Cause and Effect

“Yuyao, what do you think of this disciple of mine?”

After seeing another side of Tao Lingling, Gong Ning began to worry.
She thought it was necessary to ask an outsider’s opinion.

Jiang Yuyao recalled Tao Lingling’s stance with the sword.

“She’s far from being as simple as she appears on the surface.
Has she ever told you how many people she’s fought, or how many she’s killed?”

Gong Ning replied, “She only said she’s killed three people.
Considering the demonic technique she cultivates, that number seems about right.”

“More than that.
You’ve fought her yourself, you should understand just how vicious her sword is.
Although every move has the shadow of our Profound Heaven Sword Sect, its essence is a true killing sword.”

“Gong Ning, to say something you won’t like, your disciple is filled with a hostile aura, like a rakshasa.
She’s proficient in killing at such a young age.
It’s very likely… she’s from a demonic sect.”

The conclusion Jiang Yuyao reached echoed Gong Ning’s own suspicions.

This was not a good thing.

Her disciple said that her family was destroyed by the righteous path.
Combined with her skills… what if she really was from a demonic sect?
Being destroyed would then be a matter of course.

Should she continue to aid a villain, or abandon her?

Jiang Yuyao stared at Gong Ning’s face.
This person used to be able to hide her thoughts so well that no one could tell, but after changing her face, just a slight frown was enough to let people know what she was thinking.

‘How can there be a face that can captivate one’s heart with every frown and smile?’

“Don’t put on such a pitiful look.
You are the Master and she is the disciple.
What kind of person she becomes in the future depends on how you teach her, doesn’t it?”

Hearing Jiang Yuyao’s words, Gong Ning was suddenly enlightened.

As a Master, how could she just give up on her disciple so easily?
Guiding her to the righteous path was the most important thing.

“Having someone as clear-headed as you by my side always helps me see things clearly.”

“Don’t say such sentimental things.”

Jiang Yuyao felt a little queasy and put on a look of disgust, but a ripple stirred in her heart.

“If it really doesn’t work out, then you should cultivate.
Raise her as your own cub.
If she doesn’t listen, just give her a beating.”

This… was also a good method.
Although Gong Ning didn’t like corporal punishment, she had to admit that it was the most deterrent.

She had to make a new cultivation plan for her disciple.

“Yuyao, I have a favor to ask of you.
Go investigate Lu Yunling’s specialty moves.
I’ll see if I can find a way to counter them.”

“All you do is order people around.”

Although she said this, Jiang Yuyao walked out without stopping.

Her disciple was still cultivating, sitting in meditation, continuing to comprehend the Spirit Refining Art.
This was necessary.
If she could enter the Sword Mound, the Spirit Refining Art was a necessary means to resonate with the Soul-Driving Sword.

Gong Ning also had to start considering some of her own matters.

Her disciple was not as weak as she seemed.
Although her talent was still very low, she possessed something much more powerful.

It is often said that a disciple is not necessarily inferior to their teacher, and a teacher is not necessarily more virtuous than their disciple.
But this was about the way of the teacher, and it couldn’t be taken out of context and revered as the truth, and then one could feel at ease letting their disciple surpass them.

She returned to her room and opened the system’s storage inventory.
In it were all the precious medicinal herbs, rare treasures, and rare cultivation techniques she had collected in this life.

Focusing on magical arts, she could cultivate the Purple Mansion Immortal Art.
Focusing on swordsmanship, she could cultivate the Heart-Sword Art.
Focusing on body refinement, she could cultivate the Heavenly Dipper Golden Body Method.
Focusing on her cultivation realm, she could cultivate the Secret Manual of Creating Yin and Yang.

But none of these were what Gong Ning wanted.
She didn’t even know what she wanted herself.

If she had to say, what she wanted was the most mysterious kind of cultivation technique, one without any references or literature.
As someone who was born with knowledge, she was only curious about the unknown, only excited about exploring the unknown.

She had one such thing, and only one.

[System, if I were to cultivate again, what do you think would be better?]

The system spat out a string of garbled code, as if it hadn’t expected the host to ask it something outside of education.

But it still gave a suggestion:

[Nine Brilliances Sword Art of the Moon Goddess.]

‘So it is.’

All cause and effect lay here.
Both her heart and her companion system had come to this conclusion.

Gong Ning reached into her clothes, took off the chest binding, and placed it aside, letting out a long sigh of relief.

She took out the “Nine Brilliances Sword Art of the Moon Goddess.”

As a man, when she had obtained this technique, she could only shake her head in regret.
Was this now a resonance of fate?

The first stage was focused on introspection.
Since becoming a woman, Gong Ning had never looked inward again.
Now that she had reopened it, she could clearly see her entire being.

Both the superficial, beautiful female body, and the deeper meridians and Dantian.

The two characters for ‘Su E’ here were not a person’s name, but a reference to the moon.
‘Jiu Yao’ was the brightly shining sun of tomorrow.

“The moon has no light of its own, but receives the sun’s light and reflects it, thus showing its brilliance.”
This was the original text from the cultivation technique.
Gong Ning, who came from another world, of course knew the principle behind it.

This sentence was also the true core of the cultivation technique.

The sky gradually darkened.
Tao Lingling had finally finished refining the first soul.

The refined soul could be used as her magical art, a puppet, or simply to store spiritual energy.
It had various uses.

If she refined many, they could be combined into one, or one could be turned into many.

The Spirit Refining Art her Master had given her was indeed powerful.

She stood up from the ground, patted the fallen leaves off her body, and prepared for today’s dinner.
But when she walked to the main house, there was no one there.

“Master?”

Tao Lingling called out, but no one answered.
She thought perhaps her Master hadn’t waited for her and dinner was already over.
She didn’t know where the Sword Immortal had gone either.

‘Hmm? The Sword Immortal isn’t here!’

Tao Lingling quietly knocked on her Master’s door, but there was no response.
She tried to open the door, but it was locked from the inside.

‘Master is actually on guard?’
But this was no match for her now!

Tao Lingling summoned a soul.
Like another hand of hers, it easily passed through the door and unlocked the bolt.

Tao Lingling quietly pushed open the door.
Her Master was sitting there, surrounded by what looked like fluorescent light.

Her hazy appearance was like a person from the heavens, and her tranquil face was a peerless beauty in the mortal world.

Tao Lingling’s mouth watered as she watched.

‘What kind of immortal is Master cultivating? How can she be so beautiful while cultivating?’

But this also stumped Tao Lingling.

She had originally wanted to do some bad things while her Master was sleeping, but in this situation… it was better not to disturb her.

The night was always silent.
When Gong Ning opened her eyes again, the sky was already bright.

She had cultivated for a hundred years, always relying on hard work and sweat.
This was the first time she had felt this kind of epiphany.

Everything was unbelievably smooth.
Whether it was her state of mind or her body, there was no stagnation when cultivating this technique.

The Sword Immortal had also returned, bringing her information about Lu Yunling.

The matter of the Heart-Sword Hall was temporarily settled, and she had a direction for how to teach her disciples.
The new disciple competition was not impossible to win.
Everything was on the right track.

If there was anything that was not to her liking, there was only one thing.

Gong Ning’s chest binding had gone missing.

But after looking inward at herself yesterday, she was finally able to let go of this terrible complex and put on the undergarment that only a woman should wear.

Although it was forcibly given to her by her disciple.