Chapter 37 Say it again, whose child is in your belly!
Zhuang Jinfu slowly poured himself a cup of tea and sipped it.
All eyes turned to her, several pairs of eyes staring at her, some with hostility, some watching her make a fool of herself, and some—admiring? Especially some of the female students sitting in the back, looking at Ling Shu as if she were a figure of reverence.
Ling Shu looked at the back of the woman sitting in front of her, as still and silent as an ancient pine tree. She wanted to call for her help, but she was afraid of troubling her.
Ling Shu glanced at the wine glass, her heart pounding. Finally, she forced herself to raise the glass: "Thank you all for your kindness! Oh dear, it's not that I don't want to dance, it's just that my master thinks I'm too dull and forbids me from showing off in front of others until I've mastered the skill. She's afraid I'll show off. The Immortal Venerable hates people who flaunt her name the most. I'm sorry! Come on!"
Ling Shu stood up, raising her wine glass: "I offer this glass as an apology to everyone. I toast you all!"
Everyone was infected by her passion and raised their glasses in response, "Great!"
Everyone: "Let's do it!"
Ling Shu: "Cheers!"
After downing the cup, the wine burned like fire in her throat. Ling Shu forced herself not to frown, finished the drink, and said, "Everyone, eat and drink well!"
Someone below remarked, "She really does resemble the daughter of a sect leader."
Another person chimed in, "Of course, killing that heartless old thief Shanji is not something an ordinary person could do."
A simply dressed cultivator said, "Now I believe that Sect Leader Wang is on the side of us humble cultivators."
"Didn't they say the mother and daughter didn't get along?"
Who knows what happens between that mother and daughter in private?
"Eat vegetables, eat vegetables."
Ling Shu thought that was the end of it, but the woman who coughed intermittently continued, "It's alright. You've only been practicing for a short time, so it's understandable that your skills are a bit rusty. It's okay if you don't dance well. There are so many seniors here, and everyone is happy to guide you. Don't be afraid."
Ling Shu thought to herself: Isn't this forcing a duck onto a shelf? They know she can't do it, yet they still make her do it.
With a crisp "tap," Zhuang Jinfu, who had been silent all along, put down his teacup, turned to look at Li Xinzhi, and said with a kind expression, "Since we're going to do a sword dance, why don't you, Li Chang, join us?"
Li Xinzhi's lips froze.
A soft chuckle came from the crowd. Ling Shu, being a half-demon with excellent hearing, overheard someone whispering, "Who doesn't know that Li Chang is a complete idiot who can't even hold a sword properly?"
"To lift a stone only to drop it on one's own foot."
Li Chang tensed up. She exchanged a glance with Ling Shu, her eyes asking, "Do you want to go?" Ling Shu mouthed to her, "I don't know how." Li Chang's eyes widened, and she mouthed back to Ling Shu, "I don't know how either."
Ling Shu: "..."
Zhuang Jinfu peeled an orange and broke it in half.
Li Chang tugged at her mother's sleeve, pleading softly, "Mother—"
Zhuang Jinfu handed half of it to Li Chang: "What, Li Chang didn't learn it well either?"
This person hasn't learned anything at all.
Li Chang looked at the oranges offered by the Immortal Venerable. She couldn't refuse them, but she didn't know what to say if she did. So, she gritted her teeth, knelt down, and moved over on her knees. She bowed her head, took the oranges, and honestly said, "Yes, I... haven't learned well either."
Zhuang Jinfu withdrew her hand, glanced at everyone, and then her gaze fell on Li Xinzhi: "Everyone here is an experienced senior. Guiding two youngsters shouldn't be a problem, right? Vice Elder." She emphasized the word "Vice" deliberately.
That being said, who would want to embarrass their disciple's daughter in public?
Li Xinzhi glanced at Zhuang Jinfu with a venomous look, but in an instant, his eyes returned to an innocent one. He laughed and said, "Alright, alright, today is Sect Leader Wang's birthday banquet. Let's not turn it into a teaching session. Cough cough... those serious things... cough, let's leave them in the classroom. Everyone, continue eating."
Zhuang Jinfu nodded and smiled, "Alright, please continue to enjoy the banquet."
