The young girl's figure dissolved before his eyes, like a bubble bursting into nothing.
"Little Grand Martial Aunt?!"
Chen Zhi was jolted with alarm, and immediately rushed back up the mountain.
"Little Grand Martial Aunt?"
"Nangong Yu?!"
"Little Yu?"
He swept his divine sense across the entire mountaintop, but could not detect the young girl's presence anywhere. Panicked, he fished out his disciple token.
The token flickered with light, but he could not establish a connection to the person he was searching for. Chen Zhi's heart sank. Little Yu was mischievous by nature, but she would never reject the protection others offered her.
"Little Grand Martial Aunt is missing!" he sent out an urgent message through the token.
In the blink of an eye, streaks of light cut across the sky. Xu Wanzhong, who cultivated at the Nascent Soul realm, arrived on the Disciples' Peak. "What happened?"
"Reporting to Grand Martial Uncle, I was escorting Little Grand Martial Aunt after her class..." Chen Zhi laid out every detail of the incident.
He had messed up the assignment and lost Nangong Yu, and cold sweat was pouring down his back at that moment.
"She vanished out of thin air?" A dark, icy look crossed Xu Wanzhong's face, and he let out a cold snort. "An illusion that can fool a Golden Core cultivator? That must have been cast by a Nascent Soul expert!"
He glanced at Chen Zhi. "The person who did this is far more powerful than you. There is no need to blame yourself."
Even though Chen Zhi had failed to protect their charge, this was not his fault. Xu Wanzhong's expression remained stormy. "That bastard must be tired of living!"
He leaped into the air, his figure shooting off like a meteor, speeding away into the distance.
Seeing this, Chen Zhi quickly hurried after him.
They were heading straight for Tai Xuan Peak.
Chen Zhi also suspected that Elder Xuanqing had taken Nangong Yu away.
"Xuanqing! Get out here!" Before long, Xu Wanzhong reached Tai Xuan Peak and struck out with a fierce palm strike.
Tai Xuan Peak had only just finished being renovated.
Half a month prior, a mysterious prankster had targeted Tai Xuan Peak, sending a shower of tree branches and leaves pouring down in the middle of the night that left the entire peak dirty and in disarray.
Worse still, Elder Xuanqing had discovered that his cave abode had been broken into and ransacked. That had struck a raw nerve, and in a fit of rage he had blown up his own main hall.
The outer sects only knew about the tree shower incident, not the theft—Elder Xuanqing cared deeply about his dignity. The thought that a dignified Nascent Soul cultivator had his home robbed would be the laughingstock of the entire Canglan Realm if word got out!
The newly renovated main hall was once more severely damaged by Xu Wanzhong's unsparing palm strike.
"Xu Wanzhong, you've arrived." Elder Xuanqing flew out from the depths of the peak. He glanced at the half-destroyed main hall, his expression surprisingly calm.
"Where is my little junior sister?" Xu Wanzhong demanded.
"She's here with me," Elder Xuanqing replied.
"How dare you admit it!" Xu Wanzhong flew into a rage and struck out with another palm.
This time, Elder Xuanqing waved his sleeve to block the attack. The two surging streams of spiritual power collided, bursting into rainbow-colored light that could be seen clearly even from miles away.
"Give my little junior sister back to me!" Xu Wanzhong roared.
Elder Xuanqing sneered. "You're the one who made her stand before the Heart-Revealing Stone."
He had long suspected that Nangong Yu was behind the incidents at his peak, or at the very least was deeply involved. Why else would she keep deflecting the topic whenever he brought it up?
But no matter how furious he was, Nangong Yu was Ling Heng's disciple now, so he could not deal with her as he pleased.
There was no way he was just going to swallow this grievance. Elder Xuanqing had seized the chance when she was alone—with Xu Wanzhong nowhere nearby, she was effectively unprotected—and abducted her directly.
He had used the illusion to confuse Chen Zhi simply to buy himself time to hide the girl away.
"Even if you blow up the entire Tai Xuan Peak, you will never find her," Elder Xuanqing declared haughtily.
If the peak was destroyed, Hengxu Peak would be the one to rebuild it. At most, he would just have nowhere to stay temporarily.
"Xu Wanzhong, you'd better think this through!" Elder Xuanqing said proudly. "If this drags on, I can't guarantee that she will still be alive."
Nangong Yu was unharmed for the time being. But if enough time passed, all bets were off.
