Prime Minister's Manor, having already swallowed Zhenxi Manor whole, were to take the Hongnong region into their grasp as well, they would practically shatter the final shackle placed upon them by the imperial clan: resources. "What the imperial clan desires is for the Prime Minister's Manor and the Sect Alliance to create an immense flesh grinder in Hongnong. Even if it does not bleed both sides dry to the very last drop, it must at least buy the imperial family the chance to intervene and claim a share of the spoils." At this point, Wen Xinyun slowly withdrew her gaze and delivered a definitive judgment: "Across these thousand years, I have seen many who were faithful to their ideals. In the end, Li Yaoxuan will fail just like them—defeated by human nature." "Then what about Xu Yinhe?" Tianye asked suddenly, "Of all the people present just now, the only one harboring a death wish was him—the one whose position was the most secure. Do you believe he will fail as well?" This time, Wen Xinyun did not answer immediately. After pondering deeply for a long while, she said in a soft voice: "In his youth, Xu Yinhe was an uncompromising idealist. Throughout his entire life, he has walked a path destined to end in death for the sake of his ideals. And so, I have prepared a curtain call befitting him." For an idealist, dying to a conspiracy was an insult, yet it was also a fitting end. Tianye did not ask what her odds of success were, nor did she inquire about the details of the plot. She merely said softly: "It seems you have made extensive preparations for this." Hearing this, Wen Xinyun glanced sideways at Tianye. "Pavilion Master, you slept for far too long. To me, Xu Yinhe and Li Yaoxuan were never variables. You and Xu Changtian are." "Then what a pity." The corners of Tianye's lips curved faintly. "Just a moment ago, you were very close to never having to see either of us again." With those words, Tianye's slender figure rose into the air, drifting gently upward like a fallen leaf. Looking down at the woman standing in place, she spoke in a measured tone: "If everything truly goes as you say, I will think more highly of you. But speaking realistically, I believe you will pay the price for this arrogance of yours." Pondering her words, Wen Xinyun murmured, "Are you referring to Xu Changtian?" "You are intelligent." Tianye looked down upon the dangerous woman below, her tone ethereal and cool. "From what I know of Xu Yuan, he would not have come all this way solely for Ran Qingmo. His journey to the Sword Sect must have had another purpose." Wen Xinyun narrowed her eyes slightly and chuckled in a leisurely manner. "Perhaps he came to create an opportunity for his elders, only Li Yaoxuan failed to take it." Tianye shook her head lightly, smiling. "No, he is not that kind of person. If he had known of Xu Yinhe's death wish, far from approving of it, he would have intervened in secret—even if it meant defying his father's will. "Besides, have you forgotten? Just now, he said he had prepared a special gift for you." Wen Xinyun's eyes darkened slightly, her tone dropping. "Pavilion Master, what do you mean by that?" Tianye smiled with curved eyes, waving briefly toward Tianyan in the distance. "It is merely a warning—and one that leaves you zero time to react. You should be receiving terrible news very soon... Well, it is time for the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion to depart. I hope you will be able to handle the gift he prepared for you, Mister Wen."