Chapter 53 Part 2: Three Versions of ‘I’

After days of exertion, his body was overheated and needed rest. So, Ning Mingmei went to bed early.

There was only one day left until the group meeting.

The next morning, Ning Mingmei was woken up again by noise in the courtyard.

The culprits were once again those two poisoned disciples.

“Peak Lord Ning, they’ll be fully detoxified in one more day,” Luo Xiao said with a fawning smile.

Inside the room, the two disciples were still shouting nonsense.

“I love you, my home!”

“Junior Sister Qiao! When I get back, I’m proposing to you!”

“Peak Lord Bai, I want to be your dog.”

“Praise the sun!”

Ning Mingmei: …

“Seal their mute acupoints,” he ordered.

Finally, silence. Feeling refreshed at last, Ning Mingmei went to see Gui Ruoxue.

He pushed aside the mirror and Gui Ruoxue glared at him with hatred.

Looked like he had finally broken down.

Ning Mingmei: “Gui Ruoxue, don’t feel guilty for glaring at me, as if you’ve hurt my feelings. Everyone knows I cultivate the path of ruthlessness. Accepting your anger is just another part of my training.”

Gui Ruoxue: …

He looked like he really wanted to roll his eyes.

Ning Mingmei unsealed his mute acupoint.

Surprisingly, even though Gui Ruoxue had looked like he was about to start cursing when his mouth was still sealed, now that he could speak, he maintained the refined manners of someone from the Brilliant Blossom Valley.

“Peak Lord Ning, you must have been desperate to hear me speak,” Gui Ruoxue said coldly. “Otherwise, why go to such lengths to humiliate me?”

Ning Mingmei: “Why do you say that, Gui Ruoxue? I’m only trying to help you. From the moment I first met you, I knew that you have never truly obtained what you really want.”

Gui Ruoxue looked like he was about to choke on his own breath. He sneered coldly, “Oh? Then tell me, what is it that I truly want?”

It seemed Gui Ruoxue had quite the tolerance and there was still plenty to dig into.

“That question,” Ning Mingmei said serenely, “only you can answer. Because you don’t truly understand yourself.”

Gui Ruoxue cast a strange glance at the mirror he had been forced to stare at for an entire day.

Ning Mingmei: “After a whole day, have you gained any insights? For example, how many versions of ‘I’ did you see in the mirror?”

Gui Ruoxue: “You?”

Ning Mingmei: “Not me—you. Tell me again, how many ‘I’ did you see?”

Gui Ruoxue was stunned. “Is it ‘I’ or ‘you’?”

Ning Mingmei: “This ‘I’ is you, but it can also be me. Each of us is an ‘I’ and not just one, but multiple. Question one: how many ‘I’s do I have?”

The usually gentle yet secretly venomous long-haired beauty finally showed a confused expression.

He hesitated. “…Many?”

He was so confused he actually got drawn into answering the question.

Ning Mingmei: “Wrong. Three. Do you want to know why there are three ‘I’s?”

The id, the ego, and the superego.

Gui Ruoxue started nodding… then suddenly shook his head furiously.

What nonsense.

He definitely hadn’t nodded just now.

“To understand why there are three ‘I’s, you must start with yourself,” Ning Mingmei said. “So here’s the question: who are you?”

Gui Ruoxue: “Gui Ruoxue.”

“Gui Ruoxue is just a name, a label. Anyone could be called Gui Ruoxue. Anyone could be called Ning Mingmei. If we remove the name, what defines you as you? The answer is still ‘I.'”

Ning Mingmei continued, “Gui Ruoxue, your failure to understand this is the reason for your endless suffering. To bear the weight of virtue and to repay evil with good is the doctrine of the Supreme Clarity Sect. Therefore, I must enlighten you and grant you complete freedom.”

Complete and autonomous freedom to work for him—no, for academic excellence.

Gui Ruoxue was a beauty.

A venomous beauty.

