Miss Zhouli, quietly diving into contemplating a CG without a word to me — isn't that just a little unfair?
Gu Chengming thought to himself that he hadn't even unlocked Love's Zhouli's Heaven-Human Heart-Rectifying Method's CG yet — so how had Miss Zhouli already gotten a head start, unilaterally contemplating some new CG of her own?
Unfortunately, the Miss Zhouli of the moment had no way of answering him.
Gu Chengming saw off the "former Jìntian," who bowed to him again and again all the way to the courtyard gate, then returned alone to the hall and sat down, his gaze drifting naturally back to the plain, ancient longsword resting by the table.
By rights, the Knight Dharma Sword's Unlock Progress had been climbing along smoothly of late — he could easily grind through a few more rounds and push straight through to reveal the blade's final form.
Yet Gu Chengming sensed something was off.
[Huiyuan Sword Formula, quite worried: Chengming, this blade's sword intent is really too vicious — won't it gnaw away at your Dao Heart?]
[Red Dust Phantom Body Formula, in full agreement: Keep this up too long, and you're liable to become tainted by baleful qi.]
Gu Chengming had been thinking the same thing.
By the old rules of the cultivation world, the bond between a sword cultivator and his Dharma Sword ran both ways — the cultivator fed the blade with his spirit soul, and the blade in turn nourished the cultivator with its sword intent.
But this blade's sword intent right now was more than a little twisted...
Strictly speaking, Zhouli's Heaven-Human Heart-Rectifying Method really was an excellent framework for containing this particular sword intent.
The trouble was, it had gone off somewhere to study some CG of its own, and that had left his progress on the Knight Dharma Sword stalled for the moment. On impulse, Gu Chengming decided to go check on the Love's Zhouli's Heaven-Human Heart-Rectifying Method room first.
By his original plan, he'd meant to set aside a good long stretch of time devoted specifically to clearing this room — after all, this Miss Zhouli's temperament was more than a little strange in its own right, and even now he still had no idea how to get into the Love's Zhouli room at all, which meant clearing it was never going to be simple.
But with the matter of the Knight Dharma Sword staring him in the face, he had no choice but to steel himself and go pay a call for advice.
The instant the thought crossed his mind and he pushed open the door to the Love's Zhouli room, this time — unlike all the times before — he wasn't ushered straight back out. Instead, he got a clear look at what lay inside.
Suspended dead center of the room was a bamboo scroll, half unrolled, its ink characters neat and upright; around it floated countless small phantom ritual vessels — tripods, grain-vessels, wine-cups, sacrificial stands — forming a little world all its own, one governed by strict order of rank and precedence.
Beneath the scroll sat a figure with the bearing of a well-bred young lady, cross-legged, eyes closed and mind gathered, a faint furrow between her brows — the incarnation of Love's Zhouli's Heaven-Human Heart-Rectifying Method herself.
The figure seemed to sense his arrival but did not open her eyes. Gu Chengming's gaze dropped, settling on the space in front of her.
A projection of the Knight Dharma Sword's sword intent hung suspended before Love's Zhouli.
As if sensing him draw near, Love's Zhouli gave a soft laugh, as though speaking to herself — or perhaps to him:
"This blade regards every living being under heaven, without distinction, as something that may be discriminated against — and so it holds suppressive power over every living being alike."
"Looked at that way, it complements my own original intent rather beautifully."
Honestly, characters who launched straight into exposition without so much as a word of warning were the most unsettling kind. If Zhouli hadn't been a cultivation technique to begin with, Gu Chengming would have half suspected this Miss Love's Zhouli was about to reach out, seize the Knight Dharma Sword hovering before her, and kick off a proper, blood-pumping boss fight.
Still, going by the rules he'd worked out so far, mental cultivation methods worked differently from sword arts and body-cultivation techniques — within the Love Laboratory, the mental methods tended to take the form of trials, the same as it had been with Love's Qingxin Formula.
— which meant that Miss Love's Zhouli showing herself now most likely meant she'd come to set him a question of her own.
Gu Chengming sighed inwardly and braced himself to be given a hard time.
Just then, Love's Zhouli suddenly raised a hand and pressed lightly down on the scroll floating in midair. The ink characters upon it trembled faintly, and a thread of ancient golden light rose from the surface.
