Chapter 92
After several days of recuperation, Lin Jichen's physical condition had improved significantly. She was now, like Xiao Mu, guarding a stronghold among mortals with a group of cultivators. She was puzzled when she saw Xiao Mu arrive angrily. The strongholds were quite far apart, and cultivators guarding them shouldn't be leaving without a valid reason. How did he get out?
Upon seeing Lin Jichen, Xiao Mu's anger intensified. Ignoring the stares of those around him, he grabbed her hand and dragged her away to a secluded spot. Seeing that Xiao Mu was also from Tianyu Mountain, the others assumed it was a conflict between their own fellow disciples and didn't offer any assistance.
Lin Jichen didn't say anything, letting Xiao Mu pull him around to find a secluded place. Finally, when they arrived at a quiet spot, Lin Jichen asked, "When did I offend you? I didn't notice anything."
"Of course not," Xiao Mu shook his head. He was very upset. The news about his junior uncle had already spread throughout his stronghold, and no one had stepped forward to stop it.
He had tried to stop the rumors himself. But the more he tried to stop them, the wider they spread. Some people even said, "If it's false, why would a sword cultivator from Tianyu Mountain stop something related to Shi Wanqing?" So, he was furious and went to find Lin Jichen.
When he told Lin Jichen what had happened, he saw that the expression on the other man's face was not anger, but confusion.
“I’ve heard this rumor too, and it’s being talked about here as well,” Lin Jichen said.
Xiao Mu was confused when Lin Jichen said such things. Wasn't she a fan of his junior uncle? Why was she so calm now? He asked anxiously, "Aren't you angry? How dare they say such things?"
Lin Jichen sighed, found a place to sit down, and said, "The more you try to stop them from doing this, the more they will believe it. It's better to let them keep talking like this, and they'll forget about it in a few days."
Xiao Mu looked at Lin Jichen. If it weren't for the array formations around them, he would have suspected that the person in front of him had been replaced by a demon. He continued to ask, "Are you really not angry?"
Of course she was angry. She wanted nothing more than to tear the mouth of the person who spread the rumors apart. But those people were just mortals, and she couldn't do anything to them. Helplessly, she said, "We're already at a disadvantage in these kinds of situations. Do you really want to take action against those mortals?" After looking Xiao Mu up and down, she said, "Don't you want your cultivation anymore?"
"If something really happens, do you think the sect leader or the headmaster will help you or the mortals?" Lin Jichen shrugged. At first, he was angry and helpless, but what could he do? Their first rule as cultivators was not to harm mortals. Even if mortals were really wrong, there would be human laws to punish them.
After talking for so long, she forgot to ask, "How did you get out?"
"I need to ask for leave. This matter has been making headlines over there, so the elder let me out and told me to go to other strongholds to inquire..." After saying this, the two realized that something was wrong.
Before the demon invasion, this saying didn't exist anywhere, so there's no way such a rumor would arise after everyone gathered together. Furthermore, their two strongholds weren't adjacent, and the people from those two strongholds lived in two cities far apart…
"You came straight here?" What about other places?
Xiao Mu scratched his cheek, feeling a little guilty. "I just rushed out in a huff without thinking too much. It was only after you told me that I realized something was wrong."
She also wanted to talk to the elders about what their purpose was if it was indeed someone deliberately spreading rumors. So far, no one has slandered Tianyu Mountain. Could it be that someone else is targeting Tianyu Mountain?
"Ask Uncle Cheng again," Lin Jichen said. "If it's true, Tianyu Mountain needs to be on guard. This matter is very likely aimed at us." Although he couldn't figure out what Tianyu Mountain had done to offend anyone, the elders would surely know.
As Fang Xingyang listened to the Exorcist's disciple report on everything concerning the capital, he noticed Murong Jing's hesitant expression and said, "Tell me everything. There's nothing you can't say at this crucial time."
Hearing the sect leader say this, Murong Jing breathed a sigh of relief and then said respectfully, "This disciple has heard some things about that junior uncle of Tianyu Mountain in the streets."
What about Shi Wanqing? She's been dead for two hundred years, what legends could she possibly have now? Apart from Fang Xingyang, everyone else looked puzzled, and the people of the capital had rarely mentioned other immortal sects in recent years.
Thinking of what Sui Fu had told him about Shi Wanqing and Chonghua's past, and seeing Murong Jing's hesitant look, he knew something was wrong.
"Rumor has it that Senior Wanqing once saved Demon Lord Chonghua and taught him to read and write..."
The more Fang Xingyang listened to Murong Jing's words, the colder his heart became. These things were all true, and very few people knew about them to begin with. What was going on now? Sui Fu couldn't have betrayed them, and that senior uncle was still in seclusion. So it must have been Chonghua who spread the word?
"Later, Chonghua confessed his feelings but was rejected, and then he became possessed by a demon in the capital." Murong Jing briefly finished telling the story he had heard. He didn't believe it at first, but there were other rumors about Chonghua in the capital, which roughly matched up, so he had to make a choice.
Even though the story was being circulated with great detail, people still didn't believe it, even though it matched the rumors circulating in the capital. Perhaps some enemy was stirring up trouble at Tianyu Mountain. It was truly frustrating to have such an incident at such a crucial moment. Tianyu Mountain was a major asset; if they were excluded, dealing with the demons would be even more difficult.
If the people react strongly at such a time, it wouldn't be a good thing for Tianyu Mountain or the entire immortal sect. He asked, "What kind of reaction is the people having?"
