Chapter 912: Qingyi, Hear Me Out!

Azure Cloud Sect.

Rainbow Cloud Peak.

A young man with a jade-like face, red lips and white teeth, tall and clear-tempered, was sparring on flying swords with a child of five or six.

Their ages were far apart.

But in the cultivation world, you can never judge a person’s true age by looks.

Especially this child—his sword art was exquisite, his control of the flying sword effortless and innate, far above the young man before him.

Not far away, Chu Qingyi stood quietly watching, hair piled high, dressed in a blue-and-white palace gown.

When she had rushed to the front lines back then, she was gone for fourteen years.

The once small Lu Shouzheng had grown into a young gentleman, much like his father.

Facing her grown son, Chu Qingyi felt at a loss.

She felt she had missed the most important years of his growth and was full of guilt.

But what shocked her most upon returning was that her Master actually had a child.

Yunxiao.

Before coming back, her Master Yun Wanshang had briefed her on the child.

During a training journey, she had a chance encounter with a Nascent Soul cultivator called the Kirin Sword Lord and became pregnant.

Even after being back for over a month, looking at this porcelain-doll, monstrously gifted junior brother, Chu Qingyi still felt dazed.

Fortunately she could tell Yunxiao was only acting mature. Otherwise she would have thought a Nascent Soul cultivator had seized a body and been reborn.

How else could a child of five or six already be at Foundation Establishment with such terrifying sword talent?

After a long while, the two—one tall, one small—stopped their bout.

“Well, Brother Shouzheng, just like I said, this suits you better, right?”

Lu Yunxiao, in a gold robe and jade belt, spoke with the poise of someone far older.

When Yun Wanshang left for the front, he lived with Lu Shouzheng day and night.

Watching Lu Shouzheng cultivate every day and practice sword arts, he grew interested and asked to train with him.

Lu Shouzheng had been warned not to agree, but seeing the boy bored, he taught him some simple sword moves.

Who would have thought that one lesson would fling the door to a new world wide open.

Lu Yunxiao displayed peerless talent in the sword.

He didn’t just pick things up at a glance, he reached an uncanny mastery in a short time.

Sometimes while watching Lu Shouzheng run through a sword art, Yunxiao would speak up on instinct to point out something off.

In the face of that, Lu Shouzheng had to take this “little martial uncle” seriously and treat him like a peer.

Two years later it was Yunxiao who ended up guiding Lu Shouzheng in the sword.

Yunxiao even felt many of Lu Shouzheng’s problems weren’t with him, but with the sword art he practiced.

Either it didn’t suit him, or he hadn’t grasped it deeply enough.

If his mother hadn’t warned him that no one could be told about the Companion Sword Embryo, Yunxiao would have handed it over for Shouzheng to study.

After all, as long as he hugged the sword embryo to sleep, he would naturally absorb plenty of sword knowledge and insight.

So day to day, Yunxiao used drills to pass Lu Shouzheng the true essence and lineage of Sword Intent that he grasped from the Da Luo Sword Embryo.

“Shouzheng, Yunxiao, you’ve practiced long enough. Come rest a bit.”

Seeing them stop, Chu Qingyi spoke softly and set spirit fruit and pastries on the table.

Although Yunxiao was her Master’s child and by seniority her junior brother,

his age matched Lu Shouzheng’s when she’d left. Her motherly heart swelled, and she treated him like her own.

“Thank you, Mother.”

Not only did Chu Qingyi not know how to face her grown son,

Lu Shouzheng also felt awkward with a mother he hadn’t seen in years, lacking the natural closeness of childhood.

But he remembered her careful care from his youth and her reluctant parting words clearly.

Those memories grew and sweetened with time.

He knew his mother was gone so long because the Liang-Yue War kept her fighting on the front lines.

It pained him. He only hated that he was too young and weak to join her there.

“Thank you, Aunt Chu.” Influenced by Yun Wanshang’s teaching and Lu Shouzheng’s company, Yunxiao wasn’t a lively prankster. He cupped his hands with proper solemnity.

By seniority he should have called Chu Qingyi Senior Sister.

But since he kept calling her son “Brother,” like siblings, Chu Qingyi never pressed the ranking.

Lu Changsheng arrived at the Azure Cloud Sect.

Seeing Chu Qingyi with Lu Shouzheng and Lu Yunxiao eating pastries after practice behind Rainbow Cloud Peak, he had a headache.

Yun Wanshang and Xiao Xiyue were still in Liang Kingdom and hadn’t returned.

