Xiao Jixue and the others had left the Ten Thousand Swords Sect to carry out a mission.
Now that they had returned, they first had to report to Sect Leader Fu Shouci and the Peak Masters.
In the plaza outside the Main Affairs Hall.
Tang Yan looked at the closed doors before him, plucked a blade of grass from the flower bed beside him, and stuck it jauntily between his lips.
[I'm getting bored. System, give me some juicy gossip.]
Inside the hall.
"!!!"
Who? Who was speaking?!
Caught off guard by Tang Yan's voice, Fu Shouci and the Peak Masters jolted in shock, their sharp gazes discreetly sweeping their surroundings.
Their formidable divine sense spread out in a vast, overwhelming wave.
Yet all they saw was Tang Yan standing outside the hall, staring into space with a blade of foxtail grass between his lips.
Medicine Peak's Peak Master, Xu You, suddenly sent Fu Shouci a divine sense transmission. "Senior Brother, did you hear that voice just now too?"
Fu Shouci's pupils briefly contracted. "You can hear it too, Junior Brother?"
The other Peak Masters also sent divine sense transmissions. "Senior Brother, I can hear it too."
Fu Shouci sucked in a breath. Now he was truly stunned.
What on earth was going on?
Below them, Xiao Jixue suddenly raised his eyes to his master, his ink-silver pupils flickering.
Master and the martial uncles suddenly released their divine sense?
Could it be... they could hear Tang Yan's thoughts too?
Meanwhile, Zhu Hua and the others' eyes lit up. Gossip, gossip, gossip! Aaaah!
Tang Yan had finally brought his gossip!
Come on, tell us! They wanted to hear it!
The group was so intent on the gossip that they noticed nothing amiss.
Besides, their cultivation was far too weak. Unlike Xiao Jixue, with his incredible talent and extraordinary perception, they could not have detected the Sect Leader and the others releasing their divine sense even if they had tried.
Having found nothing, Fu Shouci furrowed his brows deeply.
No one had opened their mouth to speak.
He was a mighty Void Insight cultivator. Unless the intruder's cultivation far exceeded his, there was no way they could evade his divine sense.
Besides, if a powerful cultivator had arrived, the Ten Thousand Swords Sect's Sect Formation would already have signaled an anomaly.
Was he hearing things?
But surely his junior brothers and sisters couldn't all be hearing things too.
Just as Fu Shouci suspiciously withdrew his Divine Sense, that unfamiliar voice rang out again.
[Holy crap! The granddaughter Grand Elder Xu Yi has doted on since childhood is a fake?! She's not Peak Master Xu's daughter? The real daughter is Wei Lianyi?]
[Wait, isn't Wei Lianyi the heroine?]
Outside, Tang Yan suddenly made the connection.
Zhu Hua and the others thought, Whoa! This is some seriously juicy gossip!
That arrogant, spoiled cultivator heiress Xu Zhenzhen was actually a fake!
Their gazes shot toward Medicine Peak's Peak Master Xu You, their eyes filled with sympathy.
Fu Shouci and the other Peak Masters also found themselves looking toward Xu You.
Grand Elder Xu Yi's granddaughter—wasn't that Xu You's daughter, Xu Zhenzhen, the little princess of the Ten Thousand Swords Sect?
Xu Zhenzhen was a fake?!
Was that really true?
Xu You froze at first, then his face turned livid with anger.
Nonsense! Utter nonsense!
He had raised his daughter with his own hands, changing her diapers and tending to her every need. How could he not know whether she was truly his?
The owner of this voice clearly had ulterior motives. He had to be some petty scoundrel jealous of his precious daughter. Hmph!
Once he caught him, he would teach him a proper lesson.
As he was thinking this, the unfamiliar male voice rang out again.
[Oh my! Who knew a bit of gossip about the Grand Elder's granddaughter would lead to an even bigger scandal!]
Fu Shouci and the Peak Masters: "!!"
Xu You: "?!" Bullshit! There was no scandal in his Xu Family!
Zhu Hua and the others' eyes shone even brighter. Even Xiao Jixue, who usually had no interest in gossip, spared a little attention to listen quietly.
[Xu Zhenzhen's biological mother is actually a Demonic Cultivator? She saved the gravely wounded Peak Master Xu and secretly pined for him for fifty whole years? Wow, a beauty saving a hero.]
[Tsk, tsk. Who knew the oh-so-proper Peak Master Xu was such a heartthrob when he was young.]
