“That sounds good too. What heavenly materials and earthly treasures do you need?” Jiang Chan accepted Qingyuan’s explanation. She had not thought much about it during earlier missions, but her time in the cultivation world had changed her perspective.
At its core, collecting other people’s souls to heal one’s own injuries violated Heaven’s harmony. Had Qingyuan not brought it up, Jiang Chan had intended to find time to discuss it herself. Now that Qingyuan had spoken first, things had turned out just as she hoped.
“I’m not sure yet. You’ll have to adapt to the circumstances. Some things may be quite difficult to find, and you’ll need to spend time searching.”
Qingyuan was quite frank. They would simply have to see what Jiang Chan encountered in those worlds.
“Oh, and now you can choose whether to accept a mission yourself. You can speak directly with the clients. Everything depends on your own decision.”
Perhaps because she no longer coveted other people’s souls, Qingyuan no longer restricted the missions Jiang Chan accepted. It was entirely up to Jiang Chan.
Although she no longer wanted their souls, if Jiang Chan helped resolve their obsessions and allowed them to live fulfilling lives, Qingyuan would still gain merit. However she looked at it, she could only benefit.
She was therefore happy to make things convenient for Jiang Chan. After all, Jiang Chan always completed missions very well, and Qingyuan trusted her.
Hearing this, Jiang Chan grew curious.
“That’s possible too? Can you show me?”
“Of course. Close your eyes and relax your mind. I’ll take you to meet them.”
As Jiang Chan closed her eyes, Qingyuan turned and guided a strand of her mental strength deep into her sea of consciousness. When Jiang Chan opened her eyes again, she found herself in a spacious hall that rather resembled the Sword Sect’s Mission Hall.
But while the Sword Sect’s hall was lined with all kinds of jade slips, the surroundings here were empty. Countless balls of light were scattered through the middle of the hall.
Qingyuan’s voice echoed through the empty space. “These are all souls with unresolved obsessions. Touch any ball of light and you can speak with its owner face-to-face.”
Jiang Chan marveled, “Are there really so many people in this world with obsessions?”
Looking around, she could hardly count them.
“Yes. Most people have them. Some seek wealth, others fame, others beauty. Come to think of it, little girl, you’re one of the few people I’ve met with so few obsessions. What is yours?”
Jiang Chan frowned. “At the moment, I really don’t have anything to ask for. Before, I just wanted to survive properly. Now I have food and clothing, and there’s really nothing I desperately want.”
She meant it. As her horizons broadened, she had become more accepting. She cherished what she had without forcing what she did not. What was meant for her would be hers, and no one could take it away.
“You really are a good girl.” Qingyuan sighed. “Choose whichever mission you want. I won’t force you. Once you’ve decided, tell me and I’ll send you straight into that world.”
Then Qingyuan concealed herself. Jiang Chan walked around the hall. All the balls of light looked much the same. She casually touched one near the edge, and a rather cold-looking woman appeared before her.
She was around forty or fifty and very beautiful, but her expression was icy and unapproachable. At the sight of Jiang Chan, her eyes widened, then immediately returned to their former calm.
“What obsession do you have?” Jiang Chan asked directly. She had never liked wasting words.
“My name is Xianyue. Let me show you my life. Then you can decide whether to accept my request.” The woman nodded. A moment later, scenes flashed rapidly before Jiang Chan.
Xianyue had lost her parents as a child and grown up alone at the bottom of a deep valley. It was so deep that she had been trapped there since childhood, unable to leave.
Her sole companion was an elderly woman. Granny was already old and died when Xianyue was twelve. Struggling through lonely days in that sunless valley, the young girl lost the person closest to her and began thinking of ending her life.
Countless times, she tried climbing out, but the valley was too deep. Had the female lead not appeared, she might have ended her life there.
This was a thoroughly conventional martial-arts world. The granny who raised Xianyue was an extraordinary person, accomplished in both martial arts and medicine. During her lifetime, she passed all her skills to Xianyue.
But the valley was filled with poisonous miasma year-round. Growing up there had given Xianyue a constitution immune to all poisons. Every drop of her blood could be said to carry poison. That was how she had survived there so long.
As for this world’s female lead, Song Bingqing, she was originally the young lady of a martial-arts family. Frail since childhood, she had learned no martial arts, but her intelligence was extraordinary.
No one knew what enemy the Song family had provoked. In a single night, they were nearly wiped out. Her older brother Song Qiyu died on the spot. While protecting her, her father Song Qin was pursued by their enemies and accidentally fell into a deep valley.
Unwilling to fall into the villains’ hands, Song Bingqing jumped after him. She had thought she would die, but her time had not come. She and Song Qin were carried downstream by a river through the mountains and drifted into the valley where Xianyue lived.
Still, falling from such a high cliff had left them in terrible condition. Song Qin had already been seriously injured, and the fall shattered his bones and tendons. Song Bingqing was even worse off. With no martial arts to protect her and the valley’s miasma entering her body, she was at death’s door.
Xianyue had only just lost the granny who had raised her and was living alone in the valley. How tormenting that silence was. A girl in the prime of youth could hardly bear it and had already begun wishing for death.
Song Qin’s and Song Bingqing’s fall happened to give her company. With her extraordinary intelligence, Song Bingqing immediately saw that beneath Xianyue’s cold exterior lay an innocent, gentle, resilient nature.
Xianyue had never left the valley in her life. Granny had never spoken of the outside world either, so when Song Bingqing described it, she was intensely curious.
Song Bingqing had a lover who shared her feelings: Feng Feiyang, the young master of the reclusive Feng clan. He was frank, passionate, confident, and highly skilled in martial arts. He and Song Bingqing had pledged their undying love.
When the Song family was attacked, Feng Feiyang happened to be undergoing the clan leader’s assessment. Once he completed it, he would succeed as head of the Feng clan.
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