Su Mei heard this, tilted her head slightly, and under her disheveled hair, her eyes, still with a hint of pain but no less sharp, looked at Lin Chaoyu. "Oh? What brilliant insight does the eldest martial sister have?"
Lin Chaoyu's gaze, following Fu Hua's, shifted slightly to glance at Su Mei.
She didn't believe that someone as intelligent as Su Mei couldn't understand what she was saying. But she was just playing dumb, wanting to make fun of her. This malicious nature was the same as it was years ago, not changing one bit.
After giving Su Mei a look of annoyance, Lin Chaoyu's gaze returned to Fu Hua.
She watched as Fu Hua, in a way they couldn't comprehend, easily neutralized the all-out attacks of Ma Feima, Cheng Lingshuang, and the others. And except for Cheng Lingshuang, no one could last a second move in Master's hands.
Her movements were concise and efficient, with an almost ruthless precision, no longer showing any of the guidance and gentleness of the "master" in their memories.
"The master of the past was powerful, but still within the realm of 'martial arts'," Lin Chaoyu said slowly, each word as if it had been carefully considered for a long time.
"Her sword had a path, a trace, the limits of a 'human'. Although we were not her equal, we could at least understand, look up to, and... pursue."
She paused, her gaze sweeping over Ma Feima, who had been casually thrown away by Fu Hua and landed in a disheveled state, and Cheng Lingshuang, who was constantly adjusting her sword path to no avail.
"But the master now..." Lin Chaoyu's voice lowered, with an imperceptible tremor. "Her 'strength' has surpassed the limits of 'martial arts'. It's no longer a difference in technique, power, or realm, but... a fundamental difference.
"It's like... we are still fighting with wooden sticks and stones, while she has already mastered lightning."
Su Mei was silent. The hand on her neck tightened slightly, her knuckles turning white.
She recalled the palm strike she couldn't react to at all. It wasn't just speed and power, but also a cold and unfamiliar "aura" that made her soul tremble.
It wasn't the 'presence' she was familiar with. It was something... more primitive, more tyrannical, and more ruthless.
But this wasn't what Lin Chaoyu wanted to say.
"Alright, enough with the literary metaphors. Do we really need to maintain our relationship in such a roundabout way?" Su Mei rolled her eyes at Lin Chaoyu, a flirtatious roll of the eyes that could have been a glare.
"Or have you become one of those old fossils after staying at the Taixu Martial Arts School for so long?"
Lin Chaoyu didn't answer immediately. Instead, she stared at Fu Hua for a long time before speaking in a voice that she tried her best to suppress from trembling.
"Junior sister..." it was rare for her to call Su Mei that. "I feel like... something is missing from master's heart... and something has been added..."
"I can't say what it is exactly, but it has almost completely changed master, making her no longer like the person we once knew... as if I had never known master at all."
Su Mei's body trembled slightly. Of course she felt it. And unlike Lin Chaoyu's confusion, she saw it more clearly.
The concern and tolerance for her disciples that had once been hidden in Fu Hua's calm gaze now seemed to be covered by a grander, colder "responsibility."
She was still "teaching" them, but in such a cruel way, as if they were just "tools" that had to be polished into shape as quickly as possible, for some more important goal that they could not yet fully understand.
But can a person really abandon everything they once had, and change themselves for a goal?
Of course, a human cannot, because their short lives are entangled with too much. They have to consider this and that. You can even say that all choices in this world are a trade-off, and different people's choices just stem from different values.
The word "interest" runs through a person's entire life. The past is too heavy, and the future is too ethereal. To bet everything from the past on an unseen and intangible "possibility" of the future?
This is by no means a correct choice a normal human can make.
But... a "person" can.
Perhaps using the word "dream" to describe it is too vulgar and one-sided. Perhaps it should be described and narrated in another way.
"To hear the Dao in the morning is to die content in the evening," Su Mei said softly. Like Lin Chaoyu, she gazed at Fu Hua and let out a breath of turbid air. Then, a flush appeared on her face.
"So beautiful..."
Unlike Lin Chaoyu, the Fu Hua who was so unfamiliar in Lin Chaoyu's eyes seemed to be shining in Su Mei's.
Su Mei's trembling "so beautiful" was like a fine needle, gently piercing the composure that Lin Chaoyu had been struggling to maintain.
She turned her head abruptly to look at Su Mei, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"You..." Lin Chaoyu's voice carried a sharpness she herself hadn't noticed.
While she was feeling uneasy and even fearful of the unfamiliar, heart-pounding change in their master, Su Mei actually found it... "beautiful"?
Su Mei didn't answer immediately. Her gaze still followed Fu Hua's figure, mesmerized, watching her in the field like a god administering punishment.
She watched Fu Hua's every wave, every step, carrying a pure, ultimate "power" and "rule" stripped of all superfluous emotions.
She knew that the other was deliberately imitating that monster called a Honkai Beast, but she was deeply engrossed, unable to extricate herself.
"Eldest martial sister, don't you understand?" Su Mei's voice was soft, yet it had a burning, penetrating power. "The master of the past was powerful, but still bound by 'human feelings', 'etiquette', and even the 'responsibility' towards us.
"Her swordsmanship, no matter how strong, still carried the warmth of a 'human'."
She slowly raised her hand and pointed at Fu Hua. "But now, look at her. Every punch she throws, every bit of power she mobilizes, is for that one and only goal—to make us stronger, strong enough to survive the coming disaster.
"No hesitation, no pity, no unnecessary guidance... only the most direct and efficient 'method'."
Su Mei's breathing quickened slightly, and the pathological flush on her face became more and more obvious. "What a pure 'Dao' this is! For a single goal, she can unhesitatingly sever the bonds of the past, and even change her own 'form'!
"Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that what we martial artists pursue for our entire lives... the 'obsession' and 'conviction' that transcends the mundane?"
Lin Chaoyu listened to Su Mei's shocking words, her mouth agape. But after staring at the flush on Su Mei's face for a long time, she actually showed a hint of... a smile?
"That's really... something you would say," Lin Chaoyu said softly, with a hint of a relieved smile.