Chapter 163 What do you think of their master?
Dan Niang? Qin Danniang?
Shi Jinle suddenly turned around.
Along the passageway cleared for Nanmen Hong by the layers of cultivators, the slender female cultivator with her head down and shoulders trembling slightly, as if she were carrying a heavy burden, walked very, very slowly.
Shen Qingluo, Zhu Shibai, and Guan Wangzhen looked at each other in shock. The three of them turned around at the same time, and the sect jade tokens they held in their hands swayed with the movement.
The image transmitted back by the sect's jade tablet suddenly shook a few times before returning to normal, focusing on the frail female cultivator with a terrified expression.
Ji Mingran paused, his fingertips poised to place a white piece. He stared at the screen without moving, his brows furrowed.
Approaching Nanmen Hong, Qin Danniang, who had kept her head bowed, spoke in a barely audible voice: "Master."
Nanmen Hong smiled and said with satisfaction, "Look up."
Qin Danniang's shoulders trembled violently, and her head remained stiff as if frozen in place.
Nanmen Hong patiently said, "Look up."
A warning was hidden in the soft voice.
Her frail body swayed slightly, clearly unable to withstand such pressure. Unable to break the stalemate, Qin Danniang slowly raised her head, tears welling in her eyes set in her pale face.
"Let me introduce you all," Nanmen Hong said. "This is Qin Danniang, a disciple of my Liuhuan Valley."
None of the cultivators present responded.
Anyone with eyes could see the strangeness between Nanmen Hong and his disciple.
Nanmen Hong chuckled softly, gently lifting Qin Danniang's chin with his index finger and thumb, forcing her to turn her head to face the direction where Shen Qingluo, Zhu Shibai, and Guan Wangzhen were standing.
"Dan Niang, look," he said with interest, "have you seen any of the new companions you met at the spiritual cultivation competition?"
Upon hearing this, the last trace of color drained from Qin Danniang's face, leaving her deathly pale, and her whole body trembled so much that even her lips started to quiver.
Dong Lu, who was standing next to Yuan Liu, suddenly turned to her, his usually indifferent face unusually serious: "Master Nanmen, what are you doing?"
Nanmen Hong said, "I'm merely introducing the disciples of my Liuhuan Valley who are participating in this Spiritual Cultivation Competition. Why is the Eastern Continent so nervous? Are they feeling guilty?"
He Xiu couldn't help but say, "Master Nanmen, stop keeping me in suspense and get to the point."
Nanmen Hong: "Just now, the peak masters of Dingsheng Sect kept saying that there was something else behind Ji Mingran and Yu Tianxing's escape. That's right, there is indeed something else behind it. As far as I know, they have known each other for a long time."
Shen Ting: "Is that really true?!"
"Qin Danniang, a disciple of my Liuhuan Valley, is a participant in this realm's spiritual cultivation competition." Nanmen Hong looked at Shen Qingluo and the others with a smile and asked, "I presume you all know these young friends from Dingsheng Sect who are participating in the competition? Weren't you on the same boat as her in the Prize Pool Secret Realm?"
Given the current situation, if we say nothing, we don't know how Nanmen Hong will make a big fuss about it; but if we say anything more, it will only make things more difficult for Dan Niang.
Shen Qingluo, Zhu Shibai, and Guan Wangzhen watched him in silence.
Nanmen Hong looked leisurely at the Hehuan Sect: "Let me think, who else was on the same boat as you?"
Shi Jinle's heart skipped a beat, and he lowered his head, realizing something was wrong.
Currently, besides Qin Danniang, isn't Shi Jinle the only one who is both within the sect's territory and on the same boat as the Dingsheng Sect?
In her panic, Shi Jinle was greeted by a delicate fragrance, and a purple figure completely concealed her, shielding her from the gazes directed at her.
"Master," Shi Jinle whispered.
Master Ziyan did not respond; her alluring eyes held a cold glint as she returned Nanmen Hong's gaze with a half-smile.
Soon after, Nanmen Hong turned his gaze away, realizing that offending the Hehuan Sect was unnecessary for him.
He looked down at his disciple again: "And the Nameless Sect, right, Dan Niang?"
Shi Jinle couldn't help but tightly clutch the hem of Ziyan Zhenren's skirt.
Her master was protecting her, and Dan Niang...
Shi Jinle couldn't bear to look at her.
“Yu Tianxing is from the Nameless Sect. He escaped after the competition, and the Nameless Sect disappeared for three hundred years and suddenly reappeared to participate in the competition. If you say there is no connection between the two,” Nanmen Hong sneered, “who would believe that?”
