Just moments ago, the Heavenly Sword Venerable's murderous intent had seemed entirely genuine. This towering figure, whose phantom sat cross-legged at the highest point in the Cultivation World and looked down upon an entire era, had broken with countless years of precedent. For the sake of her youngest disciple, she had actually come out of seclusion in person to preside over the judgment of what had happened.
Ye Xiaoyao was on her way to be summoned.
Jian Wushuang collapsed completely to the ground, landing hard on her backside.
She answered in a panic, stumbling over her words.
"No... I didn't."
"I didn't do any of this."
Ye Qingxian's expression turned cold. "Murderers never admit to their crimes. Only evidence can convince people."
"Master, please activate the Red Flower Sword Shadow and find the person who met with my Junior Sister in the Peach Blossom Forest that day."
Ye Qingxian activated a recording. It clearly captured Jian Wushuang gradually leading her on.
"At the time, Junior Sister had already been two and a half months pregnant. The recording shows that even after this person learned the truth, she kept luring my Junior Sister to her cave abode and hinting that she was very experienced and that nothing would come of it."
Jian Wushuang hadn't even managed to straighten up before her legs went weak again, and she collapsed flat on the ground.
It was over. This time, it was truly over.
She finally understood what it meant to be unable to clear her name no matter how many mouths she had.
She opened her mouth. "I did say those things, but I really wasn't speaking in hints. I was talking about flying on a sword. I wasn't talking about..."
Jian Wushuang's explanation now sounded so weak and powerless.
Faced with the facts, she was like a helpless child, with an enormous hat pressed down over her head until she could hardly breathe.
Junior Sister, oh, Junior Sister. What exactly did you tell the others?
She sat on the ground, her eyes lifeless.
Was she the scapegoat her Junior Sister had picked, or had her Junior Sister simply never thought that far?
The little girl's adorably innocent aura made it impossible for her to believe she'd been set up.
She still clung stubbornly to the latter possibility. Surely Ye Qingxian had twisted what her Junior Sister said.
Ye Qingxian was just awful!
Maybe her Junior Sister had merely been dumped by a scumbag and longed for a new romance, which was why she'd chosen to get close to her.
Yes, that had to be it.
Jian Wushuang gradually convinced herself, desperately waiting for Ye Xiaoyao to appear and explain things for her.
With a wave of the Heavenly Sword Venerable's hand, boundless power shook the heavens and earth. A phantom red flower appeared out of thin air, sprouting from every part of Jian Wushuang's body before quickly vanishing.
At the same time, an image almost identical to Jian Wushuang appeared in the Sky Curtain overhead.
Ye Qingxian's face was as cold as an iceberg. "Jian Wushuang, the facts are right before you. What do you still have to explain?" She no longer called her Senior Brother. She referred to her either as "this person" or by name.
Jian Wushuang slowly closed her eyes. A faint deathly aura spread around her.
"I... didn't."
"I didn't."
"I never did it. The child isn't mine."
No matter how she explained herself, there was no way to clear her name.
Ye Qingxian drew her sword in a flash.
Even before the Heavenly Sword Venerable, she dared to point her sword at Jian Wushuang.
"You dare to do it but not own up to it? Are you even human?"
The Heavenly Sword Venerable remained calm. "Ye Qingxian, did you personally hear Ye Xiaoyao say the child was Jian Wushuang's?"
Jian Wushuang heard that and immediately scrambled to her feet, as if she'd grabbed hold of the last straw.
"Exactly. Did you hear her say it yourself?"
"No." As the greatest prodigy in the Nine Provinces, Ye Qingxian feared no one. "But every piece of evidence we have points to you."
Jian Wushuang fell silent.
She wanted to explain that she was a female cultivator too, and there was no way she could have gotten Ye Xiaoyao pregnant.
But that concerned her greatest secret.
Not even the Heavenly Sword Venerable could see her true sex.
"See? Your silence says it all," Ye Qingxian sneered.
"It wasn't me. It really has nothing to do with me." Jian Wushuang's voice grew weaker, her explanations more and more feeble. "I was only trying to win Junior Sister over and make some progress on the Ruthless Dao. Heaven can be my witness! I, Jian Wushuang, would never abandon a wife and child. I never meant to toy with Junior Sister like this. I even thought about compensating her with countless spirit stones."
"I may be a scumbag, but I'm a scumbag with a bottom line. I'm nothing like those beasts who prey on women."
Just then,
the two elders, who had been watching from the sidelines, suddenly stepped out of the illusion and spoke. "Let's set everything else aside for now. Ye Xiaoyao has been on the mountain for sixteen years and is still only at the Qi Refining Third Layer. Many people have long had complaints about her. Now she's also been shamelessly consorting with a male cultivator in secret and gotten pregnant before marriage. Let's expel her from the sect for now. We can deal with everyone else later."
Ye Qingxian's expression changed dramatically.
Before she could react, the Heavenly Sword Venerable was the first to object loudly. "No!"
Perhaps her voice had been a little too loud.
Ye Qingxian's expression turned strange, with a hint of suspicion.
Why did Master seem even more anxious than she was?
Thinking back to how she'd found Ye Xiaoyao,
Master had also gone against everyone's objections and taken Ye Xiaoyao as a Direct Disciple.
The more Ye Qingxian thought about it, the more chilling details she recalled.
Had the mission Master assigned her back then really been a coincidence? It had led her to a little girl who was nearly frozen to death.
And then,
the Heavenly Sword Venerable, who had long stopped concerning herself with worldly matters, had immediately come out of seclusion to pass judgment as soon as she heard about Ye Xiaoyao.
