Chapter 6 In the end, it was all her own doing.

"You've never cared about me at all! Now you're pretending to be righteous and disown your own family? Wang Lifu, don't you think you're ridiculous?" Ling Shu was filled with anger, like a firecracker ready to explode at any moment.

Wang Lifu's face was extremely ugly: "Today I will teach you a lesson so that you will never dare to be lawless again! The second young lady of the Li family died at your hands, and you also killed a cultivator from the Li family. Fresh lives have been lost at your hands, and instead of showing any remorse, you dare to challenge me here?! Guards, take this rebellious girl back to the sect! I will punish her personally!"

"I didn't kill the second young lady of the Li family! As for that cultivator, they insisted on surrounding me and trying to kill me; I acted in self-defense. You convicted me based on mere conjecture without investigating the truth; you're utterly incompetent and foolish!" Ling Shu rolled her eyes. "I don't know how you even got to this position; you're just a dog who thinks you're human just because you put on human clothes!"

Wang Lifu's face was ashen, and his temper exploded like a cannon: "What kind of thing did your mother raise you to be! How can I not allow you to have a say in this!"

Li Qiaoyan stepped forward to mediate: "No, no, no, we're all on the same side, don't speak ill of each other."

Ling Shu crossed his arms, looking as if he wasn't afraid of anything, even if the sky were to fall: "Good stuff."

Wang Lifu rushed forward, wanting to teach Ling Shu a lesson: "You...you you you!" She was furious and about to tear Ling Shu to pieces when Li Qiaoyan saw this and quickly pulled her back: "The child is still young, it's normal for her to be a little naughty. Don't be angry, don't be angry, we'll talk about it when we get back."

Wang Lifu pointed at the stubborn Ling Shu and angrily said, "She calls this naughty? She's caused someone's death and you call her naughty?! Stop siding with her."

Li Qiaoyan turned to Ling Shu and said, "Be good, go home with your mother first. The family should be well."

Ling Shu corrected Li Qiaoyan's words, shouting angrily, "Who says we're family!"

Wang Li took a deep breath and calmed himself down before saying, "Someone, take her back to the sect."

Ling Shu drew her sword and waved it wildly at the cultivators of the Shangqing Sect. Wang Lifu laughed angrily, "Your skills are amateurish." With that, he waved his hand, and the sword in Ling Shu's hand broke in two and fell to the ground. Ling Shu was so angry that she stretched out her feet to kick the cultivators who came over to hold her back. The cultivators dared not touch her and let her punch and kick them. The scene was in complete chaos.

Wang Lifu had lived a respectable life for most of her life, and others always obeyed her without question. She rarely encountered anyone who openly defied her. Unexpectedly, the biggest "troublemaker" she had ever met was her own flesh and blood.

Ultimately, it's all her own doing.

Helpless, he made a hand seal, and Ling Shu's hands were bound. He was then secretly taken back to the Shangqing Sect.

Ling Shu was imprisoned in the Thunder Platform. Wang Lifu brought her here and left her with the words: "You should reflect on your mistakes here and think about why human life is so precious. You will not be spared any of the punishments you are to be punished. I will not be lenient with you just because you are my daughter."

"Untie me!" Ling Shu glared at her. "I did nothing wrong. They attacked me first!"

Wang Lifu waved his left hand, releasing the spell binding Ling Shu. Ling Shu rushed towards the main road, but crashed into the restrictions of the Thunder Platform. She jumped and kicked a few times, only to find that the entire Thunder Platform was locked by the restrictions.

Ling Shu kicked the barrier violently, yelling, "Wang Lifu, you old woman! Let me out!"

Wang Lifu flicked his sleeves and angrily turned and left.

The Heavenly Thunder Platform is a massive cliff platform with sheer drops of thousands of feet at its edge. The edge is sealed by a restriction, and the sky above this place is perpetually filled with thunderclouds. Heavenly lightning strikes the restriction from time to time, and the restriction becomes stronger with each strike. Heavenly lightning is the source of the restriction's power. Because of the constant heavenly lightning on the Heavenly Thunder Platform, it has over time become a place for sect disciples to undergo tribulations.

