Wu Yong and Li Lingxiao.
These two had actually grouped up?
Birds of a feather really did flock together.
At this moment, Wu Yong had none of the arrogance he displayed during the spiritual root testing. Instead, he had his arm slung over Li Lingxiao's shoulder, the two of them acting like long-lost brothers.
Wu Yong noticed Xue Mingzhao at that moment.
He paused, speaking in a sarcastic, mocking tone. “Oh, if it isn't the Chiyang Peak Master's newly recruited personal disciple? Why aren't you collecting your Chiyang Peak robes? What are you doing holding our Yuheng Peak's clothes?”
Xue Mingzhao chuckled coldly.
This Wu Yong really couldn't go a single day without running his mouth.
She was about to put down the clothes and teach this idiot a lesson, but her peripheral vision caught Mei Ziqing, who was covered in sweat.
If she started a fight here, the blame would likely fall on Mei Ziqing afterward.
Forget it.
She would deliver the clothes first.
Suppressing her anger, Xue Mingzhao held the clothes and continued forward with Mei Ziqing, completely treating Wu Yong like thin air.
This blatant disregard only infuriated Wu Yong further.
Assuming she was just acting out of guilt and stage fright, he took a few quick steps forward and blocked their path.
“What, did I hit a nerve? Too scared to say anything? Just because you clung to the Chiyang Peak Master, you think you're above everyone else? Turns out, you're nothing special.”
Li Lingxiao stood to the side, pretending to pull Wu Yong back.
“Senior Brother Wu, forget it.”
Though he said to forget it, his eyes gleamed with the excitement of someone waiting for a show.
Li Lingxiao turned to the surrounding disciples and let out a sigh of mock helplessness.
“You all might not know this, but this Fellow Daoist Lin was incredibly arrogant and domineering at the foot of the mountain. I found it a bit strange back then, but now I understand. It turns out she clung to the Chiyang Peak Master. No wonder she was so confident. After all, how could someone with only three spiritual roots be taken in as a personal disciple by a peak master unless she had some other... special skills?”
A crowd of disciples gradually gathered around, whispering among themselves.
Xue Mingzhao's eyes went slightly cold.
A thread of spiritual energy quietly gathered at her fingertips. She was just about to teach them a lesson when her peripheral vision caught two figures walking over from not far away.
She paused, quietly withdrawing her spiritual energy.
Then, Xue Mingzhao raised her eyes and threw Wu Yong an incredibly provocative look.
As expected, Wu Yong was instantly provoked.
“What are you looking at!”
He took a step forward, raising his hand to shove Xue Mingzhao.
Yet before his hand could even touch her, Xue Mingzhao suddenly let out a startled cry, and the clothes in her arms scattered all over the ground.
She threw herself backward in an incredibly dramatic, exaggerated fashion.
“Ah—”
At the same time, a jade bottle flew out from her person.
Clack!
The jade bottle hit the bluestone ground, knocking the stopper loose. A lustrous, translucent pill rolled out of the bottle, stopping right by Wu Yong's foot.
Before Wu Yong could see what had rolled out, a hair-thin wisp of spiritual energy quietly slipped from Xue Mingzhao's fingertip.
The thread of spiritual energy swept across the ground, striking Wu Yong's lower body.
Wu Yong's legs suddenly went weak, his center of gravity completely collapsing, and he pitched forward uncontrollably.
In his panic, he stepped down heavily.
Right onto the pill.
Crunch.
The lustrous pill shattered on the spot, ground into a pile of powder.
The surroundings fell dead silent.
The moment the pill shattered, Xue Mingzhao's expression changed drastically.
She threw herself onto the crushed powder, dropping to her knees, and let out a heart-wrenching, agonizing wail.
“My pill! This was the ancestral high-grade Core-Condensing Pill left to me by my mother!”
Xue Mingzhao scooped up the powdered medicine with trembling hands, weeping as if her heart were breaking.
“It's bad enough that you pushed me, but why did you have to crush it?! Pay me back! You must pay me back!”
