Dao Companion Crippled, Coveters Move

Chapter 94 - 93: Qing Yueqiu: From This Day Forward, Abstinence

Pei Yuhang noticed that Qing Yueqiu had been avoiding him for the past few days, which he found exceedingly strange.

For a moment, he wondered if he had inadvertently done something cringey, tarnishing his grand, masterly image in his eldest disciple's eyes...

'Sigh, my eldest disciple was always so easy to understand. Now her thoughts have become difficult to guess.'

Pei Yuhang sighed in sorrow, like an elder at his wits' end, trying and failing to bridge the generation gap with the youth in his family.

At the same time, he used his Divine Thought to levitate his toothbrush, maneuvering the jasmine-scented bristles between his lips and teeth.

A Cultivator's body was naturally pure, unlike a mortal's, which produced dirt and odors from metabolic impurities.

But maintaining his hygiene had become a habit for Pei Yuhang. Just as he enjoyed his tea, he found it pleasant to brush his teeth every morning and evening.

But...

'Why do the toothbrushes I've made recently seem so poor in quality? The bristles were perfectly neat yesterday, so why are they a bit frayed this morning?'

'And... for the past few nights, I've noticed a faint, elegant fragrance in my bed that doesn't come from me.'

After being conditioned by Shang Miaoyan for so many years, Pei Yuhang was extremely sensitive to the scents of women. Even if they were cleansed with all sorts of Magic, he could still pick up on the faintest traces.

Just as he followed this train of thought toward a rather unsettling conclusion...

VMMMM—!!

The Silent Sword at his waist trembled like an alarm clock, and Bai Jingjing's voice rang out in Pei Yuhang's Sea of Consciousness.

"Pei Yuhang, I sense a Sword Intent coalescing within your estate... Someone is about to break through!"

"I sense it too. This Sword Intent belongs to Xiaoxiao... I thought Yueqiu would be the first to attempt Crossing the Tribulation, and that Xiaoxiao would be much slower since she's been preoccupied with her Divine Soul. I never expected her to be this fast."

Pei Yuhang's expression turned grave. He took a single step, and his figure vanished on the spot.

He would not stand by and watch another person he cared for fall to a Celestial Tribulation!

......

"Ngh... Mmm..."

Curtains embroidered with a full moon and a host of stars were drawn shut, completely blocking the sunlight, forbidding it from peeking at anything within the room.

In this dim, lightless world.

A soft, lilting moan, like the call of a warbler or the gurgle of a gentle brook, echoed through the room.

After a long while, the dreamlike chanting faded like a passing breeze, leaving only the heavy, lingering echo of breath.

Qing Yueqiu's silver hair fanned out across the bed like a blooming snow lotus. The young woman's skin was flushed a rosy pink.

'Time to change the sheets again...'

'I'm sorry, Master... Yueqiu has been a bad disciple and wronged you again.'

Qing Yueqiu held the toothbrush she had stolen from her master's room, suspending it before her eyes.

A dazed smile graced her lips as she gazed at its sparkling surface.

But as the tide of passion receded, a profound loneliness washed over her. She couldn't help but press her long, fair legs together, curling up on the bed like a kitten.

'I've done something wrong again... I feel so despicable.'

'I have no self-control. I can't even restrain my own base instincts. Am I even worthy of practicing the Sword Dao, which demands unwavering forward momentum?'

'Indulging in this all day... No wonder my Cultivation hasn't progressed. I'm just going to disappoint Master...'

As she calmed down, Qing Yueqiu muttered one dispirited phrase after another, a shadow of despondence falling over her.

Until—

VMMMM!!

A sudden, sharp ringing of a sword, like the cry of a thousand birds at once, vibrated from the room next door.

The whistle of that Sword Intent was so powerful that even the Sound Insulation Array cast upon the walls couldn't completely block it.