Normally no one would come here. After Wang Lifu and his group left, the surroundings were empty, with only Ling Shu sitting alone in the center of the cliff.

At first, Ling Shu cursed loudly, but gradually he calmed down, sat cross-legged on the ground, swung his sash and looked up at the flashing lightning overhead, looking at where the lightning struck each time and whether it overlapped with the last time.

"The 207th, 208th, 209th..."

Amidst the thunder and lightning, a clear gurgling sound rang out. Ling Shu clutched her stomach: "My God, please don't let me starve to death here... Damn Wang Lifu, locking people up is one thing, but at least give them some food! Even prisoners get three meals a day. I'm still her daughter, after all..."

After saying that, Ling Shu slapped himself in the mouth and muttered to himself, "You dead mouth, what nonsense are you spouting!"

"How many have I counted? Hmm, I don't remember. One, two, three..." As I was counting, a fragrant aroma of food wafted by. It smelled like steamed fish, poached chicken, stir-fried bamboo shoots, and... braised pork ribs!

She turned around with delight, drawn by the fragrance, but her face fell when she saw who it was: "What are you doing here? Have you come to poison me?"

Li Qiaoyan smiled politely and naturally: "No, I still want to continue being the sect leader's wife."

Ling Shu crossed her arms and turned her back to her, saying, "Take your things and get out of here. I don't want to see you." As soon as she finished speaking, her stomach growled loudly. Li Qiaoyan chuckled and said, "Come and eat something. If you eat yourself to death, you deserve it."

Upon hearing this, Ling Shu immediately stood up angrily, walked over, and patted the barrier where Li Qiaoyan was standing: "You really do hate me."

Li Qiaoyan held the food box in front of her, a half-smile on his face, and said, "Yes, I hate you. My second sister died because of you. Do you think I will forgive you? Even if I don't poison you, I have ways to make you sit here for the rest of your life. You never get a kind word from your mother. As for me, I have been her wife for decades. Based on my relationship with her, even if I poison you, do you think she would treat me?"

After a moment's thought, Ling Shu realized that it was indeed as she said, that she could crush her as easily as crushing a small insect. Ling Shu's expression turned ugly.

Li Qiaoyan noticed the slight change in her expression and revealed a triumphant look. He continued, "You've lost completely, Xiao Lingshu. Do you know where you went wrong from the start?"

"From where?" Li Qiaoyan's eyes were like a snake crawling in a dark cave, and his smile was like a cunning villain in a play. Ling Shu felt a chill run down his spine and unconsciously took a step back. Ling Shu had never encountered such a person who looked like a gloomy villain in his life.

Li Qiaoyan sat on the ground, opened the food box, and took out the food layer by layer, placing it in front of Ling Shu. As he took it out, he said, "From the moment you entered the mountain gate to recognize your relatives and cursed your mother in the Fire Cloud Hall, you were wrong. You shouldn't have been so impulsive and shouldn't have turned against your mother. After all, you are connected to her by blood, and this is a bond that you can never sever in this lifetime. You are not a child anymore. Before having a conflict with someone, you can't just act on impulse. You also need to consider the other party's identity and status and see if they are someone you can afford to offend."

Li Qiaoyan's hand could reach into the barrier, and the things she carried could also enter the barrier. Ling Shu thought the barrier had been opened, so she hurriedly reached out to test it, but she was still blocked inside the barrier. Li Qiaoyan said, "I opened a one-way barrier, you can't get out."

Ling Shu withdrew her hand dejectedly: "So why are you telling me all this? To intimidate me? To make me understand your status before I oppose you? Are you here to show off?"

Seeing that she was unmoved by his words, Li Qiaoyan turned to a threatening tone: "Yes, that's right. If you want to get out, then you'd better find a way to win over Wang Lifu and get her on your side. Otherwise, what makes you think you can stand against me? Just because you're naked flesh and blood?"

