The young Sword Venerable Yun Jian lay flat on the ground, staring blankly upward.
What had he said before going into seclusion?
Once I come out, my cultivation will surpass yours again…
At that time, why don’t you call me Senior Brother and see?
Tears spilled from the young man’s eyes, trailing down the corners and soaking into his sideburns, taking the light from his eyes along with them.
“It’s all your fault for provoking me.” Little Senior Sister, dead for centuries, propped her cheek on her hand and sprawled over him, casually toying with his collar.
This old item she had left behind clearly didn’t cherish itself much. Several scars crossed the young man’s jade-white chest—marks from training or something else, who knew.
Her fingertips traced slowly along the scars, not with pity.
But lightly, casually, as if she wanted to rip open the young man’s old wounds.
“Because you always talked to me like that, Senior Sister was so hurt and so angry.” The girl’s voice was wistful. “So I ran off.”
“Senior Sister wanted to go train in a secret realm, advance her cultivation, and then give that annoying Little Junior Brother a surprise.”
Her lips parted and closed, her snow-white teeth faintly visible. Without much force, her lips and teeth ground open the young man’s old wound.
His eyes finally went dark once more.
Little Junior Brother’s sparkling eyes, just like Senior Sister’s, were forever left in the past.
Accompanying Senior Sister.
The burial goods could not be retrieved.
Did he expect the person in the coffin to come back to life, holding his eyes as she emerged?
The rekindled passion, blazing and fierce, was now gently pushed by Senior Sister’s fingertips and silently plunged back into icy deathly silence.
“Little Junior Brother, what exactly are you hiding from me? Why won’t you answer?”
Little Senior Sister, dead for centuries, asked softly again. “Do you want me to die without peace?”
Sword Venerable Yun Jian’s lips moved. “No…”
He fell into some long-sealed nightmare—or rather, the nightmare from his youth crawled out of his mouth. “No, no, no…”
“Senior Sister, Senior Sister, Senior Sister—” the young man called out repeatedly.
Her Little Junior Brother seemed trapped inside Sword Venerable Yun Jian’s body, using the Sword Venerable’s mouth to cry out to Senior Sister for help.
Senior Sister responded, gently stroking Sword Venerable Yun Jian’s cheek.
“Senior Sister is right here. Look at you—guarding my grave as a widower all these years must have been so hard.”
“Is there really nothing you want to say to me?”
Her fingertip lifted the young man’s chin, but she didn’t free Junior Brother.
She kept Little Junior Brother locked in Sword Venerable Yun Jian’s shell, speaking to him softly across centuries.
“Little Junior Brother is so disobedient, isn’t he? Not only mocking Senior Sister, but even showing off to her.”
She rubbed against him through their clothes. Even in the dream, the sensation felt incredibly real.
The young man’s breathing hitched abruptly.
More pain flowed from his eyes, as if it carried his breath away with it.
Because of his love for Senior Sister, he couldn’t refuse her. But because of some inexplicable nightmare, he also couldn’t yield to her.
Caught in a dilemma, Sword Venerable Yun Jian became the plaything at the girl’s fingertips for the moment.
Revered by thousands in the daytime, now toyed with by her alone at night.
She kneaded and pinched the Sword Venerable’s handsome face, then shifted downward, pressing down just a bit, feeling the young man’s impressive growth.
His mouth parted slightly. In that moment of voiceless shock, she cupped his face, admiring his unfocused pupils.
The young man’s narrow eye corners flushed red, dotted with glistening tears, like dewdrop-kissed peach blossoms blooming once more for Senior Sister.
She had missed his full bloom, missed his sudden withering and eternal silence. Now, tenderly and cruelly, she ground open the unintended return of that peach color.
“Junior Brother’s eyes are the prettiest.” The girl breathed softly, her breath brushing his long lashes. “Senior Sister wants you. Is that okay?”
“Senior Sister is back because she wants you.” She applied gentle pressure, coaxing him softly. “Give yourself to Senior Sister, okay?”
With Senior Sister asking repeatedly right in front of him, Yun Jian snapped slightly out of the nightmare.
Disturbed by her breath, his lashes trembled as he murmured, “Senior Sister… I… have always been yours.”
The girl pressing down on him suddenly paused.
Because the young man wasn’t lying. With just a little stimulation, he confessed everything to her.
Intense, scorching pain and affection burst forth, slowly spreading.
Li Yin was a bit surprised but quickly recovered.
She looked at the young man whose pupils had lost focus and, on a whim, leaned to his ear to whisper a mocking retaliation. “No way, you couldn’t hold out for even this long? How are you going to dual cultivate with Senior Sister later? Have you even been training hard all these years?”
Her light breath grazed his ear. The Little Senior Sister before him seemed to come alive.
