Liu Qingcheng had been waiting in the Golden Phoenix Pavilion for a long time.
She waited from dawn until dusk, from the moment the Iron Hoof Cavalry led by the King of Jingnan trampled across the streets of Zangfeng Prefecture, until the moment a Saint's finger once again descended from the heavens.
Amid her apprehension, the earth trembled and the mountains swayed. The people of the Mountain-Sea Alliance all withdrew into the Golden Phoenix Pavilion, even taking in a number of refugee cultivators.
In the darkness, the atmosphere was unbearably oppressive and heavy.
She overheard unfamiliar cultivators muttering in low tones, lamenting in despair, resigning themselves to fate, saying that they likely wouldn't survive this catastrophe, and that Zangfeng Prefecture would become a ghost state today.
Yes, who could possibly rescue over five million people from the hand of a Saint?
Even immortals would be powerless!
Liu Qingcheng leaned dazedly against the window, her mind turning over thoughts: so this is what the world of the demon race and cultivators is like..
Even those who had once seemed so powerful in her eyes all lived beneath even greater power. There wasn't even a need for words, just a single finger from such an existence, and people would perish without even leaving their corpses behind.
In fact... it didn't seem that much better than being an ordinary person.
That young master of the Chang family wanted to force Lian Mi into becoming a concubine and had to pull all kinds of tricks, wasting much effort, yet here, snuffing out millions of lives was but the work of a moment.
When she thought of that silly little girl, her heart felt a dull ache again, hollow and empty.
"So it really was like he said, demons have it even worse than I do."
Liu Qingcheng gave a bitter smile and mocked herself.
All the countless fantasies she once held had been shattered today.
In this world, it turned out that being an ignorant mortal was actually far happier than being these cultivators who lived with death looming over them every day.
The demon race didn't attain true freedom either, it was simply a leap from one pit of mud into another.
Liu Qingcheng suddenly felt drained of all strength and slid slowly down the wall by the window.
She thought: dying here isn't so bad, really.
At least... she had indeed seen so many things she'd never dreamed of before. Things she never would've seen as a songstress in a brothel, a caged bird for life, things beyond the square of sky above her head..
Her gaze dulled and slowly sank into the darkness.
Then, she saw a light.
That beam of flowing radiance soared into the heavens, splitting through the oppressive black that had veiled the sky, transforming into multicolored clouds and boundless mountains and rivers.
Radiance filled the heavens, it shattered the celestial pillar!
She strained her neck at the window, widened her eyes, and saw clearly the figure who, with one punch, clashed with the Saint's descending finger and triggered a phenomenon that shook the firmament.
It was Chen Kuang!
Such was heroism..
A clamor erupted around her. Liu Qingcheng stared blankly as the flowing light fell from the sky and, all of a sudden, recalled the moment not long ago when Chen Kuang had held her tightly to shield her from death, his back and chest pressed against her.
What had she been thinking at the time?
In a fleeting instant, a thought had flashed through her mind: So this is what a man's chest and arms are like, so hard, so warm, so broad.
It really feels like they could hold up the collapsing sky..
"So it really is possible..."
Liu Qingcheng murmured.
In her heart, a faint, itchy warmth stirred, like a new sprout pushing up through the layers of darkness above, breaking out of the earth.
She suddenly had the urge to run outside, to the place where that beam of light had fallen, to see Chen Kuang's face.
But the situation was still unclear, the Alliance Master and the elders had not yet returned.
Liu Qingcheng had only just begun Cultivating, she was practically without any cultivation base. To go out now would be no different from seeking death, and might ruin others' plans.
So she could only wait obediently.
Wait until the commotion outside finally quieted down, and cultivators once again began walking the streets.
Within the Golden Phoenix Pavilion, the demons received transmission after transmission confirming their temporary safety and the imminent return of the Alliance Master and elders.
Joyous cries rang out as they poured out to welcome them.
Liu Qingcheng hastily tidied her messy, dirty dress, mingled into the crowd, and stood at the doorway looking around demurely.
She saw the Mountain-Sea Alliance's Alliance Master, who looked like a child, and she saw Yu Xiangsi... but Liu Qingcheng didn't see that one familiar face.
Yu Xiangsi walked over to Liu Qingcheng, lips parting as if to speak, but she said nothing.
Yet Liu Qingcheng already understood what she meant, her mind was a chaotic mess.
