In Qin Wanyuan’s understanding, Jiang Moqing who cultivated the Heartless Valley Technique was like an iceberg devoid of feelings, someone who had almost never shown any emotional fluctuation.
From that alone, it was clear just how powerful the impact of her earlier remark had been.
Fortunately, Jiang Moqing merely twitched her brows at the comment and didn’t make any other extreme reaction, which allowed Qin Wanyuan to breathe a small sigh of relief.
However, a new problem soon arose. Despite having just shown off the Flowing Fairy Dress that Lin Que had given her, she hadn’t received any notification that the task was completed.
System! What exactly is going on here? Didn’t I do exactly what you told me to…?
[Host, this system already told you long ago that the Flowing Fairy Dress and the white silk stockings are a matching set.]
Hearing the system’s icy response, Qin Wanyuan’s eyelid twitched involuntarily.
You mean to say… I still have to deliberately show these hole-ridden silk stockings to Senior Sister?
[The host is perceptive.]
Do you even hear yourself?!
Qin Wanyuan was so angry that she started panting. Just visiting her senior sister while wearing these torn white silk stockings was already humiliating enough. To avoid exposing them, she had even deliberately tugged her skirt hem lower.
And now… the system actually wanted her to show these torn white silk stockings to Jiang Moqing on purpose?! And even brag about them?!
[Host, think of the task rewards. These sacrifices are all worth it.]
The system’s tone was as emotionless as ever, yet Qin Wanyuan somehow felt that it was enjoying the spectacle.
She had wanted to furiously denounce the system for having absolutely no bottom line.
But the rewards it offered were simply too much…
A set of Dream Share Talismans, an increase to Lin Que’s charm, and an improvement to her own physique…especially the Dream Share Talismans. One had to know that buying a set of Dream Share Talismans in the system shop cost a full fifteen thousand system points, and yet now, Qin Wanyuan hadn’t obtained even a single system point…
After all, the way to earn system points was extremely simple and crude: they could only be obtained by having Lin Que engage in intimate contact with a capture target or by completing a full capture.
Successfully capturing one target rewarded ten thousand points. Beyond that, holding hands gave five points, hugging ten points, kissing twenty points, and sleeping together once a hundred points.
Roughly speaking, to buy a set of Dream Share Talismans, one would need to capture a single target and then have that person sleep with Lin Que fifty times.
Thinking about it that way, it seemed better to just grit her teeth and complete the task properly.
After all, she had already started. Rather than giving up halfway, she might as well harden her resolve and finish it in one go.
With a “might as well go all the way” mindset, Qin Wanyuan entered the cave residence together with Jiang Moqing.
The two of them sat down in the pavilion. Jiang Moqing didn’t seem to dwell on what had happened earlier. She brewed a pot of tea and poured them each a cup containing seven-tenths of a serving.
“How much of the sword technique personally taught by Master have you understood?” Jiang Moqing asked.
These past few days, An Xiaoyao had gone out on business and wasn’t at the cave residence, so Jiang Moqing intended to fulfill her duties as a senior sister.
In fact, if this had been a month earlier, Jiang Moqing wouldn’t have paid any attention to this so-called junior sister at all. But over the past month, the two of them had gone through quite a lot together. Their relationship couldn’t be called close, but at least they had become familiar with each other.
On top of that, when Jiang Moqing had been injured before, Qin Wanyuan had specifically sent Lin Que over to deliver medicine and examine her injuries.
By both reason and sentiment, she ought to help Qin Wanyuan clear up her doubts.
It was true that Jiang Moqing cultivated the Heartless Technique, but she was still far from having mastered it. According to the elder who had taught her this technique, only by severing one’s heart demon could one truly reach the realm of cutting off emotions and desires.
But what exactly was a heart demon?
Jiang Moqing had never seen one to this day….let alone slain one.
“Junior Sister does indeed have some doubts about the sword technique. It’s in the fourth volume, the thirty-sixth form,” Qin Wanyuan said with a nod.