Qing Yueqiu's beautiful eyes flew wide. She knew exactly what it meant to feel a Sword Intent as vast as a river being compressed into a single seed.

It was the sign of a Sword Cultivator's breakthrough!

Her junior martial sister and her youngest junior martial sister—Yu Xiaoyan and Yu Gu Nan.

The two of them were about to attempt Crossing the Tribulation before she did!

All traces of languor vanished from Qing Yueqiu's eyes. She scrambled out of bed, threw on a white robe without bothering to arrange it neatly, and rushed out the door to inform her master.

But just as she opened her door, she saw the White-clothed Sword Immortal appear before the room next to hers.

As he used his Divine Sense and Willpower to envelop and lift the pretty, sweating girl who was meditating cross-legged, he spoke rapidly to Qing Yueqiu:

"Yueqiu, I'm taking Xiaoxiao and Gu Nan out to face the Thunder Tribulation. Guard the estate well..."

"Also, your Mistress might still be suffering from the aftereffects of her Celestial Tribulation. I've placed a Silence Array around her courtyard to block out the terrifying divine sound of the tribulation. Do not, under any circumstances, let her leave her courtyard, and don't tell her that a Thunder Tribulation is occurring nearby."

Hearing this, Qing Yueqiu's eyelashes fluttered. She was about to urge her master to be careful—to not sacrifice himself as he had when he protected her Mistress.

But before she could get the words out, a surging blast of air washed over her.

She was forced to shield herself from the gale with her arms. When it subsided, she saw that her master and junior sister were already gone, having vanished thousands of meters into the sky.

"..."

Qing Yueqiu gazed at the spot where Pei Yuhang had vanished, speechless for a long, long time.

'It was the same last time...'

'Back then, I stood with Master, watching as my Mistress faced her tribulation high above the clouds.'

'Until that calamitous red lightning, like a Blood River, had suddenly appeared.'

'I wanted so badly to hold Master back, to stop him from charging in... But I was too weak. I couldn't stop him at all.'

'If I were stronger than Master... would I be able to stop him from always doing such dangerous things?'

Qing Yueqiu silently clenched her fists. She decided that starting tomorrow, she would be disciplined. She had to conquer her desires!

...…

It is said that during the Divine Era, the concept of a "Thunder Tribulation" did not exist in this world.

As long as a living being could shatter the shackles of its current state of existence, it could achieve a leap in its bloodline and evolve into a higher form.

This lasted until the Innate Divine Spirits saw the myriad mortal races that came after them, led by the Human Race, grow stronger and stronger through unchecked proliferation, to the point where they threatened the Divine Spirits' dominion.

Thus, the Innate Divine Spirits impressed a curse upon the Celestial Dao, a curse targeting all mortal life in the world.

That curse was the Thunder Tribulation.

Whenever a living being was on the verge of its own ascension, the Celestial Dao would precisely descend a Thunder Tribulation upon it. Overcome it, and be reborn. Fail, and face utter annihilation, your soul cast back into the cycle of reincarnation.

From that day forward, the path of cultivation became a path of defiance, of drawing one's sword against the heavens themselves.

In the vast sky.

A White-clothed Sword Immortal flew through the air, carrying a young girl who was biting her lip, desperately suppressing something. He traveled until he reached a hundred-mile expanse of jagged, interlocking mountains.

No one would disturb them here. It was a safe place for Crossing the Tribulation.

Pei Yuhang gently set the girl down on the highest peak and said softly, "Xiaoxiao, Gu Nan, you can begin now!"

With that, Pei Yuhang took a single step back, reappearing several kilometers away.

This wasn't because he didn't care for his young disciple, of course. Rather, outsiders were forbidden from interfering with the celestial lightning. The stronger the interloper, the more the Celestial Dao would amplify the power of the Thunder Tribulation.

The last time he had intervened to save Liyuan, he had been lucky to only fall from the Divinity Transformation realm instead of having his physical form annihilated on the spot.