"The old saying goes: the noble man is harmonious yet does not conform; the petty man conforms yet is not harmonious."
"Though this blade's intent runs to bias, that very bias is itself a form of unwavering conviction. If one took the Rectifying Heart of the Zhouli as the bone, and this blade's prejudice as the edge..."
She opened her eyes, a gentle smile rising in them. "Then one might practice discrimination in the very name of propriety — and would that not be the most upright and aboveboard thing under heaven?"
Gu Chengming: "...?"
At the same moment, the Knight Dharma Sword's phantom, hanging in midair, gave a faint tremor, and a thread of ancient golden light slowly rose along the mottled patterns of its blade.
That golden light coiled and merged with the blade's inherent violent aura, and the two at last condensed into a strange new sword intent — at once the rectitude of ritual propriety and the sharp edge of prejudice. — The Sword of Universal Discrimination!
Love's Zhouli gave a broad wave of her hand. "If you can accomplish everything I've just described, and successfully wield this stroke, then the Love's Zhouli's Heaven-Human Heart-Rectifying Method room will count as cleared."
"Of course, all of this is on the condition that you do it without relying on Zhouli herself."
With that, the phantom of the Sword of Universal Discrimination flew straight toward the point between Gu Chengming's brows.
The moment he'd absorbed the Knight Dharma Sword's sword intent, Gu Chengming was ushered back out of the Love's Zhouli room.
The next instant, back in the courtyard, Gu Chengming looked at the notice hovering before him — [Sword of Universal Discrimination: Discrimination Not Yet Accumulated] — and his expression turned distinctly strange.
At that very same moment, the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign sat properly beneath the osmanthus tree, her own expression no less strange.
There were, of course, many kinds of "strange." Some came from hesitation at the crucial moment; some from the flustered panic of having one's thoughts seen through. What the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign wore now was something else — a troubled distress laced with embarrassment.
What troubled her, naturally, was the blunt question Zhou Qingmu had thrown at her point-blank a few days earlier, upon showing up at her door: "Does the Sovereign happen to have feelings for my Little Gu?"
The Sovereign had blanked for a moment, and had been about to square off in the time-honored manner of the cultivation world — the line "among peers in rivalry, one naturally relies on one's own means" already on the tip of her tongue — only for Zhou Qingmu's next words to leave her completely thrown.
"If the Sovereign truly does have feelings for him, I'd like to propose an alliance."
The Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign had lived through an age beyond counting — rivalries within her own sect over the Dao, Sixth Realm debates on the finer points of law, cutthroat contests among immortal gates — none of it had ever fazed her. But this was one situation she had never once had to face.
"An alliance?"
"Mm." Zhou Qingmu had sat properly on the stone stool. "By age, I'm more than ten thousand years younger than the Sovereign. By seniority, I fall short of the Sovereign by more than ten thousand years as well."
"But you and I have both fallen a step behind." She paused, a note of self-mockery creeping into her voice. "There isn't just the two of us around Little Gu — there are others besides, and every one of those women is already ahead of the two of us. If we go on competing by the ordinary means, one careful step at a time, we could spend another ten years at it and still be standing in the same spot."
"So — why don't the two of us form an alliance instead? Share what we each have, and lend each other's strength."
On first hearing it, the notion had struck her as absurd — but turning it over carefully, she'd found there was some sense in what Zhou Qingmu said.
For all her strength as a Sixth Realm Sovereign, the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign was, in this particular art, an out-and-out novice — and in this art, she genuinely did need an "ally."
"What terms would this alliance run on?" the Sovereign asked at last, after some consideration.
The corner of Zhou Qingmu's mouth curved slightly — clearly she'd had this prepared well in advance. "First, sharing information. The Sovereign lives right in Little Gu's courtyard, which gives you plenty of advantages of your own; and I, being in the Night-Watch Bureau, know his official comings and goings quite well. Trade what we each know, and we can each cover the other's blind spots."
"Second, neither of us undermines the other. If one of us is present, the other doesn't steal the spotlight; if one of us has him alone, the other doesn't scheme behind her back."
"And when it's called for, we can push things forward together."
The Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign quite plainly hadn't grasped what "push things forward together" was supposed to mean.
