Chapter 105: The Sword Monarch of Qingzhou

The plague in Qingzhou receded.

It was like a fierce, destructive tide that, after reaching its peak, devouring countless lives, and sowing boundless panic, quietly and slowly withdrew.

The Azure Water Cold Pool was the first to change.

Its waters, once tainted black by demonic energy, grew clearer day by day after the pillar of light piercing the heavens vanished.

Within days, daring disciples ventured close, discovering that the pool now possessed an even greater spiritual essence than before, with new spiritual plants budding and sprouting from its depths.

Next, the afflicted cultivators, deformed by the plague, began to recover.

The black energy within their divine souls melted away like snow beneath the sun, their fevers broke, and those in comas awakened.

Though each of them was left as weak as if their very marrow had been drained, they had, in the end, survived.

Qingzhou came back to life.

The rogue cultivators, who had narrowly escaped infection and trembled in their cave dwellings, emerged.

Small sects, clinging to life under the protection of their grand arrays, stepped out.

And the mortals, who had witnessed the advent of doomsday and then a divine miracle, left their hiding places.

They gazed up at the sky, which had once again turned azure, and their tears flowed—a poignant mix of the euphoria of survival and the sorrow of losing loved ones.

Then, a name began to spread by word of mouth across the ruins of Qingzhou.

“It’s an Immortal Master from the Qingyun Sect…”

“No, I heard it was a female sword immortal who purified the entire Cold Pool by sacrificing herself and transforming into light.”

Rumors, as they spread, invariably grew more exaggerated and increasingly sacred.

From “a Qingyun Sect disciple who sacrificed themselves” to “a peerless sword immortal who gave their life for justice,” the legend grew.

Eventually, though no one knew who first uttered it, a noble and weighty title was bestowed upon that lazy individual, whose body was now nowhere to be found.

The Sword Monarch of Qingzhou.

“Did you hear? Our sect has a ‘Sword Monarch of Qingzhou’ now!”

A few junior disciples from the Qingyun Sect’s outer sect, having just finished their cleanup work, huddled together, their voices hushed.

Their faces displayed a complex mixture of awe and disbelief.

“Sword Monarch? Which Sword Monarch? Besides Senior Sister Gu, who else in our sect deserves such a title?” A new disciple, clearly oblivious to the situation, asked.

“Keep your voice down!” An older disciple quickly covered their mouth, nervously glancing around. “It’s… Senior Sister Shen!”

“Senior… Senior Sister Shen Zhaoqing?!” The new disciple’s eyes widened like brass bells. “Which Senior Sister Shen?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” the older disciple whispered. “I heard it from an inner sect senior brother. On that day of the Cold Pool’s transformation, demonic energy surged, and even the Sect Master was helpless.

It was Senior Sister Shen who sacrificed herself for the Dao, transforming into supreme sword light, saving all of Qingzhou!”

“My heavens…”

A collective gasp echoed around them.

“Senior Sister Shen, she really…” A junior sister, who had met Shen Zhaoqing a few times, felt her eyes redden. “She’ll never… never come back, will she?”

The air immediately fell silent.

Indeed.

The stories of heroes were always magnificent, but their endings were often death.

“…She will be recorded in the sect’s annals,” the older disciple finally said dryly, after a long pause. “Her name, ‘Sword Monarch,’ will be immortalized for eternity.”

If Shen Zhaoqing knew this in the afterlife, upon hearing that title, she would probably sit up in her coffin, scratch her head, and earnestly ask, “Does this ‘Sword Monarch’ title include food and lodging? Any year-end bonuses? Or how about changing it to ‘Wine Monarch’? That sounds more practical.”

‘Alas, she cannot hear it.’

Unlike the widespread relief of survival and the praise for heroes outside, the atmosphere within the Qingyun Sect’s main deliberation hall was so oppressive it seemed to drip with despair.

Li Wuxia knelt in the center of the hall.

