Since Qin Wanyuan was injured today, Lin Que didn’t do anything to her.
The two lay in bed, holding each other as they slept.
Before falling asleep, Qin Wanyuan called out to the system in her mind and used two Dream-Sharing Talismans on Lin Que and Jiang Moqing. Only then did she close her eyes, preparing for sleep.
Finally, I get to see what happens next!
Because it was the long-awaited glimpse into Lin Que’s youth, Qin Wanyuan was actually so excited she couldn’t fall asleep. Thankfully, she was a cultivator and could regulate her breathing to drift off….otherwise, those two talismans would’ve gone to waste.
Still… there’s one Dream-Share Talisman left. How should I use it?
Qin Wanyuan wondered with curiosity.
If she used it on Lin Que and another person, it would reveal memories the two of them shared in the dream. But what would happen if she used it on only Lin Que or Jiang Moqing?
It was just idle speculation for now. After all, Dream-Share Talismans were outrageously expensive in the system shop. Two cost fifteen thousand points. Rounding that up, it was basically the equivalent of Lin Que having to win over half of Qian’er to afford them.
So if she could save, she should.
Ugh, why do I keep treating Qian’er like a unit of measurement? I really need to stop thinking like that next time…
Muttering to herself inwardly, Qin Wanyuan finally drifted off.
The dream picked up right where the last one had left off.
The high-spirited young sword cultivator lay sprawled on the bed, his entire body wrapped in bandages.
This was Lin Que at seventeen.
Even though Qin Wanyuan had seen this scene once before in a dream, her heart still clenched upon seeing it again.
She couldn’t help but wonder. Just who had injured him so badly?
Just as Qin Wanyuan was lost in thought, her master An Xiaoyao entered the room. She was carrying a bowl of medicinal soup. Without saying a word, she walked over to the bedside, sat down, scooped up a spoonful, gently blew on it, and brought it to Lin Que’s lips.
Lin Que frowned and tried to raise his hand to take the spoon himself, but he couldn’t lift his arm at all. In the end, he had no choice but to let An Xiaoyao feed him.
The gentle and graceful master remained silent throughout, her refined face clouded with a trace of lingering gloom.
The heavy silence persisted until the entire bowl of medicine had been fed.
“The sect’s meeting is over. The chief disciple position won’t change for the next year. But after that, if you’re still not recovered…”
An Xiaoyao’s voice was quiet and somber. “Originally, the sect was planning to grant you the title of chief disciple for your righteous actions. But the disciples who were on the mission with you denied that you saved them or the city’s people. Qing’er’s testimony was also dismissed as biased, since she and you share the same Master.”
As An Xiaoyao spoke, Lin Que’s expression remained calm, but Qin Wanyuan, watching from the sidelines, frowned deeply.
What on earth happened…?
There was simply too much information packed into An Xiaoyao’s words. All Qin Wanyuan could do was wait for the dream to unfold further.
As the conversation between the two continued, Qin Wanyuan finally began to grasp the full story behind Lin Que’s injuries.
It turned out that not long ago, Lin Que, as the chief disciple, had led a team on a mission to hunt down demonic cultivators. The mission itself wasn’t considered particularly difficult. The sect had assigned disciples according to the situation, and with Lin Que’s strength as the chief, there should have been no issues.
However—
Most of the disciples accompanying Lin Que were either relatives of the elders or offspring of prestigious clans. These noble-born disciples, feeling superior and a bit older, looked down on Lin Que who was just seventeen and came from a mortal background.
To them, this mission was merely a chance to polish their reputations, and Lin Que, the so-called chief disciple of the Sword Seeking Sect, was nothing more than a glorified bodyguard.
And indeed, on paper, the mission held little danger. With Lin Que accompanying them, everything should have gone smoothly.
What made things worse was that many among these arrogant young nobles were suitors of Jiang Moqing. When they discovered that this immature chief disciple was actually living in the same cave residence as the woman they admired, their jealousy boiled over into rage. As a result, they spent the entire mission nitpicking and targeting Lin Que.
As for their constant sarcasm and passive aggression, Lin Que initially ignored them. But his indifference only made them think he was afraid. So they escalated their provocations.
In the end…
Lin Que drew his sword on the spot and gave those arrogant young masters a thorough beating, forcing them to beg for mercy repeatedly.
By nature, Lin Que was never one for words. On top of that, after years of cultivation on Drunken Jade Peak, the person he interacted with most was his senior sister, who was practically obsessed with the sword.
The two of them had always “spoken” through their swords. Not knowing how to adapt, Lin Que ended up treating that mode of communication as a universal solution and applied it directly to dealing with those arrogant noble brats.
While they were indeed beaten into submission and begged for mercy, they never truly accepted it. Deep down, they harbored resentment. It was likely that even then, they had already begun plotting their revenge against Lin Que.
The seeds of conflict had been quietly planted, just waiting for a fuse to set them ablaze and trigger a full-blown explosion.
And that fuse was the demon-hunting mission itself.
During the mission, the nobles willfully disobeyed Lin Que’s orders. Some even deliberately sabotaged the operation, “accidentally” letting a group of demonic cultivators escape, which delayed what should have been a quick and straightforward task.
Lin Que didn’t complain. His only concern was completing the mission as soon as possible.
To track down the escaped demonic cultivators, the group traveled from place to place, eventually locating their trail in a desolate area outside a certain city.
But that wasn’t all. Lin Que discovered that the area was actually a base of operations for the demonic cultivators, very likely guarded by a Nascent Soul stage expert.
At the time, Lin Que was the strongest among them, having reached the peak of the Core Formation stage. He knew this was a grave matter and that he needed to send word back to the sect immediately and wait for elder reinforcements.
However, those arrogant noble brats who opposed him thought Lin Que was making a fuss over nothing. They blatantly disobeyed his commands, relying on their protective magic treasures and the elders from their families who had secretly followed them. Acting recklessly, they charged straight into enemy territory.
Indeed, while Lin Que was nominally in charge of the mission, in truth, a few elders from the noble clans were secretly shadowing the operation.
The entire plan was thrown into chaos. The demonic cultivators, who had originally intended to lie low and recover, were alarmed, and what followed was a full-scale battle.
The danger at the demonic cultivators’ stronghold far exceeded anything the noble brats had imagined. Their protective treasures couldn’t hold out long at all against those vicious, murderous enemies.
Let alone the treasures….even the elders hiding in the shadows to protect them were forced to reveal themselves.
But even with the noble clan elders fighting to the death, they couldn’t save everyone. A few of the brats who were slower to escape were directly swarmed by the gu worms released by the demonic cultivators.
Lin Que had no intention of caring whether they lived or died. He felt no desire to save people who had brought doom upon themselves.
But…
The startled demonic cultivators activated a soul-refining formation they had hidden in the nearby city. Once the formation was complete, not a single civilian in the city would survive.
As he gazed at the town shrouded in blood-red mist, Lin Que slowly tightened his grip on the sword in his hand.
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