Li Xinzhi chimed in, "My eldest sister was saying yesterday, cough cough, that she prepared a song and dance performance for Master Wang, and has been rehearsing it for over half a year, just waiting for today." After saying that, she raised her hand to make a "please" gesture to the host, An Hong, giving her a way out and asking her to continue hosting.
Elder An Hong breathed a sigh of relief, finally bringing the banquet back to normal. Just now, the two of them were at loggerheads, and she stood alone on the stage, embarrassed and not daring to interrupt.
The lives of working people matter too!
An Hong first praised the Immortal Venerable's achievements, then praised Li Xinzhi's deeds, and thanked the two for attending. Only then did she get to the point, saying, "Next, please enjoy the song and dance 'Mirror Flower Water Moon' brought to you by the Sect Leader's wife."
Amidst the sounds of chime bells and the resonance of string and wind instruments, Li Qiaoyan, dressed in an apricot-red dance costume, emerged from the left side of the main seat. She glanced shyly at Wang Lifu, who was seated in the main seat, then withdrew her flirtatious gaze and walked to the center of the room, where she began to dance gracefully.
The dancers moved in perfect unison, soaring through the air, their water sleeves tossed high. Li Qiaoyan flew in the center, surrounded by flower petals. The drum music reached its climax, and with a muffled "thud," the flower petals scattered, and Li Qiaoyan leaped out, like a fairy among flowers, a celestial maiden in the world. Such was the beauty of a flower maiden.
"Aaaaaah!" A piercing scream came from the crowd.
The eleven women who had been dancing around Li Qiaoyan fell one by one to the ground as the petals scattered around him. When you looked again, the beautiful women were gone; instead, their faces were ashen and terrifying. Long gashes ran from their dantian to their lungs, and white, fat maggots were writhing on their internal organs.
A foul stench permeated the entire Fire Cloud Palace.
Standing in the center of the field, Li Qiaoyan was deathly pale, completely bewildered. Her eyes were filled with terror as she covered her ears and screamed, "Ahhhhhh!"
All she wanted was to perform a dance for her husband on his birthday.
"Why did this happen?" Li Qiaoyan broke down. "I didn't do this! It wasn't me!"
"Who's trying to harm me?!"
Wang Lifu stepped down from his seat, took off his outer garment, and covered the lightly dressed Li Qiaoyan with it. Then he directed Li Qiaoyan's first-class attendant, Mian Yun, to come over and "take her aside."
Her own first-class attendant, Tao Ying, rushed over to examine the corpse first. Wang Lifu, enduring the stench, reassured everyone, saying, "I will definitely investigate today's events thoroughly and give everyone an explanation."
"Guards, seal off the area!"
As soon as she finished speaking, the people eating outside exclaimed in surprise, and someone read aloud: "Old dog Wang digs out people's spiritual roots and kills them; slut Li steals and swaps case files and commits favoritism and corruption."
Horizontal scroll: "A pair of female dogs".
The current system for selecting new members in the Shangqing Sect is a recommendation system, where members are recommended by various aristocratic families and elders, and then selected a second time by the elders of each lineage. Since Wang Lifu's attempt to implement the sect's grand examination failed, this matter has been taken over by the Li family, the head of the Li family, and Li Qiaoyan, the head of the Li family.
Rather than saying she was in charge, it would be more accurate to say she was a puppet that was pushed out and easily controlled.
Recommendation requires a written test, which examines basic knowledge of cultivation. Then, the second test is the assessment for each lineage. For example, the Dan lineage requires alchemy, and one must refine a first-grade mid-level cultivation pill to be considered qualified.
Since the chaos began, Ling Shu's eyes had been fixed on Li Xinzhi. After seeing the mess at the banquet, Li Xinzhi coughed as if he was furious. She slowly stood up and pointed at Wang Lifu, saying, "You disloyal and unfilial wretch, what have you been doing outside!"
"Cough cough cough! Look at what's hanging outside. If you haven't done anything wrong, who would be so cruel to you?!"
Wang Lifu angrily retorted, "Where's the evidence? Who can prove that I did this!"
Li Xinzhi pointed at the corpse and said, "Isn't this evidence? How long are you going to keep denying it?"
Wang Lifu didn't respond, but asked Tao Ying, "How did it go?"
