Watching the Mountain

"The Sect Leader treasures her immensely, calling her a once-in-a-millennium prodigy."

"A millennium? I’d say you might not see another one like her in ten thousand years."

Ye Qingxue listened quietly.

She had heard the name Yue Qingyu before. Yue Qingyu was the Sect Leader’s personal disciple. Though she had joined the Sect much later than Ye Qingxue, she already shone so brightly that she was impossible to ignore.

That evening, she went to her master’s small courtyard to deliver some tea.

Nine Profound True Monarch was reading a Jade Scroll by lamplight. Seeing her arrive, he smiled warmly. "Qingxue, you’re here."

"Master." Ye Qingxue set down the teacup. After a moment’s hesitation, she asked softly, "Master, have you heard of Senior Sister Yue Qingyu?"

The hand Nine Profound True Monarch was using to hold his teacup paused.

He looked up at Ye Qingxue, his gaze profound, and remained silent for a long time.

"I have," he said.

"They all say she’s a once-in-a-millennium prodigy."

Nine Profound True Monarch gently blew on the foam of his tea, his voice slow. "Don’t compare yourself to her."

Ye Qingxue was taken aback. "Why?"

Nine Profound True Monarch set down his teacup and gazed out the window at the night sky, where the river of stars shone brilliantly.

His voice carried a complex mix of emotions Ye Qingxue had never heard from him before—admiration, wistfulness, and even a faint, barely perceptible trace of envy.

"That girl, Qingyu, is different," he said. "In my several centuries of cultivation, I have seen countless prodigies, but she is the only one who makes me feel that for her, cultivation is not a climb, but a homecoming."

He turned back to look at Ye Qingxue’s confused eyes and added softly, "She is close to the Dao. Or rather, she was born as a manifestation of the Dao itself. Comparing yourself to her is like a stream envying the vastness of the ocean. It is meaningless, and you shouldn’t do it."

Ye Qingxue listened in a daze. She had never heard her master evaluate anyone in such a tone.

"Then..." She suddenly recalled the burning brightness in Ye Shan’s eyes. "What about Junior Brother Ye Shan? Can he compare to Senior Sister Yue?"

Nine Profound True Monarch fell silent.

This silence lasted even longer than the last.

After a long while, he finally spoke, his voice soft, as if talking to himself. "Shan... he is another kind of existence entirely."

"What kind?"

Nine Profound True Monarch shook his head and didn’t answer directly. He only said, "If Qingyu is a manifestation of the Dao, then Shan... he is probably the embodiment of ’I’ll do it my way.’"

Ye Qingxue didn’t fully understand.

But seeing the complex, inscrutable look in her master’s eyes, she suddenly remembered the way Ye Shan looked when he’d said, "In this world, no one is a match for me, Ye Shan."

She lowered her head and smiled, a very, very faint smile.

She had a feeling he could do it.

Time flew by, spring giving way to autumn.

The year Ye Shan turned twenty,

Ye Shan broke through to the Foundation Establishment Stage.

Ye Qingxue was happy for him, but also down about her own performance on a recent mission.

The mission had been to help inspect the Sect’s peripheral Defense Array. She was responsible for checking the Array Hub, but due to a moment of carelessness, she missed a tiny crack.

Although a senior brother on the mission with her eventually discovered and repaired it, preventing any consequences, his gentle words of comfort only made her feel worse.

She sat on that familiar green rock on the back mountain, hugging her knees and watching the sun sink bit by bit behind the peaks.

"Senior Sister."

Ye Shan’s voice rang out.

He was wearing a brand-new set of green robes today, which accentuated his tall, straight posture. The boyishness in his eyes hadn’t faded, yet there was an added clarity to his features, unique to those who had just reached Foundation Establishment.

"Congratulations on your breakthrough," Ye Qingxue said softly.

"Thanks." Ye Shan sat down beside her, sized her up for a moment, and then said abruptly, "Senior Sister, are you in a bad mood?"

Ye Qingxue didn’t deny it and briefly told him about the mission.

After hearing her out, Ye Shan didn’t say "it’s fine" like others would, nor did he try to comfort her. He just stared at her for so long that she began to feel uncomfortable, before saying with a completely serious expression:

"Senior Sister, you really are a bit too weak."

Ye Qingxue’s chest tightened.

"It’s not good to always be dragging your sect-mates down," Ye Shan continued, his tone as sincere as if he were discussing what to have for dinner. "How about we switch? You can call me Senior Brother."

Ye Qingxue: "...What?"

"Call me Senior Brother," Ye Shan said, his eyes sparkling, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "From now on, I’ll protect you. Then you won’t have to worry about these things. If anyone dares say you’re dragging them down, I’ll go beat them up."

Ye Qingxue stared at him for a long time. At first she was stunned, then annoyed, and finally, she suddenly burst out laughing.

It wasn’t a gentle, reserved laugh. She was literally laughing from exasperation.

"Ye Shan," she called out, a hint of indignation in her voice that she herself didn’t notice. "Do you have any idea what you’re saying?"

"I do," Ye Shan nodded. "I said, you call me Senior Brother, and I’ll have your back."

Ye Qingxue took a deep breath to calm herself. Looking at Ye Shan’s face, which was practically written all over with ’I think this is a great idea,’ she suddenly felt like teasing him.

"You want me to call you Senior Brother?" She raised an eyebrow slightly. "Alright, then."

Ye Shan’s eyes lit up.

"Let’s follow the Sect’s rules," Ye Qingxue said slowly. "If you want me to call you Senior Brother, you’ll have to earn the position of a True Disciple by challenge, with your current Cultivation."

As she said this, she felt a small sense of payback and amusement.

True Disciples were the top three hundred and sixty-five cultivators among the three thousand Inner Sect Disciples of the Profound Pure Sect.

Every single one of them was at the Purple Mansion Stage and had gone through countless trials and assessments.

’Ye Shan only just broke through to Foundation Establishment yesterday. No matter how talented he is, it’s impossible...’

"What’s so hard about that?" Ye Shan interrupted her thoughts.

He stood up, his green robes fluttering gently in the evening breeze. The golden light of the setting sun fell upon him, casting his entire figure in a dazzling silhouette.

He grinned, a wild and unrestrained smile, his eyes burning with a confidence that bordered on arrogance.