Chapter 229: Little Shorty Li Sushang
Wind tore at Ma Feima's robes as he practically flew up the stone steps of Tianqiong Peak. He pushed his movement techniques to their absolute limit, his chest heaving with exertion. But the moment he crested the summit, the sight that greeted him made his vision swim with bloodlust.
"Senior Sister!" he roared, his voice cracking with raw panic.
A weak, exasperated sigh answered his cry. "Little Ma... what are you shouting so loudly for?"
Su Mei lay sprawled against the cold stone of the courtyard, staring blankly up at the drifting clouds. A bitter, self-deprecating smile tugged at the corners of her pale lips. "You're going to make me deaf. I'm not dead yet. I told you... Master wouldn't kill me."
Despite her grievous state, she forced her trembling arms to prop up her upper body, refusing to look entirely defeated. Ma Feima scrambled forward, dropping to his knees to support her weight. When he had first seen her crumpled form from a distance, his heart had stopped, terrified that Red Kite had already delivered a fatal strike.
"Cough..." Su Mei hacked up a mouthful of dark blood, staining the front of her robes. She leaned weakly against Ma Feima's chest, her breathing shallow. "I've just exhausted my internal energy. I'll be fine after a little rest."
"Senior Sister, please, don't speak anymore," Ma Feima pleaded, his jaw clenched tight. He carefully scooped her into his arms, carrying her swiftly into her chambers and laying her gently upon the bed.
Without a second thought, he pressed his palms against her back, channeling the deep internal energy of the Wushuang Nine Revolutions to stabilize her shattered meridians and coax her injuries into mending.
Time crawled by in tense silence. Gradually, the deathly pallor faded from Su Mei's cheeks, replaced by a faint, healthy flush. Ma Feima finally withdrew his hands, exhaling a ragged breath. He glanced around the room, his brow furrowing.
"Senior Sister... your sword?"
"Taken by Master," Su Mei replied, her voice steadying. A sharp, calculating smile ghosted across her lips. "But that was entirely within my expectations."
For twenty grueling years, Su Mei had honed her craft, confident that she had fully comprehended the absolute pinnacle of Sword Intent. Among the seven disciples of Taixu, she firmly believed that with this specific Sword Intent, she could even triumph over the legendary Sword God, Lingshuang. Everything she cherished, her very martial path, was bound to that blade. She had intentionally gifted the Wushuang Sword to Red Kite. It was a calculated sacrifice, the only way she could guarantee absolute victory and fulfill her long-cherished wish.
"I just didn't expect..." Su Mei's smile fractured, her fingers curling into the bedsheets. "I never anticipated that Master would actually practice the Sword Heart Manual again. And worse... her Sword Heart is already fully formed!"
A venomous flash of pure hatred ignited in her eyes, though she masked it just as quickly beneath a veil of calm. Smoothing her expression, she turned her gaze back to Ma Feima.
"Did you manage to find Junior Sister Lingshuang this time? Where is her Xuanyuan Sword?"
Ma Feima averted his gaze, staring intensely at the floorboards. Assuming he had failed his mission, Su Mei opened her mouth to offer a word of comfort. But his next words struck her like a physical blow, freezing the breath in her lungs.
"I saw Senior Brother."
The room plunged into a suffocating silence. Ma Feima only had one Senior Brother. Su Mei only had one Senior Brother. But decades ago, that man was supposed to have died in the desolate wastes of the Northern Wilderness. Slain by their Master's own hands. That was the absolute truth Red Kite had delivered to them. Why would Red Kite ever lie about such a thing?
"His appearance hasn't changed a single day since decades ago," Ma Feima continued, his voice hollow, haunted by the memory. "But his martial arts... they have reached a realm far beyond anything we knew back then."
He swallowed hard, his fists trembling on his knees. "I exchanged exactly one move with him. One strike, and I was utterly defeated."
"He had already found Junior Sister Lingshuang. He knows everything about what happened back then. He looked right at me and declared that the bond between fellow disciples is permanently severed. The next time our paths cross... it will be a fight to the death." Ma Feima's eyes dimmed, the crushing weight of that declaration settling over his shoulders.
"This is truly..." Su Mei murmured, her eyes narrowing into dangerous, calculating slits. "...an entirely unexpected situation."
So, even the most carefully woven schemes were nothing but fragile threads before the unpredictable will of heaven. Who could have possibly foreseen this? Among Red Kite's eight disciples, the single entity Su Mei feared above all others was Rovel. He had never formed a Sword Heart, yet his actions possessed a ruthless, terrifying decisiveness that eclipsed even Red Kite's.
In their youth, she had foolishly believed Rovel was easy to read. She had pegged him as a rigid, uncompromising martial artist who only cared for the superficial practice of swordplay, while privately harboring a soft, protective affection for everyone on Taixu Mountain. That was her naive first impression.
Her perspective fractured the first time she descended the mountain to test her blade. Whispers of Rovel's deeds echoed through the martial world. He had carved a bloody path through the corrupted, earning the terrifying moniker: The Butcher of the Demonized. Suddenly, that rigid, sword-obsessed senior brother seemed even simpler, yet infinitely more dangerous. He adhered strictly to Red Kite's doctrine, enforcing the absolute law that the mad must be executed without mercy.