And this would all be Xu Wanzhong's fault. After all, who told him to refuse to submit to his demands?
"You!" Sure enough, his threat caught Xu Wanzhong off guard. He abruptly withdrew his hand. "Xuanqing, you've got some nerve!"
Elder Xuanqing let out a mocking humph. "I am perfectly well, thank you."
"I hope you'll still be able to laugh a moment from now," Xu Wanzhong said coldly as he pulled out his token. "Your new little disciple is about to get beaten to death!"
Over at the Main Peak.
The Sect Leader and Elder Ling Heng had opened up a separate, isolated void space to fight in private.
Both of them were at the Nascent Soul realm's next level, the Soul Formation realm. If they fought within the bounds of the sect, the grand protective formation would almost certainly mistake them for demonic cultivators and attack them.
"Hold on a second." Elder Ling Heng noticed his token flickering nonstop and gestured to pause their fight.
The Sect Leader looked unamused. "You're pulling that trick again? You just stop every time you can't win."
His own token was flashing too, wasn't it? And he had ignored it completely.
"Who is as free as you are?" Elder Ling Heng snapped back. "You've delegated all your duties to others, of course no one comes bothering you!"
After that retort, he answered the call. "What is it—what?!"
His face drained of all color in an instant, startling the Sect Leader, who immediately leaned in to listen.
"Xuanqing has taken Little Yu and is refusing to release her," Xu Wanzhong's cold voice came through the token. "You handle this."
The call ended abruptly.
Elder Ling Heng was seething with rage, not at Xu Wanzhong, but at Elder Xuanqing.
"What is he doing picking on a child?!"
He put his token away, tore open the void, and stepped out. The Sect Leader followed right behind him, the two of them speeding toward Tai Xuan Peak one after the other.
"Master." Seeing him appear, Xu Wanzhong bowed respectfully and quickly recounted the entire incident.
It boiled down to Elder Xuanqing being petty and holding a grudge against Little Yu for being disrespectful to him during the disciples' trial, and now he was picking a fight to get back at her.
That was exactly what Elder Ling Heng had guessed.
"Xuanqing," the Sect Leader said in a solemn, dignified tone. "You already struck her once, do you not remember that?"
That day, Elder Xuanqing had been so furious that he lost control and lashed out with a palm strike right then and there.
The girl had just been lucky enough to come out of it unharmed.
But regardless of whether she was hurt or not, as a Nascent Soul cultivator he had already attacked a mere Qi Refining novice disciple. Was he really going to go so far as to beat her to death to settle this? That was completely unreasonable.
"Your grievances were already settled that day," the Sect Leader reminded him.
Now that he had the girl in his custody, Elder Xuanqing was completely unflappable. He let out a cold snort at the Sect Leader's words. "You're listening to his nonsense."
He then laid out the entire sequence of events from his perspective.
"As a dignified Nascent Soul True Man, would I really care about such a trivial slight?!"
"It's obvious that she's the one who caused trouble and ruined my Tai Xuan Peak!"
"I'm not falsely accusing her. All I ask is that she step up to the Heart-Revealing Stone!"
Elder Xuanqing had only one thought in mind: since he could not punish Nangong Yu directly, he would make her stand before the Heart-Revealing Stone.
If she was guilty, there was no way she could get out of it. Hengxu Peak would have to compensate him for the damage to Tai Xuan Peak and all the lost artifacts from his cave.
If she was innocent, then he would just go and continue his own investigation.
He was completely unapologetic and stood his ground, making it perfectly clear that he would not release Nangong Yu unless they agreed to let her take the Heart-Revealing Stone trial.
"Where is my disciple?" Elder Ling Heng's face had turned icy cold after holding back his anger for so long.
Elder Xuanqing turned to look at the Sect Leader. "Since the Sect Leader is here too, why not act as our witness?"
The Sect Leader, as always, wore a gentle, unflappable expression, and nodded. "Very well. Release the girl first."
Elder Xuanqing hesitated for a moment, then waved his sleeve. A streak of yellow light came flying rapidly from the back of the mountain, stopping right in front of the crowd. It was Nangong Yu, completely trapped under a large net.
This was a powerful artifact he had refined from divine silk, more than capable of restraining even a Nascent Soul cultivator.
"Little Grand Martial Aunt!" Xu Wanzhong immediately rushed forward to try to free her.
