“Elder, this woman is definitely not simple!”
Yu Shuo’s gaze was deep and wary, much like Chen Zhi’s when he had first encountered Nangong Yu.
As a Golden Core cultivator, it was impossible for him to be as muddleheaded as the younger disciples.
This was Disciple Peak, right beside the two Nascent Soul elders, Bai He and Luo Qingyuan. Who could cause trouble here and make a Golden Core cultivator suffer? Even if she wasn’t a demonic cultivator, she must have some underhanded tricks up her sleeve!
“I heard you’ve only just joined the sect and haven’t even passed the disciple trial, yet you’re already spouting such nonsense?” Yu Shuo demanded harshly. “What are you relying on?!”
Nangong Yu curled her lip. “I happened to stumble upon an incredible opportunity. Do I have to tell you about it, too?”
She rolled her eyes. “Even my master didn’t ask. Who do you think you are?”
“You—” Yu Shuo’s expression turned ugly.
Ever since he had advanced to the Golden Core realm, few junior disciples had dared speak to him like that.
This junior disciple, even if she was the disciple of the Hall Master of Discipline, was still only at the Qi Refining stage!
Of the many junior disciples in the sect, how many of them would actually grow into anything? He didn’t care at all who stood behind her.
“Could what you obtained be an opportunity left behind by demonic cultivators?” he asked arrogantly, raising a brow.
Nangong Yu nodded. “Yeah, sure. I’m the Demon Venerable’s mole. I infiltrated the Ziyang Sect solely to gather intelligence on the righteous path. When my demon clan is unsealed, the first thing I’ll do is flatten the Ziyang Sect! Everyone’s blood will be used to forge my demonic body. Heh heh heh…”
Elder Baihe: “…”
Luo Qingyuan: “Pfft!”
Some of the disciples tried not to laugh, some were helpless, while others were incensed by her flippancy.
“Nangong Yu! Stop talking nonsense!”
“Then what exactly do you want me to say?” Nangong Yu was getting impatient. “When I deny it, you don’t believe me. When I admit it, you say I’m talking nonsense.”
She simply said, “Tell me how you want me to put it, and I’ll repeat it word for word. How’s that?”
Some NPCs were simply unreasonable.
Nangong Yu was used to it, so she didn’t get angry. “Come on, hurry up. Convict me already, then pay me back. Stop dragging your feet. I’m starting to suspect you never intended to pay.”
Everyone fell silent.
There was no need to suspect anything. They really didn’t intend to pay. Otherwise, Yu Shuo wouldn’t have been standing here.
“What money?” Yu Shuo demanded. “Considering your young age, the other disciples were unwilling to quibble with you. But you injured someone, then forced them to compensate you for your talismans. What kind of logic is that?!”
He didn’t look toward Elder Baihe or Elder Luo Qingyuan, but his meaning was obvious: he was dissatisfied with what they had done.
He was Elder Fuyun’s disciple.
Elder Fuyun had originally been the elder in charge of Disciple Peak. He had been the one to receive the new disciples that day. However, after every tree and flower on Jade-Clear Peak had been stripped away overnight, he had lost interest in teaching, and the position had fallen to Elder Baihe.
Some disciples from Class A had thought: Since Elder Baihe refused to act and uphold justice for them, they would seek out Elder Fuyun instead.
Better yet, they would have Elder Fuyun return and become their elder.
The group found Yu Shuo and told him that Nangong Yu was arrogant, domineering, and refused to obey discipline. They said she had once talked back to Elder Fuyun, that Elder Fuyun had chosen not to hold it against her, and that she had consequently become even more insolent and contemptuous of everyone.
The disciples wore expressions of grievance and resentment, as though they had nowhere to seek justice. Some even covered their storage pouches and shed tears, begging Yu Shuo to help them.
Yu Shuo immediately felt that this was intolerable. Absolutely intolerable!
“If you didn’t want to pay, then don’t sign an IOU!” Nangong Yu pulled out a stack of IOUs, waved them in the air, then put them away again. “Yesterday, you had no backbone and signed them. Today, you found someone to back you up and now you’re denying everything. What, should I praise you for knowing when to bend and stretch?”
