Fellow Daoist! That scoundrel has written a new book again.

Zhu Wuyao returned to the Xuan Shi Academy.

After being washed by the torrential rain, the stone table was still wet with rainwater, and the grass and trees in the courtyard were lying in disarray, with glistening water droplets on their petals.

The poems that were hanging in the courtyard have been put away and placed inside the house.

The commonly used tea set was swept away by the strong wind.

The fragments were mixed with mud and water.

She wiped the rain off the stone chair, sat down at the table in the courtyard, took out a cloth for wiping the sword, and wiped the bladeless sword clean again and again.

The candles arrived at this time.

Seeing that Sister Wu's blindfold had disappeared, she paused for a moment, then stepped forward and said:

"Many thanks to my master for gifting me the sword. For ten years at Xuan Shi Academy, Sister Wu secretly taught me swordsmanship. It's just a pity that I am dull-witted. I didn't know how to use a sword until the moment I picked it up."

Zhu Wuyao once commented that Mingzhu had "too poor comprehension".

Only someone with poor comprehension could deceive Shen Anzhi.

Before taking up the sword, Mingzhu could not glean swordsmanship from calligraphy, and thus his fate would not change.

Shen Anzhi once said: "To get out of a rainstorm, you don't rely on an umbrella to shield you from the rain."

Zhu Wuyao listened attentively.

Therefore, the covert protection was replaced by the teaching of swordsmanship.

She said to Mingzhu:

"My name is Zhu Wuyao, I come from Zhaixinglou, and I am known in the martial arts world as 'Luoye Yaoqiu' (Fallen Leaves Inviting Autumn)."

"When I was blind, you helped me remove the stones blocking my way and secretly escorted me to and from Changxiao Town. Your kindness is invaluable. I am only giving you the sword technique to repay this kindness."

Upon hearing Sister Wu reveal her real name, Mingzhu hurriedly asked:

"Sister Wu, are you leaving?"

Zhu Wuyao paused in his action of wiping his sword.

She took out a storage bag she had prepared beforehand, which contained some spirit stones and some basic talismans and elixirs.

It's not expensive.

Then continued:

"You are destined by Heaven to face this calamity, and you will surely achieve great things in the future."

"This kind of cultivation method cannot maintain the status quo for long. It is only when the world undergoes turbulent changes and you seize the opportunity that you can advance multiple times."

"As order is established, it will eventually tend towards balance."

"The Juque Sect is cruel and tyrannical, and has been attacked by both Heaven and Man. If you wish to achieve great things, you may head south."

Mingzhu's exam papers in the examination hall could govern the whole country, but they couldn't govern a small town.

Now that the time is right, the place is right, and the people are right, we must push this mudfish that has fallen back into the mud back over the dragon gate and let her rise with the wind.

This journey is destined to be bumpy.

She might fail, or another exceptional talent might emerge and take her place.

Zhu Wuyao took out a wooden box, along with the flying ring inside, and pushed it to Mingzhu, explaining its function in general terms.

Recalling the past, he smiled and said:

"This man once vowed to slaughter all the immortals in the world."

Zhu Wuyao suddenly fell silent. She remembered that Shen Anzhi had once said that if it weren't for her interference in worldly affairs, the great calamity might have come sooner.

Perhaps there will be other people destined to face this calamity.

Perhaps Heaven will open up a new path.

She raised her hand and gently placed it on her forehead, as if sighing, and four words inexplicably rose in her mind—a person who misleads the world.

Those who receive miracles are unable to inherit the mandate of heaven.

How similar it is to the story in "The Seven Killings Stele"!

She acts according to her conscience, but until the mystery is revealed, it will always be difficult to distinguish right from wrong.

Zhu Wuyao continued, "..."

"This person is determined to destroy the Juque Sect. If you can find her, you may be able to work together to turn the South upside down."

"There is only one thing I want you to swear: even if you turn against your own family in the future, you must not use the things I gave you, nor the information obtained from the box, to harm her."

Seeing the weight of Wu Jie's expression, Mingzhu immediately swore an oath to the heavens.

Then she asked, "Sister Wu, where are you going? Is there anything I can do to help you?"

I will not reply unless invited.

Or perhaps, she hadn't decided yet.

Last night, he broke through to the Nascent Soul stage with great fanfare. Perhaps some people could guess it was him based on the unusual phenomena of heaven and earth.

The four sects might be rushing over, trying to seize the initiative, find themselves, and discover a corner of the Heavenly Dao within her.

Although she was at the Nascent Soul stage.

Since the Nascent Soul stage is unavailable, the competition among sects is based on the number of Nascent Soul stage cultivators.

Therefore, Zhu Wuyao could not accompany Mingzhu.

Even Mingzhu might be hunted down. She thought for a moment, then, like a chess player observing a game of chess, she spoke as if to Master Fang and Gu Yiguan:

"If the Juque Sect is defeated, the Qingyun and Taibai Sects, whose territories are adjacent to it, will surely seize the opportunity to take over the territory of the new power."

"In order to avoid becoming the weakest, the Star-Picking Tower will inevitably support the new forces built on the Giant Sword to achieve a balance of power."

"Regarding the arrangements for your family... If you don't want to be controlled, you'll have to risk fleeing with your family; if you want to cooperate, Zhaixinglou might be a viable option."

"But the new leader of Zhaixinglou is cold-blooded and profit-driven, and she is no ordinary person. In the end, you may not be able to outmaneuver her."

"Don't easily hand over your weaknesses."

"You need to weigh the pros and cons carefully yourself."

Mingzhu nodded. She noticed that Sister Wu seemed a little tired after breaking through to the next level. She wanted to pour her a cup of tea, but then she realized that the teacup on the stone table had been smashed and fallen into the mud.

She then realized that the person sitting on the other stone bench was not there this time.

"Sister Wu, has your brother passed away first?"

Zhu Wuyao paused for a moment, then said:

He is my senior.

"You go ahead, let me sit for a while, and we'll meet again someday."

Mingzhu looked at Zhu Wuyao intently for a long time, as if trying to remember her appearance, then turned around, gently closed the courtyard gate, and bowed three times outside the gate.

After Mingzhu left.

Zhu Wuyao got up and went back into the house.

He planned to pack his bags, leave this place, and escape the pursuit of the four sects.

Packing her luggage was simple. Zhu Wuyao was a cultivator, so worldly possessions were of little use to her, and she didn't have many things to take with her.

On the wooden table in the room, the poems were neatly arranged and stacked together for practicing calligraphy, so many of the poems were duplicates.

Shen Anzhi greatly admired these otherworldly verses.

She walked to the wooden table and flipped through the carefully arranged manuscript of poems, as if she wanted to read through each page of her ten years of seclusion and bid farewell to it.

I wish you no invitation to stay on a certain post for a long time.

Until the poems in his hands fell apart, covering the ground with white paper and ink.

At dawn, the traveler, lightly dressed, ventured into the still-lingering morning mist.

The courtyard still stands there quietly, seemingly unchanged, except that the poems that used to flutter in the wind are no longer hanging in the courtyard, and there is no blind fortune teller or scholar drinking tea and turning the pages of a book.

The branches and leaves that peek out from behind the fence, glistening with morning dew, are full of life for the last time in autumn, before they will soon enter their eternal slumber.

Waiting for next spring, when it will sprout new branches and leaves once more.

Hidden among the branches and leaves, the two lines of old poetry newly carved by the departing man on either side of the courtyard gate were faintly visible—

"The face is gone, I know not where; but the peach blossoms still smile in the spring breeze."