Faced with the golden pond overflowing with Qi, Zhi Rou and Yingyue had different reactions.

One had been stuck in place after her initial outburst. The second one slowly took the sight in. Careful to not miss a single detail.

“This is… really something.” Yingyue felt the extraordinary Qi whirling through her body.

Even without Muchen explaining, the two could instinctively understand how miraculous this place was. And they were standing right there, right in front of a treasure that could start a Sect War.

“It’s not like I am asking you to keep the secret for free.” Li Muchen sliced in.

“You don’t mean…?” Zhi Rou’s eyes widened.

“I’ll let you use it for the duration you are with us.” He smiled.

“Heh, good thing my memory is bad.” Zhi Rou rubbed her hands together like an evil merchant.

Yingyue shook her head. But her gaze soon landed on the two disciples taking a break from practice.

Kexin noticed her and waved with an amiable smile, which she returned a bit awkwardly. However, when her eyes met with Wang Yang’s, he looked away.

Swept away by Zhi Rou, Yingyue didn’t have much time to dwell on that. The rest of the day went by in a blur. When she tried the pond, Kexin helped her get used to it. Sun Lingling didn’t speak at all too. But her silence was different from Wang Yang’s.

He refuses to meet her eyes and left the vicinity as soon as she arrived. The awkwardness had been noted by others too. Prominently by Kexin.

“He is not like that normally. I guess he is focusing too much on training and is burnt out.” Kexin swept the issue under the rug with a smile, or at least she tried.

Yingyue understood why Wang Yang behaved like this. That was the reason she couldn’t let it be.

Wang Yang’s Master (Li Muchen) and her Master (Gu Yue) were the last bridge that connected the two rival sects. If it wasn’t for their influence and friendship the conflict between the two sects would’ve escalated to new heights.

With Wang Yang and her being their disciples, they would meet often and needed to maintain the friendly relationship they would inherit from their Masters.

She could ignore this and try to build a strong friendship with the other two disciples, but it wasn’t like her to ignore a grudge.

But how would she go about fixing the situation?

This was the first time Yingyue had to think about such things.

***

A few days had passed since Zhi Rou and Yingyue entered the cavern.

Three hours ago, another day came to an end and night fell. At least according to the clock. The cavern remained lit as everyone retreated to their cabins.

Everyone aside from one.

“15,987… 15,988… 15,989…”

Wang Yang kept swinging his sword. Each of his slash laced with strength from his muscles. He practiced each stroke shown by Li Muchen from his memory over and over. From the 16 slashes, the current one was the 13th.

However, when he played his movements next to his Master’s, he couldn’t help but frown.

He finally understood why people use the swan and frog in that idiom. His flaws remained apparent even when he compared them to Lingling’s methodical swings to Kexin’s gracefulness. But next to Muchen, they popped out like mud stains on white silk.

He had been practicing for the same time as his fellow disciples, yet the result varied greatly. They were closer to Li Muchen than him.

“…I have to have it down, the way master moves.” Wang Yang wiped the sweat off his forehead. The clothes stuck to his body as his breathing fell out of rhythm, yet he wanted to continue.

“You see that’s where you are wrong.” That’s when a voice came over his shoulder.

He whipped his head in the direction of the voice. There Yingyue stood in simple clothes, her long hair tied in a single ponytail with a white ribbon.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.” She had been seeking an opportunity to talk with him alone over the past three days, and it arrived today.

“…It isn’t your fault.” Wang Yang looked away once again. His voice remained distant.

It looked like he would walk away again, but after a short silence, he opened his mouth.

“What did you mean by that?”

Yingyue smiled. He was new to cultivation. Thus, comments like this would catch his attention, prompting him to continue the conversation even if he didn’t like her.

“Well, it is a bit embarrassing to say this, but I really admire my Master. So much so that I want to be just like her.” Yingyue scratched her cheek for a moment as a wry smile formed on her lips. “But it was different at first, I hated her.”

“What?” Wang Yang tilted his head.

“Yue (Moon) and Yingyue (Reflection of the Moon). Since my birth others had determined that I’d follow in her footsteps. I was taught the way she learned, and I was expected to do the things she did. Being trapped in that box, it felt suffocating so I tried to break out of it.” A smile of resignation appeared on her face. “But in a twist of fate, every strength of mine mirrored hers. I couldn’t break out of it, the cage that trapped me. That was until I met her. In anger, I threw a fit forgetting all the manners the family had taught me and complained to her.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Wang Yang saw her chuckle as if remembering a fond memory now. But how did her mind change so drastically?

Yingyue stepped towards the tunnel, beckoning Wang Yang to follow. In silence, the two arrived outside. The pleasant, breezy night welcomed them, their gazes drawn to the stars peeking through a canopy of whispering leaves.

The stars, that looked so small shone with stellar radiance on the black canvas.

“Now, I’ll ask you the same question she asked me that day.” She said without taking her eyes off the sky. “Do you think that every star out there is the same?”

“I don’t know… they look pretty similar.” He said. The brightness and color were the only differences he could catch.

“Don’t they? My Master said that cultivators are like stars. They are the same fundamentally, made of the same things, and ability to reason, yet some shine so brightly while others are barely noticeable. It is true even when two stars are made of the same elements and born in the exact same circumstances.” Yingyue sighed. “Still, one can become the brightest star in the night while the other is destined to die in obscurity.”

“So, you mean this applies to the cultivators too?” Wang Yang understood that the two stars in this question were Yingyue and her Master.