Xu You forgot his anger, overcome with embarrassment.
The scorching gazes of his senior brother the Sect Leader and his fellow disciples were practically roasting him alive.
Then he noticed that the juniors in the hall were also watching him with intense, gossip-hungry eyes.
He immediately widened his eyes and growled fiercely, "What are you looking at? Keep staring and I'll send you to the Cliff of Reflection to face the wall and reflect on your mistakes."
These juniors actually dared to gossip about their elders. They were really asking for a beating!
At the same time, anger toward the owner of that voice rose in his heart again.
It was bad enough that the Sect Leader and his fellow disciples could hear gossip about him.
Why could these juniors hear it too? Outrageous! Absolutely infuriating!
Zhu Hua and the others hastily averted their gazes, lowering their heads to stare at their shoes, though their ears remained discreetly pricked.
[Huh? So this admirer was poisonous?!]
A poisonous admirer? What did that mean?
Xu You's heart lurched, and an awful premonition welled up inside him.
Sure enough,
[That demonic cultivator actually delivered Peak Master Xu's dao companion's baby right under his nose? Then she swapped her own daughter for his newborn daughter? Holy shit, she even teamed up with her lovesick senior brother to ambush Peak Master Xu's dao companion afterward, leaving him a widower?]
[Good lord, "tragic" doesn't even begin to cover it.]
Outside the hall, Tang Yan leisurely chewed his blade of grass, marveling at what he heard.
[His biological daughter grew up being tortured by that demonic cultivator and spent over a decade as a medicine puppet. Even after finally escaping, she had to keep hiding to avoid being found.]
[Yet she doesn't know she should have been a cultivator family's little princess. All those resources and all that glory went to her enemy's daughter instead.]
[Was the heroine's life really this miserable before she made a name for herself?]
[Peak Master Xu had it rough too. He spent decades raising his wife's killer's daughter without even knowing that the killer had switched his own daughter out.]
After hearing this, several of the more tenderhearted female Peak Masters felt deep sympathy for the girl they had never met, whose identity as Xu You's daughter remained uncertain.
They also shot Xu You fierce glares.
Their useless fellow disciple had not only mistaken someone else's daughter for his own, but had let his enemy live carefree for decades.
What a useless idiot. He'd lived for centuries with nothing to show for it!
Their fellow disciple must have been blind back then to fall for this good-for-nothing!
Xu You was lost in his grief. His eyes were red, veins throbbed on his forehead, and his heart twisted in agony. He looked as though he might shatter.
Only moments ago, he had adamantly refused to believe the man's nonsense.
Now, however, he believed every word.
Jiang Liu'er rescuing him, Jiang Liu'er delivering Yun'er's baby, the masked assailant's ambush—no one besides him and Jiang Liu'er knew about those events.
Fu Shouci had still been skeptical, but then he turned and caught sight of the terrifying look in his junior brother's eyes.
His heart jolted!
Judging by his junior brother's expression, what that mysterious voice said was actually true?!
Fu Shouci sucked in a sharp breath.
Just who was this person?
How did he know old secrets that even they knew nothing about?
With mixed feelings, Fu Shouci patted Xu You's shoulder in consolation.
An overwhelming hatred rose in the latter's bloodshot eyes.
Yun'er! His beloved wife, and his beloved daughter—Jiang Liu'er had harmed them both!
Jiang Liu'er!
For murdering his wife and stealing his daughter, he could never coexist with her under the same sky!
He would tear her into pieces and make her die a horrible death!
At that thought, Xu You abruptly stood, about to rush outside.
The familiar voice rang in his ears again.
[Huh? Xu Zhenzhen left the sect this time to hunt down Wei Lianyi, Peak Master Xu's biological daughter?]
[A fake actually led people out to kill the real heiress herself? How dare she?]
[Her mother's a vicious bitch, and the daughter's just as cruel. Guess it runs in the family.]
What?!
Xu You's already shattered heart leaped into his throat, and he charged outside without a second thought.
The hall doors burst open, and a streak of white light vanished into the sky with a whoosh.
The gust whipped the hair beside Tang Yan's ears high into the air.
[Fuck, what the hell just flew past?! Scared the shit out of me.]
Inside the hall, Fu Shouci and the others: "..." This mysterious man was terribly rude!
Xiao Jixue: "..." This was the first time anyone had dared call Martial Uncle Xu "what the hell."
Zhu Hua and the others: "..." Tang Yan was incredible! Thumbs up.
Before you continue