Chapter 58 - Unsightly Appearance
Her time was frozen in the past.
The Gu Jing of the past was a gentle and powerful cultivator.
She respected her teachers and elders and cherished her fellow disciples; even as the master of the Autumn Maiden Sword and a young Spirit Transformation sword cultivator, not a trace of arrogance or pride was ever seen on her.
Her path of seeking the Dao could not be considered particularly unforgettable; she never thought of walking the Dao alone for all eternity, nor did she have any goals that must be achieved.
She simply did everything according to her own wishes. Although it seemed not so resolute, it also possessed a unique sense of relief and ease, of being fortunate to have what she had.
But... since when exactly did it begin?
That Gu Jing gradually disappeared.
Her heart, her prospects, her future were being encroached upon by a strong yet helpless emotion, like a tree hollowed out by borers.
Beneath the densely packed insect holes on the exterior, the inside had long been completely empty.
And now, even that small section of the trunk that had been barely holding on...
had also collapsed.
On the day the Autumn Maiden Sword shattered, she also lost her life.
So, she found a way to live in the past.
A... fabricated past.
The flowers she had planted these years were not simple flowers.
Their floral sap had the effect of 'relieving sorrow' and being 'as one wishes.' Planting them on the dead Autumn Maiden Sword, which carried Luo He's aura... created the effect she needed.
She couldn't forget the dream she had six years ago, that eighteen-year-long, bewildering dream that she had carved into her soul.
She knew that Luo He must be in that dream, truly experiencing all of that with her.
That was undoubtedly a harm and humiliation to him, but it also brought Gu Jing a trace of hope, one stained with black.
Luo He to her, she to Luo He... what exactly did it mean.
Did she have a chance, have the ability, to make some slight amends for everything?
Even if it was disgusting, something to be despised.
But the cruel part of this trace of hope was that Gu Jing knew very clearly this opportunity did not exist.
Because everything had proceeded just as anticipated; she had forever lost the qualification to seek answers.
So she stayed in a small place, lived with the mortals here, and threw herself into that illusory world again and again.
These illusions were crude and full of holes, but Gu Jing was willing to be deceived like this.
Because something that could no longer be found in reality could still be seen a little here.
But it seemed Heaven was not pleased to see Gu Jing like this.
Less than two days after Su Huanhuan left, Gu Jing discovered that some of the information concerning Luo He that had originally remained on the Autumn Maiden Sword…
had also vanished completely, without a trace.
This meant her dreamscape could not be sustained.
The world didn't want her to escape, but rather wanted her to clearly feel the pain.
And so, a panic towards reality welled up in Gu Jing's heart.
She pulled up those flowers one by one; she dug out the Autumn Maiden Sword that had long been buried by her own hands, looking at that spirit sword which was dead in the truest sense.
Innumerable roots and vines were entwined on it, like iron chains, tightly locking her heart here.
From beginning to end, she was a prisoner who had spun her own cocoon; she had shut herself in of her own accord, and exiled herself of her own accord.
In the end, when the dust settled, even if the prison cell that confined her had long since rotted and rusted, she was still sitting inside, unable to walk out.
Just like this dead sword, tightly entwined.
Tap, tap…
Gu Jing heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
But she had no mind to pay them any heed.
The footsteps stopped before her.
"Heh... so that's how it is."
Su Huanhuan's voice came from above her head.
"That day I saw you had planted so much Sorrow-Relieving Fragrance in your courtyard and didn't know what you were planning to do. So the secret... was hidden in here."
"You really know how to amuse yourself, ah... Conservative and self-satisfied, acting all pretentiously affected, truly an unsightly appearance."
"..."
Gu Jing still did not answer.
She was still kneeling on the ground, holding the Autumn Maiden Sword. She looked up and glanced at Su Huanhuan, but immediately retracted her gaze.
And Su Huanhuan did not press further either, merely looking at that half-blade of the Autumn Maiden Sword, thinking carefully.
Speaking of which, that stupid fox carries that sword soul, but ultimately still lacks a carrier.
Although it's unknown if this broken sword can still be used... but it's definitely not wrong to take it back.
Thinking of this, Su Huanhuan thought no more and, with a wave of qi, completely severed the roots entwined on it.
And just as she had expected, a stream of sword qi immediately grazed past her temple, taking several strands of her hair with it.
Even with years of neglect plus a haggard form, a move from the Spirit Transformation Stage Gu Jing was still something Su Huanhuan found hard to match.
Gu Jing was seen to have stood up again at some unknown time; in her hand, she held the Autumn Maiden Sword, its flower roots severed but still mottled with soil, and it was pointed at Su Huanhuan.
But to this, Su Huanhuan only revealed an even more mocking smile.
"Since you cherish it so much, why bury it in the ground and let it become such an ugly and pathetic sight?"
"And why show mercy to me, someone who covets it? Don't you feel this is quite the opposite of your tragic appearance?"
"..."
"Or could it be you again think I am someone who cares about him, and that's why you are like this towards me?"
"Senior Sister Gu, I've suddenly realized, you're not hypocritical; you're laughable."
"Your thoughts are very real, but so real they're comical... Is it that your past life was too
much smooth sailing, leaving you unable to know how to handle unexpected changes?"
"If I were you, I would have long since cut down anyone who wanted to touch this thing with a single sword strike."
"..."
Gu Jing still did not answer. She stared with her hollow eyes for a long time, and in the end, still lowered her sword.
"You may leave."
"If I leave now, Senior Sister Gu, I'm afraid you'll come to regret it."
Su Huanhuan said leisurely, her gaze simultaneously fixed on that Autumn Maiden Sword covered in mud.
"Senior Sister Gu, have you ever thought why the Autumn Maiden Sword's aura suddenly disappeared so completely?"
Su Huanhuan of course knew why; the sword soul had run off to Luo He's side.
But Gu Jing, upon hearing these words, seemed as if she were frozen in place, even her breathing slowed for a moment.
Since she, Su Huanhuan, was someone who would seek revenge for the smallest grievance, she was naturally also someone who knew to repay a kindness.
"That Huoxin you saw six years ago was a ghost cultivator, and the predecessor of a ghost cultivator is a wandering ghost spirit that failed to enter reincarnation for some reason. Once the predecessor dies, it naturally leaves no trace."
"What I've said is also merely some speculation, however..."
An inscrutable smile curved at the corner of Su Huanhuan's mouth:
"Traveling south, there is an Isolated Mountain. The mountain has a stretch of yin land named the Damask Demon Cave; the ghostly qi there is extremely heavy, and most wandering, masterless ghost spirits will drift there."
"Perhaps, I'm saying perhaps, there might be some unexpected discoveries there."
Su Huanhuan saw that many new things had appeared in the depths of Gu Jing's eyes.
She still looked so deathly still, but Su Huanhuan could feel that some kind of change had occurred in the body of this sword expert before her, who was like rotten wood.
Su Huanhuan felt she had truly done a great good deed.
You see, didn't this Gu Jing immediately seem as if she had come back to life? This was one kindness she was repaying to her.
Moreover, she, Su Huanhuan, had never told a single lie. That Damask Demon Cave was real, and the masterless ghost spirits were also real.
She had said it was a "perhaps," right?
Su Huanhuan looked at Gu Jing's trembling sword-holding hand, the smile on her face widening.
In the end, she couldn't guarantee that child wouldn't leak the secret…
Rather than betting on that possibility, it would be better for she herself to give Gu Jing this hope, and then send her off in the opposite direction.
Next, one of them would go north, and one would go south.
Unless this world was a sphere, otherwise even if Gu Jing turned the heavens upside down, she couldn't hope to find the two of them, haha.