Assassination (Revised)

No? Where had it gone? Qiao Ling's bees searched a huge area but still failed to find the divine turtle, and anxiety rose in her heart. Could it already have been hidden away?

Very likely. A divine beast appearing in the sect would certainly be regarded as a treasure; it was only normal to hide it away...

If so, this would be a huge problem.

The bees flew even faster. Then, in the message relayed by one bee, a giant turtle crawled out of Elephant Water. She could actually see an expression of relieved release on a turtle's face.

Found it! Qiao Ling crawled low along the ground, heading toward Elephant Water.

Su He crawled out of Elephant Water, shook the water from his body, and headed back toward Li Nan Courtyard in high spirits.

This place was deserted, untouched and wild.

Azure Origin Mountain was vast and stretched endlessly. Though it was divided into seven branches, it did not consist of only seven mountaintops. There were at least several hundred mountain peaks crisscrossing the land. The seven branches merely occupied the seven blessed lands richest in Spiritual Energy.

Though Azure Origin Sect had at least two hundred thousand people including servants, they were scattered across this enormous territory, and the land still seemed sparsely populated. As far as the eye could see lay primeval mountains and rivers.

Su He had only crawled one or two li ashore when he spotted a woman standing silently on a nearby mountain ridge, her gaze resting upon him, calm as an ancient well.

Su He sensed a faint threat and stopped.

He stopped, but the woman walked toward him. As she drew closer and closer, alarm bells went off within Su He. He suddenly slapped both foreclaws against the ground and rose upright.

A blur flashed past. Without a word, the woman directly launched an assassination attempt.

Just as Su He rose up, the short sword stabbed into his belly shell and bent from the impact.

Su He took the chance to smash down. The giant turtle, over a zhang long, crashed to the ground. Qiao Ling immediately stepped back after missing her strike, barely Dodging it. She rolled across the ground and threw away the curved sword in her hand.

Worthy of a divine turtle indeed. Its shell was truly tough. Unfortunately, she could not assassinate it in her true appearance, nor did she dare use her own immortal sword. The sword she had grabbed in haste was simply too poor in quality.

She had to stab its neck.

She drew another sword, kicked off the ground, and thrust straight at the base of Su He's neck. Su He could not dodge in time, nor could he withdraw into his shell to evade it.

In desperation, he roared and opened his mouth, hurling a water sphere as large as a water vat at Qiao Ling.

Boom! The enormous volume of water, blasted out by Su He with the force of ten thousand jun, struck Qiao Ling head-on. Her slender body was immediately sprayed two zhang away.

The ball of water scattered.

Su He watched her with his full attention, utterly on guard.

Two-faced? As Su He looked towards her now, Qiao Ling's face seemed to have two faces layered atop one another like double images.

It was the divine turtle's ability to break illusions. Su He's turtle eyes could see through Illusion Techniques, while the water sphere condensed in his mouth also had an illusion-breaking effect. Under the double effect, Qiao Ling's disguise could no longer hold.

Moreover, soaked by the water sphere, her two-faced appearance gradually reverted, restoring her original looks.

She even had divine abilities! Qiao Ling's gaze sharpened. She gripped her short sword tightly. With her illusion broken, she had to end this quickly.

Qiao Ling summoned every ounce of focus. This turtle did not feel especially powerful to her, roughly carrying the aura of a True Blood Realm cultivator, yet its combat strength was far from low. Its methods were also utterly unexpected.

Was this what a wild beast was like?

She charged again with sword in hand, rushing to within a zhang of Su He in an instant. Yet just then, a sword light streaked across the distant sky.

Someone was coming!

They would discover that she was assassinating the sect's divine beast!

"Aang!" Su He roared.

The woman in front of him made a snap decision. In an instant, she put away her thin sword, somehow produced a beast fang, and stabbed it into the base of her own neck. Blood sprayed out, splashing all over Su He's mouth.

Qiao Ling turned and ran as if she were being pursued and killed by the giant turtle behind her. Her hair was disheveled, her body soaked through and stained crimson with blood. Clutching her neck, she looked utterly wretched as she ran, shooting a sword light into the sky. "Save me!"

She screamed shrilly and fell to the ground, blood staining the earth red.

Su He was stunned. A thread of foreboding rose within him. Was this woman about to put on a performance? Hearing the sound, the sword light at the horizon turned back and sped toward them. Someone aboard the sword shouted, "Do not harm anyone!"

It was Ge Feng. He had lost the divine turtle through his own negligence and had nearly gone mad searching for it. As he searched from the sky, he vaguely heard shouting and saw Su He in a savage frenzy. From the look of things, a Junior Sister's neck had already been bitten through.

Qiao Ling fell down upon the ground, her bloodied hand pointing at Su He as though she wanted to say something, but she only murmured, unable to speak.

In her eyes was a trace of regret and a trace of relief.

The incoming person had not seen what really happened. What luck!

Su He narrowed his eyes. This woman seemed determined to court death!

Ge Feng landed, his expression changing again and again. What had happened? The divine turtle had been so docile throughout the day's lessons. Why had it suddenly left, only to be found killing someone? Had it left just to hunt Azure Origin Disciples?

It made no sense!

Ge Feng quickly took out medicinal pills, ground them into powder, and smeared it over Qiao Ling's neck wound. He then took out a Message Delivery Flying Sword and reported the situation to the sect.