Tao Ying quickly reported: "Reporting to the sect leader, the deceased were all controlled by puppet talismans, which made them appear as living people. Once the puppet talismans expired, they would revert to their original state. The cause of death was the extraction of their spiritual roots, but the time of death was inconsistent." She pointed to the corpses on the ground and reported the time of death for each one. "The corpses all had sword wounds on their hands and feet, and their tendons were severed."
Those who were still watching what was happening felt a chill run down their spines; they had just witnessed a dance performed by corpses.
Li Qiaoyan rolled his eyes and fainted.
Ling Shu's heart skipped a beat. Evil cultivators would dig out other people's spiritual roots to replace their own. They had to dig them out while the person was still alive and transplant them into a new person's body within an hour. Some people would experience rejection. If they did, they would have to find a suitable spiritual root again within two days. Therefore, some villains would capture multiple people with two or more spiritual roots at the same time.
Those captured were generally poor cultivators, of low status and without money; displaying excessive talent was tantamount to hastening their death.
If a person whose spiritual root has been extracted does not receive a large amount of spiritual energy to mend their wounds within half a day, they will die within two days.
Wang Lifu was outnumbered and outmatched, and Li Qiaoyan had also been outmaneuvered. Who would gain the upper hand? The answer was obvious.
It seems she not only covets the position of sect leader, but also the position of head of the Li family.
Those present couldn't take it anymore and scattered like birds and beasts, but they were stopped by Wang Lifu's cultivators as they ran outside.
A monk stirred up trouble, shouting, "There must be some heretical cultivators who have infiltrated!"
Then another person in the crowd exclaimed, "Only heretical cultivators use puppet talismans!"
Then some people followed suit: "I shouldn't have believed the person who gave birth to a half-demon bastard!"
The troublemakers shouted: "Yesterday he fell in love with a demon, today he colludes with an evil cultivator! Wang Lifu, step down!"
Some elders and disciples watching were also stirred up, and they echoed, "Wang Lifu, step down!"
"Wang Lifu, step down!"
"Wang Lifu, step down!"
His Highness shouted fiercely. Tao Ying kept a close eye on the people who had scattered. Suddenly, she ran over, grabbed one of them, and held him at the entrance of the main hall: "This person has a puppet talisman on him!"
It was the one who started the trouble.
The crowd that was shouting stopped abruptly.
Unexpectedly, the man shouted, "Sect Leader Wang is oppressing me, demanding that I sacrifice my beauty to serve her... I... I would rather die than comply, I have no other choice!" The beauty wiped away her tears, sobbing uncontrollably, and suddenly tried to rush into the main hall, but was stopped by the guards. She wailed, "Heavens! My elder sister is inside, Wang Lifu, you heartless wretch!"
"She not only wants me to serve her, she also wants me to serve her daughter—Ling Shu!"
Ling Shu: ?
"I don't want to live anymore!" she cried out, running to the crowd and kneeling down. "I've lost all my innocence, please help me!" she cried, kowtowing repeatedly.
Ling Shu initially didn't want to get involved, but now that the accusations had been leveled against her, she couldn't stand it anymore. She ran out and yelled, "You're slandering me! I don't even know you!"
But the woman wouldn't let it go, pointing at Ling Shu and saying, "You still dare to say you didn't! Demons can make women pregnant, and I'm already carrying your child!"
Ling Shu: ?
Ling Shu glanced back at Zhuang Jinfu, her eyes filled with a survival instinct: I didn't, I didn't.
The woman causing trouble said, "Do you want me to give birth to her and have my blood tested to prove paternity?"
His Highness and his men all berated Ling Shu, calling her a "heartless woman" and saying, "Like mother, like daughter! These people are all snakes and rats!"
Ling Shu retorted angrily, "I don't even know you, why are you spouting nonsense!"
The troublemaking woman was pinned down by Tao Ying, but then she bit Tao Ying's arm, drawing blood in the pain. Tao Ying's grip loosened, allowing the woman to escape. She stood up and shouted, "I don't want to live anymore!"
Tao Ying cried out urgently, "Stop her! She's going to commit suicide!"
With Zhuang Jinfu's guidance, Ling Shu moved with incredible speed. She rushed forward and seized the troublemaking woman, pinning her hands behind her back, forcing her to kneel on the ground, pinching her face, and making her look up at her. Ling Shu roared at her, "Say it again, whose child is in your womb!"
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