But without Elder Xuanqing lifting the restriction, he could not break the net at all. "Xuanqing! Let my little grand martial aunt go!"
The Sect Leader also spoke up. "She's just a little Qi Refining disciple. She can't run away."
Where could she possibly go? Even if she did try to flee, wouldn't he be able to track her down and bring her back? That thought crossed Elder Xuanqing's mind, and he waved his sleeve.
A streak of golden light darted straight toward his sleeve. Freed from the golden net that had bound her, Nangong Yu plummeted downward the very next instant.
Xu Wanzhong caught her, his voice tight with worry. "Are you hurt?"
"Senior brother, that scared me half to death." Nangong Yu's mouth twisted, and big tears began to roll down her cheeks one after another.
Xu Wanzhong's face had been dark with rage, but he gently stroked her hair. "Master is here. No one's going to let your grievance go unaddressed."
Nangong Yu's eyes went wide with surprise. She craned her neck to look around, and sure enough, she spotted that pretty boy Ling Heng—her nominal master.
"Do we even need Master to beat him?" Nangong Yu whispered quietly to Xu Wanzhong.
Xu Wanzhong had been so furious just now that he'd been ready to kill someone, but hearing her childish question, he could not help but crack a faint smile.
"I was just afraid something would happen to you," he said softly. "If I fought him, he'd never admit he was beaten."
Two Nascent Soul cultivators going head to head would not finish their fight for three to five days. What if something terrible happened to Little Yu in the middle of all that?
"Pfft." Nangong Yu patted his arm to soothe him. "Even if Master beats him, he still won't be convinced. Even if the Limitless Heavenly Venerable came down to fight him, he'd probably say, 'You only got a head start of a few million years! If we were born at the exact same time, you'd never beat me.'"
Xu Wanzhong: "......"
Was he allowed to laugh?
"Hah!" The sect leader, who had no such reservations, threw his head back and laughed out loud.
Ling Heng could not laugh. He was still fuming.
Xuanqing could not laugh either. He was burning with rage. "How dare you! You have no right to insult the Heavenly Venerable's good name!"
Nangong Yu shot right back. "Who's insulting him? That was your line, not mine! I'm just a tiny disciple who got tied up in a net a minute ago. I'd never even dream of comparing my skills to the Limitless Heavenly Venerable's."
Her nonsensical but hard-to-refute reasoning left Elder Xuanqing completely stuck for a comeback. "Hmph! Once we put you before the Heart-Seeking Stone, we'll see how sharp your tongue still is!"
The conversation was pulled right back to the critical point.
"He says you destroyed the Supreme Mystery Peak," Elder Ling Heng looked at his young disciple. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Nangong Yu answered without a moment's hesitation. "Me? Just half a month ago I was an ordinary mortal. Who on earth would believe I could pull that off?"
She poked her own nose with her index finger. "Go summon the five great sects and eight major schools to judge this. What kind of evil, all-powerful demon cultivator am I supposed to be? One that looks like a regular mortal but can level a Nascent Soul cultivator's entire cultivation ground with a wave of my hand?"
This kind of nonsense could never get out of the Purple Yang Sect. It was far too humiliating.
Everyone in the room knew exactly what she meant. The sect leader then asked, "In your opinion, how should we handle this matter?"
Did she really want to use the Heart-Seeking Stone?
The sect leader thought she was sharp as a tack. If she could resolve this mess on her own, he would let her. If she could not, that would be his cue to step in and show his authority.
Elder Ling Heng had taken her on as a disciple just a little earlier, but the sect leader had stopped the bond from deepening before they could grow too attached. He had already given her a Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Bed once, a treasure that had belonged to his own master before him. Technically, that made him her grandmaster.
That had to count as some kind of fate, right?
In the blink of an eye, all these thoughts raced through the sect leader's mind, while his face remained as warm and unflustered as ever.
"The Heart-Seeking Stone? Is it even reliable?" Nangong Yu muttered thoughtfully. "It won't wrongfully convict me, will it?"
Elder Xuanqing burst into loud laughter when he heard that. "You'd better ask your master that. Elder Ling Heng, is the Heart-Seeking Stone reliable?"
The Heart-Seeking Stone was the property of the Hengxu Peak, used to interrogate convicted criminals. If the Heart-Seeking Stone was not reliable, that meant the Hengxu Peak had presided over countless unjust, wrongful cases over the years.