One side was a divine turtle, the other an Azure Origin Disciple. This was no longer something he could handle.

Before long, an immortal sword hurried over and crashed onto the ground, transforming into a panicked middle-aged daoist nun.

"Martial Aunt Shui Jing!" Ge Feng saluted.

She was a Martial Aunt of the same generation as his Master. Though she only oversaw a small medicinal mountain in the sect, her seniority was higher, and he could not be disrespectful.

Shui Jing seemed not to see him at all. She stared straight at Qiao Ling, her eyes full of disbelief.

"How could this happen? How could this happen?! Weren't you sleeping in your room? Why were you here, injured by a strange beast?" She was hysterical as she turned to Look Towards Su He. "Vile beast! Die!"

She suddenly thrust out her sword.

Ge Feng's expression changed drastically. His body instantly changed, turning into a wild boar with ferocious tusks, and he bit down on her immortal sword.

After blocking the sword radiance, he returned to human form, spat out a mouthful of blood, and stopped Master Shui Jing. "Martial aunt, this turtle is extraordinary. Private punishment must never be used. I have already informed my master and the Law Enforcement Hall. No matter what punishment is imposed, this matter must go through the Law Enforcement Hall, perhaps even the sect leader martial uncle."

Master Shui Jing flew into a rage. "A turtle still needs to go through the Law Enforcement Hall? Whose turtle is this? Who is so arroga..." She saw the character "Su" on Turtle Mountain and froze for a long while before bursting into laughter.

She laughed until tears flowed down her face, her body trembling uncontrollably.

So it was that person's turtle. Of course it had to go through the Law Enforcement Hall. I would like to see how the Law Enforcement Hall judges this!...

The Law Enforcement Hall was packed with people. Ge Feng's Flying Sword Letter had arrived long ago.

Yu Housheng, the Peak Master of the Law Enforcement Hall, had a face the color of a red date, silkworm brows, and an awe-inspiringly righteous air. His eyes were slightly closed as he sat silently in the main hall.

Below the hall stood Fufeng and Zhao Lie, both wearing strange expressions. It was not as if they had never handled cases of beast pets hurting people before, but those had all involved strange beasts. So long as the beast had not been deliberately released to hurt someone, its owner simply paid compensation.

Interrogating a divine beast? How were they supposed to interrogate it? Beat it until it could speak human words? There was no one in the Law Enforcement Hall who knew Beast Language either.

Yet the Peak Master would not allow them to invite anyone from Beast Taming Valley...

Just then, several elders arrived together: the Peak Master of Beast Taming Valley, the Hall Master of Tranquil Peace Hall, the Sword Slave from Sword Residence...

All were people of considerable status.

Someone who understood Beast Language had come on their own.

They had originally all gone to Li Nan Courtyard out of curiosity about the divine beast. It was rare for them to gather together, so they had sat discussing the Dao. Then they suddenly heard that the divine beast had hurt someone and was being brought before the Law Enforcement Hall, so they simply came to see what was happening.

A Magic Boat carried Su He suspended beneath it and landed at the Law Enforcement Hall. The ropes were untied, and Shui Jing and the others stepped down from the boat.

After Ge Feng's Flying Sword Letter, the Peak Master of the Law Enforcement Hall had specifically dispatched someone to sail the boat and collect them. With Shui Jing and Ge Feng's means, they could not afford such a Magic Boat.

As Shui Jing landed and saw the Peak Masters and Hall Masters filling the Law Enforcement Hall, she could not help but tremble In the Bottom of Her Heart.

She was from the same generation as these people, but from the day she entered the sect, they had been lofty Sons of Heaven, while she had merely been one among countless unremarkable disciples.

After hundreds of years as fellow disciples, it was uncertain whether these Senior Brothers even remembered her.

Had these people come to pressure her? After all, this turtle belonged to that person! She gave a miserable laugh and no longer held any hope for today's hearing. Yet instead, like a broken jar that had nothing left to lose, she straightened her back. So what if she could not defeat them? She would seek justice for her disciple! Even if she died, she would spray their faces with blood! It would be fish dead and net torn, that's all.

Why begrudge one life?!

Her bearing was unyielding, and the Hall Masters in the hall brightened. They exchanged glances, each seeing surprise and delight in the others' eyes.

This was what the older generation of Azure Origin Sect disciples should be like. Even if their talent was ordinary, even if their cultivation was limited, their proud bones were boundless!

Peak Master Yu of the Law Enforcement Hall stroked his beard and looked towards Su He with stern dignity. "Young Turtle, can you understand human speech?"

Su He was silent for a moment, then nodded.

The people in the hall brightened. As expected of a divine turtle, it was truly miraculous! Ordinary strange beasts possessed intelligence no greater than that of children seven or eight years old, yet none had such spirituality.

The Peak Master of the Law Enforcement Hall suddenly opened his eyes and said coldly, "Since you possess intelligence and understand human speech, why did you injure my Azure Origin Disciple for no reason?!"

Su He raised his head. "Aang!"

After thinking about it, he called again, "Aang~"

Everyone looked at one another, unable to make sense of it. Xia Da Li, peak master of Beast Taming Valley, coughed strangely. "He says he is accusing this female disciple of attacking him without cause! After failing to assassinate him, she turned around and bit back."