After the path was cut off

When Li Wangxiang arrived at Tianzhu Peak, it was nearly noon.

The bamboo shadows swayed gently under the eaves. An Ting propped her head up with one hand and fiddled with her disciple's token in the other. She looked absent-minded.

Although she was forbidden from going down the mountain these days, she still managed to hear all the sect's news through the disciple's order.

Li Wangxiang left the cave, went to the Hall of Mastery, and then to the Hall of General Affairs—these events had already become the talk of the disciples.

The hottest topic of discussion in the sect right now is:

When exactly did Li Wangxiang return to his clan?

How did they survive the perilous situation in Beichen?

Did they receive some other decree when they went to the Hall of Merit, and what was the purpose of going to the Hall of General Affairs?

...

These people naturally dared not ask Li Wangxiang directly.

So, after many twists and turns, all the inquiries ended up with An Ting, which annoyed her to no end.

An Ting didn't understand what her senior brother was thinking. He clearly told her not to reveal that he was still alive, but then he suddenly showed up on his own.

"I just received word that my senior brother has left his cave and arrived at Tianzhu Peak. Judging by the time, he should be here soon..."

Just as An Ting was thinking this, she heard footsteps. She looked up, was startled at first, then her eyes lit up, and she put away her disciple token and jumped up.

"Senior brother!"

She rushed to Li Wangxiang, circled him halfway around, and probed him with her divine sense without any attempt to conceal it. She probed and probed, but found that although his aura was somewhat weak, everything else seemed to be the same as it had been half a month ago.

An Ting frowned suspiciously.

"You're completely unharmed?"

"Could it be that you really received some kind of extraordinary opportunity?"

Li Wangxiang glanced at her, his expression unchanged, and simply extended his hand.

"Let's see."

An Ting paused for a moment, then placed her hand on it, closed her eyes, concentrated, and gently probed with her spiritual energy.

A moment later, she opened her eyes, her expression even more bewildered.

"Senior brother's Taoist skills seem to have improved, and his aura has become more restrained..."

Li Wangxiang's gaze deepened almost imperceptibly.

Even with An Ting's meticulous probing, she couldn't detect anything amiss. The mirror's ability to conceal his condition was even more profound than he had anticipated.

An Ting, however, had already instinctively sensed something was amiss, and the lighthearted look on her face gradually faded.

"Senior brother, are you... having some kind of problem?"

Li Wangxiang did not deny it.

"There is a problem."

An Ting was taken aback.

Is it serious?

Li Wangxiang said calmly:

"He won't die anytime soon."

An Ting pursed her lips and didn't ask any further questions.

The state of a cultivator is a highly secretive matter that is extremely sensitive to outsiders. The fact that Li Wangxiang was willing to say this already meant that he had let his guard down around her.

The two sat down on the veranda, one after the other.

The mountain breeze rustled through the bamboo shadows, causing the dappled sunlight on the ground to sway gently.

An Ting spoke first:

"Senior brother went to the Hall of Martial Arts, did he receive some orders this time?"

"no."

"What about the General Affairs Department?"

Li Wangxiang paused for a moment, then slowly said:

"I went to inquire about the sacred site."

An Ting didn't react.

"A sacred place?"

Li Wangxiang looked at her, his voice calm to the point of being cold:

"I want to leave the sect and establish my own immortal sect."

An Ting's hand trembled. "What did you say?!"

Li Wangxiang: "I want to leave my clan."

An Ting stood up abruptly, her voice changing tone:

"Are you crazy?"

"Don't you know how many eyes are watching you right now? If you leave the sect, you won't even know how you died."

Li Wangxiang looked at her, remained silent for a moment, and whispered:

"Is it that serious?"

An Ting looked at him, and that familiar feeling of helplessness welled up in her heart again.

In her opinion, this senior brother was good in every way, but when it came to such important matters, he always seemed to lack the necessary vigilance.

"Bei Chen is all dead, yet you've come back alive. Now, the most talked-about thing outside is that you've obtained some incredible opportunity."

"These rumors may not be true, but they are the easiest to spread and the easiest to be believed."

Li Wangxiang looked at her but didn't reply immediately.

When An Ting saw that he didn't speak, she became even more flustered.

"Senior brother, what are you thinking?"

Li Wangxiang said in a low voice:

"I have reasons why I have to leave."

"What reason?"

Li Wangxiang looked at the mountain breeze outside the corridor, his voice so soft it was almost as if he were speaking to himself:

"My elder brother is sixty-three years old this year."

An Ting was taken aback.

"For the next few years," Li Wangxiang said slowly, "I want to stay with him."

The corridor fell silent for a moment.

An Ting looked at him, her eyes gradually changing.

She certainly knew how much Li Wangxiang cared about his family. For him to say something like that, even if it wasn't the whole reason, the matter of leaving the clan must be true.

This reason might make sense to her, but outsiders would never believe it.

"……not enough."

Li Wangxiang turned to look at her.

An Ting gritted her teeth, as if suppressing the reluctance in her heart.

"That reason is not enough."

Li Wangxiang looked at her and said calmly, "It's not enough. You figure something out."

An Ting looked at Li Wangxiang and gave a bitter smile after a long while.

"Senior brother, you really know how to cause trouble for me."

She took a slow breath and asked again:

"Shouldn't we ask Master's permission for this?"

Li Wangxiang said:

"Master will agree."

Upon hearing this, An Ting's expression gradually turned cold.

She didn't press the matter further, but simply sat back down, her gaze gradually darkening as if she had suddenly remembered something.

After a moment, she spoke in a low voice:

"I heard someone mention something before."

"We originally had a senior sister in our generation."

"...Thirty years ago, she was tasked with her mission and perished."

She spoke slowly, as if she were piecing together the fragmented words she had overheard in her mind as she spoke.

"Master rarely mentions her, and the eldest brother never talks about her either."

An Ting raised her head and looked at Li Wangxiang, the emotions she had been suppressing finally surfaced little by little in her eyes.

"Senior brothers, why are you always like this?"

"Once things are settled, we accept them. Once the order comes down, we take it."

"Senior sister is like this, senior brother is like this, master is like this, and now you are like this too."

She bit her lip, her voice low but carrying an unyielding stubbornness.

"I really don't understand."

"Why didn't they even put up a fight, and just accepted it like that?"

A gentle breeze rustled through the corridor.

Li Wangxiang looked at her and remained silent for a long time.

He knew that his junior sister was overthinking things.

Leaving the sect wasn't an order from the Hall of Merit, nor was it a decree from any patriarch. On the contrary, it was a path to survival that he carved out for himself.

But he simply couldn't say those words.

Beichen, Daoji, Baojing, Dreamland... None of these things are things she should know.

In the end, they couldn't even offer a decent explanation.

Li Wangxiang felt a lump in his throat, but in the end he simply raised his hand and gently rubbed her hair.

"You'll understand when you grow up."

An Ting turned her head away, her eyes already a little red, but her tone was very firm.

"I wouldn't understand."

She stared at Li Wangxiang and said, word by word:

"I'll never understand."