If he met Chu Qingyi and Lu Shouzheng now, there was no way to avoid Yunxiao.

He could blur his image and features from his son if he wanted.

But how could he hide and not recognize his own son?

When the boy grew up and learned the truth, how would he feel looking back on this?

Yet if they all acknowledged each other at once, he feared it would hit Chu Qingyi too hard.

From what he could tell, Chu Qingyi didn’t know Yunxiao was his and Yun Wanshang’s child.

And Chu Qingyi wasn’t like Xiao Xiyue.

Raised by Yun Wanshang and accepted as a disciple when young, she felt deeply for her Master, both teacher and mother.

So when her Master went wandering, as Rainbow Cloud Peak’s senior disciple she rushed to the front, fighting for the sect and their lineage. She didn’t even have time to visit her own son.

Now her Master and her husband had a child together.

Lu Changsheng already felt guilty toward Chu Qingyi and Lu Shouzheng. He didn’t want to wound them.

He sighed inwardly, knowing this couldn’t be hidden.

He could only prepare Chu Qingyi mentally first, then confess.

As for Yun Wanshang…

As long as they kept it quiet and held a tacit understanding like Xiao Xiyue, her dignity would be preserved.

“Good thing I came prepared.”

Lu Changsheng turned his hand, and a fourth-rank Incarnation Talisman appeared.

He had given the Three Treasure Incarnation Pearl to his son Lu Quanzhen earlier. Since the substitute puppet wouldn’t be finished soon, he drew two Incarnation Talismans as a stopgap.

As the talisman activated, the clone talisman infused with his blood slowly took on the likeness of the Changsheng True Lord.

“Not bad.”

Lu Changsheng nodded at the clone.

It could only cast a single Nascent Soul-level spell and couldn’t fully manifest his peerless looks and aura.

But overall it was convincing enough to fool most Core Formation cultivators.

Then, with a thought, his true body became a stalwart man in a Five-Colored Qilin Robe with qilin markings on his brow.

It was the Kirin Sword Lord identity he had prepared in his early years.

He hadn’t used this “vest” because it felt like indulging Yun Wanshang’s self-deception.

But since she likely introduced Yunxiao with his father as the Kirin Sword Lord, he put it on.

Right after, Lu Changsheng and the clone went up Rainbow Cloud Peak.

The surge of power from activating the talisman and splitting into two went unnoticed across the sect.

With his current cultivation and divine sense, unless a Nascent Soul True Lord or the Azure Cloud Sect’s grand array fully run by a merged Grandmaster was in play, no one would sense a thing.

A moment later, Chu Qingyi looked up from watching her son and Yunxiao.

“Yunxiao.”

“Qingyi, Shouzheng.”

Lu Changsheng split his focus and called to the three ahead.

“Huh?” Yunxiao looked at the two newcomers with a trace of recognition, but not much.

Chu Qingyi glanced at the talisman clone, then at Lu Changsheng in the Five-Colored Qilin Robe, puzzled why this stranger was calling Yunxiao.

Was this the Kirin Sword Lord her Master spoke of, Yunxiao’s father?

But why would he come to the Azure Cloud Sect together with Fellow Daoist Lu?

Chu Qingyi paused and didn’t overthink it.

She wasn’t dull.

She’d known Lu Changsheng long enough to be aware of his many identities and methods.

From the Liang front, her Master’s and Junior Sister’s attitudes,

to what she learned about Yunxiao and what she saw after returning, how could she not have guesses?

But Yun Wanshang was sacred in her heart. As long as her Master didn’t speak, she wouldn’t speculate.

“Greetings, Father.”

Though his mother had returned from the front, Lu Shouzheng’s attitude toward his father hadn’t improved.

If anything, after learning bits of the Liang-Yue War from the sect and his mother, his impression worsened.

While his mother faced danger at the front, his father wasn’t by her side.

When he did go to the Liang-Yue Battlefield, it was to accompany Lu Miaoge.

Even though he thought well of Lu Miaoge, who had once looked after him, and even though his mother said his father had duties,

it didn’t change his impression of Lu Changsheng.

“Mm.” Lu Changsheng had gotten used to this son’s attitude and came prepared.

In a century he’d had hundreds of children. Not every one would adore him.

Most treated him with respect, worship, or awe, even fear, or as a distant figure to look up to.

“This is the Kirin Sword Lord, here to see Yunxiao.”

Lu Changsheng introduced him to Chu Qingyi, perfectly natural in playing two roles.

But Chu Qingyi’s Sword Heart Clarity and her familiarity with him still worked.

