Chapter 17
The towering peak rose straight into the clouds. Halfway up the mountain was a dense, flourishing stretch of green trees, while the vast square of the main peak was hidden among the clouds. Because of this matter, disciples from all sides were now arriving one after another on their flying swords.
Fu Yan passed through the clouds. Before she had even landed, she saw a dense sea of people before her. Aside from many inner disciples, even quite a few outer disciples from the left peak had come.
At this moment, two corpses were laid out plainly in the square, one male and one female. Once Fu Yan saw their appearances clearly, she paused slightly.
Her guess had indeed been right. These two were precisely the two inner disciples of the Zilan Sect whom she had encountered in the Chihei Mountain Range that day. They had also died by Fu Yan’s hand.
Sweeping her gaze around, Fu Yan did not see Bai Yueli’s figure. Presumably, Bai Yueli had not had time to arrive yet. Fu Yan did not act rashly either and calmly stopped on a towering tree at the edge of the square as if nothing were wrong.
At this moment, the crowd below was already full of conflicting opinions. The group of disciples closest to Fu Yan had not stopped gossiping since earlier, but she was too lazy to pay attention. Instead, she fixed her gaze on the Zilan Sect elder standing in the square.
Fu Yan frowned slightly. She could not see his cultivation level clearly, which meant she could be certain he was not at the Illumination stage. This person’s cultivation was probably no lower than early Dao Integration.
After the Foundation Establishment stage came the opening of the qi sea and entering the Illumination stage. Above that was the Dao Integration stage.
“Is this person an elder of the Zilan Sect? Why haven’t I seen him before? Does anyone know?”
“Me, me, me… I know. He is indeed an inner sect elder of the Zilan Sect. His name is Xu Tanzhou. A year ago, his cultivation was still at early Dao Integration. As for whether he has broken through to the middle stage now, I don’t know.”
“What? Even if someone at early Dao Integration is an elder of the Zilan Sect, he still can’t just slander our Senior Sister Bai like this. And he even came alone to demand an explanation. Does he not take our Shuiling Sect seriously?”
“Look, Elder Lin and Elder Zhou from our inner sect are here!”
No one knew who shouted, but immediately, all the disciples below raised their heads and looked over. Two elders landed steadily in front of Xu Tanzhou.
Elder Zhou?
When she heard that title, Fu Yan, perched on the branch, paused. If she remembered correctly, there was only one Elder Zhou in the inner sect of the Shuiling Sect, and that was Zhou Zhenlie’s second uncle, Zhou Wunan.
Thinking of this, Fu Yan could not help shifting her gaze to Zhou Wunan again. He stood upright and appeared to be a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties. He wore the purple inner elder robes exclusive to the Shuiling Sect. His appearance did indeed look one or two points similar to Zhou Zhenlie’s.
Looking at it now, these two Dao Integration elders both had an indescribably rotten fate with Fu Yan.
Shaking her head helplessly, then thinking of her current situation, Fu Yan could only smile self-mockingly. She could only hope nothing would happen today.
At that moment, Zhou Wunan glanced at the corpses on the ground in the square and was the first to speak. “Elder Xu, what is the meaning of this?”
Xu Tanzhou could not help giving a cold snort, his tone clearly unpleasant. “You ask me what the meaning of this is? I would like to ask what your Shuiling Sect means. Why did you incite your sect disciples to kill inner disciples of our Zilan Sect?”
“Elder Xu, one can eat recklessly, but one cannot speak recklessly. When have our Shuiling Sect disciples ever killed your inner disciples?” Elder Lin at the side also spoke. Although his words were not pleasant, he still left the other party a bit of face.
“I’m speaking recklessly?” Hearing himself being questioned, Xu Tanzhou instantly seemed as if someone had touched his reverse scale. His entire aura burst out as he coldly stared at the two of them and said, “Your sect’s Bai Yueli killed our disciples first. What, now that it has happened, you dare do it but not admit it?”
As soon as his words fell, everyone saw a white figure descend from afar. As the breeze passed, Bai Yueli, clad in white, appeared in the center of the main peak square.