Liu Qingcheng knew this woman who had taught her for many years too well. Her throat was dry, and after a long moment, she asked with difficulty:
"He's gone?"
Yu Xiangsi was caught off guard and teased, "I thought you'd ask if he was dead."
Liu Qingcheng shook her head firmly. "He won't die."
Yu Xiangsi found her expression surprisingly calm and said with some curiosity, "You trust him that much?"
Liu Qingcheng blinked and said suddenly, "It's not that I trust him, it's that I know you, Mama. Even if he really had died, if you saw me like this, you'd definitely lie to me and say he just left."
"That way, I wouldn't be too sad."
Yu Xiangsi wanted to laugh but also felt relieved.
What she feared most was Liu Qingcheng falling too deeply and never climbing out... Earlier, when Liu Qingcheng had been rescued by Chen Kuang, the way she looked at him was like a newborn chick staring at a mother hen.
Now the mother hen had flapped its wings and flown away, leaving the poor confused chick behind, not knowing where to go. It was rather pitiable when you thought about it.
Yu Xiangsi looked at Liu Qingcheng and asked, "Do you have any plans?"
Liu Qingcheng was silent for a while and asked in return, "May I ask... what is the Mountain-Sea Alliance planning next?"
Yu Xiangsi told her Kui's plan, after all, it was an open strategy. If Yang Kingdom managed to withstand it, it would only mean fate decreed it so, that its national destiny was not yet cut off.
Liu Qingcheng took a deep breath and said softly:
"My cultivation is too shallow. Even if I followed the Alliance, I wouldn't be of much use."
Yu Xiangsi didn't insist. "So you plan to stay in the Golden Phoenix Pavilion? This is the intelligence branch of the Mountain-Sea Alliance, and you won't need to show yourself again... I originally planned to train you and, in a few years, develop the Xuni Pavilion into something akin to Golden Phoenix Pavilion."
Liu Qingcheng shook her head. "I want to go to Yong'An Prefecture."
Yu Xiangsi was puzzled. "Yong'An Prefecture? That's the main battlefield of the Mountain-Sea Alliance. It's incredibly dangerous. If you're not with the Alliance, what would you do there?"
Liu Qingcheng raised her head, her beautiful eyes were like freshly washed gems. "I want to save people. The cultivation technique he taught me can save people... Even if I save just one, I'll feel at peace."
That Scripture of the Well and Pivot was an orthodox Daoist cultivation technique, capable of exorcising evil and healing illness.
There were a million disaster victims in Yong'An Prefecture, now displaced and homeless.
Most of them would likely band together and revolt, but many others were just ordinary victims still waiting hopelessly for rescue.
In this world, there were so many who could block out the sky with a single hand, but so few who were willing to reach out to the weak.
She was willing to be that person.
Not for any grand reason. Simply because she, too, was weak, had once felt helpless, and had once glimpsed that beam of light.
Yu Xiangsi thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Very well."
No matter what Liu Qingcheng chose next, she'd be safer in Yong'An Prefecture under the care of the Mountain-Sea Alliance than in other places.
Yu Xiangsi could also understand why Liu Qingcheng would want to do this. The disappearance of Xuni Pavilion was a devastating blow to the girl.
She needed something to heal her soul.
She sighed and reminded her, "Qingcheng, since you insist, I won't try to stop you. But this path... won't be easy."
Yu Xiangsi nagged her for a while, just like in the old days, and Liu Qingcheng listened quietly without the slightest impatience.
When Yu Xiangsi finally finished, Liu Qingcheng suddenly said:
"Since Xuni Pavilion no longer exists, Elder White Fox doesn't need to call me Qingcheng anymore. Before my mother passed away, she gave me a name."
"Qingcheng" was just a courtesan's name, chosen for its pleasing sound.
During this time, she had roughly pieced together how her mother had died, Golden Phoenix Pavilion had always been the main demon base, and Xuni Pavilion was only developed later.
Before that, it had been run by mortals, which explained its cruelty toward half-demons..
That turning point had occurred right around when Yu Xiangsi, or rather, when the White Fox assumed her identity, became the madam of Xuni Pavilion.
Yu Xiangsi was stunned. She hadn't realized that as Yu Xiangsi had been her real name.
Curious, she asked, "What was it?"
Liu Qingcheng took a deep breath and showed a faint smile.
"Ci Ke. From now on, my name is Liu Ci Ke."
'A startled wild goose cannot write a letter home; the falling leaves know best that autumn has come.'