One of the disciples in the crowd shouted, “Nangong Yu, don’t get so cocky!”
“What exactly has she done to be cocky?” Luo Qingyuan asked with a smile. “I was the witness yesterday. Are you dissatisfied with my decision?”
The disciple lowered his head. “This disciple wouldn’t dare.”
“I can see that you wouldn’t dare.” Luo Qingyuan nodded. “If you had refused to yield yesterday, even at the cost of your life, I might have thought more highly of you.”
Her words were light and airy, yet they struck him squarely in the face.
“Elder, you’re taking Nangong Yu’s side because she’s your disciple. We have nothing to say about that,” the disciple added.
Luo Qingyuan laughed. “Don’t you have a master? Go call your master here.”
Her bright, butterfly-like eyes swept over the crowd. “You too. Go call all your masters. Have them take your side as well.”
The corners of her lips lifted. “With more than twenty of you and more than twenty masters, surely you can overpower me and obtain justice for yourselves, right?”
The disciples were instantly tempted.
“Why are you still standing there? Go!”
Luo Qingyuan’s expression suddenly changed, like a storm breaking loose.
The disciples jumped. Their hearts, which had just begun to stir, froze at once.
“That would probably be inappropriate.” Yu Shuo spoke up then. “Everyone knows that Nangong Yu’s master is the Hall Master of Discipline. Who can afford to offend him?”
At this, Nangong Yu’s expression turned thoughtful.
Her master, an NPC, certainly had quite a few enemies!
A mere Golden Core cultivator actually dared to mock him openly.
“Since you know that, how dare you offend me?” She planted her hands on her hips. “Pay up, every last one of you! Stop wasting my time!”
Yu Shuo was momentarily at a loss. A hint of disdain flashed through his eyes. “As expected of the Hall Master of Discipline’s disciple. What an imposing manner.”
“Of course. You’re just a lowly Golden Core cultivator, so stop standing here and being an eyesore.” Nangong Yu waved him away with undisguised disdain. “Go call your master. I’d like to have a good talk with him about how he teaches his disciples. How can he teach someone who can’t tell right from wrong, takes on everyone’s burdens, and loves showing off? Isn’t that undermining the foundation of the Ziyang Sect?”
“You!” Yu Shuo’s face darkened, and a flash of killing intent passed through his eyes.
At that moment, Luo Qingyuan spoke up. “Little Fish, you shouldn’t put it that way. Not just anyone can be the foundation of the Ziyang Sect.”
It was practically a slap in Yu Shuo’s face, followed by a basin of chili water poured over it.
His face burned. His brows pressed down hard as he struggled to ignore the gazes of the others and lifted his chin.
“That’s right. I’m not worthy of being the foundation of the Ziyang Sect. I suppose these aggrieved disciples aren’t worthy either.”
He looked at Nangong Yu with a mocking smile. “Only the disciple of the Hall Master of Discipline is worthy, I imagine.”
The moment he said this, the Class A disciples’ expressions grew even more resentful.
“Ah.” Luo Qingyuan shook her head. She found this terribly boring and no longer wished to speak.
Elder Baihe slowly opened his mouth. “Is this also what your master thinks?”
Yu Shuo lowered his head and saluted. “My master knows nothing of this. After hearing about the hardships Junior Brothers and Sisters have endured, I was indignant on their behalf. I knew I was overestimating myself, but I still wanted to seek justice for them.”
Elder Baihe said indifferently, “You believe Elder Luo and I have favored Nangong Yu and handled this matter unfairly?”
“This disciple wouldn’t dare,” Yu Shuo replied.
Elder Baihe let out a mocking laugh and didn’t bother arguing with him. Instead, he shouted, “Fuyun! Come to Disciple Peak!”
The voice rang out like thunder over Disciple Peak, swiftly traveling toward Jade-Clear Peak.
“His master is Elder Fuyun?” Nangong Yu exclaimed in surprise, her eyes widening. “No wonder! The master loves farting, and the disciple loves spouting grand nonsense! Elder Fuyun is certainly good at teaching disciples. His disciple has inherited his true teachings!”
Luo Qingyuan had been lazily looking elsewhere with her eyes half-closed, her expression languid.