“Senior Sister Bai is finally here!”
“Wuwu, so this is Senior Sister Bai? I never thought there would come a day when I could see Senior Sister Bai’s true face. I can die without regrets now!”
“That’s right, that’s right. I’m afraid I’ll never enter the inner sect in this lifetime. I’ve long heard that Senior Sister Bai is the number one beauty of our Northern Region. As expected, the rumors didn’t deceive me!”
“…”
With Bai Yueli’s appearance, the outer disciples who had still been fully focused on the elders just now were instantly drawn away. They could not help beginning to discuss excitedly.
Fu Yan, sitting on the branch, also paused slightly. This was the second time she had seen Bai Yueli since entering the sect. Bai Yueli was still as cold and clear as she had been last time. Even when facing Xu Tanzhou of the Zilan Sect, her clear, bottomless eyes did not show the slightest trace of panic.
Fu Yan suddenly felt somewhat guilty. Bai Yueli had saved her life, after all. Now, the blame for the people Fu Yan had killed had been thrown onto Bai Yueli as well.
Just as Fu Yan was struggling over how to get out of today’s situation without throwing the blame onto Bai Yueli and without exposing herself either, she saw Bai Yueli in the center of the square suddenly walk slowly toward the two corpses.
Bai Yueli looked at the corpses on the ground. The man had died after his protective true essence was broken by one sword strike that pierced his heart. The woman had been killed with one sword sealing her throat. There was nothing particularly strange about the woman’s corpse, but the man’s corpse was somewhat interesting.
Without thinking too much, she directly crouched beside Liu Chuanhan’s corpse, wanting to carefully examine the wound over his heart.
“What are you trying to do?” Seeing this from midair, Xu Tanzhou thought Bai Yueli was trying to destroy the corpses and eliminate evidence. Without even thinking, he directly struck a palm toward the back of Bai Yueli’s head.
A strike from someone at the Dao Integration stage was something even Bai Yueli, with her pure-yin body, could not withstand. If this palm landed, she would probably be either dead or crippled.
Although Fu Yan knew that with Zhou Wunan and Elder Lin present, Bai Yueli definitely would not suffer any harm, at the moment Xu Tanzhou’s hand rose and fell, Fu Yan on the branch almost rushed over just like that.
It was almost an uncontrollable instinctive reaction. Although Fu Yan herself did not know what she could do by rushing over with her early Illumination-stage cultivation, perhaps it was because Bai Yueli had saved her life, she thought.
“Do not act presumptuously!” Seeing this, Zhou Wunan could not help shouting loudly.
The elder beside him, however, was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He directly made a move and forcefully met Xu Tanzhou’s strike. The two people’s cultivation seemed evenly matched, and very soon, each withdrew their hand.
“What kind of person is this? A Dao Integration expert actually launching a sneak attack from behind!”
“Exactly. I’m so angry. So it turns out the elders of the Zilan Sect are petty people who like to launch sneak attacks. How shocking.”
In an instant, everyone could not help casting contemptuous gazes toward Xu Tanzhou. Seeing his actions being called a sneak attack, Xu Tanzhou was so angry his beard practically bristled and his eyes bulged.
At this moment, Bai Yueli below finally stood up again. She slowly flew up and stopped among the three elders. First, she looked at Zhou Wunan and Elder Lin, bowing slightly. “Disciple greets Elder Zhou and Elder Lin.”
“Mm.” Elder Lin nodded. Bai Yueli was the most powerful disciple among the Shuiling Sect’s younger generation, so naturally, they were unconditionally biased toward Bai Yueli. However, thinking of today’s situation, he could only ask, “Do you know these disciples of the Zilan Sect?”
Hearing this, Bai Yueli shook her head honestly. “Disciple does not know them.”
“You hear that? Senior Sister Bai said she doesn’t know these two dead people. One look and you can tell the Zilan Sect is deliberately framing Senior Sister Bai!”
“Exactly, exactly. The people of the Zilan Sect were never anything good to begin with!”
After hearing Bai Yueli’s answer, the people below immediately began feeling indignant on her behalf.
