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Li Zi nodded hard to herself.

[Starving spectators waiting to feast on gossip...]

The First Elder looked at Li Zi, Ji Zheng, and Fu Chaoqing. "You three may leave."

Li Zi in particular had to leave.

Every cultivator above the Golden Core Stage could hear her thoughts.

That meant the Hehuan Sect's people could hear them too.

What if Li Zi uncovered one of their private secrets, and that old bastard, the Hehuan Sect Master, killed her in a fit of rage?

[Ah, damn it. They won't let us stay. System, do I really have to see their faces to get this gossip?]

The system sounded dejected too. [Yeah. It's about the deep bond between the Hehuan Sect Master and his son. It'd be better to see their faces.]

The Sect Master cleared his throat. "You three can stay. But not a word of this is to leave this hall."

The Hehuan Sect and their Sect had a history, after all.

The Hehuan Sect had always been dominated by women. Men held little standing there.

Yet its new Sect Master was a man.

That was because the Former Sect Master had sent her son to the Spirit Sword Sect, where he studied swordsmanship under an elder for several years. Once he had earned the Sect's trust, he secretly slipped into the Treasure Vault and stole the latter half of the Spirit Sword Sect's Inner Sect Cultivation Method, the Primordial Sage Secret Art.

The art was vast and brimming with yang energy, its Sword Intent surging like a torrent. It bore some resemblance to the lost art of the Ancestor who had founded the Hehuan Sect.

The Former Sect Master was a genius of the highest order. After mastering the Primordial Sage Secret Art, she combined it with her own Sect's art, giving birth to an even more formidable Inner Sect Cultivation Method for the Hehuan Sect.

The current Sect Master demonstrated that new art. With his overwhelming strength, he eventually won the recognition of the entire Sect and became the Hehuan Sect's first male Sect Master.

Ordinarily, the theft would not have been such a big deal. If a Sect let its Cultivation Method be stolen, it had only its own weakness to blame.

But not long after the latter half was stolen, the Immortal-Demon War began. Every senior figure who knew that half of the art, along with the Sect Master, died in the war.

From then on, the Hehuan Sect Master was the only living person who had seen the latter half of the Primordial Sage Secret Art.

The Spirit Sword Sect approached the Hehuan Sect many times, hoping to recover the missing portion, but each time, the other side flatly refused.

It became the greatest point of conflict between the two Sects.

The Hehuan Sect's grand entrance this time was undoubtedly meant as a show of force.

If Li Zi's gossip could throw the Hehuan Sect into chaos, he, as Sect Master, would be delighted to see it.

At that, all three of them brightened.

"Yes!"

Less than two hours later.

A large group from the Hehuan Sect swept into the Sect in force.

In the Main Hall, the Second Elder stood with his chin raised in a show of pride, his face bruised and swollen from a beating.

Even in such a sorry state, he refused to bow his head.

Beside him, a striking middle-aged woman in a flamboyant red dress held the hand of a handsome man, tenderly applying medicine to the wounds on his face.

"Sect Master Jiang, an elder of your Sect barged into the Hehuan Sect and attacked someone. He showed no respect for our Sect whatsoever. Does he really think there's no one left to stand up for us?"

The Hehuan Sect Master looked to be in his thirties, with a gaunt face and sharp, mean features.

His words were just as merciless. Today, he was determined to make the Spirit Sword Sect pay dearly.

The Sect Master pretended to know nothing. "Hm? What happened? Second Elder, please tell us the whole story from the beginning."

The Second Elder clearly had not a shred of love left for Immortal Ziyang. All that remained was fury at having been deceived.

In front of everyone, he flung the red sash to the floor. "That wretch lied to me for hundreds of years!"

He started at the beginning: Immortal Ziyang's pursuit of him, her lie that they had long since become husband and wife in every sense, and how she had later tricked him into going down to the mortal world for training...

Every word seemed to bleed.

It was enough to break hearts and bring tears to listeners' eyes.

The Second Elder had even kept himself chaste for Immortal Ziyang.

Who would have thought she had already become someone else's Dao Companion?

The Hehuan Sect's people had known none of this. One by one, they turned uncertain, startled looks on Immortal Ziyang.

Immortal Ziyang had a thick skin. Rather than feeling ashamed, she scowled and cursed, "Why don't you piss in a puddle and take a look at yourself? What are you, compared to my husband?"

The Second Elder's face went from blue to purple.

"I may look old now, but once I break through the Void Refining Stage, I'll be young again."

Immortal Ziyang spat. "Bah! With your aptitude, you think you can break through to the Void Refining Stage?"

The Sect Master's face darkened, and he cut off Immortal Ziyang before her words grew any uglier.

"Sect Master Chen, Immortal Ziyang was the one who deceived him. The fault lies with your side, does it not? And yet you have the gall to come to our Sect demanding justice? Have you no shame?"

This was a grievance between the powerful, and Li Zi had no place to intervene. Still, Immortal Ziyang's vicious words made her frown.

[Why does Immortal Ziyang act like a fishwife? What did Second Martial Uncle ever see in her?]

Every expert present above the Golden Core Stage heard that thought loud and clear.

The voice appeared right beside their ears.

Immortal Ziyang exploded on the spot.

A fishwife?

Who was bold enough to call me that?

Immortal Ziyang planted a hand on her hip and roared, "Who's insulting me?"

The Sect Master reacted quickly. Frowning, he said, "What? Calling you a liar counts as an insult now? Immortal Ziyang, look at what you've done. It's too shameful to speak of! The Hehuan Sect owes our Second Elder an explanation!"

Immortal Ziyang's chest heaved with rage. "That's not what I—"

She pointed her scarlet-painted nails at the people around her.

"Did you hear that? Did you hear it? Someone insulted me!"

The Spirit Sword Sect's people shook their heads in unison. "No."

The Hehuan Sect's people exchanged glances.

[Host, I'll start with Immortal Ziyang's gossip. She looks like a fishwife on the surface, but it actually has to do with her childhood. She grew up in a home with a timid mother and a violent father. Acting like a fishwife became her way of protecting herself. And her Dao Companion isn't truly sincere toward her.]