“Pfft!”
Her beautiful eyes opened, shining brightly, and she looked over with a gaze full of amusement.
Why was this little disciple of hers so adorable?
“So arrogant and disrespectful to your elders. I suppose you inherited that attitude from the Hall Master of Discipline?” Yu Shuo said coldly.
Nangong Yu simply covered her ears and shook her head vigorously. “I’m not listening, I’m not listening! Blah, blah, blah!”
“…”
Yu Shuo was so furious he nearly died on the spot. He took a deep breath, turned his gaze elsewhere, and waited for his master to arrive.
Elder Fuyun arrived quickly.
Before long, a green figure streaked across the sky and landed on Disciples’ Peak.
“What did you call me here for?” he asked Elder Baihe after landing.
Elder Baihe had no patience for beating around the bush. He said directly, “If you want to return to Disciples’ Peak, just say so. Why send your disciple here to stir up trouble and make a scene?”
Elder Fuyun refused to admit it. “Senior Brother, what makes you say that? I only just arrived. I have no idea what happened.”
Elder Baihe sneered and pointed at Yu Shuo. “Your master may not know, but you do. Tell him again.”
Yu Shuo lowered his head and began recounting the events. “Yesterday, some disciples came to me…”
He left out everything else. He only said that the disciples from Class A had sought him out, claiming they had been bullied by Nangong Yu. They were short on funds and did not want to encourage her arrogance, so they had asked him to uphold justice.
“I happened to be free these past few days, so I came to take a look.”
“Who could have known that the moment I saw her, before I had even said a word, my eyes suddenly began to sting terribly.”
The others immediately spoke up as witnesses.
“That’s right!”
“Elder, my eyes still hurt terribly.”
“She must be a demoness!”
“She’s a demonic cultivator! She must be one!”
Having only just entered the cultivation world, many of the disciples still thought like ordinary mortals. Whenever they encountered something they did not understand, they shouted “demoness.”
That term was not commonly used in the cultivation world. The proper term was “demonic cultivator.”
Nangong Yu looked thoroughly interested as she took a handful of spirit fruits from her storage pouch and began eating.
At the same time, she fiddled with the sword insignia hanging from her waist—the symbol of the Main Peak.
The disciples from Class A saw it, but did not recognize what it was.
Yu Shuo did recognize it, however, and his heart lurched. Even his pupils contracted.
Elder Fuyun, on the other hand, failed to notice. His gaze had never once fallen on Nangong Yu. He only looked at Elder Baihe and Luo Qingyuan as he said, “From what I’ve heard, this disciple is indeed rather arrogant.”
Someone had challenged her to a match. Even if she refused, how could she use talismans to injure them?
Not only had she hurt someone, she had also injured innocent bystanders.
And after injuring people, she had demanded compensation for her “losses.” How could anyone be so overbearing?
Yet Baihe and Luo Qingyuan had actually indulged her…
Elder Fuyun was pleased inwardly, but put on an expression of disapproval. “Senior Brother Baihe, Junior Sister Luo, how can you indulge her simply because she is the disciple of the Hall Master of Discipline?”
Luo Qingyuan immediately scolded him. “Which one of my eyes saw me indulging her because she’s the disciple of the Hall Master of Discipline? Can’t it be because I like her?”
Elder Fuyun was momentarily speechless. But Luo Qingyuan’s unreasonable behavior was exactly what he had been hoping for.
“Junior Sister, as a teaching elder, you should treat everyone equally.”
The disciples from Class A nodded one after another upon hearing this.
That was right! Their trip to Jadeclarity Peak had not been in vain. Now that was what a teaching elder should be like!
“They aren’t my disciples.” Luo Qingyuan brushed some imaginary dust from her sleeve and glanced to the side. “They’re Elder Baihe’s disciples.”
Elder Baihe, who had just been handed the blame, said only, “Do you want to come back and continue serving as a teaching elder?”
Elder Fuyun put on a troubled expression. “Since Senior Brother has taken over, and your cultivation and mastery of the Dao far exceed mine, there’s naturally no need for me to return.”
He paused. When Elder Baihe did not respond, he continued, “But if Senior Brother has grown tired of teaching the disciples, I suppose I can take up the position again.”