Zhou Qingmu noticed and explained. "Little Gu may seem smooth and easy with everyone on the surface, but when it comes to matters of the heart, he's actually quite passive. Rather than the two of us quietly jockeying against each other, why not join forces and stir the pond a little?"
At that, the Sovereign nodded without even thinking.
Of course — Little Gu really was as thick as a block of wood most of the time. She'd thought her hints — lines like "what a lovely moon tonight," surely bold enough as love talk went — had been plenty forward. But he never so much as reacted.
She'd assumed it was simply because too much time had passed, or that her words really were too oblique — and now, finally, here was someone in the same position telling her plainly, "when it comes to matters of the heart, Little Gu is quite passive." See, she'd known it — she was clearly meant to play the aggressor here.
Words that felt so much like something a true confidante would say went straight to the Sovereign's head, and in the heat of the moment she'd agreed to Zhou Qingmu's so-called alliance.
At the time she'd agreed quite readily, thinking it was simply going along with the way of the world — trading favors with a junior wasn't anything to be ashamed of.
But looking back on that conversation afterward, the Sovereign's face had gradually gone red.
Here she was, an ancient Sovereign of the primeval age who had lived tens of thousands of years — and she'd gone and formed an alliance with a junior barely in her thirties, all to compete over a twenty-year-old Dao-companion? Had something unclean addled her wits that day?
She turned the jade slip over in her hand again, sighing in considerable frustration.
Regret came too late now — an alliance once struck was like water spilled from a basin, impossible to gather back up.
And besides... she lowered her eyes to the message-slip resting on her knee, and somewhere deep down, in a corner even she wasn't willing to admit to, there stirred a faint, reluctant relief that she'd made the alliance after all.
Just then, the message-slip tucked in her sleeve — the one exchanged with Zhou Qingmu — gave a faint tremor.
The Sovereign blinked, then plucked up the slip and sank her spiritual sense into it.
[Tonight, at the hour of xu — there's a plan we can put into motion.]
The Sovereign was about to send a reply asking for details, when a short follow-up came through from the other end of the slip:
[The Imperial Astronomical Bureau just divined that another thread of the Wanton Joy Sovereign's remains is about to slough loose, landing somewhere in a derelict tower in the northwest corner of the Capital. I've already reported it to His Majesty and had the whole matter handed over to Little Gu to handle at his own discretion. Tonight he's certain to shut himself away deducing the Dharma-Station.]
[Let me teach the Sovereign a script — it's sure to make him realize how the Sovereign feels.]
Teach her a script? A faint sense of unease rose in the Sovereign — she couldn't shake the feeling that whatever this script turned out to be, it wouldn't be entirely reliable.
But things had already gone this far, and the alliance was already struck...
She sighed and tucked the slip back into her sleeve.
Well, so be it — at this point, the arrow was already nocked on the string.
The hour of xu, third quarter. Gu Chengming's study.
Gu Chengming had only just withdrawn from the Love Laboratory and was about to sort through the day's various gains when the sound of footsteps came from outside the door.
By the usual custom, the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign rarely came looking for him after the hour of xu — partly out of propriety between man and woman, partly for fear of disturbing his nightly cultivation. So why, tonight of all nights, had she...
Even as he wondered, the door was pushed gently open a crack.
The Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign stood outside, her moon-white sleeves stirring lightly in the night wind, her expression carrying a touch more awkwardness than usual.
"Young friend." She paused, then offered up a rather stiff opening line. "I was just admiring the moon in the courtyard, and I suddenly sensed the intent of Cloud and Moon coming somewhat loose. I've come especially to verify it with you."
The intent of Cloud and Moon... coming loose?
Something felt off to Gu Chengming. Ordinarily, when this Senior genuinely had some insight to share, she spoke with easy composure — but tonight's line had come out stiff and forced.
Just as he opened his mouth to respond, he saw the Sovereign had already stepped into the room.
She seated herself properly across from him, hands folded neatly on her knees, though her eyes drifted about with an odd restlessness.
The thread of "something's off" in Gu Chengming's mind deepened further. Keeping his face composed, he pushed a cup of tea across to her.
