Unfortunately, Bibi Dong hadn't noticed this at all. She was still feeling relieved.
Relieved that the excuse she'd come up with had convinced Qian Xunji, and relieved that she still had a chance.
But her relief didn't last long, because Qian Xunji soon spoke again.
And this time, his words sent Bibi Dong straight into the abyss.
"Using your full strength in a match means you respect me. I'll accept that explanation for now. But why was there poison mixed into the medicine I just drank? Dong'er, how do you explain that?"
As he spoke, the smile at the corner of Qian Xunji's mouth grew increasingly mocking.
At his words, Bibi Dong, who had still been relieved that Qian Xunji had believed her lies, jolted and stared at him in disbelief.
How could that be? The poison she'd put in the medicinal broth was clearly colorless and odorless, and extremely difficult to detect. Ordinary methods couldn't uncover it at all! How did her teacher know?
Could someone have betrayed her?
But that didn't make sense, either. She hadn't told anyone that she was planning to poison her teacher!
Wait—had she given herself away when she'd fed him the medicine?
Realizing she was only a novice at this, and that her acting was still rather amateurish, Bibi Dong suddenly felt that guess was quite plausible.
So her teacher had spotted something amiss in her clumsy performance, and that was why he'd gone so hard on her during the match?
Or perhaps he'd only sensed something was wrong, but had no proof, so he was simply bluffing?
There was only one way to find out which it was.
She had no way out now, anyway.
Thinking this, Bibi Dong's mind stirred, and she came up with a plan.
"Teacher, what are you talking about? There was poison in the medicine? I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean!"
Bibi Dong looked at Qian Xunji in confusion. Her eyes were full of surprise, bewilderment, and the hurt of being falsely accused, as though she truly had no idea what he was talking about.
If [Omniscient and Almighty Li Daxian] hadn't "kindly" risked his life to test the medicine for her, perhaps Qian Xunji really would have believed her lies. After all, he had no solid proof!
Unfortunately, now that she had a scapegoat like [Omniscient and Almighty Li Daxian], there was no way Qian Xunji would believe that nothing else had been mixed into that bowl of soup.
After all, as the price for testing the medicine, [Omniscient and Almighty Li Daxian] had already gone to the Underworld!
Thinking of that person's tragic fate, and then imagining that without him taking the fall, she would have suffered the same fate, Qian Xunji immediately lost any desire to keep up the charade with Bibi Dong. He said impatiently, "Enough. Stop making excuses. Do you think I'd ask you this if I didn't have proof?"
Without waiting for Bibi Dong to continue arguing, Qian Xunji added, "Still, I never thought you'd try to kill me, your teacher, for that good-for-nothing Yu Xiaogang! It seems I've been far too indulgent with you—so indulgent that you've forgotten how to appreciate it!"
As he spoke, Qian Xunji grabbed Bibi Dong by the chin, his eyes icy.
"Xiaogang is not a good-for-nothing!"
Bibi Dong jerked her head away, breaking free of his grip.
At the same time, she didn't forget to defend her "lover."
Before, she'd been afraid of Qian Xunji, so she hadn't dared speak up for her lover.
After all, doing so would not only risk making Qian Xunji fly into a rage, but could also drag her lover, Yu Xiaogang, into it.
But now that all her schemes had been exposed and she'd completely fallen out with Qian Xunji, she no longer cared what the consequences of doing so might be!
Things couldn't get any worse, anyway!
====================
# Volume Two
====================
"He's not a good-for-nothing? Ha! If he isn't, who is?"
Hearing Bibi Dong defend him, Qian Xunji sneered.
"Yu Xiaogang, the famous good-for-nothing of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan! He had a perfectly good, benignly Mutated Martial Soul, a Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, but he was so useless that the mutation failed, turning it into Luo Sanpao! Doesn't that prove what a good-for-nothing he is?"
"And then there's that line of his: 'There are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters.' Tsk, what a fresh and original way to insult himself!"
"As for his so-called theories, they're even more laughable! He's a good-for-nothing who's neither learned nor capable, and will never break through level thirty in his lifetime. What could he possibly use to conduct research, and what could he possibly discover? It'd be an achievement if he could avoid getting caught by those Soul Beasts. Besides, who's going to let him study them?"
"Ultimately, wasn't he relying on you to steal Soul Beast records from Spirit Hall, and on the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan for information? Where else would he get his resources?"
At this point, Qian Xunji paused, and the mockery in his smile grew even more pronounced. "And yet, even with you and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan backing him, he still hasn't come up with anything useful!"
"All the theories he's come up with are common knowledge—and the sort of thing that any faction with a little power could figure out after a few experiments!"
Before you continue