Yun Tian and Han Lao couldn't hide the shock on their faces. Yun Tian worked up the nerve to walk toward Su Qingyue, his hands pressed together and his head bowed respectfully.
"Forgive this junior's presumptuousness, but the Tianyin Sect faces serious risk if Grand Sect Leader Su is not there to protect it."
"Please reconsider your decision, Sect Grandmaster Su," Yun Tian said. Han Lao echoed the same.
Su Qingyue's attention shifted forward. Her hand swept gracefully and tapped her bag of holding, drawing out a white plate with a crescent moon carved into it.
She tossed the crescent plate to Yun Tian. He caught it with both hands, startled, holding it carefully.
"This is the right time for me to advance my realm. I have no intention of leaving Mu Chen again," Su Qingyue said.
"That is the crescent moon plate. Activate it only if the Tianyin Sect is in a truly dire situation. The moon's reflection will appear and I will come."
Yun Tian went quiet for a moment and glanced at Han Lao. Han Lao let out a slow breath and gave a resigned nod.
If Su Qingyue had made up her mind to go out into the world with Mu Chen, neither Yun Tian nor Han Lao had any power to change it.
Disappointment stirred in both of their hearts, but they refused to let that kind of thinking take root and drag down their own cultivation.
"If this is the path heaven's fate has laid out, then I, Yun Tian, will respect Sect Grandmaster Su's decision."
"Good. You may return to the sect."
Yun Tian put away the crescent moon plate and took his leave of the Grand Sect Leader.
He and Han Lao flew away from the eastern forest and headed back to the Tianyin Sect, without Su Qingyue.
Su Qingyue glanced back, fixing her eyes on Grandma Si and Grandpa Tu.
Through her cultivation sight, she could clearly see that their cultivation bases sat at the Perfect Nascent Soul stage, or more precisely, half a step from Soul Formation.
Because Su Qingyue had developed her own dao conception to a high level, she could also see and understand what kind of dao Si You and Tu Wei were searching for.
Mu Chen watched Su Qingyue walk gracefully toward Grandma Si and Grandpa Tu. He stayed alert, worried she might attack them again without warning.
Grandma Si and Grandpa Tu pressed their hands together, lowered their heads, and spoke in measured tones the moment Su Qingyue reached them.
"The two of you have aligned your hearts toward the same dao comprehension in complete harmony. I can see it."
"Being mortals who seek to understand the laws of heaven is one of the finest paths. As your understanding deepens, the power of your dao conception can grow far stronger than those who seek enlightenment through sect cultivation."
Both elders looked genuinely surprised and caught off guard. Moments ago Su Qingyue had shown her dark, brutal, cold, and ruthless side.
Now the situation had flipped and her manner had changed completely.
Su Qingyue was sharing her own comprehension of the best path toward heavenly enlightenment.
Grandma Si and Grandpa Tu had no intention of letting such a rare opportunity pass them by.
The woman's hand rose to chest height, white qi light appeared at her fingertips.
Slowly, the white spiritual qi energy condensed into two white orbs and shot into the foreheads of Grandma Si and Grandpa Tu.
Neither of them reacted dramatically. Their bodies were wrapped in Su Qingyue's spiritual qi energy. Mu Chen was curious and asked.
"What are you doing?"
"As a Soul Transformation cultivator, I am able to send a dao resonance to someone who is trying to form their own dao conception."
"Dao resonance?"
"That's right," Su Qingyue replied. "I don't know exactly what their comprehension of their own dao conception is. But I am giving them the experience I had when I first found my own dao, passed to them in the form of a dao resonance."
"If their hearts and minds are aligned with the heavenly enlightenment they have been searching for, the dao resonance can help them a great deal."
Mu Chen was quiet for a moment, still not fully grasping everything about the dao. But one thing he understood clearly from what Su Qingyue was doing.
A cultivator at a higher realm could help those at lower realms in significant ways, especially when it came to something as complex as finding a dao conception.
A pulse of white qi went off in Grandma Si and Grandpa Tu's bodies. Mu Chen watched them with wide eyes.
The wrinkles on their faces disappeared. Their posture straightened. Their bodies grew taller, and their physical forms returned to youth.
That was their true appearance as Perfect Nascent Soul cultivators.
Can I still call them Grandma and Grandpa when they look like that?
Si You and Tu Wei opened their eyes and looked at their own hands. The qi pulses in their bodies beat steadily like signs that a breakthrough was close to coming.
In the vision of the dao resonance Su Qingyue had given them, both of them saw the figure of Mu Chen, appearing clearly in front of them.
"It seems the two of you have found your dao conception. From what I can see, all you need now is closed-door cultivation to deepen your comprehension."
"Thank you for the enlightenment, Senior."
"I helped you because you saved my Mu Chen."
Si You and Tu Wei turned toward Mu Chen, both of them smiling wide as their eyes met his. He gave a simple response, a single nod of his head.
Before long, they excused themselves to go find a suitable place for their closed-door cultivation. Su Qingyue said nothing in response.
"Alright, Mu Chen."
Su Qingyue turned and looked at him. "It is just the two of us. What do we do now?"
Mu Chen let out a slow breath. He still wasn't used to the idea of doing everything with just Su Qingyue beside him. But she would be more willing to listen to him now.
Which meant there was less chance of Su Qingyue acting out.
"Every cultivator is tied to their sect. I'm new to this world. I'm not used to being bound to something like that."
"So you want to be a wandering cultivator?" Su Qingyue asked. Mu Chen folded his arms and agreed.
"Is being a wandering cultivator a bad thing?"
"Not really," Su Qingyue said. "As a wandering cultivator, you can learn more knowledge and techniques than any single sect can offer."
"The threats are just far more dangerous since no sect or clan will be there to protect you. Your life and death will always hang on a thin, blurry line."
"But you don't need to worry. I will stay with you. I will be there to help you," Su Qingyue said.
Mu Chen gave a faint smile, still looking straight ahead at Su Qingyue. "Thank you, Yue'er."
Su Qingyue felt something in her softening even further. The smile on her face grew more visible.
The cold and ruthless expression she was so often known for had started to fade whenever she was around Mu Chen.
She felt certain that as long as she stayed by his side, Mu Chen would be just fine by the time he reached the Nascent Soul realm.
"People will get suspicious if I keep looking like this," Su Qingyue said.
White qi light appeared in Su Qingyue's hand. She swept it from right to left, and her appearance shifted into a simple female cultivator's outfit, without any accessories or crown.
Mu Chen was quietly amazed at the speed of the change. "Now I can look at you as an equal."
"I'm not done yet," she said, snapping her fingers.
White spiritual qi blazed across Su Qingyue's body, pulsing three times without making Mu Chen flinch. Within seconds, the qi fluctuations disappeared and Su Qingyue's eyes opened.
"I have sealed my cultivation down to the Core Formation level. That should keep people from getting suspicious."
"Can something like that actually be done?"
"Many cultivators do the same to avoid drawing suspicion. They usually use a cultivation camouflage technique for specific purposes," Su Qingyue replied.
Mu Chen nodded. He might not fully understand it yet, but he was confident he could learn a great deal from Su Qingyue.
"That's a relief."
Su Qingyue smiled wide and summoned two flying swords, one for herself and one for Mu Chen. "Let's go."