"They sneered at Chonghua, but felt more sympathy for this junior uncle, saying that he had saved an ungrateful wretch..." Murong Jing even embellished these words, while the common people cursed Chonghua in very harsh terms.
This is good for everyone. Fang Xingyang breathed a sigh of relief and instructed his disciples: "Don't spread rumors that have no basis. Tianyu Mountain is our ally. I don't want to hear such rumors a second time in the Exorcism Division during this critical period."
The disciples bowed and said in unison, "Yes, we will obey the sect leader's order."
We can't keep this a secret forever; we need to talk to Tianyu Mountain about it.
After visiting several nearby strongholds, Xiao Mu's initial anger turned into fear. Who could spread the news so widely during this closed period? Were they targeting Tianyu Mountain or his junior uncle? But his junior uncle had been gone for over two hundred years.
He truthfully reported the news to his master, Cheng Junyao, and then received a reply from his master, instructing him to return to Tianyu Mountain now and tell the sect leader everything he had discovered.
When he arrived at the main hall, he saw the head of the Exorcism Division there, and his grand-uncle, who had been in seclusion for a long time, had also come out. However, his grand-uncle seemed a little guilty and dared not meet the eyes of his nephews.
The sect leader glanced helplessly at his grandmaster uncle, as if he were sighing, and then said to Xiao Mu, "Tell me everything you've found out."
The atmosphere in the main hall was tense. None of the senior disciples dared to speak, and they gestured for Xiao Mu to say whatever he wanted. He looked up at the sect leader's ashen face and began to recount the stories he had heard about his junior uncle and Chonghua over the past few days.
The same story was told in every stronghold, so it was finished quickly. Then he saw the expression on his senior master's face, and he was so frightened that he almost ran out of the main hall.
“Uncle-Master,” Xiao Mu could tell that his uncle-master was suppressing his anger, “It’s one thing for Shi Wanqing to be foolish, but you can’t join her in such a serious matter.”
What kind of talk is this? Such a big matter, and he, the sect leader of Tianyu Mountain, was the last to know about it.
The martial uncle knew he shouldn't have kept it from Han Wenqing, but since only half the story had been told, they couldn't let the rest be known. Several times he tried to speak, but in the end, he just said, "Well, nobody would have thought that this Demon Lord Chonghua was the mortal that Xiao Qing saved back then!"
"Xiao Qing left as soon as Chonghua entered the examination hall. Who would have thought that he would be the one who fell into demonic possession on the spot? We only found out later." This senior uncle explained anxiously. He stood up and gestured as he spoke, clearly showing that he was an elder.
As a junior, Han Wenqing knew his senior uncle fairly well, and could tell from his current state that he was hiding something from him. However, just as Fang Xingyang had said, at least in this matter, his senior uncle hadn't concealed anything from him.
After speaking, the senior disciple observed Han Wenqing, and seeing him deep in thought, knew he had passed this test. He could deal with the rest later. At worst, he wouldn't need to cultivate in seclusion on Tianyu Mountain anymore. There were so many blessed lands in the mortal realm; surely he could find a place to cultivate?
Han Wenqing suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. He sat down, rubbing his forehead, and sighed, "It's good that everyone doesn't have any other thoughts about us or Wanqing right now. Our next step is to find out who is behind this accusation and what their motives are!"
"Who else could it be? Only a handful of people know about this." Xiao Mu looked up and saw his grandmaster sitting there analyzing, "I know, Sui Fu knows, and not long ago, Sect Leader Fang also found out. Do you think we would betray them?"
That leaves only one party involved—Chonghua.
Upon hearing this analysis, Cheng Junyao immediately stood up. "Has Chonghua gone mad?" It's one thing for a demon to get involved with his junior sister, but now that she's gone, he still wants to slander her reputation. What exactly does he want to do?
Seeing the bitter expressions on the faces of his grandmaster uncle and sect leader Fang, Xiao Mu felt that they must know something.
What has Chonghua been doing lately? He's done so much, the only thing that's hard to understand is that he stole the divine artifact. Xiao Mu seemed to have figured something out, and he suddenly looked up to see his master and sect leader looking at him with disbelief.
Chonghua is going to revive his junior uncle!
"If she really comes back and sees the mess Chonghua has made of the world, she'll be devastated, won't she?" Cheng Junyao thought of his junior sister, who hated evil as if it were her enemy. How would she face the world if Chonghua really saved her?
"Chonghua's purpose in capturing Shi Yunzhou and Zhou Xuanzhi wasn't just to reunite them with their master, was it?" Xiao Mu murmured, "Then Chonghua captured Senior Brother Zhou and Yunzhou to... use their lives to revive Junior Uncle?"
Cheng Junyao now desperately wanted to rush into the Boundless Realm and rescue Zhou Xuanzhi and Shi Yunzhou. These two were his junior sister's lifeblood. Even in her final days, she couldn't rest easy about these two disciples. Now that Chonghua wanted to kill them, how could he face his junior sister afterward?
The sect leader, sitting in his high position, had to admit that Chonghua was truly cunning, with each step meticulously planned and executed; no one knew exactly what he was up to. By the time others guessed his intentions, he had already completed everything.
"Then why did Chonghua spread this news?" Xiao Mu couldn't understand. If this matter was spread among mortals, they would want to tear him apart. It would do him and his demon race no good at all.
Everyone was baffled by this, except for the Grandmaster Uncle, who said, "It's normal that you normal people can't understand. For someone like Chonghua, as long as he can achieve his goal, he doesn't care what happens in the middle. He's spreading these rumors to pave the way for Xiaoqing's return."
"He wanted Xiao Qing to come back untouched by the world," said his grandmaster.
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