Upon hearing that he needed to curry favor with Wang Lifu, Ling Shu's mood soured. He put on a sour face and said, "I didn't kill your second sister. She was greedy for the demon core and got into a fight with those two men. It was an internal strife that killed her. What does it have to do with me? Don't try to frame me!"

Li Qiaoyan gave a light "heh": "What if I insist on accusing you of murder?"

Ling Shu was instantly enraged and pointed at her nose, saying, "You shameless bastard! You indiscriminately kill innocent people! You frame good people!"

Li Qiaoyan slammed his chopsticks down on the bowl and plate, making a sharp sound: "Eat!" The sternness in his voice startled Ling Shu; this man's cultivation was at the mid-Nascent Soul stage...

"Why should I listen to you..." Li Qiaoyan's momentum had already diminished by five points. He frowned and forced out a questioning "Hmm?" from deep in his throat with a sullen face. Ling Shu got goosebumps. She knelt down and reached for the bowl and chopsticks. She lowered her head and tentatively picked up a piece of fish belly meat and put it in her mouth.

The steamed fish was fresh and smooth without being greasy, and it smelled delicious. Ling Shu, who was starving, took a few big bites and quickly shoveled rice into her mouth. While enjoying the food, she couldn't help but look up and steal a glance at Li Qiaoyan's expression. Then she was scared back by a sentence: "What are you looking at? Eat faster!"

Ling Shu chewed on a chicken leg and mumbled a complaint: "Hmph, bringing me food is just an act, trying to curry favor with Wang Lifu, how shameless."

Li Qiaoyan: "Didn't you enjoy your meal?"

Ling Shu paused, chewing on her chicken leg, as if... then her face flushed red, and she cursed inwardly, "Ling Shu, where's your backbone?!"

"Does the chicken leg smell good?"

"Hmph..." Ling Shu turned away, refusing to look at her, and continued eating.

Li Qiaoyan chuckled, then immediately put on a serious and upright posture: "There is actually another way to get out. We can have Immortal Venerable Qingxi use the Rewind Technique to recreate the scene before the living died, proving that you are also a victim, and then we can release you. However, you do have the life of a cultivator from my sect on your hands. You cannot escape this crime. According to the law, you must be punished with forty strokes of lightning."

After Li Qiaoyan finished speaking, Ling Shu took a big bite of the chicken leg: "If you hadn't sent people to hunt me down, would I have been able to kill her? I killed her to save my own life!"

“Your spiritual aura was present on my second sister’s corpse,” Li Qiaoyan stared intently at her. “Was I wrong to pursue you?”

Ling Shu was speechless. She had come full circle again, like a sealed maze, unable to find her way out, and finally returning to the starting point.

Of the three, the one who drugged her and coveted her demon core was the second young lady of the Li family, and the two men were her left and right protectors. Ling Shu used a clever trick to escape, but unexpectedly, they actually turned on each other and killed one another for a demon core. After finally escaping, the news of the second young lady's death spread like wildfire to the Li family, and the Li family sent people to hunt her down. Not knowing the attitude of the Li family head, she could only kill and then escape. However, they threatened the lives of Boss Zhang and her daughter, so she had no choice but to return to their hands.

She didn't know that the head of the Li family was the woman her mother married after abandoning her mother.

“It is Wang Lifu who is determined to punish you; there is no use in telling me anything.”

"..."

Li Qiaoyan waited for Ling Shu to finish eating, cleaned up the leftovers, and then got up and left.

Ling Shu felt that this time, she couldn't just recklessly rush through difficulties like she had before.

She sat alone on the deserted Thunder Platform, touching the imperial green bracelet on her left wrist. It was the only thing her mother had left her. She stroked the smooth bracelet, which carried her body heat, but the bracelet itself was icy cold.

The chill reminded her of the person who was radiating coldness.

Will she help me?