Chapter 58 — Heartbreak

After more than a month without seeing her, Lu Xueqi looked somewhat thinner, though whether from those wounds he could not tell. But seen from here, Zhang Qingyue still felt a shock of beauty: this woman seemed born radiant, of a beauty unmatched in the world, and even grown thin she was like, among blooming lilies, a single drop of cool dew lightly revealed—desolate, a little proud and aloof, and all the more exquisite.

The female disciples of Little Zhu Peak were for the most part lovely women, drawing countless gazes from all around. Apart from the old monks of the Brahma Sound Temple who kept their eyes fixed straight ahead, the male disciples of the Canglan Sect, the Burning Cloud Valley, and others all looked this way, intentionally or not, and Lu Xueqi drew the most eyes of all. Only now she had returned to her former cold aloofness; when her gaze passed Zhang Qingyue by chance, it lingered only faintly a moment before moving on, with no other expression.

Zhang Qingyue felt somehow disappointed, though after a while he was instead rather glad. He had always been somewhat in awe of this icy, stunning woman, and now that she paid him no heed, he felt at ease. Before long his attention was caught by Tian Lingsu's giggling laughter, and he could not turn it back again.