You Chose to Kill Your Master, So Why Regret It Now? - Chapter 2:

Chapter 2: From This Life Onward, We Will Each Walk Our Own Path.

On the roster was the profile of his eldest disciple, Ye Feiyan.

She had already been reborn. As a former Great Emperor who had returned to the past, her life was naturally no longer as miserable as it had been in Lu Qing’s previous life. Her background was now much more ordinary and far better than before, placing her on roughly equal footing with the other disciples.

She now had a chance of entering one of the seven main peaks and an even greater chance of being accepted by one of the thirty-three auxiliary peaks. At the very least, she would not end up like she had in his previous life, when even becoming a menial disciple had been nearly impossible.

Lu Qing merely glanced at her profile before looking away.

…

At the same time, Ye Feiyan was also gazing at Lu Qing with complicated emotions.

After being reborn and given the chance to begin everything again, memories of the past inevitably resurfaced in her mind.

Back then, she had not been given even the slightest opportunity. It was Lu Qing who had given her that chance.

Yet in the end, she had repaid him with a single sword strike.

Su Chen had once told her that she had been born with the destiny of a Great Emperor. All the suffering she endured in her childhood had merely been the workings of fate. Even without Lu Qing, she would have encountered another opportunity in her previous life and found another path to becoming a Great Emperor.

Lu Qing had merely happened to choose her.

Even so, guilt still lingered deep within her heart.

‘Master, your disciple has returned in this life. Will you still accept me? Will you still treat me as you did in our previous life?’

Ye Feiyan stared at Lu Qing, her thoughts tangled and complicated.

At the same time, she desperately wanted to know whether everything would truly happen as Su Chen had claimed.

According to Su Chen, everything had actually been deliberately arranged by Lu Qing. Her master was destined to choose her as his disciple.

Su Chen had also told her that even if she could start over and live another life, destiny could never be changed.

She would eventually become a Great Emperor, while Lu Qing would inevitably choose her because he had been plotting something from the very beginning.

His entire life had supposedly been one enormous conspiracy.

She possessed the destiny of an Emperor as well as the Grand Yin Imperial Physique.

Once Lu Qing nurtured her into a Great Emperor, he could supposedly use her physique to grasp a faint opportunity to break through the limits of the Great Emperor Realm.

For that purpose, Lu Qing had allegedly committed countless earth-shattering massacres.

When one piece of evidence after another, seemingly irrefutable facts, had been placed before her eyes, she believed them.

Yet the instant she thrust that sword into him, she regretted it.

She had never imagined that she would be given another chance to return.

‘Master, I want to know whether you’ll still accept me as your disciple in this life. My profile on the roster has already changed. Was everything Su Chen told me really true?’

Ye Feiyan stared intently at the figure above, the man watched by countless people with admiration, anticipation, and yearning.

…

Elsewhere stood Lu Qing’s second disciple from his previous life.

Xiao Ning.

Xiao Ning was a prodigy of the Xiao Family. From childhood, she had been raised as the future Patriarch. However, she was later framed by a treacherous member of her family and afflicted with the Heaven-Devouring Gu.

The strange Gu devoured her natural talent, leaving her on the verge of death.

Desperate for even the slightest chance of survival, she sought admission into the sect.

Yet no one in the sect dared to accept her, nor was anyone willing to do so.

The strange poison was extraordinarily difficult to cure. Even if a cure could be found, it would consume an astronomical amount of resources. She had neither family nor connections within the sect, so who would willingly take responsibility for her?

Just as the young girl wept and resigned herself to death, Lu Qing accepted her.

Later, he eventually succeeded in removing the strange poison from her body.

She was the second disciple Lu Qing had chosen.

Xiao Ning possessed considerable talent and had been raised from childhood to become a Patriarch.

Therefore, strictly speaking, she was actually the disciple Lu Qing had truly envisioned as his eldest disciple in his heart.

There had been a trace of selfishness behind his decision to accept her. Lu Qing had placed great hopes upon Xiao Ning and intended to nurture her as the future Peak Master of Heavenly Sword Peak.

He wanted her to succeed him, preserve Heavenly Sword Peak’s inheritance, fulfill the dying wish of the previous Peak Master, and finally resolve one of the lingering concerns in his heart.

Xiao Ning was exceptionally well suited to becoming a Peak Master. That had been one of the reasons Lu Qing chose her.

Unfortunately, what she later gave him in return was an equally devastating palm strike.

That strike destroyed one of the seven supreme protective treasures Lu Qing had nurtured for 1,000 years, causing a backlash that left him severely injured.

…

His third disciple was Ye Lingyu.

Ye Lingyu’s circumstances had been much simpler.

She had no father or mother and was on the verge of starving to death. All she wanted was to join the sect.

Unfortunately, her talent was so poor that she was not even qualified to become a menial disciple.