Elder Baihe could not help rolling his eyes.
He knew it. Yu Shuo’s stunt was secretly directed by Elder Fuyun.
But Elder Baihe had never liked this sort of thing in the first place. His title, Baihe—White Crane—had been chosen to embody the meaning of a carefree crane wandering through the clouds.
So he said nothing. With a sweep of his horsetail whisk, he shot into the sky. Soon, he vanished like a streak of light, just as he had when he arrived.
“Hah!” Luo Qingyuan swept her gaze over the disciples from Class A. “A bunch of idiots.”
Then she looked toward Nangong Yu. “Little Fish, go call your First Master. Or your senior brothers and sisters will do just as well.”
She toyed with a lock of hair hanging before her and smiled sweetly. “Your Second Master is useless. I’m afraid he won’t be able to get this debt repaid for you.”
Elder Fuyun was also a Nascent Soul cultivator, so if the two of them fought, it would be difficult to determine a victor in a short time.
And there was a Golden Core cultivator nearby with ill intentions.
“Oh.” Nangong Yu looked at Elder Fuyun and said sincerely, “When I entered the sect, I remember Elder Fuyun loved passing gas. Is your stomach feeling better today?”
The moment she brought up the humiliation he had suffered that day, Elder Fuyun’s face darkened. “You—”
He remembered this new disciple. She had been outrageously insolent in the Heart-Questioning Illusion. He had merely punished her a little, yet she had mocked him with veiled sarcasm the entire way.
If he had not been feeling unwell that day, he would have taught her a lesson long ago!
But it was not too late to do so today. Elder Fuyun flipped his palm, preparing to teach her a lesson.
Pffft—
A muffled sound rang out, and the robe behind Elder Fuyun gave a slight puff.
Pffft, pffft, pffft—
The sounds came one after another. Not only did Elder Fuyun freeze, but all the disciples were stunned as well.
One sound might have been imagined, but so many…
Everyone’s gaze involuntarily shifted toward Elder Fuyun’s back.
He wore a green robe and looked every inch the immortal, but at that moment, the area around his rear had taken on a noticeably darker shade.
The expressions on everyone’s faces changed at once, yet no one dared to say anything. They all lowered their heads.
Elder Fuyun’s expression changed too. As the person involved, he knew perfectly well what had happened.
“You!” He pointed at Nangong Yu, shock and suspicion written across his face. “Was this you?!”
Otherwise, how could it have happened so coincidentally?
On the day he had guided the new disciples, he had inexplicably suffered a very mortal problem. Today, the moment she mentioned it, the same thing happened again!
Elder Fuyun could not help suspecting her. “What did you do?!”
Nangong Yu hopped backward two steps. “What does that have to do with me?”
At the same time, Luo Qingyuan made her move, blocking Elder Fuyun’s spiritual power. “You’re a dignified elder. Attacking a new disciple would be beneath your station.”
Her heart sank slightly as she cast a sidelong glance at Nangong Yu, then sent a message toward Balance Sequence Peak.
Nangong Yu had not planned to call her master. He was at a critical juncture and might break through if his luck was good. If she interrupted him and he blamed her by saying, “I couldn’t break through because of you,” that would be an account difficult to settle.
Nor had she planned to call Xu Wanzhong. Her senior brother NPC had already looked after her so much, while she had never given him anything in return. If she kept relying on him like this, the NPC might turn dark.
“What’s beneath his station?” she shouted. “It’s not as if this is the first time. On Qingyun Summit, he brought every disciple onto the flying vessel except me, then threw me down so hard I hit the ground!”
“Once bitten, twice shy. The first time, he threw me down. The second time, he attacked me. Who knows? The third time, he might try to kill me.”
Many of the Class A disciples shouted at her.
“Nangong Yu, stop acting so arrogantly!”
“Elder Fuyun is not someone you can slander!”
“You were clearly the one who disrespected Elder Fuyun first!”
Some people kept their distance. Mo Jiuyou, for instance, had stayed out of it from beginning to end.
He had been studying talismans inside the hall, but when the fighting started outside, he came out—and happened to witness the scene of Elder Fuyun’s rear end exploding with a fart.