Her shrill, sorrowful cries echoed through the area. The disciples who had been whispering quickly gathered around.
Looking at the powder on the ground, then at Xue Mingzhao, who was sobbing so hard she could barely breathe, their eyes filled with absolute condemnation toward Wu Yong.
Just then, a sharp gust of wind cut through the air.
Bang!
Before Wu Yong could react, he was kicked flying, crashing to the ground three meters away.
Su Ye landed right beside Xue Mingzhao and quickly reached out to help her up, his face full of anxiety.
“Sister, are you alright? Where are you hurt?”
Mei Ziqing also set down the clothes in her arms and rushed over to check on her.
Lowering her head under the pretense of wiping her tears, Xue Mingzhao quietly winked at Su Ye.
Su Ye paused.
He understood instantly.
He turned to glare at Wu Yong, roaring furiously, “Wu Yong! Back at the foot of the mountain, you used your status as an elder's grandson to cut the line. Because my sister didn't let you, you've held a grudge ever since! You deliberately picked a fight with her the very day we entered the sect. I see right through you—this is intentional retaliation!”
Mei Ziqing corrected him in a whisper, “Not grandson. Nephew.”
Su Ye: “...”
That wasn't important.
Xue Mingzhao's wailing immediately went up an octave.
Looking at the powder on the ground with utter despair, she choked out, “Pity the two of us siblings. We had no one to help us along the way, and it took everything we had just to reach the Heavenly Origin Sect. We thought we could cultivate in peace once we entered the sect. Who would have thought that on our very first day, we would run into such a bully? We couldn't even protect the only high-grade Core-Condensing Pill our mother left us!”
Xue Mingzhao covered her face, her entire body shaking as she sobbed.
“Mother, your child is useless! Your child has failed you! I couldn't protect the pill you left behind!”
“Sister!”
Su Ye cried out in grief, throwing his arms around Xue Mingzhao.
“Brother!”
The two siblings held each other and wept bitterly in front of everyone.
Their thunderous wails shook the heavens, yet not a single tear fell.
Wu Yong struggled to climb up from the ground, feeling as though every bone in his body was about to break.
Su Ye's kick just now had almost fractured his bones on the spot.
Clutching his chest, he roared in exasperation, “Lin Yue fell on her own! I didn't even touch her! She's framing me! What mother's heirloom? You probably threw that pill on the ground beforehand to set a trap and frame me!”
Wu Yong pointed at the powder on the ground, growing more agitated by the second.
“Who knows what kind of cheap trash pill you picked up from somewhere just to demand an exorbitant price and extort me!”
Mei Ziqing immediately said in anger, “I saw it with my own eyes! You reached out and pushed Junior Sister Lin!”
Wu Yong wanted to defend himself further, but a cold voice suddenly drifted in from outside the crowd.
“What audacity!”
The onlookers shivered in fear and quickly parted to make way.
Nan Mingzi walked over with brisk strides, his icy gaze locking onto Wu Yong.
“Picking a fight in public, striking a fellow disciple, and even destroying the heirloom of her late mother. With no remorse whatsoever afterward, you even slandered my disciple, claiming she set a trap to extort you.”
Nan Mingzi snorted coldly.
“There is no need to trouble the Yuheng Peak Master to handle this matter privately today. Come with me to the Council Hall right now! We shall let the Sect Master and the elders judge this together!”
A loud boom echoed in Wu Yong's mind, leaving his head completely blank.
He stared at the crushed powder on the ground, then at the furious Nan Mingzi. His blood ran cold.
“Peak Master, that's not how it happened! I didn't touch her at all!”
Nan Mingzi interrupted in a deep voice, “So many disciples around witnessed it. Could they all be conspiring to frame you?”
Standing in the back, Li Lingxiao had already shrunk his neck in fear, not daring to utter a single word.
As enthusiastic as he had been when fanning the flames earlier, he was just as cowardly now.
Rate on N.U.