After waiting about the time it takes to finish half a cup of tea, he realized the Sovereign across from him seemed to have no intention whatsoever of getting to the point — she simply sat there cradling her cup, her expression growing stranger by the moment.
He finally couldn't hold back. "The intent of Cloud and Moon you mentioned earlier, Senior?"
The Sovereign gave a sudden light cough, set her cup back down on the table, and straightened her expression.
"Young friend, I really was a little abrupt just now." She paused, as though gathering her courage. "The truth is, I didn't come tonight about the intent of Cloud and Moon at all."
"Please, Senior, go on."
"Young friend, I..."
The Sovereign weighed her words for a moment before settling on something safe. "The truth is, I've been carrying a certain matter on my mind for several days now, and tonight, no matter what, I wanted to tell you about it."
Gu Chengming: "...?"
The Sovereign drew a deep breath, as though steeling her resolve, and prepared to confess exactly as Zhou Qingmu had coached her. But when the moment came, the words simply wouldn't come out, and her tongue tied itself into a knot at the last second. "Er — young friend, do you remember, that day on the Emerald Screen Range, I once told you I'd eventually drag out the one who shares my place on the Unfettered River?"
Gu Chengming blinked, taking a moment to place it, before recalling that after beheading Qin Wuwang that day, the Sovereign had indeed looked up at the sky and said something to that effect.
"Senior means the Eternal Life Sect Perfected One?"
The Sovereign's tongue tangled again, but she pressed on with the diverted thread of the conversation anyway. "Er — yes. I've been holding onto this for several days now, and since I've finally found some free time, I mean to go handle it myself."
Even as she said it, she felt she'd been something of a coward — the words had been right on the tip of her tongue, only for her to turn tail and flee at the last moment.
She'd meant to lay her true feelings bare, and somehow the conversation had veered right back to the Eternal Life Sect Perfected One of all things.
If it ended like this, she'd have been thoroughly spineless about the whole thing.
With that thought, she gathered her courage once more and steered the conversation back. "Would you be willing to come with me, young friend?"
Gu Chengming blinked.
He'd assumed the Sovereign had come tonight over some matter of real weight — never expecting she meant to invite him along to hunt down the Eternal Life Sect Perfected One who'd already fled long ago.
By rights, with the Sovereign's own strength, dealing with a Perfected One who'd already fled gravely wounded shouldn't have called for a mere Fourth Realm junior like him to come along at all.
Yet the word "together" in her invitation had landed with a distinctly strange weight.
By all rights he should have declined — after all, the matter of the Dharma-Station in the Capital was still unresolved, and this was hardly the moment to slip away from the city.
But the Sovereign's rather clumsy opening earlier had, in his eyes, carried a note that somehow made it hard to refuse.
Just then, the message-slip tucked in Gu Chengming's own sleeve — the one he'd gotten from Zhou Qingmu — trembled faintly.
He swept it with his spiritual sense, and the next instant his brows lifted slightly.
[Little Gu, there's a lead on the Eternal Life Sect Perfected One — just came in from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. I've already reported it to His Majesty and had the whole matter handed to you at your own discretion. I'd ask that you go together with the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign, and make sure everything's handled with care.]
Gu Chengming blinked, then glanced up at the Sovereign across from him, her gaze still drifting oddly — and a strange thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
The Sovereign's clumsy invitation to go "together," and Zhou Qingmu's message handing the matter over "at his own discretion" arriving at this exact moment — the two colliding like this was simply too much of a coincidence.
Gu Chengming's gaze lingered on the Sovereign's face for a moment. For some reason it carried a trace of frustration, yet she was still watching him with no small amount of anticipation.
He lowered his eyes and pushed that odd suspicion back down.
Well — since both the Sovereign and the Director had already quietly laid the groundwork behind his back, calling it out openly now would be needlessly spoiling the mood.
"Senior speaks well." He chose his words carefully, settling on the most fitting reply. "This junior would be glad to go along with Senior. This account should be settled together."
The Sovereign blinked — he'd actually agreed, to an invitation that must have seemed utterly baffling?
For some reason, the Sovereign's thoughts felt rather muddled.
Meanwhile, within the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
Watching the exchange between the Sovereign and Gu Chengming in the courtyard through a water mirror, Zhou Qingmu couldn't help slapping her forehead: "What a coward!"
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