After Faking Her Death and Escaping, the Junior Sister Fell to the Demonic Path - Chapter 26.1

“You could have just rejected me directly, so why use such a ridiculous excuse?!”

Bai Qiyue spoke with indignation and grief, tears streaming down her face.

Venerable Wen Qing and Qin Qingyi both leaned back.

Shangguan Yu’s hand, holding the communication jade slip, paused. Her eyes, which hadn’t shown much emotional fluctuation for centuries, widened slightly, and the look she gave Venerable Wen Qing also became nuanced.

Shangguan Yu recalled ten years ago, when the Medicine King Valley first sent the child over.

A delicate, charming young girl, a naturally gifted successor to the Medicine King Valley who could identify all sorts of medicinal herbs and heavenly treasures without instruction—a genius rarely seen in a century. Yet, she insisted on learning the sword.

The elders of the Medicine King Valley couldn’t bear Bai Qiyue’s persistent clinging and tantrums. Thinking she would taste the hardship of being a sword cultivator and voluntarily return, they sent her to the Sword Gate.

Shangguan Yu had thought this spoiled little girl wouldn’t endure the hardships of sword cultivation for more than a few days and would leave, so she placed her in the outer sect, assuming the matter would be resolved in under half a month.

But unexpectedly, she not only lasted half a month, but a month, three months, half a year… Even with hands covered in blisters from holding the sword, and arms too tired to lift from practice, she never cried out to leave.

Even if she cried herself to sleep under the covers the night before from exhaustion, she would get up the next day to continue practicing. While others rose at dawn, she woke up at the fourth watch (around 1-3 AM) to practice sword techniques to catch up, gritting her teeth and enduring any amount of tiredness or pain.

Seeing that she was adapting well on her own, Shangguan Yu didn’t pay much more attention.

In any case, it was just the Medicine King Valley indulging their child to play for a few extra years.

It wasn’t until the inner sect disciple trial eight years ago that Shangguan Yu saw Bai Qiyue again. The child had climbed to third place entirely on her own merit, only to be turned away by Venerable Wen Qing’s single phrase, “I will not take any more disciples,” forcing her to return to the outer sect for bitter cultivation.

Now, she was bringing up the old matter, going so far as to plot and scheme to find someone to injure a disciple of the Hidden Snow Peak.

Could it really be just because of this?

Just because Wen Qing never took her as a disciple back then?

Not only did Shangguan Yu find it ridiculous, but the surrounding elders were also incredulous at the reason, and a few bursts of laughter could be heard.

After all, there were so many inner sect elders, and Venerable Wen Qing wasn’t the only one specializing in the sword. Why did this child have to stubbornly insist on this one path?

Bai Qiyue felt deeply wronged.

Venerable Wen Qing found it baffling: “Oh, you child, I already said we have no master-disciple fate; how can you force it?”

She couldn’t understand.

If there was no fate, there was simply no fate. That’s the way of the world’s natural law. Things that cannot be forced will ultimately not last, even if briefly obtained.

“I am not convinced!”

Bai Qiyue clearly didn’t believe her explanation. Her gaze swept past the crowd toward the few people from Hidden Snow Peak in the distance: “Then what about them? Do they have a master-disciple fate with you?!”

Venerable Wen Qing: “Yes, they have a connection with me.”

Her tone was so self-evident that the surrounding elders almost couldn’t suppress their smiles.

Seeing this, Qin Qingyi burst into laughter.

Hilarious, she wants to manipulate her Master?

Please, even she couldn’t manipulate her Master, okay?

However, her laughter only drew Bai Qiyue’s attention. “What are you laughing at?!”

Qin Qingyi: ?

Qin Qingyi really didn’t want to deal with such a brainless, yet stubbornly fixated fool. She turned to Venerable Wen Qing and requested:

“Master, Bai Qiyue has spoken insolently and offended you, and has repeatedly violated the Sect’s laws. This disciple implores the Sect Leader and all the Elders to see clearly and quickly expel this person from the sect!”

Dare to laugh at her?

Believe it or not, I’ll have you expelled from the Sword Gate?!

Bai Qiyue clearly didn’t take her words to heart and sneered dismissively: “Borrowing another’s power.”

Qin Qingyi: ?

Qin Qingyi: !

Who are you talking about?! Have some manners!

Seeing the sparks fly between the two, about to escalate into a tense fight, Venerable Wen Qing, who was also in the eye of the storm, jumped out to mediate:

“Alright, alright, stop arguing. Let’s discuss things one by one.”

Qin Qingyi and Bai Qiyue both turned back and glared furiously at the peace-making Venerable Wen Qing:

“You shut up!”

Venerable Wen Qing shrank her neck and weakly retreated.

Qin Qingyi was furious: “What’s there to discuss! Expel her from the Sword Gate immediately!”

Bai Qiyue flailed her arms: “You don’t have the final say!”

“Expel her from the Sword Gate!”

“You have no authority!”

Shangguan Yu had just cut off her communication when she heard this incessant, maddening quarrel. Looking around, not a single Elder was attempting to stop it. Instead, a few were holding recording stones, capturing the scene.

Each one was watching with great interest, behaving less like pillars of a prestigious sect and more like onlookers drinking tea and listening to stories at a teahouse down the mountain.

A vein throbbed on Shangguan Yu’s forehead. She coldly stopped the farce from continuing:

“Enough!”

“Is this a market square with all this noisy bickering?!”

Qin Qingyi obediently shut up and retreated to Venerable Wen Qing’s side.

Bai Qiyue, however, was unyielding: “I haven’t said anything wrong. They can all become Venerable Wen Qing’s disciples, so why can’t I?!”