The second shift in her understanding occurred when Rovel returned with grim news regarding the Jiang sisters. He had traveled to Wang Mountain completely alone to investigate the tragedy. He knew perfectly well that neither Su Mei nor Red Kite would ever speak of the matter, so he bypassed them entirely. This Senior Brother of hers was far from the blind follower she had assumed. From that day on, she began to watch Rovel closely.
It took years of silent scrutiny, but she finally arrived at a chilling conclusion: he was observing them. He had been quietly analyzing every single person on Taixu Mountain, especially her. In fact, she realized with a cold sweat that she was the primary subject of his observation.
He hadn't just been watching; he had been subtly trying to alter their fates. He nudged Lin Chaoyu to break out of her submissive shell. He challenged Su Mei's own philosophical thoughts. He constantly monitored the physical conditions of Jiang Wanxi and Jiang Wanru. He even took a four-year-old Cheng Lingshuang down the mountain to test her sword, exposing her to the harsh realities of the mortal world far earlier than necessary.
Initially, Su Mei dismissed these actions as mere eccentricities, an overbearing way of caring for his juniors. She clung to that comforting illusion right up until the devastating news of his death reached the mountain.
But the moment the master-killing incident erupted, when Cheng Lingshuang, her heart poisoned by hatred, chose to lay down her sword, every disparate clue slammed together in Su Mei's mind, forming a terrifyingly clear picture.
Rovel must have known. He must have foreseen the master-killing incident, and every strange action he took was a desperate attempt to rewrite their destiny.
If he had successfully hardened Lin Chaoyu's weak personality, making her realize Red Kite's genuine care, Su Mei would never have been able to manipulate her into participating. If he had managed to shift Su Mei's own cynical worldview, the rebellion would have never been conceived. If he had cured Jiang Wanru's body from the erosion of her internal energy, the catalyst for the mutiny would never have sparked. And if Su Mei hadn't preemptively secured the blood of a Huodou beast, the exact moment Cheng Lingshuang abandoned her sword, they all would have been slaughtered.
If none of this was a coincidence, then Rovel possessed a foresight that bordered on the divine. He had seen the blood-soaked future.
Therefore, hearing that Rovel had returned from the grave brought absolutely no joy to Su Mei's heart. Only a deep, icy dread.
He had cherished their bond, and they had shattered it. Against a man with his terrifying capabilities and absolute ruthlessness, were mortal schemes truly of any use?
"Hahaha..." A low chuckle escaped Su Mei's lips, quickly escalating into full-blown, hysterical laughter. She laughed until her ribs ached and hot tears streamed down her pale cheeks, the sheer absurdity of their situation breaking her composure.
What was the point of relying on established facts? The board had been flipped. This kind of chaotic, unpredictable variable was infinitely more interesting.
"Senior Brother," Su Mei murmured to the empty air, her eyes glittering with a manic light. "What exactly will you do now?"
Several days had passed since their group departed the arid winds of the Northern Desert, traveling steadily south until the sprawling architecture of Yijian Villa finally came into view.
"By the way, Master..." Li Sushang rode alongside them, staring at the pair with her lips twitching uncontrollably. "Why exactly do you and Senior Uncle have to share a single horse?"
Rovel sat tall in the saddle, holding the reins securely. Tucked comfortably between his arms, resting flush against his chest, was Cheng Lingshuang. In order to steer the steed properly, Rovel practically had to envelop her in a warm embrace, his arms bracketing her waist.
"I never bothered to learn how to ride a horse," Cheng Lingshuang replied coolly, leaning back against Rovel without a shred of embarrassment. "Isn't it perfectly normal for Senior Brother to carry me? We always used to travel like this."
She cast a sidelong glance at Li Sushang, a dangerous, razor-thin smile curving her lips. The unspoken threat hung heavy in the air: Keep yapping, and your master will gladly beat you black and blue.
"But Master, you're already in your thirties!" Li Sushang protested, completely oblivious to the lethal warning in her master's eyes. She pointed an accusing finger at Rovel. "And Senior Uncle looks like he hasn't even hit twenty! It looks like an old cow shamelessly grazing on tender young grass..."
Before she could finish her complaint, a wooden blur snapped through the air.
Thwack!
"Ouch!" Li Sushang yelped, clutching the top of her head as she nearly tumbled out of her own saddle.
Cheng Lingshuang casually retracted Blade Unbroken. It was the very same wooden scabbard she had used previously to channel the devastating power of the Sword God. It possessed no extraordinary qualities, it was literally just a piece of carved wood. Perhaps out of habit, or simply lacking anything better to carry, she had brought it along as a makeshift disciplinary tool.
"I ride with him because you are entirely too short," Cheng Lingshuang stated, finding an absolutely unassailable justification for her seating arrangement. "If I sat in front of you on your horse, you wouldn't even be able to see the road."
It was a brutal, factual strike. Little Sushang stood at a modest 1.5 meters, whereas Cheng Lingshuang was a graceful 1.65 meters tall. If the master sat in front of the disciple, poor Sushang would be staring at nothing but her master's back the entire journey.
"I..." Li Sushang opened her mouth, her face flushing red with indignation. A thousand retorts bubbled in her throat, but faced with such an airtight, height-shaming argument, she couldn't find a single word to say. She merely slumped in her saddle, thoroughly defeated.
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]