Chapter 349: Pain (VI)
Wu Qianyu stepped into an altogether familiar scene. She was no longer bound; she was no longer suspended in her master's cultivation room. She wore a silver battle robe that filled her with nostalgia. Every step, every movement, was familiar as the sun and the stars. Her left hand naturally fell to her side and felt the sword that hung there. It was not the Purple Jade Sword but an old friend. She smiled ever-so-slightly and stepped out of her room into the covered hallway outside that overlooked a verdant garden.
The smells in the air hit her nose and she recognized each distinct aroma; Black Mist Moss, Green Clementine, Mountain Lily, Summer Melon, and so many herbs. She knew every plant, having cultivated and cared for them herself at some point or another. She wanted to go and tend to them but a shout interrupted her.
"Mistress! Mistress!"
She turned to see two disciples rush up. They bowed, breathless, their bodies trembling, "They are coming!"
She nodded grimly and drew her sword, "Lead the way!"
Wu Qianyu arrived at the main courtyard to see her father and the others gathered. It was a sea of familiar faces, all wearing familiar white and green robes. It was the Green Leaf Sect, her first home.
The sect wasn't large, a mountain villa with ten or so buildings and a perimeter wall that was only intended to keep out stray beasts. They had around two hundred people in total. The hundred or so disciples were all somewhere in the Mind Focusing Realm while the servants, drawn from the local communities of the Black Mist Mountains, were no better than the Body Refinement Realm.
"Master! The last messenger should have sent off their signal talisman when they reached the Twin Gorge Town. It's already been a day."
Wu Qianyu looked at the person who spoke. His name was Qin Shisan, the first disciple of the sect. He was the strongest disciple at the 2nd Level of the Spirit Initiate Realm and almost forty this year, a tall, rugged mountain man with a level of sophistication that surprised those that didn't know him.
He was still single even though he had plenty of opportunities. Instead, he chose to ask Wu Qianyu to marry him every new season for the last fifteen years. She had rejected him every time. She didn't dislike him; she just didn't like him.
He would have persisted forever. She smiled to herself. Perhaps when she was thirty-five, or even forty in her previous life, she would have given in and accepted.
"Shisan, what about our scouts?" An elderly and tired voice asked.
It came from her father, Wu Yangshu. He was an old soul in an old body. He had guided Green Leaf Sect for the last twenty years. His parents had led the sect before him, and his grandparents before that. In some sense, Wu Qianyu was a bad daughter, for being the last of the family line and not having any descendants herself. There was nothing about her that could disappoint her father except this but it was too late to change it. She could only silently apologize over and over again.
"I haven't heard from them in the last hour." Qin Shisan said, his voice grave, "And there's no use sending anymore. They are here."
Wu Yangshu nodded. He looked down at the gravel beneath his feet, then around the courtyard at the anxious faces. He steeled himself and cleared his expression.
"Green Leaf Sect. My family…" He said, "The time to fight is now."
He drew his sword. Those who hadn't already followed suit.
"It is too late to run but not too late to fight. In this cruel world, the only thing we can do is fight. We will never give up."
"Fight!"
They roared in unison. Wu Qianyu joined in. Together in desperation, their hearts were united. Some who still held onto hope felt their spirits lifted. Those who knew better fooled themselves for just a moment, united with their friends and family.
But…
Their hopes and lives were crushed only a short while later. The jueyuan attacked in full force. There were more than a thousand of them and they were impossible to stop. They climbed over the walls from three directions and overwhelmed the meager defenses.
Wu Qianyu went through the familiar motions that she had gone through hundreds of times already. Every step she took, she had already memorized. Every swing of her sword, every demon monkey she killed, she remembered it all.
The scenes of her disciples, her friends, falling one by one was seared into her mind. Each time one of them was ripped limb from limb and brutalized, she remembered everything, even each droplet of blood that sprayed out. Each time a female was overwhelmed and assaulted; she already knew the words of pleading that would come out of their mouth even before they were uttered. Those that managed to commit suicide versus those who weren't even able to, she knew each of their names and faces.
She watched as Qin Shisan eventually fell, after taking thirty jueyuan with him into the cycle of samsara. She watched as her father was toyed by the alpha demon monkey until he broke; in body, mind, and spirit. A demon at the peak of the Spirit Initiate Realm, it was simply unstoppable, it was inevitable.
And inevitably, she was the only one left, standing alone in the courtyard amidst a sea of corpses and unspeakable horrors still ongoing. It was the same series of events that had plagued her dreams for the past two years. It was the same series of events that she lived through over and over again in the dream array for what seemed like forever. Each time, it caused her unbearable pain that scarred her spirit. It left her wounded and unable to move on.
Her master had told her over and over again that she had to accept it. She had to embrace the pain. She had to let go. That this was her one and only bottleneck. But even with two weeks of nonstop cultivation, under his gentle and steady urging, she resisted.
She tried over and over again to fight against her painful memories. She tried everything, from sending requests for help earlier to improving the defenses of the sect, to helping her disciples be stronger before the final fight.
But it was all futile. She could not change the painful past. She could not stop the pain. She could not fight against the pain. Pain was everywhere. Pain was unstoppable. Pain was her entire being.
So… she accepted it…
Wu Qianyu faced the alpha demon monkey and for the first time, she smiled.
She raised her sword and did something she had never done before. A swirl of spiritual energy gathered in her hand and spread up the blade. It was foreign and yet familiar at the same time. It was not from any sword art of the Green Leaf Sect. It wasn't even the sword energy of Dugu's Tenth Sword. It was an entirely new power.
She slashed the air and the spiritual energy leaped from her blade and slammed into the large jueyuan.
It gave a terrified howl and crumpled to the ground. Still howling and crying, it rolled on the ground, grabbing and scratching at its body. It looked to be in pain, in unbearable pain, a kind of pain that could easily crush one's spirit and will to live.
She twirled her sword and slashed sideways. A row of demon monkey underlings to her right were blown back. They landed in a heap and also began to howl and scream in agony.
The scene was no longer the same as her memories. She was forging a brand-new path. Something like this had never happened before in her dreams. She was no longer shackled by the past. Her spirit lifted as if she was starting to fly.
Elated, she continued sword in hand. She rushed through the sect, or what was left of it. Every jueyuan she met, she subjected it to unending torment until it simply gave up living. The female sect members that were still alive were already tainted by demon energy and driven insane. She ended their lives as a final act of mercy and absorbed their pain into herself, freeing them from their mortal agony.
Wu Qianyu understood. She finally understood as she stood alone in the courtyard of the Green Leaf Sect.
She was pain and pain was her.
Pain was her path. Pain was her Dao.
She embraced the pain within her so that she could embrace the pain within others.
All of the pain in the world was her source of power.
Boom!
An overwhelming surge of spiritual energy appeared out of nowhere and washed over her spiritual sea. It transformed her at a fundamental level and brought her one important step out of the mortal realms.
She finally reached the lesser realm of Spiritual Growth!
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