Ye Danxia stood in silence for a long time.
Then.
She calmed herself, first dealing with the matter of Han Xiaoyu. She declared that Han Xiaoyu had drunk too much, stumbled onto a stone, and died by accident.
Han Xiaoyu's reputation as a drunkard was already deeply ingrained in the villagers' minds, so no one doubted it. The villagers even helped her bury Han Xiaoyu's body. With that, the matter passed.
Night.
Having eliminated such a great hidden threat, Ye Danxia thought she would feel exhilarated.
Yet she kept recalling Yun Jin's final words.
Tossing and turning, her head felt as though it would split apart.
At last, she drifted into sleep.
And dreamed a long, long dream.
In the dream—
She and Yun Jin went together to the Tianxing Sect.
She, because of her heavenly spiritual root, was favored and accepted as a personal disciple by Zhao Wuji.
Yun Jin, however, displayed nothing extraordinary. With her mediocre spiritual root, she was not even qualified to enter as an outer disciple.
Thus.
With her persuasion, Yun Jin became her servant.
Everything in the dream was so beautiful.
At Tianxing Sect, she was adored by her Master and cherished by all fellow disciples.
And Yun Jin?
She was nothing more than a servant girl.
Whenever her mood soured, she only needed to say a few words and others would vent their anger on Yun Jin. Beaten until her body was covered in bruises, Yun Jin still stubbornly refused to give up.
Ye Danxia "kindly" gave her shelter, yet Yun Jin dared to open her mouth and ask for pills.
Pills? She had them.
But why should she give them to Yun Jin?
In the past, Yun Jin had been the proud young lady of the Yun family. Though the Yun family spoke of fairness, in truth everything was always tilted in Yun Jin's favor.
Now things were reversed.
Ye Danxia basked in the intoxicating thrill of this reversal.
But after a while, the game grew dull. Especially since Yun Jin never stopped reminding her of her "promise," Ye Danxia decided she no longer wanted to keep her.
With only a slight scheme of her own, the Demon Sovereign devised a plan and made Yun Jin die a most wretched death.
She even went to witness Yun Jin's end.
Such a pitiful sight.
And yet, for Ye Danxia, it brought a surge of ecstasy.
Look!
Yun Jin had become no more than an ant before her.
With only the lift of her foot, she could easily crush her to death.
Afterward.
She and the Demon Sovereign became inseparable, cultivating together. The two soared ever higher, reaching the pinnacle, breaking through the barriers of the Immortal Dao, and ascending in one stroke!
The dream.
Was so long.
And so wondrous.
But when the sunlight spilled in, Ye Danxia was forced to wake. Her lips still curled with a trace of satisfied smile. But upon opening her eyes, what she saw was nothing but a dilapidated earthen hut.
Ye Danxia's face froze, the corners of her mouth twisting into a grimace.
No.
Impossible.
She was Ye Danxia, born with the heavenly spiritual root. She should possess supreme power, standing at the very summit of the world, ascending with the Demon Sovereign in the gaze of envy from all, becoming an eternal legend.
How could she possibly be a mere mortal?
And Yun Jin!
She should have been crushed beneath her heel.
Yet in reality, she was utterly unworthy of comparison.
"Why… why…"
Ye Danxia muttered to herself.
"Sister in Law Danxia, time to go. We need to head to the fields," an aunt passing by kindly knocked on the Ye family's door, calling her name.
Sister in Law Danxia?
Fields?
Reality bore down on her with merciless weight. Ye Danxia clutched her head, let out a sudden scream, flung the door open, and ran out like a madwoman.
The kind-hearted aunt stood dumbfounded.
What's wrong with Sister in Law Danxia?
From that day forth, Ye Danxia never returned to the village. Instead, the region gained a wandering madwoman.
Always muttering as she walked. That she had the heavenly spiritual root. That she should be standing atop the world. People only laughed at her. At times, out of pity, someone would throw her a scrap of food. And so she wandered, deranged and broken.
-
At this moment.
Yun Jin had already returned to the Wushuang Sect.
Ye Danxia's fate thereafter, Yun Jin neither knew nor cared. To her, Ye Danxia and all that pertained to her no longer deserved even the smallest corner of her memory.
Within the Wushuang Sect, the final stage of the new disciple selection had begun.
Yun Jin, curious, went over to watch.
The last trial took place in the River of Enlightenment.
Qin Ping and the others had shown their mischievous streak. They gave the disciples no boats, demanding they swim to the opposite shore.
If they could draw fragments of laws to themselves midway, those fragments would aid them and push them forward.
If not?
Then they could only rely on raw stamina.
But the river surged with sudden winds and waves. And within it, the participants' spiritual power and cultivation were all sealed.
One careless fall to the waves, and it was over.
Qin Ping and the others waited on the far shore for the first two hundred to arrive.
Yun Jin's figure suddenly appeared in their midst without warning.
Qin Ping, Hong Ye, and the others froze, hastily bowing in respect.
Bai Yiran, looking at Yun Jin's back, felt his heart tighten.
Their Sect Master's strength had become ever more unfathomable.
"I'll take a look," Yun Jin said with a trace of curiosity, gazing deep into the river.
Her eyes glimmered with profound depth, as if in that instant she could see to the furthest distance.
Two thousand disciples had joined the retest.
Now, fifteen hundred had already been eliminated, leaving only five hundred still struggling.
In one glance, Yun Jin spotted Ji Heng. The top talent of Xinghe Sect now ranked around eighth or ninth. Barring mishap, he would surely pass.
"Kuang Wuchang seems likely too," Fang Mingyue remarked.
That old acquaintance sat around twenty or thirty in rank, also highly probable. Most other familiar sect disciples were among the two hundred as well.
Yun Jin's lips curved into a subtle smile.
Interesting.
The very sect disciples they had encountered before were precisely the ones suited to Wushuang Sect.
Surely not coincidence.
But some kind of arrangement of fate.
Lifting her gaze briefly skyward, Yun Jin soon withdrew it, unconcerned.
"At present, among those in the top two hundred, sect disciples and loose cultivators are split about half and half," Qin Ping reported. "Sect Master, within them are still ten who are completely mortal."
Mortal?
Yun Jin quickly locked onto those ten.
What surprised her was that among them, one mortal ranked first!
Though the river sealed spiritual power and cultivation, experience and comprehension could not be sealed away.
The top hundred were nearly all veterans of cultivation.
Yet this one mortal held first place!
She could not help but pay closer attention.
A girl of about fifteen or sixteen. Though young, her demeanor seemed far too mature. This should have been her first time at the River of Enlightenment. Yet she seemed utterly at ease, as though born to swim its waters.
Intriguing.
"Young Master," An Tong muttered bitterly, "truth be told, when I look at that one, I feel strangely afraid."
It was as if all the skin on his body tightened.
"Oh? Afraid of a mortal?" Yun Jin's eyes lit with interest.