On the mountaintop where the long-ruined Qingxin Residence once stood, a solitary figure sat in complete desolation.
Jingliu gripped the cracked and broken sword. Her eyes were empty and lifeless. She remained motionless, like a withered tree that had long since lost the will to stand.
Several days had already passed. Only the same two syllables escaped her lips from time to time.
"Master… Master…"
She had lost her master completely.
Truly, forever, she would never find him again.
All that remained of him were the broken sword and a Silver Moon Jade Pendant.
No… not only those.
There was also the gentle gaze he had given her in the final moment before they parted.
But why did that gaze have to come at the very instant of eternal farewell?
Why… why… why…?
Jingliu had long forgotten how to breathe. No matter how fiercely her body protested or ached, the physical pain could never compare to even a fraction of the agony of losing Kanzaki.
Master, you were so often cruel to your disciple. Why, then, did you choose to show her that single trace of tenderness at the very end?
Do you understand that tenderness offered right before an eternal parting cuts deeper than ten thousand arrows?
After years of bitter and fruitless searching, the moment she finally found him again, an unbridgeable chasm opened between them—eternal and impossible to cross.
If the price of receiving that one gentle look was your inevitable departure…
Then I would rather never have received it at all.
I would rather have remained buried in the falsehoods you wove, enduring the pain alone and walking toward my own end alone.
Behind her, three women appeared one after another.
They gazed at that same desolate back. Their expressions were complicated and varied.
From the moment Shuhu fell until now, none of them had left the Luofu. There were simply too many answers they still needed to find.
They now knew the truth: the woman before them, Jingliu, had been Kanzaki's only disciple in this lifetime.
Anyone could hear the vast, ocean-deep torrent of emotion hidden beneath those hollow, repeated calls.
Her love for Kanzaki was no less than any of theirs.
Perhaps it was even greater.
Through their investigations during these past days, Black Swan and the others had pieced together a clearer picture of Kanzaki's life in this incarnation.
He had been born on Cangcheng. His entire life had been defined by loss.
Family. Homeland. Friends. He had spent the greater part of his years fighting the Abundance. He had never taken a wife or raised children. Aside from one disciple, only his long-serving guards had remained constantly at his side.
When Shuhu finally died, the fire of vengeance that had burned inside him for so long was extinguished along with his life.
A man who had always endured loss ultimately forced those who cared for him to taste its full bitterness.
Black Swan could understand the feeling in Jingliu's heart with painful clarity.
Yu Qingtu understood as well.
Ruan Mei… understood even more deeply.
It was said that as the long-life species of the Xianzhou aged, their threshold for emotion gradually rose. Memories grew diluted and weary across the long stretch of years, until only the most extreme and vivid residues remained.
Almost always, those residues were the dregs of pain and regret.
For the vast majority of Xianzhou natives, the probability of reaching that day increased with every year after they passed seven hundred.
Yet Jingliu had lived for more than a thousand years. Even after witnessing Kanzaki's departure—even after killing him with her own hands—she had never become mara-struck. Perhaps her feelings and obsession for Kanzaki had outweighed every painful and regretful memory she carried.
"Master… you liar…"
Jingliu finally murmured a different phrase.
At those words, the expressions of the three women in the distance all shifted subtly.
Black Swan and Yu Qingtu's gazes fell upon Ruan Mei at the same moment. Ruan Mei's eyes dimmed at once.
They had all heard that same phrase before, when they had viewed the memories of Kanzaki's previous life. Each of them had been shaken by it.
Under the influence of alcohol, Ruan Mei had carved an indelible mark into the heart of the young man she once taught. She had even given him the most tender promises and the most beautiful moments.
And then?
She had carved that mark, only to crush it herself without mercy, leaving him not the slightest room to hope.
She had made promises, then wiped the slate clean, put on her clothes, and refused to acknowledge him. With her own hands she had pushed him into the abyss of nothingness.
If not for Black Swan's companionship and the warmth she had offered during Kanzaki's final days, Yu Qingtu suspected he would have sunk even deeper along the path of a Self-Annihilator.
Once a Self-Annihilator reached the stage where the physical body no longer perished, only two outcomes remained. They either plunged further into nothingness and lost the vast majority of their emotions, or they became ghosts wandering the border of nothingness, eventually forgetting even their own existence.
Either possibility was almost too painful to imagine.
Kanzaki had thought of his teacher Ruan Mei with respect. He had cared for her daily needs, prepared the snacks and drinks she preferred, and wished only for her happiness.
How could he have known that the wine he brewed was a curio possessing rule-like effects?
Where had he gone wrong?
His only mistake had been this: the teacher he followed was a mad scientist, so deeply trapped in her own obsessions that she ignored every beautiful thing around her. Her mind had room for nothing but herself.
And now Kanzaki's disciple was also calling him a liar. They did not know what lie he had told Jingliu, but they were certain his deception must have carried its own reasons.
Otherwise, given the man's nature, how could he have borne to hurt his own disciple so deeply… Wait.
Yu Qingtu suddenly recalled Kanzaki's manner of conduct—so proper it bordered on uncomfortable.
Could it be that even after dying once, he had retained that same personality?
At the thought, her gaze toward Ruan Mei grew increasingly strange, as though she were looking at the root of every misfortune.
"You truly are a good teacher, Ruan Mei. To have tormented a perfectly good Kanzaki into such a state, with consequences that reach this far…"
Ruan Mei remained silent.
Before she could speak, the icy figure not far away—still clutching her sword as though she had lost the entire world—seemed to catch a key phrase. In the next instant she stood before the three of them.
Those dead, empty eyes radiated a chill that made the spine crawl.
"What do you mean… tormented Master?"
"Exactly what it means."
Yu Qingtu crossed her arms, completely unmoved by the cold, murderous aura pouring off Jingliu.
Ruan Mei still said nothing.
She could not explain. She had no right to argue. The truth was simply the truth.
Unless Kanzaki had completely forgotten every experience and every bond from his previous life.
Black Swan spoke softly.
"Miss Jingliu, did Mr. Kanzaki ever mention three names to you?"
Jingliu's gaze settled on her.
Black Swan, however, looked toward the other two as she continued.
"Yu Qingtu, Ruan Mei, and… Clarice Durand."
"Never."
Jingliu answered without the slightest hesitation. Then her eyes took on a strangely harmonious, almost kind light.
"Now it is your turn to continue answering my question."
"Miss Jingliu, are you willing to believe in the concept of reincarnation?"
"I can believe it. I hope even more that it exists."
"That is good, then."
A faint light glowed in Black Swan's palm. A Memory Bubble gradually took shape.
Ruan Mei cast an inscrutable look in her direction, as though issuing a silent warning.
Yu Qingtu's hand, however, was already resting on Ruan Mei's shoulder. Her eyes narrowed slightly.
That, too, was a warning.
The corner of Black Swan's lips lifted ever so slightly. She tossed the Memory Bubble directly toward Jingliu. It merged silently into her forehead.
Five seconds passed.
Ten seconds.
Twenty seconds…
Without any warning, Jingliu raised her sword and thrust it straight at Ruan Mei.
Her speed was extreme. No one present could follow the motion, let alone react in time.
The sharp sword wind stung their cheeks. The tip of the blade stopped less than half an inch from Ruan Mei's pupil.
Jingliu trembled from head to toe. Her breathing grew rapid and uneven as she stared fixedly at the woman before her—the woman who had once been her master's teacher.
If Master truly had a past life…
T/N: HOHOHO Things have gotten spicy! Yandere vs Yandere, I'm afraid of the consequences that Kanzaki would have ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵)
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