Yun Jian fully came to his senses. A low, muffled laugh escaped his throat, and his chest shook with it.
His face was very red, and so were his eyes.
His lips wanted to smile, but his eyes were shedding tears.
A crystal-clear tear slid from his reddened eye corner. His lips moved. “Little Senior Sister, I’m sorry…”
He wanted to say more but held back.
The girl’s fingers poked and prodded at his chest. “You know you’re sorry to Senior Sister too…”
He seized her restless fingers and looked down at her. “Yes, I’ve wronged Senior Sister. If Senior Sister wants me, just take me.”
The young man’s dark eyes were deep and solemn. What he offered to Senior Sister seemed to be more than just his body.
The girl turned to look at his face, leaning closer to study his expression. “Really?”
Her pressure and coaxing were about to bear fruit.
Her lips parted and closed, her breath light and slow. “What if… Senior Sister cultivates the demonic path? What if Senior Sister is a demonic cultivator?”
Would you still give yourself to Senior Sister?
Would you stoop to be Senior Sister’s cauldron?
Sword Venerable Yun Jian, Elder Yun Jian—would you strip naked and let a demonic cultivator supplement from you, toy with you?
Before she could finish, Li Yin suddenly saw Sword Venerable Yun Jian’s gaze sharpen.
“Demonic cultivator?” His voice deepened, and the grip on her fingers tightened fiercely, locking her in place.
“So that’s why this dream came so suddenly.” Yun Jian let out a light laugh, his dark eyes profound, the light fading as they reflected the girl’s startled face. “So it’s a demonic cultivator’s trick.”
With his cultivation level and a sword cultivator’s sharpness, the Senior Sister before him had a pure aura. She wasn’t some disguise or impersonation by another—it felt exactly like the real thing.
His sudden move and change of expression threw off Li Yin’s rhythm. She stared at him in a daze.
But Sword Venerable Yun Jian didn’t strike to exorcise the demon. Instead, he gently caressed her cheek.
Even knowing it was a dream and not real, he couldn’t bring himself to strike hard.
“Or are you my heart demon?” he murmured in a daze.
“Senior Sister, my Senior Sister… she died long ago…”
The dream ended.
The quiet chamber was the same as in the dream. Senior Brother and Senior Sister’s belongings were neatly placed on the desk one by one.
As for the black and white swords, they lay within arm’s reach beside the young man.
Yun Jian opened his eyes. Before him was empty space—no Senior Sister’s face.
Senior Sister hadn’t taken him with her.
The pitch-black night and gloom pressed down, without a trace of light.
His clothes were soaked and clinging to his body. The air was filled with a strange scent.
He had… done it in his dream again.
Thinking of Little Senior Sister from the dream, Yun Jian raised a hand to cover his heated face and heated eyes.
Senior Sister… Little Senior Sister…
Even suspecting it was a demonic cultivator’s trick, dreaming of her still made him so happy.
The corners of his mouth seemed to want to curve up, but immediately after, the tears in his eyes flickered through his fingers first.
“Little Senior Sister, I’m sorry…” The young man murmured in a daze again.
“I dirtied you again.”
The quiet chamber fell silent. In the darkness, he sat in a daze for a while until the torn-open wound healed once more.
Her Little Junior Brother was locked back inside Sword Venerable Yun Jian’s body.
After a long time, he formed a hand seal to clean himself up.
The problem wasn’t solved yet.
He stood and walked to the cold pool for body tempering on one side of the quiet chamber.
His expression somewhat vacant, as if unaware of the pool’s chill, he stepped straight in and leaned against the edge.
Senior Sister from the dream had said so much to him that he couldn’t help replaying her words word for word.
What if Senior Sister was a demonic cultivator?
How could Senior Sister be a demonic cultivator?
Senior Sister wanted him?
Lies. If she really wanted him, why didn’t she take him away?
Did he remember the first day he skipped class?
He did.
The first day he skipped class…
The higher his cultivation, the clearer his memories.
With a brief recollection, the young man moved instinctively, lowering his head to look at the cold pool’s surface. Wet strands of hair dangled, dripping water beads.
The first day he skipped class, he had been soaking in icy stream water.
A water bead splashed down, sending ripples across the surface. The reflection showed a face.
The boy peeked at the clear stream water and saw his flushed face. Startled, he jerked his head up, looking around hurriedly to make sure no one saw.
He held the clothes he had changed out of in his arms, as if they burned him, and tossed them into the water.
The clothes were swept away by the flowing current. Only then did he snap back to his senses, shocked to realize he had thrown them too far.
The boy waded through the water, picked up the clothes in the stream, and stood flustered and clumsy in the middle, blankly scrubbing them.
In the spring of his sixteenth year, Yun Jian first…
dreamed of Senior Sister.