Watching the Mountain

’I’ve always cared about my fellow sect members,’ he thought. ’I’d never do anything to hurt them. Since I’ve made them sad, I should do something to make it up to them.’

Hearing Ye Shan’s words, Nine Profound True Monarch, who was standing aside, went pale with shock. He quickly held out a hand and cried, ”Don’t! Absolutely not.”

As Ye Shan looked over, he gave a weak wave of his hand. ”You... mm, you’re fine just the way you are. Don’t go doing anything extra.”

’He felt a little helpless. ’Such a brilliant, genius disciple... why did he have to open his mouth?’

’It’s truly... agh, what a trial. A mix of pain and pleasure.’

Ye Qingxue stood to the side, watching her master and senior brother. They were acting so completely different from their usual selves that a strange feeling bloomed in her heart...

Ye Qingxue couldn’t quite remember how things ended that day.

She only remembered her master flinging a final, ”It’s all your fault anyway!” before huffily dragging her away, leaving Ye Shan standing alone on the cliff’s edge, looking completely bewildered in the mountain wind.

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The night grew deep.

Ye Qingxue sat by the window, gazing blankly at the moon in the night sky.

”Junior Sister.”

A familiar voice came from outside the window.

Ye Qingxue froze, then turned her head.

Ye Shan had appeared at some point, standing a few steps from her window. He wore a serious expression she rarely saw.

”Senior Brother Ye Shan,” she said softly.

Ye Shan stepped inside and stopped in front of her. After a moment of silence, he spoke, his voice lower and softer than usual. ”About what happened today, Junior Sister... I’m sorry.”

Ye Qingxue watched him quietly.

”I can’t become your Dao Companion,” Ye Shan said directly, his gaze frank. ”The path of the Great Dao is long and winding. All I seek in this life is the Dao itself.”

Ye Qingxue didn’t answer right away.

She watched him for a long time—so long that Ye Shan began to feel uneasy and looked away. Only then did she ask softly, ”Senior Brother Ye Shan, will you remain invincible forever?”

At this question, Ye Shan’s eyes suddenly lit up like ignited stars.

He straightened his spine, and the familiar, almost arrogant confidence returned to his face. His voice was clear and resolute:

”Of course! I am Ye Shan!”

Moonlight caught in his eyes, reflecting a scorching light.

In that moment, he was truly Ye Shan—with mountains in his heart and a fire in his eyes, the Ye Shan who firmly believed he could cleave through any obstacle in his path.

As Ye Qingxue gazed at him, the subtle ripples of rejection in her heart suddenly stilled.

No, they didn’t just still. They settled, transforming into something harder, more solid.

She remembered what her master had said that day.

”Perhaps, deep down, you’re resisting the path you’re on now.”

”You need to find the path you truly want to walk.”

She had always believed her path was to follow the established steps: cultivate steadily and advance at a measured pace.

But now, looking at this spirited figure before her, the man who declared he would remain invincible forever, she suddenly understood.

This person before her was the ”Dao” she had been waiting for all along.

The next day, she performed the Scattering Technique.

She abandoned her former path, transforming the image of the invincible young man in her heart into her own Dao and creating a new Cultivation Technique from scratch.

And just as she expected, after creating her own Cultivation Technique, her Cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds. Bottlenecks that had once taken her months, or even years, to overcome, she now surpassed in a matter of weeks.

Her Cultivation recovered and then surpassed its previous heights at a visible rate.

Nine Profound True Monarch came to see her a few times. Each visit, he would remain silent for a long while before letting out a complicated sigh.

Ye Shan, on the other hand, seemed completely oblivious. He only noticed that his junior sister’s cultivation speed had gotten a bit faster.

To him, however, it was nothing special. He even asked curiously, ”Junior Sister, you used to cultivate so slowly. Was it because you were like me, focusing all your energy on Swordsmanship, and you’ve only just started to take your Cultivation seriously?”

’That must be it,’ he thought. After all, that’s what he did. He’d never intentionally focused on his Cultivation; it had always advanced on its own.

