Chapter Thirty: Senior Sister Bai, Gloomy and Despondent
Bai Yuexin bit her lips, enduring her shame as she stood on the sword-testing stage, awaiting the next person to compete.
She could hear the murmurs of the crowd below.
“This Senior Sister is too weak, actually having her move broken by a young cultivator a realm lower.”
“I don’t think that Feng Yu Die just now was very strong either. I feel like I might be able to break that Senior Sister’s move too.”
Although not everyone was questioning her, these words sounded exceptionally loud and piercing to her right now.
Bai Yuexin even wanted to retort loudly to them, “If you have the nerve, come up and try?! You won’t know the difficulty until you’ve been through it!”
Unfortunately, she couldn’t shout. She could only endure these frustrations.
She continuously replayed Feng Yu Die’s sword test in her mind, trying to find the reason why her move was broken. However, no matter how hard she tried to recall, she couldn’t understand why, with both wooden swords, Feng Yu Die had snapped her sword while her own wooden sword remained completely undamaged.
At this realization, Bai Yuexin became even more dejected.
If she could understand where she lost, she could at least consider it a fluke due to carelessness. But not being able to understand meant that the gap between her and that silver-haired girl was like a chasm.
Decades of diligent sword practice, only to be outdone by such a young girl.
Bai Yuexin’s heart was filled with doubt. What was the point of all her sweat and exhaustion over the past few decades?
“For those geniuses, will people like me always be mere foils?” Bai Yuexin lowered her head, unable to suppress a bitter laugh. “Hahahaha…”
Pei Lianxue also walked onto the stage. Being the center of attention for the first time made her quite uneasy. She was extremely stiff, and like Feng Yu Die before her, she picked up a wooden sword from the side, clasped her hands in a fist and bowed deeply to Bai Yuexin.
Then, she took a deep breath and shouted with all her might, “Please impart your guidance, Senior!”
This shout drew the attention of the entire audience, even startling the withdrawn Bai Yuexin.
Bai Yuexin came back to her senses, looking at her with a strange expression and asking, “Why are you shouting so loudly?”
“Ah…” Pei Lianxue maintained her bowing posture and replied weakly, “My Senior Brother once told me that greetings should be spirited, not lifeless, so…”
Bai Yuexin let out a breath and glanced at the disciple recording the results.
That disciple quickly stated, “Three Spirit Roots of Water, Wood, and Earth, Qi Refining Completion.”
Bai Yuexin understood, nodded, and as per procedure, reminded her, “You are here as a companion reader, so the standards are not as strict. I will go easy on you. If you can’t take it anymore, just drop your sword and call it off.”
“Okay…”
“Don’t push yourself too hard just to get a high score. In the past, a few companion disciples were seriously injured trying to endure for a high score in the sword test.”
“Thank you for the reminder, Senior. I’m fine.”
Regardless, let’s finish this group I’m responsible for… Bai Yuexin exhaled deeply, flicked her finger, and picked up a wooden sword from the sword rack beside her.
“Then, let’s begin.”
“Then be careful, Senior.”
Pei Lianxue closed her eyes and lowered her body, as if brewing something.
Just as Bai Yuexin was curious about what sword art the girl was practicing, she suddenly felt a bone-chilling killing intent. In the next moment, she saw Pei Lianxue make a void swing towards her.
“Hah!”
With a delicate cry, Bai Yuexin’s eyes suddenly widened.
In her pupils, filled with terror, she saw six figures, each holding a wooden sword, swinging and slashing at her from six different directions.
“What?!” Bai Yuexin exclaimed, frantically raising her sword to block. But two fists are no match for four hands, let alone twelve.
She managed to block three figures, but the swords of the remaining three figures landed squarely on her shoulder, left waist, and left thigh.
With a “boom,” Bai Yuexin was sent flying to her right, crashing into several disciples who were preparing to take the stage for the sword test.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
The recording disciple was dumbfounded again, even more so than after Feng Yu Die’s sword test.
In his eyes, the girl named Pei Lianxue had merely swung her sword at Senior Sister Bai, and then Senior Sister Bai was sent flying directly off the stage.