When Lu Qing saw her deathly pale face and pitifully thin body, both ravaged by hunger, compassion stirred within him, and he accepted her as his disciple.

She was also the youngest disciple he had ever taken.

Yet this youngest disciple later used a Heaven-Destroying Needle to extinguish Lu Qing’s final hope.

She shattered the Immortal-Slaying Evil-Extermination Ten Formation Diagram he had always taken such pride in, pushing him toward the final step of his downfall.

…

His fourth disciple was Liu Yao.

Liu Yao had suffered a cruel and turbulent fate.

She had been born to a mistress of the Liu Family and was an illegitimate daughter who had endured endless suffering since childhood.

Then she awakened her ancestral bloodline.

For an ordinary person, such an awakening would have been an extraordinary opportunity. For an illegitimate daughter like her, however, it became a disaster.

In the end, her ancestral bloodline was forcibly stripped from her body, and the opportunity that should have belonged to her was taken by her younger sister.

She was then forced to follow her younger sister as a servant when they entered the sect.

When Lu Qing learned of what had happened, he was furious.

He stood up for Liu Yao and helped her vent the resentment she had endured. Afterward, he painstakingly nurtured her until she became powerful enough to return to the Liu Family and avenge every injustice she had suffered.

Yet later, this very disciple used the Star-Plucking Seal Lu Qing had personally given her against her own master.

The seal shattered the meridians surrounding his heart and inflicted devastating damage upon his Imperial Physique.

…

Lu Qing’s gaze swept across the information on the roster before he finally looked away.

Everything had changed.

Even Liu Yao had easily resolved the problems surrounding her identity. Despite still being an illegitimate daughter, she was now living remarkably well within the Liu Family.

The thought merely flashed through Lu Qing’s mind before he stopped thinking about those disciples.

From this life onward, they would walk their broad roads, while Lu Qing would walk his narrow bridge.

Their paths would have nothing more to do with one another.

Without sparing those names another glance, Lu Qing shifted his attention toward the candidates ranked near the top.

Names passed before his eyes one after another.

Zhao Long.

Zhang Hu.

Ye Lian’er.

Murong Yuan.

As Lu Qing scanned through the names, his gaze eventually stopped on one of them.

Ye Lian’er…

He vaguely remembered this disciple.

She had never been under his tutelage. Instead, she had been accepted as a disciple by Ye Xing, an elder of the Fifth Peak.

Ye Xing had always been dissatisfied with Sect Master Ye Youran. Eventually, that dissatisfaction escalated until he betrayed the sect.

As the most important disciple under Ye Xing, Ye Lian’er became famous during the battle caused by his betrayal.

She fought three prodigies of her generation by herself and defeated all three.

Her combat strength was astonishingly close to that of Lu Qing’s own disciples, shocking the entire sect at the time.

Later, Ye Xing defected to a demonic sect, and Ye Lian’er followed him.

Not long afterward, both master and disciple died.

Lu Qing had personally taken action to eliminate the traitors and clean up the sect.

Therefore, Lu Qing remembered Ye Lian’er quite clearly.

She had been a genuine prodigy. In fact, calling her the sect’s greatest prodigy of that generation would hardly have been an exaggeration.

The second person who caught his attention was Zhang Shi.

Zhang Shi had been a disciple of the Third Peak in Lu Qing’s previous life, and Lu Qing remembered him particularly well.

He was honest and simple by nature, with a somewhat dull and inflexible personality. However, he was extraordinarily responsible.

Once he decided to do something, he would fulfill it even if it cost him his life.

The reason Lu Qing remembered him so vividly was because of something that had happened while Zhang Shi was traveling through the mortal world.

After promising someone that he would do something for them, Zhang Shi faithfully kept his word. He stayed alone in one place, guarding a stone tablet for 70 years.

Only after someone finally arrived to retrieve the stone tablet did he return to the sect.

Because of this incident, Daoist Xuandan, the Peak Master of the Second Peak, had been so furious that he nearly exploded with rage.

At numerous minor peak assemblies, Daoist Xuandan had cursed furiously, complaining about how stubborn, dull, and hopelessly inflexible this disciple was.

Lu Qing’s heart stirred.

He chose Zhang Shi.

‘If I entrust Heavenly Sword Peak to him and ask him to preserve its inheritance, then with his personality, he will definitely keep his promise until his dying breath. He won’t dare neglect it in the slightest. That way, Master’s dying wish can also be carried on…’

‘Besides, Ye Lian’er possesses extraordinary talent. I can nurture her for combat and have her help Zhang Shi protect the Seventh Peak. That wouldn’t be a bad arrangement either.’

With those thoughts passing through his mind, Lu Qing made his decision.

At that moment, Ye Youran finally spoke.

She looked toward the Peak Masters of the seven peaks and asked, “Fellow sect members, have you chosen suitable disciples for your direct lineages? Oh, and as for this one, leave this disciple to me.”