6.15

For the past several days, Zhuo Biming had been accompanying the other disciples in organizing the corpses of the demonic beast horde while waiting for the peak masters to return. According to the few people who'd arrived in time to witness where they'd gone, the leaders had apparently jumped down the abyss after Ning He and Wenren ShiShi and, although it was unknown whether those two youths had survived, no one questioned whether to wait or not, driven by their deep-rooted faith in the Moqi brothers' power.

Twisting his mouth, Zhuo Biming finished polishing another animal core and considered the situation again. Since Wenren ShiShi was merely a rumored beauty to him, her life or death meant nothing to Zhuo Biming. Ning He's, on the other hand...

Despite the fact that he'd eventually come to believe Moqi Baihui's explanation of the boy's actions, he couldn't forgive him for all the pain he'd inflicted on him, nor could he forget the humiliation he'd suffered at his hands. If, if the boy came back alive and well, what should he do? Could he endure being bullied again when they arrived back at Jade Sword Mountain?

With a clench of his fists, he immediately negated the possibility. He could allow Ning He to use anyone else for the show he was putting on, but he wouldn't play along no matter what. As for the hatred he'd amassed toward the boy during the past few years, he could bury it for the sake of the peak masters' face and for the sake of acknowledging the youth's sacrifice in ingesting so much Golden Honey Flower extract. Besides, based on the skill he'd displayed by eliminating so many demonic beasts so precisely even with the way that the extract must have handicapped his talent, he truly must be a genius as he'd so frequently claimed. In that case, he was worth some respect, as the strong always were.

Still, if Ning He insisted on courting death, Zhuo Biming bit his lip, he wouldn't hold back either. No matter what, he would strike back regardless of what the boy's intentions had been or how talented he was.

Right when he had settled his stance, Zhuo Biming was broken out of his thoughts by the shouts around him and, turning, he discovered that two figures had just flown onto the ledge, one of them carrying a tall youth who appeared smaller in comparison to the man wrapped around him. While the Moqi brother who was holding the teenager had tucked the youth's face into his chest as if to hide who he was, the boy's identity was obvious from his gender alone. And at the realization that Ning He really had come back safely, Zhuo Biming lowered his head to cover his conflicted feelings of relief and disappointment, his determination wavering.

As for the twins, they indeed wished to hide Ning He away, they didn't want to let anyone else glimpse the adorable expression their shizhi made whenever he was unwillingly mollified—before they'd glided back up, the youth had, much to his annoyance, reaffirmed that his hips were too sore for him to support himself, but during their ascent, he'd been appeased again by the sweets they'd continued to feed him. As a result, the boy's pouting lips and frowning brow clearly showed how the cute child was trying to demonstrate his dissatisfaction, while his flushed cheeks and glittering eyes couldn't disguise his delight at the desserts he was tasting; combined, the youth's already charming features could tempt anyone into obeying his every order. But that was their privilege, and they'd already reached the limit of their patience by allowing their brother to touch their shizhi. Naturally, they couldn't permit anyone else to usurp their position.

So when the eager disciples gathered around the trio to greet them, too excited to maintain their composure, the brothers shot similar glares at the teeming teenagers. Did these brats really need to get so close to them? Such pests, disturbing their Ning He...

Hm, suddenly memories popped up of how there had been some cases recorded in which a martial arts practitioner had advanced much more quickly after losing a part of his body. Wouldn't it be interesting for Heavenly Saber Sect to develop a special group of blind cultivators? But it wasn't just their shizhi's looks that might draw these lustful teenagers in, his bell-like voice and delicious smell were too attractive as well. So maybe they should also form teams for those without ears and noses...

A beat later, the twins narrowed their eyes to add in an option to cut out some tongues upon hearing some scum whisper that it was a pity Ning He had survived, because as the person who'd killed all these demonic beasts, he would reap every single core and they wouldn't have gained anything from this trip.

Before the fools could fall too far into their dangerous thoughts, however, Chen Yu raised his head and haughtily glanced down from his perch at the youth who'd spoken these words, then shifted his gaze toward the shining demonic beast cores next to the dissected carcasses. Since he didn't particularly require the aid of such tools to cultivate due to the system cheat he'd applied, he shrugged, the most effective way to use these cores would be to whiten his image some more.

Thus, putting on a proud demeanor, he glared at the boy who'd spoken and snorted. "Hng, this young master isn't a greedy and selfish waste like some people. Anyway, I'm powerful enough, I don't need these cores. You lot can divide them among yourselves!"

Although most of the disciples had been wise enough not to reveal their longing for the rewards of this expedition, they were after all simply teenagers, they'd secretly been boiling with more jealousy than admiration for Ning He. In fact, not a few of them had slipped some of the cores into their spatial storage and perhaps, if the peak masters hadn't been there, they would have already snatched everything for themselves.

So when Ning He had first opened his mouth, the youths had been listening with bated breath, prepared to protest if Ning He insisted on swallowing all of these prizes, only to gape at his unexpected generosity. A moment later, they cheered and bustled around to fit as many cores as they could into their storage spaces, their views of the boy shifted completely.

How could someone so talented and charitable be as bad as the rumors described? Someone must have distorted the truth. Yes, that scenario would also justify the peak masters' overt bias for Ning He. They must have realized the truth from the beginning of the trip and protected him to compensate for the injustices he'd borne all along. In this way, the more the youths pondered, the more they became confident in their guesses.