She was still clad in her simple outer sect disciple robe, her dark hair scattered over her shoulders.

Her face, once often sickly and timid, was now as white as paper, devoid of any color.

She confessed everything.

From how she was secretly approached by the Joyful Union Sect, to how she used the Qinghe Li family’s channels to bring the colorless and odorless Soul-Devouring Plague into Qingzhou.

Then, she detailed how she had, step by step, led the source of the plague to the Azure Water Cold Pool.

Her voice was soft and calm, as if she were speaking of something entirely unrelated to herself.

“…Sect Master Pure Heart Heavenly Fox promised me that if the plan succeeded, she would eliminate all… all voices against me.”

She hung her head, her fingertips digging deeply into her palms.

She truly regretted it. The lives of these hypocrites in the Qingyun Sect were not important to her. Her original plan had been to save everyone with a secret art when their lives hung in the balance, earning Senior Sister’s admiration. Who would have thought Bai Zhileng would appear?

‘She was the one who harmed Senior Sister.’

“Enough!”

From the high seat, Sect Master Xuanweizi’s face was ashen, finally unable to listen further, and he sharply commanded her to stop.

The elders on either side of the hall all had livid expressions.

“You wretch!” The Enforcement Elder trembled with rage, his finger pointing at her shaking uncontrollably.

Li Wuxia raised her head, her vacant gaze sweeping over the furious elders.

Finally, her eyes landed on the figure in the corner of the hall, who had remained silent throughout, like an ice sculpture.

Gu Chang’an.

Li Wuxia’s lips moved, twisting into a smile uglier than a cry.

“Of course, I know my sin.”

She said softly.

“My sin was trusting the wrong person and using the wrong method.”

“I harmed everyone.”

The moment her words fell, she abruptly raised her right hand, and to the horror-struck gazes of everyone, she ruthlessly struck her own dantian!

Pfft—!

A grating, muffled thud echoed.

It wasn’t the shattering of a Golden Core, but a far more brutal self-destruction of her Dao foundation.

Innumerable cracks formed, and her condensed, liquid spiritual power instantly ran wild, surging backward through her meridians.

The floor tiles beneath her cracked.

Her aura visibly withered, her cultivation plummeting from the Foundation Establishment Realm until it was even weaker than that of a newly inducted junior disciple.

She had crippled herself.

“This sin, I will not evade,” she lay sprawled on the ground, her voice as faint as a candle in the wind, yet imbued with a sense of liberated calm. “This strike is for those fellow disciples who died because of me.”

With great difficulty, she fumbled a jade slip from her bosom, using her last shred of strength to push it forward.

“This… this is my atonement for her.”

The jade slip slid across the ground, stopping at Xuanweizi’s feet.

Xuanweizi’s divine sense swept over it, and his expression instantly changed.

Within the jade slip, dozens of names and locations were meticulously recorded.

It was a complete list of all the secret operatives the Joyful Union Sect had planted throughout Qingzhou and even within other immortal cultivation sects.

At the end of the list was a detailed analysis of the Pure Heart Heavenly Fox and the Joyful Union Sect Master’s cultivation technique, the Heavenly Demon Bliss Art, directly pointing out several of its fatal weaknesses.

This was top-secret intelligence, enough to severely cripple the Joyful Union Sect, perhaps even rendering it completely defunct.

“You…” Xuanweizi looked at the dying girl on the ground, his expression incredibly complex.

Li Wuxia, however, no longer looked at him.

Her gaze remained fixated on Gu Chang’an in the corner, as if she wished to engrave that cold face deep into her divine soul.

She knew that Senior Sister cared most about this Senior Sister Gu.

She also knew that this Senior Sister would surely seek revenge for Senior Sister.

She no longer had the chance to stay by Senior Sister’s side. So, at the very least, let this intelligence be a stepping stone on her path to vengeance.

This… this was… the only thing she could do for her.

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