“I can’t afford to offend her!” His back went cold. For the first time, he clearly realized that Nangong Yu was someone he absolutely could not afford to provoke.
Before, whether she had kicked him or cursed at him, it had all been harmless horseplay.
She even dared to provoke an elder!
“Was it really her?” Zhao Ziyun climbed up the tree and sat on the branch beside him, asking in a low voice.
“Most likely,” Xiao Junlin’s voice came from higher up. No one knew when he had climbed into the tree. He stood above the two of them with his hands behind his back.
The three of them were referring to what had happened on the day the new disciples were welcomed: Elder Fuyun had repeatedly passed gas and been mocked by Nangong Yu.
What were the odds of that happening by coincidence?!
He normally never farted, yet he had chosen to do so when Nangong Yu was present—and right after offending her?
“What kind of trick is that?”
“That was so underhanded. I told you, this woman is seriously sinister.”
“Pipsqueak, get lost.”
The three of them bickered noisily, but before they could exchange more than a few words, a streak of light flew over from the horizon.
Xu Wanzhong had arrived. “What happened?”
He landed precisely beside his junior sister, frowning as he looked at Elder Fuyun and Luo Qingyuan, who were fighting.
“Are you hurt?” He withdrew his gaze and asked the person beside him.
Luo Qingyuan had sent him a message: Fuyun was planning to return to Disciples’ Peak and use Little Fish as an example to punish the others.
Those words had pulled him out of his cultivation. He had hurried over at once.
“Not yet.” Nangong Yu felt a little embarrassed. “Senior Brother, what are you doing here?”
Xu Wanzhong said crossly, “Who taught you to swallow your grievances? If you’ve been wronged, of course you call for help!”
He was extremely displeased. His gaze swept across the open ground. “If someone of the same cultivation level bullied you, your senior brother might not say a word. But some people are shameless. They’re three major realms above you, yet they actually attacked a junior disciple. What a proud achievement!”
Elder Fuyun’s robes were still stained with filth. After losing so much face at Disciples’ Peak today, he now had to endure Xu Wanzhong’s insults as well. Furious, he shouted, “Xu Wanzhong! What do you know?!”
“Senior Brother, let me explain!” Nangong Yu hurriedly said. “He must have eaten something filthy. He was farting with shit mixed in, and then tried to pin the blame on me!”
Xu Wanzhong was utterly dumbfounded. “Farting with…? And he blamed you?”
He had no idea how to feel.
A dignified Nascent Soul cultivator could actually fart… That was one thing, but he had tried to frame a little junior disciple in the Qi Refining stage?
How was that any different from that old bastard Xuanqing?
At that thought, a flash of insight crossed his mind, but he failed to grasp it.
“You offended him?” Xu Wanzhong asked in a low voice.
Nangong Yu looked completely baffled. “I don’t remember.”
Whenever asked, she simply claimed not to remember.
Looking at her innocent, guileless face, Xu Wanzhong was ready to believe her without a second thought. Then he remembered the things she had done before—during the entrance trial, she had cursed people out openly and offended countless others.
“Hmm.” He nodded, then looked toward the sky. “Fuyun, my junior sister is only in the Qi Refining stage. What could she possibly have done to offend you? You ate some random nonsense yourself, so stop framing my junior sister.”
Fuyun was just like that old bastard Xuanqing—hypocritical and petty.
He disliked Little Fish over the slightest matters, yet was too proud to admit it. Instead, he had to come up with some excuse to teach her a lesson.
Just like that old bastard Xuanqing, who insisted that Little Fish had been responsible for what happened to Taixuan Peak. Absolutely ridiculous!
Could this old dog Fuyun actually claim that Little Fish had also been responsible for stripping a layer off Yuqing Peak?
If so, Xu Wanzhong would have to make a trip to the main peak and inform the Sect Master, so he could stamp out this unhealthy atmosphere among the elders!
What kind of crooked nonsense was spreading through the sect every day?!
“It was her!” Elder Fuyun had grown tired from fighting Luo Qingyuan. Now that the real culprit had appeared, he naturally did not want to waste any more strength. “She also caused Yu Shuo and the other disciples unbearable pain in their eyes. She’s clearly an evil and bizarre person, yet Hengxu Peak insists on shielding her. What are you plotting?!”