He stared for a moment, then couldn’t help but look back at the grand elders’ seating area above. After receiving a nod from one of the grand elders, he loudly announced, “Pei Lianxue, move broken!”
As this announcement echoed, the sword-testing grounds fell silent once more.
Disciples from other sword-testing platforms turned their attention back to the Tianyun Peak testing platform. However, unlike before, Bai Yuexin was at least still on the stage before. Now, Bai Yuexin was completely gone.
After pondering for a while, they finally realized that Bai Yuexin had likely been knocked off the stage.
Logically, after being knocked off the stage, she should have immediately jumped back up, bowed to her opponent, and continued the next round of sword testing. But now, Bai Yuexin lay on the ground, motionless.
It wasn’t that she had been knocked unconscious by Pei Lianxue’s sword.
It was a wooden sword, and it hadn’t struck any vital points. With her Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation, she definitely wouldn’t be knocked out.
She didn’t return to the stage simply because she didn’t want to.
She was tired…
Being defeated by that Qi Refining Stage girl named Feng Yu Die was difficult to bear, but she could still manage. After all, she was a genius.
But this time, the one who knocked her off the stage was not a genius, but a young cultivator with even inferior aptitude, a Three Spirit Root.
If Feng Yu Die’s emergence made her question her decades of effort, then Pei Lianxue’s emergence told her that all her sweat and effort over these decades were in vain.
She felt that if she returned to the stage now, she would only be embarrassing her Master, her Senior Brothers and Sisters, and Tianyun Peak further.
“Wuwu—”
“—Anyway, I’m just useless! Wuwu…”
The noisy surrounding sword-testing grounds seemed to be discussing her, but Bai Yuexin could no longer hear them.
At this moment, several Tianyun Peak disciples rushed over to check on her. Seeing her vacant eyes, as if her soul had left her body, they didn’t know how to comfort her. They could only fetch a stretcher and carry her back to the disciple’s residence on Tianyun Peak.
Several Senior Sisters who had finished their own tests rushed over upon hearing the news.
The Senior Sisters knew Bai Yuexin’s character was not very strong. Fearing that she might not be able to cope and take her own life after such a major blow today, they brought her favorite preserves and accompanied her, speaking soft words of comfort.
However, Bai Yuexin lay on her bed in her bedroom, her eyes listlessly gazing towards the window the entire time.
“Junior Sister Bai, it’s alright. I just asked Master. That Feng Yu Die has Heavenly Spiritual Roots and is a direct disciple of Grand Void True Person. It’s not shameful for you to lose to her.”
“…”
“Junior Sister Bai, I brought you your favorite preserves. Have some when you’re resting. They’re very sweet…”
“…”
“Let Junior Sister Bai rest well,” another Senior Sister advised. “Junior Sister Bai, you’ll feel better after a good sleep. We Senior Sisters will help you with anything. You don’t need to worry about Master.”
…
The sun began to set, and the sky gradually darkened.
The night cicadas in the mountains began to chirp.
The Senior Sisters who had come to visit her had all left.
After an unknown period of time, a hint of spirit gradually returned to Bai Yuexin’s vacant eyes.
She moved off the bed, looked at the慰问品(consolation gifts) her Senior Sisters had brought her, her nose twitched, and she took a deep breath. Wiping the corners of her eyes, she silently walked to the desk in the room and sat down, grinding ink and preparing her brush.
She picked up her brush, and while sobbing, she wrote a letter.
“To Master, and Senior Brothers and Sisters,
Looking back on the past, Bai Yuexin is but a humble scholar, with shallow talent and limited knowledge, unable to repay the grace of the sect.
Therefore, I resign and seek another path.
—Bai Yuexin”
“Inhale—”
After finishing this letter, Bai Yuexin took off her Xuan Xing Sect Tianyun Peak disciple’s uniform, folded it neatly, and placed it on the bed. At the same time, she took off her Disciple Waist Token and sword, and placed them on top of the letter she had written.
She took two steps back and bowed to her clothes.
“…”
Wiping her tears, she packed her belongings, slung them over her shoulder, walked out of the room, summoned the flying sword she had saved for two years to buy, and flew away from Xuan Xing Sect.
…
