I Just Wanted to Live, but I Somehow Became Better Than the Main Character

Chapter 55: Master and Disciple

The Sword Pavilion Hall was the largest hall in the Heavenly Luo Sect. It had about 10,000 people, which was about 1/6th of the total amount of people in the Heavenly Luo Sect.

The Sword Pavilion Hall disciples lived on the 6th mountain, the Treasure Sword Mountain. It was the 4th largest mountain out of the 24 mountains of the Heavenly Luo Sect. It was more than 1.5 times as tall as Echo Mountain, and it was divided into a west and an east section. The west section was for the male disciples, while the east was for the female disciples.

An Yu Fang, a sword cultivator elder, had accepted Qin Shi Meng as a core disciple the day she had joined the Sword Pavilion Hall. This was because the elder also had the Frozen Heart Physique, and so she had wanted to take Qin Shi Meng as her disciple the moment she found out that Qin Shi Meng also had the Frozen Heart Physique.

An average cultivator at the 10th layer of the Ascension had a lifespan of about 2,500 years, and as a cultivator at the 9th layer of the Ascension Realm, An Yu Fang had a lifespan of about 2,400 years. However, she had already lived for 2,000, so she only had about 400 years left of her lifespan.

To a cultivator, 400 years wasn’t all that long. If An Yu Fang wanted to live longer, she would have to break through to the Void Realm in 400 years. However, she had been stuck in the 9th layer of the Ascension Realm for 300 years, and there was little hope of her reaching the 10th layer of the Ascension Realm, not to mention the Void Realm. As she had never had any children or disciples, she took in Qin Shi Meng as her core disciple to ensure that the knowledge that she obtained throughout her life wouldn’t be lost.

Maybe it was because of the resonance of their physiques, or maybe it was because An Yu Fang was old and didn’t have anyone to rely on, but An Yu Fang took Qin Shi Meng in as her disciple during their first meeting.

An Yu Fang didn’t hold back and immediately gave Qin Shi Meng the heaven-grade mental art [Frozen Heart Art].

Qin Shi Meng finally realized just how amazing the [Frozen Heart Jade Physique Immortal Art] was when she received the [Frozen Heart Art]. [Frozen Heart Art] is a heaven-grade mental art, and yet, it’s not even half as good as the [Frozen Heart Jade Physique Art]. More importantly, Ye Yong told me that this was only the first part of the mental art. What heights can I reach if I were to obtain the complete mental art and finish cultivating all of it?

Qin Shi Meng couldn’t imagine it and became more curious about Ye Yong.

Unfortunately, Ye Yong was the one who gave her the mental art, so Qin Shi Meng couldn’t tell An Yu Fang about her mental art and risk exposing Ye Yong. As such, Qin Shi Meng could only look at An Yu Fang’s pale face and nod, telling An Yu Fang that she would properly cultivate the [Frozen Heart Art].

Next, An Yu Fang gave Qin Shi Meng the heaven-grade [Frozen Heart Sword Art].

The difference between sword arts and sword techniques was that sword techniques involved sword moves and skills while sword arts involved understanding the sword and the Dao of the sword.¹

Every road would eventually lead to the Dao.

The Dao could be said to be the highest realm that cultivators pursued. Cultivators at the Nascent Soul Realm only briefly touched the basics of the Dao, and it was only the start of the path to pursue the Dao. They then have to realize it, understand it, and use it.

The more powerful a sword technique was, the more sword DaoLol knowledge it contained, and the harder it was to understand it. However, if Qin Shi Meng could completely understand this sword technique, then she would be able to quickly learn techniques with similar sword intent.

After thanking An Yu Fang, Qin Shi Meng went to the residence assigned to her, and started comprehending the sword art. She didn’t need the mental art, as she already had the better [Frozen Heart Jade Physique Art].

As a core disciple, Qin Shi Meng had a different treatment compared to normal disciples. She lived high up on the east side of the mountain. The higher a disciple lived on a mountain, the higher their status. While her cultivation was lower than the cultivation of the inner disciples, she had a higher status.

…

It was currently the 4th day Qin Shi Meng was in the Sword Pavilion Hall. She could somewhat understand a little of the beginning contents of the [Frozen Heart Sword Art]. Sure, she was talented and smart, but she was still just a 17-year-old girl in the Crystallization Realm, so it was impossible for her to comprehend the [Frozen Heart Sword Art] to the introductory level in a short time.

Having spent time trying to comprehend the sword art for a few days, Qin Shi Meng felt a bit dizzy and annoyed. She didn’t know why, but she thought of Ye Yong and wanted to talk about the past few days with him.

