Chapter 4

Serena stepped forward, cutting into our conversation, and rested her head on his shoulder.

Blaze's body went rigid. He hesitated only a moment, then curved his arm around her and drew her in.

Serena's gaze swept over my face, and once she saw it clearly, her eyes sharpened.

She reached out and seized my right hand, probing my cultivation.

My right arm looked whole enough, but the root and bone hadn't fully mended, and wherever her spiritual energy searched felt like it was being seared by fire.

Thankfully she let go quickly, and the wariness in her drained into contempt.

"I thought you were someone worth all that fuss. Nothing but an empty shell. Who knows, maybe she copied that face from the Peerless Immortal Sovereign on purpose."

"Here's an idea. Five days from now is the day the whole sect goes to pay respects and offer incense before the Peerless Immortal Sovereign. Come along too."

She was scheming something, the malice in her eyes nearly spilling over.

Blaze pressed his lips tight, displeased with her tone.

He gave me a slightly apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, junior sister. My master's temper has always been bad."

"If you don't want to go, you can refuse."

I had no wish to get tangled up with them, but I was curious who this person was that Blaze had kept on his tongue for centuries.

Besides, in five days my injuries would be fully healed.

By then I would also settle accounts with the two of them for burning my spirit mountain, so I nodded and agreed.

Five days later.

The grand hall enshrining the golden statue was packed with cultivating disciples.

As far as the eye could see, they were all prostrate in worship, hearts full of devotion.

Even the elders and masters of the sect, who rarely showed themselves, had gathered in the grand hall.

From the moment I appeared, countless eyes fell on me, and the murmuring grew louder and louder.

And I looked at the towering statue before me, and found it laughable.

Because this Peerless Immortal Sovereign they spoke of looked exactly like me.

Blaze and Serena stood on the raised platform, their gazes circling the hall before settling firmly on me.

His stare was thick, something like delight, something like fire, and something searching. That searching look was exactly the same as the day I'd saved him, when he'd wept at the foot of the mountain and begged me to take him as my disciple.

Suddenly Serena's whole face turned gentle, and she beckoned to me.

"Faye?"

"You're the newest and youngest disciple, so why don't you offer the last stick of incense to the Peerless Immortal Sovereign."

Everyone turned to look at me. I walked up calmly, and as I took the incense from Serena, I clearly saw the corner of her mouth curve into a smug little smile.

Sure enough, the moment I set the incense into the censer.

A crack split out from the censer, tracing back to my fingertip.

The crack grew wider and wider, driving straight at the golden statue in the grand hall, in the space of a single breath.

With a sharp crack, the cloud-piercing golden statue crumbled to powder and came drifting down in a slow shower.

Everyone was stunned, no one reacting for a moment.

Then Serena seized me. Playing the righteous avenger, she flung her own sword to Blaze and shoved me forward, dragging me out before the crowd to make me their target.

"It was you!"

"You used some kind of demon sorcery, disguised yourself in the Peerless Immortal Sovereign's face, and offended her. You angered the Sovereign so badly that she shattered her own golden statue rather than be connected to a shameless creature like you."

"Today your immortal soul will pay for the offense to the Sovereign! Blaze, cut up her face first."

Blaze shuddered all over, his face torn, but under Serena's gaze and everyone else's, he still walked step by step to stand before me.

I stood still.

I let him bring the blade down against my face.

Cold light flashed. A stinging pain ran across my cheek, and a few drops of blood rolled down. Blaze's hand trembled, and the instant our eyes met, he looked away in a fluster.

Seeing that my face bore only a thin, small scratch, Serena grew even angrier.

She raised her voice higher, berating him.

"Blaze! Why haven't you torn the skin off her face? What are you waiting for!"

"Or is it that you no longer want to become an immortal?"

Blaze's grip tightened again on the blade, and he said softly to me, "I'm sorry."

But this time he clearly meant not to hold back.

A sharp crack.

The immortal sword in his hand, the one Serena treated as the sect's treasured spirit-instrument, snapped clean in two.

And not a single hair on me had fallen.

My whole body was wreathed in seven-colored spiritual energy.

I looked at him and finally spoke, but only disappointment was left.

"Blaze, when I taught you your powers back then, it was not so you could bully the weak."

That strike just now, if I had truly been some new little disciple with shallow spiritual roots, forget my face being marred, even my bones would have been cut through.

I would have been dead already.

Blaze's eyes filled with terror.

His entire arm was snapped clean by the rebounding immortal force.

He paid no mind to his own pain, his eyes trembling and trembling, only staring at me stupidly.

His lips quivered without stop. "You, Master... how is it you?"

"How do you... look exactly like the Peerless Immortal Sovereign?"

I curved my lips, touched my face, and felt a little embarrassed.

"Because I am the Peerless Immortal Sovereign you all speak of."