Meanwhile, stuck miserably on the fringes of this festive atmosphere was the shame-faced teenager who'd condemned Ning He prematurely. Under the mocking glances of everyone who passed by him, he didn't dare to take any cores, but he also couldn't stand the sight of how swiftly the precious items were being snatched up in front of his eyes. If he waited any longer, there really wouldn't be anything left for him! Therefore, hoping to beg for Ning He's mercy, he stared tearfully at the sole person who could pardon his mistake, but the boy in Master Moqi's arms seemed oblivious, he didn't even glance at him.

This wasn't because Chen Yu sincerely cared about disciplining a mere loudmouth; rather, he was occupied with another matter entirely. Having noticed the complex expression on the protagonist's face during his scan of the disciples following his little speech, Chen Yu had at last taken the time to check his task's completion rate, and the results had been somewhat surprising.

Taking into account Zhuo Biming's hatred for the original owner and also whatever turmoil he'd probably felt after he'd been informed of Ning He's 'true' motives, Chen Yu had expected that he would have reached at least 20% or so. When he analyzed his mission's progress, however, he learned that the protagonist this time seemed to be a fairly rational type, he had produced merely 8%. Instead, it was You Daolin and Wenren ShiShi who had generated a total of 3% between them, a startlingly high yield for mere members of the protagonist's clique.

While he wasn't in a hurry to wrap up his assignment, Chen Yu did file away this information for future reference, then finally turned his attention toward what the twins had been muttering about all this time. Apparently, they'd been lamenting that their shizhi was too kind, rewarding these ingrates who hadn't done any work, complaining about how he'd been treated by these same vicious people, so on and so forth, until they happened to recall another wicked villain who'd attempted to harm the boy.

Tensing at the reminder of the danger Ning He had been in, the brothers decided that they had to issue a warning immediately. For this purpose, Moqi Baihui flicked his finger to lower the temperature and Moqi Lirong sounded a crack of lightning, drawing the focus of those shameless youths who'd been frenziedly stealing their shizhi's property.

Frozen from the cold gaze the peak leaders were directing at them, the teenagers nervously dropped the cores they'd been holding, their minds racing. Had Ning He changed his mind? Did he want them to cough everything up again? No, they refused! Even if the Moqi leaders demanded it, they would object, they would force Ning He to let them keep what they'd hoarded if they had to!

But in the next instant, their resolve promptly collapsed at what Moqi Baihui declared. In a mild voice, the man spit out a cruel explanation of what he'd done to the last disciple who'd attacked Ning He, detailing, "I, the leader of Ten Stems Hall, hereby announce that the punishment of Wenren ShiShi, an inner disciple of my own peak, has been carried out. For the crime of seeking to kill a fellow member of Heavenly Saber Sect, as witnessed by the leader of Twelve Branches Valley, the penalties which Wenren ShiShi suffered include the following: disembowelment, flaying of her skin, and mutilation of her face. Since she escaped the rest of her punishment by dying, she has lost her right to be recognized as a disciple of Heavenly Saber Sect and will not be buried by the sect."

Then, once he was certain that he'd accomplished his aim of deterring anyone from threatening Ning He by frightening them with the explicit description of what would await any idiot who tried such a thing, Moqi Baihui waved his hand to signal that they could go on picking up cores, ignoring their blanched complexions. Next to him, Moqi Lirong lifted the big hands he'd been holding over the boy's ears, and, while pretending that nothing significant had taken place just now, the two men surreptitiously peeked at the youth's face to see if he'd heard anything.

Although they'd carelessly shown Wenren ShiShi's corpse to their shizhi before, they were now calm enough to keep in mind that the tender boy might be frightened away from them by their merciless treatment of her, so that even Moqi Baihui, who wished to prove that he loved Ning He above outsiders like his own peak members, didn't dare to emphasize how they'd avenged him. Much to their relief, from the way that the youth was still blithely watching the other disciples, it seemed he hadn't discovered anything.

Nonetheless, Moqi Baihui was afraid that the child would blame him for not controlling his disciple well enough, so he couldn't help but grasp the boy's soft hand and implore, "Shizhi, what happened with Wenren ShiShi...it was my oversight. She did come from Ten Stems Hall, but I promise that in the future, no one else from my peak will disturb you." Also worried that his irresponsible brother's neglectfulness would cause Ning He to distrust them, Moqi Lirong similarly nodded to indicate that he would review disciplinary measures in his Twelve Branches Valley.

At their freful expressions, Chen Yu couldn't resist his urge to tease them, he squinted his eyes and complained, "Why did she attack me? Did it have to do with what she said about me dirtying you, shishu? But I, this young master, haven't done anything to be ashamed of!"

In the process of torturing Wenren ShiShi, Moqi Baihui had inevitably learned about her infatuation with him and he knew that he should, of course, tell Ning He the truth. Yet when he thought that doing so would likely worsen his shizhi's impression of him, he couldn't open his mouth. As for Moqi Lirong, despite his desire to alienate his twin by exposing how he'd been attracting bees and butterflies, in the end, he simply drooped his head. Revealing such a thing might hurt the boy's feelings and, moreover, he honestly wasn't sure that he was verbally skilled enough to appease the child alone.

When some time had therefore passed silently while the two men were internally debating how to respond, Chen Yu hummed in amusement, but he didn't bother drawing out their anxiety. After all, he was still curious about what Ning Taio's objective in feeding his son Golden Honey Flower was, so his priority now was to return to the Heavenly Sabert Sect and solve the mystery. Thus, with a short "Well, never mind, I don't care about such weird people. But from now on you'd better protect me properly as my shishu!" he resolved their concern to move them along.

And finally, two days later, a short while after the group arrived back at Sun and Moon Hall, he gleaned a clue to what the original owner's true situation had been.