Xu Tanzhou was a Dao Integration expert and an elder of the Zilan Sect. He had always been respected by others. When had he ever suffered this kind of anger? If not for the fact that the other side had two Dao Integration experts standing before him, he might truly have lost control and attacked.
After speaking, Bai Yueli turned to look at Xu Tanzhou across from her and asked neither humbly nor arrogantly, “Since Elder Xu says I killed them, do you have any evidence?”
“I ask you,” Xu Tanzhou looked at Bai Yueli and continued, “did you go to the Chihei Mountain Range half a month ago?”
“Yes.” Bai Yueli nodded.
“This disciple of mine had middle Illumination-stage cultivation. I received information that half a month ago, only you went to the Chihei Mountain Range for training, and no disciples from other sects went there. With your strength, killing someone with one sword strike would be no problem at all.” Since he was being asked for evidence, Xu Tanzhou could only explain in detail.
“Is Elder Xu here to be a joke? Without any evidence, relying entirely on your own guesses, you come to my Shuiling Sect for no reason to demand an explanation?” Zhou Wunan immediately stared at Xu Tanzhou with a face full of hostility, clearly dissatisfied with his explanation.
In truth, Xu Tanzhou indeed had no evidence. But since Bai Yueli just happened to have appeared in the Chihei Mountain Range, he used it as an excuse and deliberately came to the Shuiling Sect to make trouble for Bai Yueli.
After all, Bai Yueli was the greatest pillar among the Shuiling Sect’s younger generation. As long as Bai Yueli could be destroyed, the Shuiling Sect’s future development in the Northern Region would no longer have any right to speak.
However, with how much the Shuiling Sect valued Bai Yueli, even if she really had killed Liu Chuanhan and Xu Yan, the Shuiling Sect would definitely protect her. So Xu Tanzhou had never thought he could truly eliminate Bai Yueli.
But making a scene before the sect competition of the various sects would bring only benefits and no harm to their Zilan Sect.
“Hmph, isn’t this obvious enough?” Xu Tanzhou snorted coldly and still stubbornly insisted on blaming Bai Yueli. He continued, “Since you refuse to admit it, then let me search her spiritual consciousness. The truth will naturally come to light.”
As he spoke, he looked toward Bai Yueli at the side.
Searching spiritual consciousness meant searching a cultivator’s spiritual sense. The person performing it could see all the memories of the person being searched clearly. In other words, no matter what secrets the searched person had, the other party could know them clearly.
And yet, this was not the most terrifying part. Spiritual consciousness was the very life-root of a cultivator. If it suffered even the slightest injury, the person might become a fool. Because of this, no one would willingly let another person search their spiritual consciousness.
“Search her spiritual consciousness?” After hearing Xu Tanzhou’s words, Elder Lin was immediately surrounded by a chill, clearly truly angry now.
Fu Yan, standing on the tree branch, also shook. She had not expected Xu Tanzhou to be this vicious. He actually wanted to search Bai Yueli’s spiritual consciousness.
Fu Yan also instantly understood. At this point, who had killed them was no longer important. Xu Tanzhou had come up the mountain today with his sights nakedly set on Bai Yueli. That made sense. As long as Bai Yueli was ruined, among the younger generation, no one in the Shuiling Sect could compete with the Zilan Sect anymore.
Although she knew the Shuiling Sect definitely would not hand Bai Yueli over, as Fu Yan looked at that white figure in the square, she still felt somewhat worried.
Just as the situation in the square was somewhat deadlocked, Fu Yan, standing on the branch at the edge, suddenly felt a gaze fall on her.
She raised her eyes and happened to meet Zhou Wunan’s gaze.
Zhou Wunan looked at her quietly. His half-smiling expression made Fu Yan’s scalp go a little numb. But in that instant, she suddenly realized something was wrong. Just as she was about to turn and leave, she discovered that her body could not move at all.
Then, Fu Yan heard Zhou Wunan’s voice ring out across the square.
“In truth, half a month ago, our sect had another disciple who was also near the Chihei Mountain Range at the time.”
It was over, Fu Yan thought.
This damned old bastard!!!
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