When Ling Chunxi’s arms grasped nothing but the night air, she grumbled beneath her breath and reached her arms out towards where Little White was supposed to be again. Now, that’s better. She felt Little White’s soft and warm fur against her fingers this time. Ling Chunxi snuggled up to Little White and continued sleeping soundly. Through her window, the sight of the lands being illuminated by moonlight dominated the frame once more. While in the still of her bedroom, the handsome man with silver hair and purple eyes was long gone. Not a soul was in sight, aside from the girl and the small fox holding on to each other as they slept until day break.
After breakfast the next morning, Ling Chunxi contemplated the sword she brought back with her yesterday. Its appearance indicated there was nothing remarkable about it. No one would have been able to tell there was a curse of any kind upon it. Once she had given the matter some thought, Ling Chunxi decided to bring out her old sword and placed it upon a stone table. She circulated the Thundercloud Battle Qi within herself, raised the new sword above her head, bringing it down in a slashing motion towards the old sword.
Clang! The old sword broke into two, but the new sword in Ling Chunxi’s hands was in just as good a condition as it was before.
“Hmm. Not bad.” Ling Chunxi smiled slightly and looked at the new sword with hopeful eyes. Seeing as it was able to withstand Thundercloud Battle Qi’s dominating energy and cut through iron as though it were merely mud, this sword was pretty good.
“I’ll name this sword something incredible!” Ling Chunxi held on to the sword and thought about what she should call it before announcing passionately, “I’ll call you Domineering Knife. How about that?”
Little White sat inspecting Ling Chunxi’s test swords a short distance away. Upon hearing Ling Chunxi’s proposed name for her sword, Little White turned over to look at her judgmentally. ‘Dominating Knife?! What’s dominating about it?! It’s just a sword, all right! How is this name incredible?’
“Ugh, forget it. It sounds too crass. I’ll just go with Luo Chen Sword.1” Even Ling Chunxi herself had felt the name she proposed was unsuitable and therefore swapped it out with another less bombastic name. This good sword was hidden in dust before she had chanced upon it. A name like Luo Chen Sword suited it well. How odd it was that when its new name escaped Ling Chunxi’s lips, the sword trembled in her hand. So subtle was the tremor, it would have gone undetected without careful attention being paid to it. Ling Chunxi was astonished by this.
Just as she was about to practice her swordplay, she heard footsteps approaching from across the courtyard. Her sense of sight, sound and smell were sharpened ever since she entered the Battle Qi Level 7 beginner stage. It was easy for her to recognize the footsteps as belonging to Second Elder.
Ling Chunxi quickly hid away the swords and turned towards the courtyard entrance just in time to see Second Elder walking through it. It was Second Elder’s first time seeing her clearly since her skin had recovered. However, instead of smiling at her as usual, he looked concerned.
“Little Chunxi… your face. What happened to your face?” asked Second Elder in surprise. His voice trembled slightly.
“My face?” Ling Chunxi had long put behind her the days when she had to walk around with disgusting sores and spots on her face. Currently, the skin on her face was smooth, fair and supple. A complete difference from how it used to be. She had not worn the wide brim hat to hide her face away from curious eyes as she was at home. Ling Chunxi decided to test the waters. “Oh! My face has fully recovered. I don’t know how, but my skin is all healed now. I look pretty good, don’t I, Second Elder?”
Ling Chunxi had always felt Second Elder had not been completely truthful. With the medical skills he had, it was impossible for him to not have known she was poisoned.
“Is that so? That’s, that’s great Little Chunxi. You look so pretty like this. I could barely recognize you.” Second Elder smiled warmly and beckoned Ling Chunxi closer. “Let’s go, Little Chunxi. Come and see what I’ve brought you this time.”
Ling Chuxi beamed as she followed after him. If she was being honest, she felt Second Elder was forcing his smiles today, though she couldn’t say why. He didn’t seem particularly happy about her skin recovering from that horrible bout of poisoning. Why?