Because of this, there was never a shortage of men and women who wanted to ‘save’ him. They would often say, “You seem cold and ruthless, but deep down, you’re just a lonely child.”

Finally, the conversation returned to a topic Gui Ruoxue was familiar with. He smiled darkly. “Oh? And what is complete freedom?”

But Ning Mingmei changed the topic again. “Gui Ruoxue, what do you want at this very moment?”

Gui Ruoxue sneered. “Ning Mingmei, I want you to let me go.”

“Escape? No, that’s not what you truly desire,” Ning Mingmei said. “Do you know the five levels of human needs?”

Gui Ruoxue: “I don’t know… And why should I answer your questions?”

The long-haired beauty’s face darkened with frustration. He had realized that he was being led by Ning Mingmei’s pace.

“Physiological needs, safety, social belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.” Ning Mingmei adjusted his glasses. “Let me explain simply.

“Physiological needs are like wanting to sleep in a better guest room.”

Guest room? Isn’t this a prison cell?

“Safety needs are like wanting to leave this place. Congratulations, you’ve shown some growth and reached the second level of needs.

“Social belonging is like wanting to be friends with me.”

Gui Ruoxue: “…Who the hell wants to be friends with you?!”

Ning Mingmei: “Esteem means being respected by me and by your elder brother. Has your brother, Gui Ruoxu, ever respected your research? You both come from the Brilliant Blossom Valley, yet he sees medicine formulas as righteous and poison formulas as evil. But in truth, they are two sides of the same coin. If one side is used for good, it’s a medicine formula but if the other side is used, then it’s poison. By simply ignoring the truth, could it make duality disappear?

“The Brilliant Blossom Valley claims to be the number one medical sect, yet they refuse to acknowledge this basic fact?

“Did the Brilliant Blossom Valley succeed due to medical cultivation or has it restricted the growth of medical cultivation for the sake of reputation and so-called righteousness?

“Because of this, you left and founded the Green Jade Altar. But the people there only chase after power and status. They don’t study the formulas. Instead, they simply followed you down an unconventional path because they couldn’t succeed in the orthodox path. They never truly understood why you created the Green Jade Altar in the first place.”

A single sentence sent a shock through Gui Ruoxue’s heart.

He fell silent, swallowing the bitterness in his throat. “…Hah.”

“The fifth level is self-actualization, the pursuit of true ‘freedom.’ The highest, purest goal you wish to achieve. At this level, how others see you no longer matters. Because you have already attained inner fulfillment. No matter how exhausting, how bitter, or even if in the end, you become nothing more than a tool creating value for another. Even if you stay in a snow cave and devote yourself to your work, you would still feel utterly satisfied, because spiritual transcendence is incomparable. Reputation and wealth are merely burdens recognized by society.

“For you, freedom is the pursuit of academic excellence.”

After listening to his words, Gui Ruoxue’s eyes flickered with a golden light, as if he had been moved by his own imagination.

Ning Mingmei said nothing. He simply stood there, watching Gui Ruoxue’s shifting expressions. Moved one moment, cold the next, deep in thought, feeling understood, then raising his defenses once more.

Finally, Gui Ruoxue spoke.

There was a hint of reluctant bravado and tsundere stubbornness in his voice.

“You’ve said so much, but in the end, you just want my medicine. Isn’t that right?” Gui Ruoxue said coldly. “That’s your true purpose—”

Ning Mingmei interrupted him again.

“Gui Ruoxue, right now, you want to kill me. But in reality, the one you want to kill isn’t me. It’s yourself. Or rather, your ‘I,’” Ning Mingmei said. “The reason is…”

He glanced out the window. “Time’s up.”

Then, without hesitation, he struck Gui Ruoxue’s acupoint, repositioned the mirror, and left.

Gui Ruoxue, who had been about to act all tsundere but was now completely cut off: …

That Ning Mingmei! How could he just cut off the conversation like that?!

But tomorrow, Ning Mingmei would definitely come back to see him.

Gui Ruoxue gritted his teeth in anger.