“Yes, no matter what we try. Every human is different from the one next to them. The difference in habits, morality, understanding, resilience, and situations creates forks in everyone’s lives. Everyone walks a path of their own and can never follow someone else’s in essence. That is what it means to be unique.” Yingyue saw him scratching his head a little. “It is a bit messy, isn’t it? I am still trying to figure it out after all. But… I understand that I have a path of my own. Even if I am her reflection in talent and teachings, even if I grew up like she did, my life will be different from hers because of who I am as a human and my experiences. Even if I use the same techniques as her, or wield the same weapons, there will always been differences between the way we do things.”

“Wait, do you mean…?”

Yingyue nodded in agreement.

“Don’t change yourself to fit the technique, changing the technique to fit you will always be easier. That is the advice my Master gave me before.” She said.

Wang Yang thought back on Li Muchen’s way of teaching. Whether it was swordsmanship, alchemy, or cultivation. He always explained to them what to do, showed them how to do it, but always let them handle the rest with practice while answering their questions.

Never once did he say Do it just like me.

To Wang Yang who had recently become a cultivator, this wasn’t something he’d know from the get-go. The teachers in his city wanted him to follow whatever they said and how they said it. He had carried the same mindset in cultivation unknowingly.

But after listening to this, he understood that he was closer to the answer than he had expected.

“The Azure sky swordsmanship is a versatile one. Peak Master Li had lacked strength compared to his peers, thus he focused greatly on the technical aspect. Your friend Kexin has decent power and technique so she works on her flexibility. As for Sun Lingling, she had power, technique, and flexibility, thus she works on variations.” Yingyue had analyzed the disciples in the few days, and her surprise increased with each day. “You have great strength and speed for your realm, all you need is to change the technique to suit your strong points and work on the aspects that can enhance them.”

“It is the same set of 16 slashes shared by you four, yet everyone uses them differently based on their strong points. Isn’t it fascinating?” Yingyue asked.

Wang Yang could only nod in return. His mind sailing through his memories. There he saw the small changes he had instinctively made to the techniques.

The extra lift when doing a downward slash. The missing step when driving a thrust. The wider arc in the horizontal slash. The increased recovering time after the diagonal slash.

The previous flaws in the techniques came together. They showed him that the parts he looked at as flaws had started to shape up his own variation of the Azure Sky swordsmanship.

“…Thank you, Yingyue.” Wang Yang smiled.

The heavy stone on his shoulders had been removed. Unlike Yingyue he had tried to follow the path of his Master in swordsmanship thinking it was the only way, that held him back.

“…I was just being nosy, so you don’t have to thank me.” Yingyue looked at the sky for a moment, accepting that this was a good moment. “I also wanted to apologize to you again, just like I did to Kexin.”

“Apologize?” Perplexed, Wang Yang looked over.

“Yes, I was a bit heavy-handed when checking your identity. You have a strong bond with Kexin, so I understand that you are upset because of… what I did.” She clenched her robe, knowing she would be the same in his position.

“Oh?” However, Wang Yang scratched his head. “I was upset with you?”

“You weren’t?” Her eyes widened at his cluelessness.

“I am upset, but not with you.” Wang Yang said shaking his head. “The reason Kexin pushed me away was because I wasn’t ready for a battle. If it was a real enemy she would’ve died and all I could’ve done was watch. I had vowed to not let that happen again, but my old habits got in the way. I was simply… upset with myself.”

“So, you haven’t been avoiding me because you were angry?” Yingyue asked.

“I wasn’t avoiding you… more like I was focusing on training so I can improve.” Wang Yang smiled. “You don’t have to worry about it. I would’ve done the same as you if Kexin was poisoned… No, I don’t think I would’ve been able to think so calmly in that situation. If anything, I think you were amazing.”

“A-Amazing you say?” The unexpected praise caught her off-guard.

“Yeah, you also helped me with practice and apologized even when you did nothing wrong. I have to say you are super amazing Senior Gu.” Wang Yang gave her a big thumbs up.

“W-Well, if you say so.” She cleared her throat, unable to meet his eyes. The innocent praise without ulterior motives shook her heart.

A little distance from them a shadow moved down the birch tree. Under the moonlight’s illumination, the white sleeves of the robe fluttered towards the nearby cave.

They have gotten close on their own. Li Muchen smiled.

The reason he ignored Yingyue’s presence in the village and let the disciples meet her, there were many reasons for that. But the reason he brought her to the Heaven’s Pond was only one, Wang Yang.

In the now-voided future, Wang Yang and Gu Yingyue had developed a great bond because of their similarities and nature. A bond that was about to become stronger through ceremony.

However, because of the dire state of the Purple Cloud sect, the stubborn Gu Yingyue chose to stay with the Gu Family and perished at the hands of Gu Changge.

Li Muchen had seen a change in Wang Yang after that, one that almost killed him down the line. So, given the chance, he wanted to see the harmonious future his future disciple couldn’t have.

I did my job of bringing them together, what they become after this isn’t under my control. Li Muchen entered the pond, his eyes gleaming in green light. But it is my duty to not let them meet the same end again.

A better future, not only for his disciples but for everyone he knew. That was what truly Li Muchen wanted.

“Being the matchmaker is unexpectedly quite fun.” He chuckled.

However, a problem arose soon after that.

Li Muchen was setting up new traps for the rabbits and boars in the forest around evening when his token buzzed.

When he accepted the sound transmission, Kexin’s voice came without a hint of calmness.

Master, Wang Yang has disappeared in the tunnel!