She remembered her Master saying that once she stepped onto this path, there would be no chance to turn back.
If she wanted to learn, he would teach her, until she could slay all Abominations.
"Master..."
Jingliu couldn't help but curl up, burying her face between her knees, sobbing softly.
So, the reason Master had always closed off his heart and refused to accept her was all because of the mara affliction and The Self-Actualization Aspect?
Then what about Sleeping Snow and Clear Cold? How did they know about all this?
The answer was not immediately revealed.
The subsequent records included tactical planning against Abominations during Hunt expeditions, as well as several major key events.
[star calendar 6302, August 7th.]
「The war is going poorly; the population of the Named Abomination is beyond expectations.」
「Jingliu's coming-of-age ceremony is in September. Time must be planned carefully; if I am to make it, I cannot completely clear them out.」
「She is more important.」
"..."
Scenes from a thousand years ago surfaced in her mind, bringing waves of sorrow.
Three lines of text, and the final simple four words—'She is more important'—easily stirred Jingliu's emotions.
She remembered clearly that when Master arrived at the last moment, he was covered in the blood and filth of Abominations.
He didn't even have time to wash his hands; fragments of flesh and blood remained under his fingernails.
It was evident just how fast he had raced all the way back so as not to miss her ceremony.
The next diary entry wrote about the process of diagnosing Clear Cold's leg ailment.
Another part of the past she had been completely unaware of.
So it was at this time, for this reason, that the two sisters became Master's personal guards.
Through subsequent records, she discovered that from then on, Sleeping Snow and Clear Cold took turns caring for her whenever she fell unconscious; Master was only responsible for applying needles to guide the medicinal power and help her temper her body.
And then there was that matter—daily training no longer required her to train until she fainted.
"You are no longer the weak person you once were. Your physique has barely reached the target results of the training; from now on, you only need to proceed step by step."
When Master said those words back then, she had thought he was starting to care about the distinction between men and women in a master-disciple relationship.
She had thought that while Master wasn't wrong to do so, why did she feel a sense of loss in her heart?
She had thought, hadn't Master tacitly agreed that there should be no barriers between master and disciple?
Of course, she had long known the source of her confusion: it was because she had fallen in love with her Master.
She just didn't expect... the real reason was actually that she had completed her body tempering.
The timing of the body tempering's completion was abnormal and didn't match the relevant records left by the Qi Family; even Master couldn't figure out why.
But after having seen the Marshal's Manifestation Jade Buckle in advance, how could she still not understand?
It was clearly because her elixir organ's overdraft had reached its limit; providing energy to assist the medicinal power in tempering her body no longer had much effect.
But—back then, she knew nothing of this.
She only knew that when she returned home on the night she completed her training, what she saw was: Master and Clear Cold walking out of the room one after the other.
The truth behind what she once believed was not a misunderstanding also surfaced due to the clear records in the diary.
It was all to treat Clear Cold's leg ailment.
Everything was a misunderstanding she had conjured herself!
"Master... you clearly could have told me these things, why did you choose not to...?"
She had stepped onto the battlefield carrying those emotions.
To be able to stand by Master's side sooner, she applied for continuous combat, constantly overdrawing herself and accelerating the onset of her heaven-deficient condition elixir organ's symptoms.
After two years of campaigning, she returned and couldn't wait to claim credit from Master, believing she had reached the requirements to join him in battle.
That day, Master had a cold face and deliberately made things difficult for her.
There must be a reason!
Jingliu's eyes stared fixedly at the diary's contents, desperately searching for the relevant record.
Found it!
[star calendar 6305, September 9th.]
「A sudden crisis has occurred in this campaign without warning. Life and death are unpredictable during the Hunt expedition. Jingliu still needs time to become stronger; she cannot be allowed to participate in large-scale battles too early.」
「Both my body and spirit have reached their limits. Existing methods can no longer suppress the mara affliction; I must fully activate The Self-Actualization Aspect.」
「Plan to begin implementation within two days, using the Power of Abundance to suppress the price of immortality.」
As expected.
Jingliu closed her eyes, trying hard to keep her tears from falling.
After becoming a Cloud Knight Vanguard on Yaoqing, she clearly had the authority to query the classified battle records in the Cloud Knights' military system.
In all those years, she had never once thought to seek the reasons behind it.
She simply reduced everything to a single sentence: Master was never gentle, and he was especially harsh with her.
Blinded by the surface, she had never soberly considered the true reasons for Master's actions.
She was an unqualified disciple.
Although she was now on the Luofu and could not query the records, it was no longer necessary.
A sudden crisis that could dampen Master's state of mind, combined with the recent shift of Hunt targets to the Borisin war leader, meant the expeditionary force must have been attacked by Ussa.
[star calendar 6309, April 18th.]
「Jingliu reported that she needs to head to a star system eighty light-years away to slay Abominations. She has grown up and become much stronger, but...」
「I still fear a future where I lose her. I only have her now; I must never let such a future happen.」
「Remember and emphasize: suppressing mara with The Self-Actualization Aspect is not a one-day task. Losing Jingliu would mean breaking my promise and failing her, and I would also completely lose the anchor that maintains my sanity.」
「Must closely monitor Jingliu's expedition missions to ensure her safety.」
「On this day, I called Clear Cold for high-intensity training, forcing the residual power of Rahu into her legs, using silver needles as a medium to transfer it to myself and consume it for my own use.」
「The process was accompanied by intense pain; Clear Cold's reaction was within expectations. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. After examination, it is confirmed that her leg ailment has been successfully cured.」
"Whew..."
Jingliu's breathing was somewhat uneven.
That sentence, 'I only have her now,' was heavy enough to be suffocating.
She hadn't expected that her place in Master's heart was even more important than she had imagined.
She hadn't expected that while Master was heartless in his words, demanding she participate in fifty medium-sized battles, he was secretly monitoring her safety the entire time.
She still remembered that day; it was the second misunderstanding.
Seeing Master and Clear Cold walk out of the bathroom, she thought he was still unsatisfied and wanted to continue his dalliance with Clear Cold, yet he made her go cook dinner... later at the table, seeing Clear Cold's cheeks slightly flushed and her face radiant, she was even more convinced the misunderstanding was correct.
In reality... everything up to now had been a mistake.
Yet, because of the misunderstanding, she had held her breath to prove herself, fighting year after year on the front lines of the Hunt expeditions until that bloody battle arrived.
It was precisely during that bloody battle that Master applied for a divine wind ship to set out at top speed, saving her at the critical moment.
But because her elixir organ had been overdrawn to its limit, she fell into a coma that lasted for decades.
At this point, the truth of the past buried within the twenty years of Azure City's destruction finally had a relatively clear outline.
Jingliu pursed her lips tightly, unable to stop herself from sniffing her aching nose.
"I'm sorry... Master..."