Could it be—
Ye Qingxian's pupils suddenly shrank as a startling suspicion surfaced in her mind.
Was Ye Xiaoyao Master's illegitimate daughter?
When countless coincidences piled up, they stopped being coincidences.
Ye Qingxian continued observing without showing what she was thinking.
The Heavenly Sword Venerable went on, "Ye Xiaoyao is young and inexperienced. She was deceived by a scumbag. She isn't at fault, so how can we punish the victim?"
That line of reasoning...
The more Ye Qingxian listened, the more familiar it sounded.
The strangeness in the young woman's expression grew.
Wasn't that the very argument she'd made up to convince herself?
Normally, everyone in the sect was expected to abide by the Sect Rules equally. So why was Ye Xiaoyao suddenly an innocent little girl who could brush away her mistakes with a single excuse?
The Heavenly Sword Venerable didn't give anyone else a chance to speak.
She was being utterly arbitrary.
"I've already made my decision."
Don't joke around.
If she expelled the Great Devil King from the sect, how could she keep her under her nose to observe her?
"This—"
The two elders, men of great influence, were at a loss for words.
What had gotten into the Venerable today? Her usual coldness and impartiality had vanished without a trace.
They wielded great power in the Wuya Sect, but this was, after all, an internal matter of Heavenly Sword Peak.
The Heavenly Sword Venerable had the final say and could veto anything with a single word.
The two elders merely changed the punishment. "If Ye Xiaoyao cannot be expelled from the sect, then let her suffer ten years in the Cold Prison."
Who knew—
The Heavenly Sword Venerable objected again. "No."
She didn't hesitate for even a moment.
Locking the young Great Devil King in an ice prison for ten years—what if she turned twisted and evil? Who would take responsibility?
Her plan to keep the Great Devil King ordinary had finally started to bear fruit.
These people were just here to cause trouble.
The two elders exchanged a glance. "Does the Venerable mean that Ye Xiaoyao cannot be punished under any circumstances?"
At this point, the Heavenly Sword Venerable could only grit her teeth and answer.
"That's right."
She didn't care what anyone else thought.
Everyone's feelings had to take a back seat when it came to the Great Devil King.
Ye Qingxian's lips twitched soundlessly.
So the easiest way to protect Ye Xiaoyao had been to tell Master directly.
Who could have guessed?
She hadn't needed to do anything at all. The Heavenly Sword Venerable would favor Ye Xiaoyao without limit.
The two elders drew in a sharp breath at the same time.
Had the Heavenly Sword Venerable taken the wrong medicine? Why was she protecting a young female cultivator at every turn?
The sect's rules could not be broken. The two elders had to impose at least a symbolic punishment, so they spoke in unison. "Since the Venerable has already made her judgment, Ye Xiaoyao's child must at least be aborted. We cannot let it remain and bring the Sect Rules into disrepute. Direct Disciples are role models for everyone. We absolutely cannot disregard the rules."
This could hardly even be called a punishment. It might even have benefited Ye Xiaoyao.
Surely the Heavenly Sword Venerable would agree this time.
Then the most unexpected thing happened.
The Heavenly Sword Venerable's figure lingered in the void, indistinct and elusive. Her voice echoed without end, and anyone could hear the wordless silence in it.
"I will not agree."
"..."
"..."
At that moment, Ye Qingxian could only weakly add one thing.
Master.
Are you sure Ye Xiaoyao isn't your illegitimate daughter?
Just how far are you going to take this favoritism?
Listen to yourself. Does that even make sense?
Everyone fell silent.
Jian Wushuang was dumbfounded too.
No wonder Master had flown into a rage just now and wanted to personally grind the scumbag to dust.
What kind of background did Ye Xiaoyao have?
No wonder she went around grinning with all her teeth showing, never getting angry no matter who bullied her.
It wasn't that she didn't get angry. She simply had nothing to fear.
She knew she had powerful backing and that nobody could do anything to her.
Could she go back and beat up her past self from two months ago?
What a chance to skip three thousand years of struggle!
Was it too late for her to grab onto the rich little girl's thick thigh now?
The two elders were mighty experts who had lived for tens of thousands of years, yet they'd never seen a scene like this. They could only exchange a glance and ask in a deeply peculiar tone, "Does the Venerable mean to promote Ye Xiaoyao and make her a Legacy Disciple revered by all the sect?"
How could the Heavenly Sword Venerable not tell that those two old coots were mocking her?
After they'd put it that way, what else could she do?
She maintained her composure and once again uttered those two words. "No."
Ye Qingxian: "..."
So you did realize what you just said.
Were you worried you'd gone too far and would upset the other Venerables in the sect?
Even though there was still room to turn things around for her, Jian Wushuang was now sweating cold. Why did it feel as if she was doomed either way, whether or not she was the scumbag?
At that moment,
all she wanted was to drop to her knees and cry out at the absurdity of it all.
Spare me!
She really hadn't meant to pursue Ye Xiaoyao, Great-Aunt!
Who could have known—
A second-generation immortal!
That a renowned third-generation immortal was right beside her!
No, if you had such powerful backing, couldn't you have told me sooner?
Since Ye Xiaoyao couldn't be punished no matter what, the only option was to relentlessly torture the scumbag who had taken her chastity.
The two elders instantly reached an agreement.
Whatever the result, they could at least salvage some of the sect's reputation.
Faced with the evidence at hand, the two elders had already decided who the culprit was.
Two gazes brimming with murderous intent pierced through the void and fell upon Jian Wushuang, who had already started picking out a plot for her grave. She wanted nothing more than to throw back her head and roar, telling everyone the truth as loudly as she could.
She really didn't have the equipment to do the deed!!?
Before you continue