Bai Qiyue’s chest heaved with rage, as if she had suffered the greatest insult. She pointed at Qin Qingyi with sorrow and indignation, asking Venerable Wen Qing: “Your eldest disciple, since entering the Golden Core stage, has made no progress for decades, slacking off every day and neglecting cultivation. Does such a person have a master-disciple fate with you?”

She grew increasingly agitated, even speaking recklessly: “In this disciple’s opinion, even if I don’t have a master-disciple fate with you, it shouldn’t be such a foolish person who becomes your disciple! She is simply an insult to the reputation of Hidden Snow Peak! An insult to the reputation of the entire Sword Gate!”

Qin Qingyi: ?

Qin Qingyi: Hey, hey, hey! When did this become a personal attack on her!

Qin Qingyi couldn’t laugh anymore. She immediately put on a cold expression and sneered: “My Master and you have no master-disciple fate. Haven’t the words been made clear enough? You have to deliberately seek humiliation.”

Bai Qiyue turned to glare at her: “What nonsense about fate! I don’t believe it! If I had taken first place back then, Venerable Wen Qing would certainly have accepted me as a disciple!”

She spoke with conviction, a look of absolute certainty in her eyes as she looked at Venerable Wen Qing.

She had never failed at anything she set out to do.

In the past, they said she wasn’t suited for practicing the sword. Yet, wasn’t she standing here now?

If she didn’t fight for it, how would she know it wasn’t suitable?

Bai Qiyue pressed her advantage, using increasingly unpleasant words: “Is it wrong for me to say that you’ve been slacking in cultivation and made no progress in ten years? You simply don’t deserve such a good Master as Venerable Wen Qing. If I were you, I would have been too ashamed to remain in the sect long ago.”

Hearing her slander her own disciple in such a manner, the usually good-tempered Venerable Wen Qing finally lost her smile: “Stop!”

No one else was qualified to point fingers at her disciple.

“If you have any sense of shame, you shouldn’t be standing here boastfully saying you want to become my disciple after injuring my current one!”

The words were spoken without mercy, and Bai Qiyue’s face instantly went pale.

Seeing the person look heartbroken and devastated, Venerable Wen Qing kept her temper tightly suppressed in her chest, unable to unleash it.

After all, she was still just a child. If her words were too harsh, she worried she would create another unfortunate circumstance.

Venerable Wen Qing felt a headache coming on. She patiently explained: “It’s true that my main focus is the sword, but I also cultivate the Path of Deduction. You and I have no master-disciple fate; this much I can accurately calculate.”

Qin Qingyi nodded. This part was true. Although her Master’s Deduction techniques were often criticized by her as “nine out of ten predictions are wrong,” Venerable Wen Qing’s Deduction skills were actually ranked quite highly in the entire Sword Gate, and even the entire Xuan Tian Sect.

Simply deducing the depth of the connection between two people was a straightforward task for Venerable Wen Qing.

Hearing Venerable Wen Qing still stick to her words, Bai Qiyue’s eyes were red, still unable to accept reality. She stood opposite the crowd, gritting her teeth and saying:

“I’m just not convinced!!”

“Why can all of them, but only I can’t?”

Shangguan Yu’s face completely turned cold, and she had utterly lost patience with Bai Qiyue.

“Then what do you want?”

Unfortunately, Bai Qiyue didn’t understand the nuance. Hearing her speak, she thought there was a chance, and immediately stretched out a hand to point at Zhou Zhixue in the distance: “I want to compete with her! If her innate talent is inferior to mine, she must give up her status as a Hidden Snow Peak disciple!”

Bai Qiyue raised her chin high, as if she believed the solution she offered was ingenious.

At this, Qin Qingyi suddenly let out a small laugh and sarcastically said, “Did a donkey kick you in the head?”

Bai Qiyue glared at her furiously.

“My Junior Sister only joined the sect a few months ago and is only at the Foundation Establishment stage. You, a Golden Core cultivator who has been in the Sword Gate for almost ten years, open your mouth and shamelessly demand a competition with a Foundation Establishment-stage child. What else could it be but a donkey kicking you in the head?”

Qin Qingyi’s eyes were deep and calm, looking at Bai Qiyue as if she were a pig.

The trio from Hidden Snow Peak, who had remained silent in the distance, immediately flared up when they heard Bai Qiyue challenge Zhou Zhixue.

Zhou Zhixue: “Me?”

She looked bewildered.

Xie Su was relatively calm and comforted her: “She’s crazy. Senior Sister will take care of her.”

Hu Yu, however, was unrestrained. He immediately jumped up and started verbally abusing Bai Qiyue: “Have you no shame?! You were defeated by us Senior and Junior Brothers before, and now you’re seeking trouble with our Hidden Snow Peak again! Weren’t you the one crying miserably back then?!”

Hu Yu was referring to the previous inner sect disciple assessment, where he and Xie Su had faced Bai Qiyue in a duel, leaving her utterly defeated and embarrassed.

“How long has my Junior Sister been in the sect? Not to mention the next inner sect disciple assessment is still two years away, you had also been cultivating at the Sword Gate for over two years before you participated in the inner sect trial! You’ve lived and cultivated for more than ten years longer than her, and you still have the audacity to propose a competition with my Little Junior Sister?!”

Hu Yu’s voice was incredibly loud; he was deliberately saying it for the benefit of the surrounding disciples who were watching the commotion.

Hearing this, the surrounding disciples started murmuring, and the looks directed at Bai Qiyue carried more than a little disdain.

It was true; after all this time in the sect, she was bullying a young girl who had just joined. Most of the Sword Gate disciples had a strong sense of justice and naturally disapproved of Bai Qiyue’s actions.

Bai Qiyue’s face flushed crimson from their remarks, but she still stood her ground, stubbornly insisting: “So what!”