Su Majestad - Capítulo 79
His gaze was cold and his teeth were clenched.
Jin Ge vaguely guessed what had happened, but she couldn't ignore the young lady's words. After thinking it over, she wrote a letter to her master.
The eldest master is the young lady's closest person, and now he lives in Medicine King Valley. He must be very close to Yang Luoxue as well. Perhaps no one is better able to solve this problem than the eldest master.
After writing the letter, Jin Ge had been eagerly awaiting a reply. Instead of a reply, his master came by himself, accompanied by Du Zixin.
"The Divine Physician Yang left last winter and hasn't returned to Medicine King Valley since." As the master walked toward Baili Wushuang's room, he told Jin Ge what he knew. "The people of Medicine King Valley have been looking for him everywhere, and they only recently received news that Tang Congrong invited him to the palace to treat patients."
Jin Ge was stunned. "Then the young lady's illness has nothing to do with Physician Yang?"
"Let's put the cause of the illness aside for now. Treating the illness is the most important thing."
As they spoke, the three of them arrived in front of the house. Du Zixin first took Baili Wushuang's pulse, and when he placed his finger down, he exclaimed "Eh!"
"She has lost all her internal strength."
The master was stunned. He reached out to touch Baili Wushuang's brow, and the rouge smudged. The master's expression changed. "Was this painted on?"
“Sometimes when the young lady is lucid, she tells me not to let anyone know about her condition…” Jin Ge said in a low voice, “I’m afraid that others will see the letter, so I don’t dare to write too much.”
The letter only stated that the young lady had a persistent high fever, which was unusual. Wushuang hadn't been sick in a long time, and her master knew this better than anyone, but only now did he realize just how unusual the situation was. Currently, the young city lord was traveling, and apart from a few key elders, no one knew about the young lady's illness.
The master looked at Du Zixin.
“It’s not difficult for her to wake up on her own,” Du Zixin said, looking at his wife. “What I’m worried about is what will happen after she wakes up.”
The invisible sword energy, which was rumored to be like a myth in the martial arts world, just disappeared like that. How could such a proud person bear it?
Du Zixin wasn't exaggerating. Under his treatment, Baili Wushuang's high fever quickly subsided, and she woke up on the fourth day.
It was early morning, and birds were chirping outside the window, along with the sound of a gentle breeze rustling through the treetops. Through the window, I could see a very, very blue sky.
The sky is still the sky, the earth is still the earth, the city of Suoding is still the city of Suoding, and Baili Wushuang is still Baili Wushuang.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, Miss Suodingcheng remained remarkably calm. Her face was pale from being bedridden for so many days, and she had lost a considerable amount of weight due to the illness. Apart from that, she seemed perfectly normal.
Any matters entrusted to the young lady were resolved with the same efficiency as always. In her spare time, she would go to Beiling Tower.
Only swordsmiths are allowed to enter Beiling Tower, so Jin Ge couldn't go in and couldn't see what the young lady inside looked like. But she could imagine that it was probably the same as usual.
Chapter 155
That day, after hearing that the young lady had entered Beiling Tower in the morning, the master went to look for her, but she was nowhere to be seen in front of any of the twenty-eight sword furnaces in the entire building.
Beiling Tower is the tallest building in Suoding City, standing five zhang high, yet it has only one story. It is spacious and grand, divided into twenty-nine rooms. Twenty-eight rooms are for forging swords, and one room is for storing swords.
This is the Hidden Sword Pavilion.
From the very first city lord who began forging swords here, every sword worthy of being treasured has been kept here. The high walls are not ordinary squares, but rather a single, continuous wall. The entire room is made of cast iron, with no windows, only a single door. When the door is closed, it is a true "wall of copper and iron," not even a mosquito could fly in.
For this reason, people cannot stay inside for too long, because once the air in the room is exhausted, people will suffocate and die.
Throughout the history of Sading City, many top thieves have evaded the city's patrols and deciphered the mechanisms within the buildings, yet none of them ever carried a sword, leaving behind their own corpses.
Countless grooves were carved into the wall, each containing a sword. They stood on the wall, one after another, all the way to the top, which was five zhang high, looking down on everyone who entered.
Everyone felt the oppression. This was especially true for the swordsmiths who spent their days with swords. While each sword here captivated them, they also felt a profound sense of inadequacy and insignificance. Many were affected by this feeling, unable to continue to unleash their full potential. Those who had learned this lesson warned their juniors against entering this room lightly.
As a swordsmith, the master craftswoman also hoped that a sword she had forged could be placed in the empty space on the wall. However, after entering once, she was unable to forge a sword for three years.
"The sense of oppression was too strong," she said back then. "It felt like every sword was saying, 'You can't surpass us,' 'You can't get here.' It made you feel hopeless."
This was just her grumbling, of course. She never thought that Wushuang would take it to heart. That very night, Wushuang entered the Hidden Sword Pavilion. She was only eight years old that year.
When the city lord and his wife learned that Wushuang had entered the Hidden Sword Pavilion, the wife nearly fainted, because Wushuang had already been inside for quite some time when they were discovered. The iron gate could not be opened from the inside, and no sound could escape from the sealed room. Even if Wushuang cried for help, no one would hear her, right? So when everyone went to open the door with tears in their eyes, they were surprised to find Wushuang there, playing with a sword left behind by the previous city lord.
"Because they're just kids, they probably don't use much air. Thank goodness." Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Wushuang frequently went in, and after countless orders from the city lord proved ineffective, he had no choice but to send someone to follow her. After a certain period of time, the person would open the door outside and call her out.
That person is the master.
Perhaps the reason He Yuanbi was able to become Baili Wushuang's master swordsman was not because of her sword-making skills, but because of her companionship during this period.
Perhaps because the child didn't understand and couldn't feel the pressure of the sword, Wushuang stayed inside for most of the day. With her master constantly opening the door for her to get some fresh air, the time went from half a day to a whole day, and sometimes even meals had to be brought inside.
Chapter 156
"I think it's fun to stay inside," the young lady said. An eight-year-old girl doesn't like dolls, hair accessories, flowery clothes, or shuttlecock kicking.
He only likes swords.
Perhaps that's why, after what happened that day, people's reaction wasn't surprise, but delight. It seemed perfectly natural.
"The young lady is a sword goddess!" someone shouted excitedly. "The sword goddess is in the young lady!"
Of course, this was only circulating privately within the city. It wasn't until two years later, when the Qifeng Sword was sent to the Wenwu Academy and presented to the world, that the title of "Sword God" was bestowed upon the twelve-year-old Baili Wushuang by the entire martial arts world.
But He Yuanbi was truly stunned at that time, because she had witnessed everything with her own eyes.
With his wife having just passed away, Baili Wushuang was unwilling to return to the outside world. Sometimes he would even spend the night in the Hidden Sword Pavilion, forcing Baili Wushuang to stay outside and open the door on time.
Pushing open the heavy iron gate required a lot of physical strength, and coupled with so many days of sleep deprivation, she was exhausted. She slept very soundly that night, and when she suddenly woke up, it was already past the time to open the door.
Her mind went blank for a second, and she frantically tried to push the door open. The moment the door was pushed open, she was thrown back by a tremendous force, and the door, which had been pushed open a crack, slammed shut.
In that instant, she saw a sight she would never forget.