Qiu Wuji gazed absently into the void. Only after a long while did she smile dismissively and brush it aside.
You were nowhere to be found when I first tried to defy heaven. Come to think of it, I can't even tell whether I'm the one defying heaven now, or that wretched disciple is defying his master...
Whether we defy each other, and how we do it, is none of your business.
She turned toward the servant Lu Shaotong had brought. The man was completely stupefied, sitting on the ground and staring blankly at his young master's empty shell, his mind utterly blank.
Qiu Wuji studied him for a moment, then said coolly, "You were the one spreading stories of our sect's misdeeds outside, weren't you?"
The servant came to his senses and dropped to his knees in fright. "Spare me, Sect Master Qiu! I was only following orders. It really had nothing to do with me..."
"Would I stoop to troubling a mere servant?" Qiu Wuji sighed. "Take your young master's body back to the Lu Family and give them a truthful account of what happened here. That will suffice."
The servant stared blankly for a long time before saying hesitantly, "But..."
"Your young master had ill intentions toward me from the start. You ought to know that." Qiu Wuji asked, "Has he always liked such convoluted schemes?"
"N-no. The young master used to be quite a pedantic scholar, and his cultivation progressed slowly too... I don't know when it started, but his cultivation began advancing by leaps and bounds, and his temperament grew a little strange. He kept playing around with bizarre schemes..." The servant could not help taking a jab at his own young master. "To my eyes, a lot of his 'schemes' were like taking off