Qin Danniang trembled, looked away, and did not respond to Nanmen Hong's words.
Nanmen Hong didn't care about Qin Danniang's trembling and silence. In front of more than a thousand cultivators, he mercilessly listed Qin Danniang's shortcomings, saying with disgust: "My disciple is of poor talent, born stupid, cowardly, easily swayed by rumors, and not good at speaking. She has all sorts of bad habits that are not presentable."
Finally, he added, "The refined pills are particularly unsightly and disgusting."
Qin Danniang let out a sob, her eyes, which had been holding back tears for so long, finally broke down, and large strings of tears dripped down her cheeks, wetting her robes.
Nanmen Hong seemed not to have seen it and said leisurely, "My original intention was to broaden her horizons and increase her knowledge, so I took advantage of the opportunity of the Spiritual Cultivation Competition to let her participate. I didn't expect that she would see the cooperation and mutual assistance between Dingsheng Sect and Buming Sect."
Qin Danniang stopped sobbing, her eyes filled with pain as she said, "Master, I boarded their boat because they saved me."
Nanmen Hong's smile didn't reach his eyes, and his voice turned cold: "You only speak up when you need to defend them? You just need to tell me, is Bumingzong also on their ship?"
Qin Danniang closed her eyes and silently shed tears again.
Nanmen Hong sneered, "Have you become mute again? It just so happens that I am most skilled at treating this ailment." As he spoke, he picked up a pill with his fingertips.
A man from Hongqi Sect stepped forward, bowed to the cultivators present, and said, "Everyone, I am Mu Huanhui, a cultivator from Hongqi Sect participating in the examination. Just as Master Nanmen said, I personally witnessed that a disciple from Buming Sect participating in the examination boarded the ship of Dingsheng Sect."
Nanmen Hong looked down at his distraught disciple, pressed the elixir between his fingers to Qin Danniang's lips, and asked softly, "Why can the disciples of Hongqi Sect say it, but you can't, Danniang?"
Dan Niang's eyes were filled with tears and sorrow as she looked up at Nanmen Hong.
......
“Dan Niang…no wonder she didn’t respond to us.” Ji Mingran frowned as he looked at the images transmitted from the sect’s jade tablet. “She simply couldn’t respond.”
Ji Mingran felt worried for Dan Niang: "She must have gone to great lengths to hide the communication jade tablet, otherwise, Nanmen Hong would have already revealed that I contacted her through the communication jade tablet."
However, the disciples of Liuhuan Valley who participated in the Spiritual Cultivation Competition with her witnessed her being with them. Dan Niang could not hide it, so she was captured by Nanmen Hong.
Each stage of the spiritual competition was projected onto a projection stone, and every move of the participating disciples was under the watchful eyes of the observers.
Yu Tianxing was extremely cautious about this, wearing a mask under his bamboo hat to completely conceal himself. Moreover, after returning to his sect, the disciples of Dingsheng Sect who had gone to observe the competition with him described in detail the scene they had witnessed.
However, none of them mentioned seeing Yu Tianxing or the scene of Bumingzong participating in the test, as most of them were not captured by the projection stone.
Thinking of this, she turned to meet Yu Tianxing's dark eyes.
“Yes,” he said softly. “I’ve cut off the projection stone’s ability to capture my spiritual power, so the observers outside the arena won’t see me whenever I appear.”
He did more than that. Wearing a straw hat and a mask to cover his face, no one except Ji Mingran could see his face.
“But that’s not enough.” Yu Tianxing lowered his eyes.
What he did was far from enough in the face of the various changes that followed.
Sure enough, Chongjue's voice came from the other end of the screen.
“The Nameless Sect.” Chongjue pondered, “The five disciples of the Nameless Sect who participated in the competition have disappeared without a trace since the end of the competition. The only one whose whereabouts have been reported is Ji Xingyang, who has joined Yu Tianxing.”
Nanmen Hong stared at Qin Danniang and said, "I heard that Ji Xingyang, who defected to the enemy, had close ties with Ji Mingran during the competition. My disciple Qin Danniang is a witness to that."
Qin Danniang stopped sobbing briefly, her eyes brimming with tears and her pupils dilated.
Nanmen Hong: "I suspect even more that Yu Tianxing may be mixed in with the unnamed disciples participating in the test."
Qin Danniang's pale pink lips were stained black by the pill pressed against them, and her whole body trembled uncontrollably.
Nanmen Hong then asked, "What do you think, Danniang?"
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