In her previous life, she had never fully comprehended the sword technique An Xiaoyao taught her, and in hindsight, that was only natural. After all, this was a unique sword art An Xiaoyao had refined over several hundred years: the core sword canon alone contained one hundred and eight forms, with over a thousand possible variations and combinations. It was truly a technique of endless transformations.
Though Qin Wanyuan was intelligent, she was not a sword-path prodigy like Lin Que. How could she possibly master it all in just a few short years?.
In this life, she could conveniently pick up where she had left off in her previous one and continue learning.
However, as Jiang Moqing listened to Qin Wanyuan explain her confusion, her brows slowly knit together, because this level of progress was absolutely not something a disciple who had been initiated for less than half a year should be able to reach.
Could it be that she’s a genius like Lin Que, and that’s why Lin Que chose her…?
Gradually, the anxiety in Jiang Moqing’s heart deepened.
The first time she had crossed swords with Qin Wanyuan, she had already felt a long-forgotten sense of unease, because Qin Wanyuan gave her a feeling very similar to Lin Que.
Both were newcomers, yet both possessed astonishing cultivation speeds that set them apart from the ordinary.
Lin Que was like this, and Qin Wanyuan was the same.
Even though Qin Wanyuan’s cultivation was currently an entire major realm behind hers, sooner or later, she would surpass her…
For no clear reason, a voice suddenly surfaced in her mind.
If you’re worried about her surpassing you, then why not teach her the wrong methods and lead her astray into deviation and qi backlash? As long as nine parts are true and one part is false, it would be well concealed. No one would notice….she herself would only think it was her own problem.
As that hazy voice reached her mind, Jiang Moqing’s pupils suddenly contracted.
Because… it was her own voice.
Jiang Moqing didn’t respond to it. She simply sipped her tea in silence.
After listening to Qin Wanyuan’s confusion about the sword technique, she closed her eyes and fell into deep thought. After a long while, she opened them, stood up, drew her sword, and flew out into the courtyard to begin performing a sword dance.
She demonstrated precisely the parts that Qin Wanyuan had found difficult, executing them with flawless precision.
She would never stoop to such disgraceful tactics, nor would she ever grow jealous of a junior’s talent surpassing her own.
If there was anything to blame, it was her own lack of strength.
Truly… not even a little jealous? Even though Lin Que…
The voice echoed again.
Jiang Moqing ignored it. She only moved her sword faster. The sword energy grew sharper, more piercing. That voice seemed to be sliced to pieces by the swirling wind and vanished into nothing.
So this was the so-called heart demon? Jiang Moqing found it rather underwhelming. As long as one’s resolve was firm, it could be cut down.
Off to the side, Qin Wanyuan was mesmerized by Jiang Moqing’s sword dance. Since the latter hadn’t put up any defenses, Qin Wanyuan was able to use her spiritual sense to carefully observe every minute detail of her movements, even tracing the flow of spiritual energy through her meridians.
Her confusion was resolved.
So this was how those techniques were meant to be executed…
Qin Wanyuan became fully absorbed in Jiang Moqing’s performance, completely unaware that the sword winds stirred up by the dance were growing increasingly wild.
As Jiang Moqing flicked her sword once more, a powerful updraft surged from the ground, suddenly lifting the hem of Qin Wanyuan’s skirt.
Normally, if Qin Wanyuan had been paying attention, no matter how strong the wind, it wouldn’t have moved so much as a thread of her clothing. But… she had been utterly entranced by Jiang Moqing’s sword dance and naturally, she had neglected to maintain her protective barrier.
As her skirt was lifted, Qin Wanyuan snapped back to awareness. She quickly pressed it down, trying to cover the white silkworm stockings wrapped around her legs….the stockings torn open in several places.
But it was already too late.
The sword dance came to an abrupt halt. Jiang Moqing stood with her sword in hand, eyes locked on Qin Wanyuan’s legs. Her gaze trembled….like she was staring not at a pair of torn stockings, but at the truth of what had happened the night before.
The calm between them… was finally broken.
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