He knew Senior Sister Yue was the same way. She never practiced a Cultivation Technique to raise her Cultivation. She only focused on Enlightenment Dao, and as she did, her Cultivation would naturally rise with it.

’He felt like he’d grasped the truth. ’It all makes sense now,’ he thought. ’How could someone who actually focuses on cultivating not be able to raise their Cultivation Realm quickly?’

’If he and Senior Sister Yue wanted to, they could have rapidly increased their Cultivation Realm long ago.’

’Junior Sister must have been slacking off too much before.’

Ye Qingxue glanced at him. She was already used to him saying things like that, so she wasn’t surprised.

She shook her head. ”My previous path didn’t suit me, so I created a new Cultivation Technique for myself.”

Ye Shan nodded as if a great mystery had been solved. He clapped his hands together and exclaimed, ”Oh, so that’s how it is! Junior Sister, you should have done this ages ago!”

’A flicker of pity crossed his eyes. ’Junior Sister wasted so much time,’ he thought. ’To think she’s only just now creating her own Cultivation Technique.’

’Unlike him. When their master first taught him to cultivate and gave him his first Cultivation Technique, he felt it was a bit awkward and didn’t suit him, so he just went ahead and modified it to fit him perfectly.’

’Whenever his fellow disciples made such a basic mistake, he grew anxious. How could they get something so simple wrong?’

’If a Cultivation Technique doesn’t suit you, why force it? Just change it, right?’

’It’s such a simple thing. And yet, when he kindly reminded them, they’d get upset.’

’It made him wonder... ’Could it be that the way I say things is really that offensive?’’

Ye Qingxue looked at his completely earnest expression, nodded lightly, and replied, ”You’re right. I should have done it sooner.”

’She had realized her feelings a little too late. If only she had understood from the very first moment she saw him.’

’But it wasn’t too late now.’

She gazed at the blue-robed figure beside her, the corners of her lips curling into a sweet smile.

It was a smile that had never appeared on her face before.

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「The days passed, one by one.」

Ye Qingxue’s Cultivation grew higher and higher, and she gradually made a name for herself within the Sect.

But she still went to see Ye Shan often. Sometimes she would ask for guidance on her Swordsmanship; other times, she would simply watch him cultivate from the sidelines.

One day, she was outside the courtyard and overheard a conversation between her master and Ye Shan.

Her master’s voice was tinged with melancholy. ”Love can completely change a person’s nature. I’m truly worried Qingxue will become someone else entirely.”

Ye Shan’s voice was serious, full of assurance. ”Don’t worry, Master. I won’t let Junior Sister change. I’ll make sure she stays just the way she is.”

Standing outside the courtyard wall, Ye Qingxue was lost in thought.

After that, she started wearing a blood-red dress, like one described in a storybook, and stopped suppressing her feelings.

She began to seek out Ye Shan proactively. She would hand him water when he practiced his sword, sit quietly beside him as he studied a Cultivation Technique, and even found herself unable to hold back a laugh when he would occasionally say something utterly infuriating.

She no longer hid her feelings, no longer hesitated.

’If she liked him, she liked him. If she wanted to be near him, she would be near him.’

Her master was furious about this and would often chase Ye Shan around, cursing at the top of his lungs.

”Ye Shan, you brat! What happened to your promise? Give me back my Qingxue! Give me back my quiet, well-behaved disciple!”

Ye Shan shouted as he ran, ”Master, how can you blame me? Junior Sister has always been like this!”

”If I don’t blame you, who else is there to blame? It’s all your fault anyway!”

Ye Qingxue stood a short distance away, watching her master chase Ye Shan all around the courtyard, and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

But it wasn’t a facade; her actions now stemmed from her true feelings.

From the moment she fell for him, she could no longer hold back.

It was just like when she found her own Dao; from that point on, her Cultivation path had been completely unobstructed.

And loving him had also become the most natural part of her journey of Cultivation.

She watched his back as he fled in disarray from their master, then glanced down at the vibrant red dress she wore. The smile on her lips deepened.

’This,’ she thought, ’is wonderful.’

[To be continued]