Chapter 15 Part 2

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This chapter is edited by Farouq Omileye. Thank you for your contribution!

Chapter 15: I Would Rather Burn Everything in the Fire! (2)

[Task 1: “Sect leader, you’d better hire another expert.” (Reward: The Method of Strengthening Tendons and Bones)]

[Task 2: “I will try my best.” (Reward: Medical Skill +1)]

The task rewards were very ordinary. It seemed that even if she refused, neither Jue Yunzi nor Elder Xu would say anything.

I’d better choose Task 2.

Bai Lian sighed softly.

“I’ll try my best,” she said.

“Yes,” Jue Yunzi nodded, his voice steady.

Yan Yue reached out and gently rubbed Bai Lian’s head, a warm smile on her face. “There’s no need to put too much pressure on yourself. Don’t force it, just do your best. It’s not your fault. If anyone dares to blame you—” Her voice grew cold, “Even if it’s our sect leader, I’ll blow his head off!”

Jue Yunzi’s face turned a little green.

Can you beat me?

Yan Yue proudly puffed out her chest. She had a tree, two against one. She was invincible in the Duxian Sect!

Bai Lian glanced back at Yan Yue, noticing the same doting gaze Yan Yue had given her just moments ago. It was the kind of gaze someone might give their daughter.

What a good Master!

“Thank you, Master Yan Yue.”

Bai Lian walked toward the room where Qing Luan lay. Just as she was about to enter, her eyes were caught by Hong Luan sitting on the ground.

Hong Luan, once so high-spirited, now trembled like an old woman nearing the end of her days. “If I can, I want to exchange my cultivation base with Qing Luan…”

Bai Lian didn’t even look back, walking past her. The words were as much for Hong Luan as they were for herself.

“It’s no use regretting.”

Inside the room, the red candle flickered, casting a dim glow over everything. Qing Luan lay still on the bed, resembling an ice sculpture, her expression devoid of emotion.

“Alas.”

The quiet sigh echoed in the otherwise still room, almost like a Xiao playing softly in the background.

Bai Lian sat beside Qing Luan’s bed, gently holding her hand.

—

“Do you think Martial Sister Bai Lian can help Martial Sister Qing Luan recover her Tao heart?”

“Stop dreaming. It’s impossible.”

“Nonsense! There’s nothing Martial Sister Bai Lian can’t do!”

“You’re really making me laugh to death. Her Tao heart is broken, you think it’s just an ordinary injury?”

“I believe in Martial Sister Bai Lian!”

“Well, take it easy.”

—

As the pain lifted, Qing Luan found the strength to look around. She was in an endless expanse of darkness.

She couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t even feel her own body.

“What the hell is going on?”

She floated in the dark, her mind racing. Then she began to recall what had happened before she lost consciousness.

By the way.

At that time, she was talking to Hong Luan. There was a fierce argument, but in the end, she’d gained the upper hand, forcing Hong Luan to submit to the sect leader.

Then…

“My Tao heart broke!”

Panic rose in Qing Luan’s chest.

She wanted to be an ordinary person, but she knew that most people who suffered a broken Tao heart became mindless, and those few who survived often lived as cowards. She didn’t want to live like that.

But soon, Qing Luan calmed herself. At least she was still conscious. She wouldn’t just wait for death.

She chose a direction and pressed on, feeling vaguely that there might be an opportunity for her to escape her fate.

Time passed, and in the endless darkness, she finally saw a small flicker of white light.

Could that be the exit?

Excitement surged in her chest as she flew towards the light with all her might.

But just as she neared it, her heart sank. She found herself stopped by a barrier.

Bang, bang.

Qing Luan pushed against it desperately, but the fence was solid, unmoving. She scanned the area for another way out, but only found a dead end.

“What should I do?”

She was so close. Only a few feet away. Was she going to be trapped here forever?

Familiar faces flashed in her mind—finally, Bai Lian’s face appeared.

Elder Martial Sister Bai Lian had reached her heart in the shortest time, understanding her, giving her the care she had never known before.

No one had ever been there for her like that.

For a moment, she thought her Tao heart and Bai Lian’s Tao heart were connected.

But that was just an illusion.

Her path and Bai Lian’s path had crossed for only a short time. Now, that part of her journey was over. She could only watch as she walked farther and farther away from Bai Lian.

For the rest of her life, she would only look back at the past.

How long could she keep looking back?

She didn’t know. Eventually, the memories would fade. Her body, too, was weakening.

She felt cold.

As if she were being frozen into ice.

If only there were fire. She would have welcomed it, even if it consumed her.

Then, like an answer to her wish, she heard a sigh in the cold, empty world.

“This sigh…”

Qing Luan’s eyes widened.

“It’s Martial Sister Bai Lian!”

She stood up, heart pounding. Could it be a near-death illusion?

At that moment, the fence in front of her suddenly caught fire.

A small flame—flickering, barely there—created a gap in the fence.

An impulse surged through her, overwhelming her. She had to see Bai Lian again. There were things left unsaid.

To achieve that, she could not let this tiny flame go out.

With that thought, Qing Luan rushed toward the fire.

Crash—

She threw herself into the flames, feeling the heat consume her body and ignite the fence.

Pain tore through her senses, but she didn’t regret it.

She had a premonition that the white light was her escape.

She was ready.

She would rather burn to ashes in this fire and show Bai Lian her light than remain frozen in the darkness.

Finally, Qing Luan found herself near the white light.

Carrying the flame that she had become, she walked boldly toward the light, leaving the darkness behind.

—

“Maybe it’s hopeless.”

Bai Lian, sitting at the head of the bed, felt the weight of the silence around her.

She held Qing Luan’s cold hand, her heart sinking. She had hoped that this might trigger the task, giving her a chance to save Qing Luan.

But after nearly a quarter of an hour, nothing had changed. Qing Luan’s body remained still, and no new task options appeared.

Bai Lian felt utterly powerless.

She stood up, preparing to let go of Qing Luan’s hand.

But at that moment, something unexpected happened. The temperature in her palm rose suddenly, so much so that it became unbearable.

“What’s going on?”

Bai Lian stepped back, stunned.

And then—

“God said, let there be light!”

Suddenly, she was enveloped by a blinding white light.

In this pure, unblemished world, Bai Lian looked up in astonishment.

“Tweet!”

The long, melodious cry echoed all around her.

There, in front of her, stood a bird—

A blue bird.

A bird so beautiful that everything around it paled in comparison.

Qing… Luan…