“This is a conspiracy by Hengxu Peak!” Elder Fuyun roared.
Nangong Yu was merely a tiny Qi Refining cultivator. There was no way she possessed such abilities. Someone else had to be manipulating things from behind the scenes.
Elder Fuyun had also learned that Elder Xuanqing had once farted in public and smashed the sect’s plaza, costing him a huge sum of spirit stones in compensation.
Just yesterday, Xuanqing had been imprisoned in Ice Abyss Cliff for half a year.
This had to be a conspiracy by Hengxu Peak! Perhaps even Nangong Yu’s entry into the Ziyang Sect, the fact that no one dared accept her as a disciple, and her eventual arrival at Hengxu Peak had all been arranged by them from the beginning!
“Cut the crap!” Xu Wanzhong could not stand listening to him. He immediately flew into the sky and began fighting him.
The two Nascent Soul cultivators exchanged only a few blows before every hall and courtyard on Disciples’ Peak collapsed to the ground.
“This…” one disciple asked blankly. “Are we still having class?”
The others’ expressions changed as well. They were new disciples who had only just set foot on the path of cultivation. How could they go without classes?
“Why did he have to provoke her?” someone muttered resentfully. “Wouldn’t it have been enough to compensate her with some things?”
Ten Water-Control Talismans per person was hardly a lot.
Although she was unreasonable, she had never taken the initiative to cause trouble. Even when Mo Jiuyou had repeatedly sought her out, she had not seemed to hold a grudge.
And now look what had happened—they had insisted on making her pay for it.
They had driven away an elder, provoked a battle between two Nascent Soul cultivators, and destroyed Disciples’ Peak. If word got out, outsiders would only say that the new disciples were incapable of getting along—
“Now you’re saying we should compensate her? When we went to Yuqing Peak yesterday, I didn’t see you saying a word,” someone mocked.
The disciples of Class A began quarreling among themselves.
Nangong Yu glanced up at the sky. Since the battle clearly would not end anytime soon, she took out a stack of IOUs and waved them in the air.
“Pay up.”
As soon as she spoke, Zhao Ziyun was the first to jump down from the tree. She took out a stack of talismans and handed them over. “Here.”
She had been there yesterday as well. Although she had mostly loafed around, she had technically contributed to Class A’s efforts.
Nangong Yu treated everyone equally. She accepted the compensation and returned Zhao Ziyun’s IOUs.
Next came Xiao Junlin.
He gave her Spirit-Replenishing Pills. “I don’t have any talismans on hand. These are of equivalent value.”
After confirming their value, Nangong Yu accepted them and returned his IOUs as well.
Mo Jiuyou did not come over. He insisted that he would not repay her, because he had spent the entire day sitting in a tree and had done absolutely nothing.
Nangong Yu glanced at him but did not bother responding.
One after another, seven or eight disciples came over to settle their debts with her.
More than a dozen others stood beside Yu Shuo, glaring at her with hostility.
Their eyes had been in excruciating pain earlier. It had to have been Nangong Yu’s doing.
They had already chosen to stand with Senior Brother Yu Shuo and Elder Fuyun, and when it came to taking sides, the worst thing one could be was a fence-sitter…
They might as well take the gamble!
“We’re not paying. What can you do about it?” one person said arrogantly, lifting his chin.
Nangong Yu put the IOUs away and replied lightly, “Then don’t pay.”
Her calm indifference made the dozen or so disciples uneasy.
“Even if you beat us again, we still won’t pay!”
“Go on, kill us if you’ve got the guts!”
Nangong Yu curled her lips and could not be bothered with them.
She raised her head and watched the battle in the sky. Xu Wanzhong and Elder Fuyun were still fighting.
The two were far apart, and the radiating streaks of light obscured her view. Nangong Yu could not tell who had the upper hand.
But she was definitely going to support her own side. With that thought, she equipped a title:
[Did You Take the Wrong Medicine?]: If you took the wrong medicine, you should act like it. While wearing this title, the designated target will randomly receive one medicinal effect.
