Chapter Fourteen: The Bird Struggling Against the Cage Door

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“Huh?” The young girl, dazed by the pain of her broken bones, answered instinctively. The moment she opened her mouth, someone flicked a pill with perfect accuracy straight between her lips.

The superb spirit pill melted instantly into a warm, medicinal current. Cheng Yingxue felt a sudden heat in her chest and abdomen, and the warmth flowed along her twelve meridians toward every limb and bone. The wound on her foot, which had still been oozing blood, rapidly grew fresh flesh. In an instant, comfort spread throughout her entire body.

“Oh? It doesn’t seem to hurt as much anymore.” The girl cautiously wiggled her ankle. Su Changling immediately frowned and gave her calf a light tap. “Don’t move around. The bones haven’t finished mending.”

“Eep.” Cheng Yingxue hunched her neck and whimpered, but after that she truly did not dare move again.

With the aid of the spiritual power flowing from Su Changling’s hands, her broken bones healed at an astonishing speed, restoring themselves as though they had never been damaged.

The girl stared at the top of her foot—a sight she had not seen in years—now smooth and entirely free of scars or pressure marks. This time, she burst into tears for real.

“It’s really healed… It healed so quickly!” Cheng Yingxue clung to the edge of the couch, sobbing so hard she could scarcely catch her breath. “I’ve waited years for this day, Sister Su… I’ve waited years!”

“I used to think I would never again be able to run through the trees or climb hills and walls as freely as I did when I was little!”

She had once believed that, in the end, she would become like the countless women of this world, confined within an inner residence that was never meant for her, shut away in a small attic where she could not even see the sky, and wasting away the rest of her life.

But now… there was hope that her foot could recover. Even her eldest uncle had agreed to give her a chance to prove herself—

Something that had nearly taken root forever in her heart quietly split open. The fissure widened and widened, and in the blink of an eye it seemed poised to spread across the entire barrier like a spiderweb.

At that moment, she felt like a bird struggling against the door of its cage, half its body already stretching beyond the bars. If only she could take one more step forward, she would be able to embrace the freedom she yearned for.

Women whose feet had been bound could not travel far; they could only use books and poetry to acquaint themselves with the distant world.

But now, at last, she might have the chance to see that distant world with her own eyes.

Once she had received permission and confirmed that the bones in her foot had healed completely enough to bear weight, the young girl hopped merrily off the couch. Barefoot, she ran and leaped around the room, laughing and crying, making countless circuits.

Her newly healed foot was still not strong enough. Her four rear toes were still tightly forced beneath the sole, and every few steps a piercing pain continued to shoot through the center of her foot.

Yet she could clearly feel that her steps were far steadier than before, and her body no longer swayed and staggered as it once had.

She was no longer a woman entirely trapped within the confines of rules and propriety, powerless to resist.

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At last, she no longer had to perform that “grace” the world expected of her.

“Amazing…” After nearly half an hour of running wild, Cheng Yingxue collapsed into a cushioned chair with a soft thump, her gaze still fixed unwaveringly on the foot that had been restored by half.

“The pills from your immortal sect are truly incredible, Sister Su!”

“After all, they’re refined with spirit fire and spirit plants. Their medicinal effects are naturally extraordinary.” Su Changling answered casually, then abruptly changed the subject. “But, Miss Cheng, do you have any shoes you can wear right now?”

She remembered that the girl’s shoes seemed to be the sort with absurdly pointed toes.

The excited young girl froze at the question. “Er… I don’t think so.”

“…I knew it.” Su Changling was not surprised in the slightest.

In the end, Cheng Yingxue wore a pair of shoes that Su Changling had personally altered according to the general shape of her foot.

As she struggled with the embroidered shoes, the young woman was grateful that she had not skipped her lessons or wandered off when studying the Transformation Art. At the same time, she could not help wondering why a perfectly good Transformation Art had ultimately been put to use altering someone’s shoes.

Fortunately, the finished shoes turned out rather well. Cheng Yingxue found them quite comfortable when she tried them on, so she kept them. Su Changling exchanged a few words with her, then returned to the mountain to ask Lingchenzi about something.

At this hour, the sea of clouds around the mountaintop had yet to disperse. Set against the green pines covering the slopes, it possessed a distinct air of immortality.

Autumn had entered the world. The yellowing maples in the gorge had already taken on a faint blush, while the half-bare rocks at the summit remained as sharp as though cleaved by swords.

Su Changling rode her flying sword and cast a cursory glance over the thirty-six main peaks. Seeing that all the formations remained stable and that no travelers were preparing to leap from cliffs or drown themselves in lakes, she finally relaxed and flew straight toward Lingchenzi’s dwelling.

At that moment, the irresponsible old man was sprawled in a rocking chair in the little courtyard, snacking. The instant he caught sight of the sword aura descending from the sky in the corner of his eye, he hurriedly sprang up and jumped three yards away.

The sword struck the ground. In an instant, it cleaved the bamboo rocking chair into splinters.

Lingchenzi gazed at the chair he had polished to a glossy patina through years of use, and a trace of heartache crossed his face. “Oh, come now—what a wasteful child you are!”

“I’d only had that chair for less than two years!”

“It’s fine. It wasn’t anything valuable. At worst, one of your disciples can replace it with a new one tomorrow.” Su Changling’s expression remained blank. She had no intention of expressing the slightest apology for splitting Lingchenzi’s chair in two with a single stroke.

The main reason was that this shameless old man had, several years ago, assigned the task of leading the younger disciples through their initiation to their unfortunate group of apprentices. Since then, he had become even more carefree and indolent. Every time she saw how comfortably he lived, anger boiled up inside her.

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“Forget it. Anything you replace it with is bound to be rubbish.” Lingchenzi curled his lip and waved a hand. As he spoke, he produced another chair from his pocket as if by magic.

Su Changling felt her fingers itch the moment she saw the rocking chair. Lingchenzi noticed the tiny movement and shot her a wary glance. Then, resigned and reluctant, he sat upright.

“Go ahead, Changling.”

“You only came down the mountain yesterday… Why have you come running back today? What are you trying to do?”

“I have a few questions.” Su Changling was concise. “And I’d like to ask you for some anesthetic.”

“Anesthetic?” Lingchenzi frowned suspiciously. His eyes traveled up and down the young woman before him several times. “For you?”

“No. For a young woman.” Su Changling shook her head. “When I went down the mountain, I happened to see her about to jump off a cliff. I rescued her, and I’d like to treat her foot while I’m at it.”

“Oh, it’s for someone else—not for you. Good.” Lingchenzi stroked his chest and let out a long breath. “You frightened me half to death. For a moment, I thought some filthy thing had possessed you!”

He had nearly brought out an exorcising spell.

“…That seems a little unnecessary.” The corner of Su Changling’s mouth twitched.

Lingchenzi gave an insincere laugh, rubbed his nose, and gazed at the sky. “Ahem. That’s not important.”

“For that sort of medicine, just ask your Second Senior Sister. Her alchemy is the finest, and she particularly enjoys researching things like that.”

“Enough, go on,” Lingchenzi said, flicking his broad sleeve. “What questions did you have?”

“Very well.” Su Changling nodded without hesitation.

“Master, in the past, has there ever been…”

“Have there ever been cultivators from Cloudstep Ruins who died unfortunate deaths while away from home?”