When the time came, he would demand an answer.

After leaving Gui Ruoxue to reflect on himself, Ning Mingmei curled up in bed alone, using his internal Qi to suppress his condition.

It was flaring up again.

For once, the system felt a little sympathy for Ning Mingmei. But the moment didn’t last long, because soon it heard him say, [Lian Chengyue, that useless thing. Can’t he just hurry up and get better so I can drain his blood?]

The system: …

***

“It’s so quiet outside,” He Zheng remarked.

The residence was unusually silent today. Ning Mingmei’s captive had been struck mute, the two poisoned disciples had also been silenced, and the disciples from Assembled Virtues Peak had gone out shopping. Even the four disciples from Misty Peak, who usually patrolled the courtyard, were nowhere to be seen.

Wait, where did those Misty Peak disciples go?

He Zheng wandered around the estate, finally catching sight of the seventeenth disciple who had stepped out for a quick break.

The seventeenth disciple had dark circles under his eyes and a dazed expression, looking utterly drained.

He Zheng approached him and asked about his well-being.

“Tomorrow morning… our master wants to see us,” the seventeenth disciple mumbled.

Tomorrow morning?

Oh, right. It had been exactly seven days since the ‘closed-door meeting’ in the village.

When it came to what happened after the closed-door meeting, the seventeenth disciple clammed up completely.

He Zheng’s eyes flickered with mischief. “My senior sister, Jiang Yu, really admires your master. She dreams of joining Misty Peak.”

The seventeenth disciple: …

“Ah… is that so? Why?”

He Zheng: “She finds Peak Lord Ning elegant and coldly refined.”

The seventeenth disciple: “If that’s her reason… forget it.”

After a pause, he added, “Master is actually nothing like what you all imagine.”

He Zheng narrowed his eyes.

The seventeenth disciple drifted away like a ghost, leaving He Zheng deep in thought.

Nothing like what they imagined?

Did that mean he was the complete opposite?

An idea suddenly struck He Zheng.

How about sneaking Jiang Yu along to spy on the meeting tomorrow?

After witnessing whatever terrifying scene was about to unfold, she would surely lose all desire to betray Yin Xisheng.

This was his pride as a disciple of Jade Pavilion Peak.

***

That night, many people had trouble sleeping.

Gui Ruoxue was one of them.

His room was the only one still brightly lit. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, sometimes smiling, sometimes frowning in anger.

Thankfully, he couldn’t move. Otherwise, he would have been tossing and turning restlessly.

Ning Mingmei.

What exactly was Ning Mingmei planning?

‘He just wants your medicine,’ a voice in his mind told him. ‘Gui Ruoxue, the world is like this. Don’t let yourself be fooled.’

‘But what he said was quite interesting,’ another voice responded.

‘He comes every morning, says a few words, then leaves. Doesn’t he want to talk to me more? Shouldn’t rivals engage in more back-and-forth conversations?’ a third voice asked.

‘Just wait. Yesterday, Ning Mingmei said so much. It seems like he can’t hold back anymore. Today, he’ll definitely come and say even more.’

With those thoughts swirling in his mind, Gui Ruoxue battled with himself until dawn.

The brighter the sky grew, the calmer he felt.

Because for the past few days, Ning Mingmei had always come to see him at exactly Si hour.

The moment he would finally see Ning Mingmei, instead of staring at his own reflection all day, was almost there.

Gui Ruoxue was certain that dealing with him was Ning Mingmei’s top priority. The most important, unshakable task on his list.

So, he would definitely come. There was no way he would just leave him alone.

When the time came, he would act aloof to vent his frustrations from the past few days.

With only a short while left until Si hour, Gui Ruoxue stared at his reflection, fully prepared to engage in a debate with Ning Mingmei.

But then, something completely unexpected happened.

Can’t remember if I’ve said this before but if a chapter is divided into 2 parts, they will be posted 30 mins aparts so NU bots can pick them up. I know some of you don’t like chonky chapters.😘