Mute Granny gently held Yi Lin in her arms, comforting the frightened girl. But since she'd only experienced Highschool of the Dead through anime, Yi Lin recovered rather quickly.
Even so, the thought of watching Highschool of the Dead again made her hesitate. And then there was that spider anime from Kumoko. She was both curious and terrified. After all, if a normal high school girl like Saeko Busujima had to face such horrifying zombies, what kind of monstrous creatures would appear in Kumoko's story? A talking spider? That had to be even more terrifying.
To this day, Yi Lin still viewed Kumoko as a kind of monster. A spider that could talk, and one so unnaturally large what else could it be but a demon?
Yet in the end, curiosity got the better of her, and she clicked on Kumoko's anime.
Told from Kumoko's perspective, the story featured all kinds of spiders big ones, small ones, even gigantic ones but somehow, it didn't frighten her nearly as much as the walking corpses. Sure, it was a little creepy, but not to the point of bone-deep terror. In fact, Kumoko's energetic personality made it... kind of fun to watch?
Just then, Mother Silent Mercy, who had previously slipped away from Mount Heng to travel to Fuzhou, finally returned. And she brought back the legendary Sunflower Manual.
The first thing Mother Tranquil saw when she opened the manual were the bold characters scrawled at the top:
"To master this art, you must first castrate yourself."
"Amitabha..." Hands pressed together in prayer, even the most temperate of the three, Mother Tranquil, couldn't help murmuring aloud.
"It seems Yi Lin was telling the truth after all. That chat group, and Swordsman, they're both real." Mother Serene Grace sighed. The story of Swordsman seemed to trace its roots to this very manual. Yet she understood that the Sunflower Manual was only a surface-level cause. The true origin of chaos lay in the ambitions and desires of those within the jianghu.
Take Laurence Proudpeak, head of the Mount Hua Sect. Initially, all he wanted was to protect his sect from the pressure of the Songshan Alliance and help it thrive. But once he obtained the Sunflower Manual, his power grew rapidly. The humble goals of Mount Hua were no longer enough. He wanted to dethrone Lucius Coldzen and lead the Five Mountain Sword Alliance himself.
"Senior Sister, now that the Sunflower Manual has proven Swordsman to be real, what should we do? Especially with this manual... what's the proper way to handle it?" Mother Tranquil frowned as she stared at the text, worry gnawing at her. The manual was, after all, a source of immense calamity.
"Destroy it," said Mother Serene Grace with a firm shake of her head. "Martial techniques themselves are neither righteous nor evil, but this one demands far too great a sacrifice. Better to destroy it outright than risk it leaking into the world."
"I agree," said Mother Silent Mercy without hesitation.
In truth, when Mother Silent Mercy first obtained the manual, she had felt a tinge of curiosity. She even considered attempting to practice it. But it was curiosity, nothing more. She had never been particularly obsessed with martial arts. To her, a treasured Buddhist scripture held more meaning than any swordplay.
As expected, her attempts proved futile. As a woman, she simply could not cultivate the technique. She shared this with her sisters, which only strengthened their decision to destroy the manual.
They threw the old robe in which it had been hidden into the brazier. It was quickly consumed by flame.
As they watched the Sunflower Manual turn to ash, the three nuns felt a strange mix of relief and unease. But deep down, they knew it was the right thing to do.
And now that the chat group had been confirmed real, their focus shifted entirely to Yi Lin.
Compared to the manual, Yi Lin's potential was clearly much greater.
After all, if she could establish a connection to a world filled with fire-breathing ninjas, who was to say she couldn't someday connect with the Bodhisattvas or the Buddha himself? If that happened, and Yi Lin managed to form a close bond with them, maybe the three of them these aging nuns could benefit as well. That would certainly be more valuable than any martial arts manual.
So the three nuns summoned Yi Lin and gave her very specific instructions: she must never reveal the existence of the chat group to outsiders. More importantly, she had to build good relationships with the other members inside.
Meanwhile, after Yi Lin left, Mute Granny's eyes flickered with thought. Then she quietly descended the mountain. Her destination? Yi Lin's father, the unorthodox monk known as Wildblade.
Why Wildblade? She was going to ask him to kill Lone Wanderer Bo Lightstep.
Even though, in Swordsman, Bo Lightstep only kidnapped Yi Lin and didn't manage to harm her, no mother could forgive such a thing. And if not for Laurence Proudpeak's intervention, Yi Lin would have never escaped.
Bo Lightstep had to die. That much was certain.
Mute Granny was no weakling herself, but she wasn't sure she could defeat Bo Lightstep. The man was incredibly fast, and she might not even be able to catch him.
So she made a decision: she would strike a deal with Wildblade. If he agreed to kill Bo Lightstep, she would finally forgive him.
After all these years, with Yi Lin already grown, perhaps it was time to reconcile.
Poor Bo Lightstep. He had no idea that Wildblade was about to drop from the sky and take off his worthless head.
Not that anyone would mourn a lecherous scoundrel like him.
Back in the chat group...
"Zombies? Is that really going to happen? Everything seems so peaceful right now."
Saeko Busujima, now using a new username, had just finished watching Highschool of the Dead and couldn't help but voice her doubts.
"It probably will. That's how the story goes."