Everyone looked over.
A ragged young woman wearing a veiled hat stumbled toward them.
Meng Xiuchen frowned. He could not make out who she was and was about to give another order.
Meng Anli ran to the servants, lifted her veil, and revealed a filthy little face. Wind and frost had left faint cracks on her skin, while her dry, peeling lips were split with wounds, some still bleeding.
Lu Yao froze, scarcely able to believe it.
How had her beautiful, noble little Anli become like this?
Meng Xiuchen was stunned as well.
Meng Shiwan's eyes, however, brimmed more with delight.
Meng Anli did not bother with them for the moment. Grabbing the servant's hand, she said, "Let her go!"
The servants recognized her and released their hold.
Meng Anli threw her arms around her. "A Yao!"
She had finally seen A Yao again.
Her best friend—the one who had died saving her in her previous life.
She did not dare dwell on those memories too deeply, afraid she would sink into them.
Meng Anli hugged her only briefly before hastily letting go. Taking her hand, she turned to Meng Xiuchen and Meng Shiwan.
"Meng Xiuchen, Meng Shiwan, I'm back."
Along the way, she had warned herself countless times to restrain her hatred and not lose her reason.
Yet she still wanted nothing more than to rush over and tear them apart.
Before they could speak, she shouted first.
"Masters, Meng Shiwan joined forces with the three young masters of the Meng family and the Meng family head to steal my inner core and my cultivation. Meng Shiwan is taking the entrance examination, which is unfair to the other disciples. I propose that the academy never admit a disciple of such vile character."
The moment those words fell—
The crowd gasped in low voices.
"What?"
"Something like that actually happened?"
"No wonder she looks so bedraggled."
"When Lu Yao shouted that earlier, I thought she was talking nonsense. It was simply too outrageous. Who would have thought it was true?"
Meng Xiuchen hurriedly retorted, "Meng Anli, don't spit blood at people!"
"What?" Meng Anli sneered. "You dare do it but not admit it? Why not summon the immortal officials from the academy's medical division? Let them determine whether her inner core belongs to me."
Naturally, Meng Xiuchen did not dare.
He hesitated, unable to produce a rebuttal.
Seeing his reaction, Meng Shiwan knew they really could determine that the inner core was not hers.
Her eyes shifted slightly, and she began to sob softly. "Sister, don't you know why Brother took your inner core?"
Meng Anli raised a brow. What was she planning to make up now?
Meng Xiuchen also remembered how she had let eighty-one people go.
He relaxed, and the disgust in his gaze toward Meng Anli deepened. She had nearly fooled him.
He was about to speak.
But Meng Shiwan got there first, accusing her, "Sister, you were unhappy that Father and our brothers treated me a little better, so you destroyed my inner core. They only dug out your inner core in a fit of rage."
Meng Xiuchen looked at her in confusion, then immediately caught on and echoed her.
"Meng Anli, you were raised in the palms of our hands since childhood. If you had not done something wrong, why would we have dug out your inner core?"
The crowd launched into heated discussion once more.
"Oh, so Meng Anli destroyed her inner core first."
"Good thing I didn't curse Meng Shiwan just now. She looks so frail and delicate—there's no way she could do something like that."
"The Third Young Master Meng has a point. The Meng family's three brothers used to spoil Meng Anli to the heavens. During her entrance examination, all three brothers were there. Now that this younger sister has come, only the Third Young Master has shown up."
Meng Anli applauded in admiration. "What quick thinking. So you mean that after arriving at the Meng family for half a year, you formed an inner core? And I destroyed it for you?"
Meng Shiwan naturally knew that forming an inner core within half a year was far too absurd.
She pursed her lips, her eyes reddening as tears fell at once.
"Sister, are you saying one can only form an inner core in the Meng family? I formed mine before entering the Meng family. I simply did not consume as many spirit pills and wondrous medicines as you did, so my cultivation level was lower than yours, and you destroyed my inner core."
Naturally, many people agreed with those words.
After all, quite a few of those taking the entrance examination were mortal cultivators.
Meng Xiuchen tenderly wiped away her tears, but the more he wiped, the more they fell.
He cursed Meng Anli in disgust. "How can you be so vicious? You're always bullying Wanwan."
Lu Yao immediately cursed back, "You're the fucking vicious one—vicious and stupid besides! Anli hasn't even said anything yet. How have you already convicted her? I don't believe Anli is the kind of person who would destroy someone's inner core."
The faint ache in Meng Anli's heart caused by Meng Xiuchen was healed once more by Lu Yao's trust.
She pulled Lu Yao behind her. "I went to the North Sea, and on my way back, I passed through the mortal realm and visited Meng Shiwan's birthplace."
Meng Shiwan's face instantly turned deathly pale. "You..."
Meng Anli smiled at her, bright as the March morning sun, but her words sent a chill through Meng Shiwan's entire body.
"I asked your human mother. During your sixteen years in the mortal realm, you never cultivated. Did that inner core grow out by itself?"
"The mortal realm?"
Lu Yao asked Meng Anli, "Didn't your mother ascend to godhood? Isn't she your younger sister?"
"Who knows?" Meng Anli said indifferently. "Perhaps we share a father?"
Lu Yao grew even angrier. "Sixteen years ago, your mother had not yet ascended. Your father committed adultery with someone?"
Meng Anli nodded, her heart aching for her mother.
Meng Shiwan had spent sixteen years in the mortal realm, then one and a half years here. At seventeen and a half, she was only half a year younger than Meng Anli.
That meant her father had committed adultery while her mother was pregnant.
"So she's a half-human, half-bird hybrid!"
Someone in the crowd shouted, and laughter immediately erupted.
The crowd began discussing it heatedly again.
Their gazes toward Meng Shiwan could not help but take on contempt.
This world was divided into seven great races: gods, Buddhas, immortals, humans, demons, yao, and ghosts.
On the surface, the races lived in peace, but all believed that those not of one's race must harbor different hearts.
Open and covert struggles occurred constantly, and the offspring of two races would be accepted by neither.
Not to mention that Meng Shiwan was the product of adultery.
Xuantian Academy did not discriminate by race. So long as one had ability, one could be admitted, though it accepted only one hundred disciples every two years.
Thus, aside from the god race, all six other races were present here.
Lu Yao was both furious and heartbroken. "What kind of father and brothers are those? For the sake of a hybrid whose mouth is full of lies, they dug out your inner core."
Meng Shiwan's face had truly drained of all color, and her body swayed as though she might collapse.
She clutched Meng Xiuchen's sleeve. "Third Brother, I'm scared."
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid." Meng Xiuchen shouted sharply, "All of you, shut up!"
But the crowd was in the midst of fervent discussion, and no one paid him any attention.
He cursed Meng Anli again. "Meng Anli, you're jealous that Wanwan has received our affection, so you actually want to destroy her and humiliate her like this. It will only make us hate you more."
Meng Shiwan pressed herself against his chest, biting her lip. "Sister, are you trying to force me to my death?"
"Wanwan, we'll stand up for you. Don't do anything foolish." Meng Xiuchen hurriedly soothed her.
"I won't do anything foolish."
Meng Shiwan wiped away her tears. Tears still clung to her lashes, but her face was full of stubborn resolve.
"My birth is not something I can decide. Sister, are you so conscious of your own nobility because you're a yao, that you trample mortals beneath your feet?"
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