“I wonder if he passed the Music and Art Hall’s hall master’s exam.” Qin Shi Meng had heard about the contents of the exam from Liang Xiao Rou, and that the exam was extremely difficult for males. On top of that, male disciples who failed the exam would be thrown out and publicly shamed, and Qin Shi Meng didn’t want to hear Ye Yong’s shameful stuff. Sighing, Qin Shi Meng got out of the seclusion room.

Seeing Qin Shi Meng walk out, Lil Huan, Qin Shi Meng’s personal maid, immediately told Qin Shi Meng about the information spreading around the Heavenly Luo Sect. “Young Master Ye passed the exam that no male cultivators had passed in the past century and officially became a disciple of the Music and Art Hall! Young Master Ye is amazing!”

Qin Shi Meng also got happy seeing how excited and happy Lil Huan was, and the slight annoyance she had felt from trying to comprehend the sword also dissipated. “Then let’s go see him together.”

“Yes yes!” Lil Huan used to extremely hate Ye Yong, but now she was completely fangirling over Ye Yong.

…

Qin Shi Meng and her maid rode a flying artifact and arrived at the bottom of Echo Mountain. A pretty, quiet-looking female cultivator was currently reading inside the guard hut.

The female cultivator immediately noticed the two and stood up. “Junior Sister Qin? Are you here for Junior Brother Ye?”

“Yes. Greetings, Senior Sister Lu.”

It was natural that the person here would be Lu Xiao Xiao. While she was at the 5th layer of the Crystallization Realm, which was higher than the others in the Music and Art Hall who were at the 4th layer of the Crystallization Realm, she had joined the Music and Art Hall the latest and was the youngest one in the Music and Art Hall. As such, it was only natural that she would get all the hard work pushed onto her.

Yes, the newly joined disciples were both younger and had lower cultivation than she did, but they had only just joined and were still trying to get used to things, so the work couldn’t be pushed onto them. As such, Lu Xiao Xiao had to do all the difficult and boring tasks for a while longer.

Well, the tasks weren’t really difficult for her, as she spent most of her time reading. It didn’t matter to her where she was reading as long as it was quiet.

“Why are you looking for him?” Lu Xiao Xiao didn’t want to gossip about other people’s private matters, but this was about Ye Yong. *Their* Ye Yong! Qin Shi Meng used to be engaged to Ye Yong and was the one whom Ye Yong had been in love with. Who knows if their love will rekindle? Where would our face go if we let such a talented Junior Brother Ye elope with a female disciple from another hall?

“Friends catching up. Please notify him for me, Senior Sister Lu,” Qin Shi Meng replied.

“Okay…” What could Lu Xiao Xiao do? Refuse to let Qin Shi Meng see Ye Yong? She took out her transmission stone and told Ye Yong that Qin Shi Meng had come to visit him. After getting a response from Ye Yong, Lu Xiao Xiao let Qin Shi Meng go up the mountain.

“Thank you, Senior Sister Lu.” After learning about where Ye Yong’s residence was, she left with Lil Huan on her flying artifact.

“Qin Shi Meng… I didn’t look carefully enough last night, but now that I’ve taken a proper look, she is indeed very beautiful. It’s no wonder Junior Brother Ye used to love her. I hope Junior Brother Ye won’t leave our Music and Art Hall for her,” Lu Xiao Xiao mumbled as she watched Qin Shi Meng fly away.

The Music and Art Hall didn’t have someone keeping watch previously. However, starting from 2 days ago, multiple female disciples kept going up the mountain to visit Ye Yong. It was the first time they had seen so many female disciples making a long line.

This was because it was usually male disciples who would line up to see certain female disciples, like Qin Shi Meng, for example. It was rumored that the amount of people joining the Sword Pavilion Hall had broken a new record was partially because of her. There had been people constantly trying to visit her for the past few days, but because Lil Huan told all of them that Qin Shi Meng was cultivating in seclusion, none of them bothered Qin Shi Meng.

The female disciples of the Music and Art Hall had used the same excuse to reject the girls wanting to visit Ye Yong, telling them that Ye Yong was cultivating in seclusion. Now that Lu Xiao Xiao had let Qin Shi Meng visit Ye Yong, then once the news got out, there would definitely be girls lining up and blocking the mountain gate.

“No, I have to think of something. How dare a bunch of vulgar people try to go after Junior Brother Ye? Hmph!” Lu Xiao Xiao put down her book, trying to come up with ways to keep other girls away from Ye Yong.

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Translator’s Notes:

¹ I’m not gonna lie, despite having read this novel at least 5 times, I forgot that this novel distinguishes between “art” and “technique”, so I have been translating both as art.💀 Well, it should be fine, though there will be some term changes to reflect the distinction.