She couldn’t pierce his disguise or the talisman clone, but she faintly sensed that this Kirin Sword Lord was very likely Lu Changsheng.

“Greetings, Sword Lord.” Chu Qingyi pressed her lips together. Her mind was a tangled mess. She couldn’t keep lying to herself.

Yunxiao was her Master’s and Fellow Daoist Lu’s child.

Did her Master know the Kirin Sword Lord was Lu Changsheng?

At this moment, Chu Qingyi’s heart was in turmoil.

With a Late-Stage Nascent Soul Spirit-Soul and keen sense, Lu Changsheng picked up her emotions at once and sighed inwardly.

These little tricks could fool others, but not the ones close to him.

“Qingyi, the Sword Lord and I came to discuss something with you. May we speak aside?”

Seeing that she had already guessed, he stopped beating around the bush and chose to be honest.

“All right.” With her son and Yunxiao nearby, Chu Qingyi steadied herself and nodded.

She let Lu Shouzheng and Yunxiao chat while she went with Lu Changsheng and the Kirin Sword Lord to a side hall.

“Qingyi.”

Lu Changsheng dropped the Kirin Sword Lord disguise, took her jade-like hand, and sighed with guilt.

Chu Qingyi’s slender body went rigid. Her mind became a muddled paste.

She had been twisted in knots over her feelings for Lu Changsheng.

Only thanks to his and Xiao Xiyue’s initiative had she slowly accepted their relationship.

But how could her Master also be involved with Lu Changsheng…

Even with her gentle understanding nature, she couldn’t help being upset.

She felt it must have been Lu Changsheng who initiated things and used the Kirin Sword Lord identity to deceive her Master.

If not for his persistent pursuit back then, she might have cut off their entanglement.

“Qingyi, hear me out.”

Lu Changsheng led her to sit and began to recount his history with Yun Wanshang.

From the time he was struck by a bewitching poison for seven days and nights,

to their days together in the Sealing Demon Realm, then the successful sealing and the chance to Condense the Nascent Soul.

“Love comes without warning and runs deep. Fate was playing tricks on me and your Master.”

“Her temperament is a lot like yours. After we left the Sealing Demon Realm she fretted over this feeling, but then the chance to Condense the Nascent Soul appeared. If she faced the tribulation, her life could be at risk. I could only bare my heart and keep persuading her.”

“At the life-and-death gate of a Nascent Soul breakthrough, she accepted it. But afterward, thinking of you and Xiyue, she set three rules with me: I must not use the identity of Lu Changsheng, only the Kirin Sword Lord.”

“But seeing you like this, I feel awful. I don’t want to lie to you.”

Lu Changsheng held her hands and spoke with genuine feeling.

He had indeed used small tricks to tease Chu Qingyi,

but with Yun Wanshang, he felt it had been mutual.

He was even the passive one.

Chu Qingyi stared blankly, face lost. Her mind was still a mess.

Their story was simply too bizarre.

A hundred years ago, when Lu Changsheng was still a Qi Refining cultivator, he had already become entangled with her Master.

If anything, her Junior Sister came later.

“You can ask your Master to confirm this. I, Lu Changsheng, have not uttered a single lie!”

He spoke with deep sincerity.

He even put in good words for Yun Wanshang as he told it.

He had been frank before about Xiao Xiyue and about her drawing on him for cultivation.

But knowing how lofty Yun Wanshang was in Chu Qingyi’s heart, he took the initiative to cover for her.

He said the Psychic energy concerned her chance at Nascent Soul, which was why she acted so.

Though Chu Qingyi didn’t want to believe it, many things fit.

Her Master’s periods of closed-door cultivation, her breakthrough to late Core Formation, then the unexpected step into Nascent Soul, and her attitude back then.

Emotionally, though, Chu Qingyi still couldn’t accept it.

It had taken ages to untangle things with Junior Sister Xiao Xiyue. How could she accept her Master, who was both teacher and mother?

How was she supposed to face her Master from now on?

“Fellow Daoist Lu, I need some quiet…”

Chu Qingyi spoke softly. She wanted to calm down.

“Qingyi, I miss you. Let me stay with you.” Lu Changsheng held the lost beauty, his voice gentle and deep.

With him there, how could she find quiet.

“Qingyi, it’s time we set our marriage. When Master returns, we’ll hold the wedding and the ceremony.”

After a moment, Lu Changsheng spoke again. He wanted to give Chu Qingyi a proper place, and the same for Lu Shouzheng.

Their marriage had been settled long ago.

It had only been delayed by the Liang-Yue War and endless affairs.