The Immortal Lord of the Path of Ruthlessness Bends for Me - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: So It Is Such a Precious Thing

Four swords, their points sharp and cold, surrounded Ling Shu.

Ling Shu hugged her cat-faced cotton bag tightly, looking aggrieved. “I… I’m not very good at magic. The stick flew out on its own, and I was afraid of hurting you, so I broke it.” She waved her hands frantically. “I meant no harm!”

The female cultivator with phoenix eyes sneered, “More likely you tried to sneak attack us, and the stick shattered because it couldn’t handle your demonic power.”

“I didn’t!” Ling Shu protested. “My Master said I just need to attend classes; it doesn’t matter if I fail the final exam. Why would I fight you for the Music Jade?”

The girl who had previously been held at swordpoint by Phoenix-Eyes added, “Who knows if that’s just a convenient lie?”

The girl on the left suggested, “Unless you seal your own acupoints for an hour.”

“How do I do that?” Ling Shu’s quick response made the four cultivators pause in disbelief. They exchanged glances. Phoenix-Eyes sheathed her sword, walked over, and personally sealed Ling Shu’s acupoints.

They all lowered their weapons. Turning back, they saw the Qilin still fast asleep. The four of them immediately resumed fighting each other.

Ling Shu couldn’t help but chime in: “I say, sisters, why don’t you cooperate first? Get the Music Jade, then decide who keeps it.”

Phoenix-Eyes nodded in agreement. Two others found it reasonable, but the one with the abdominal injury disagreed. “The Qilin is fierce when awake; we might not win even together. And if we do, I’m too injured to take it. Why should I be a stepping stone for the rest of you?”

The negotiation failed. The stalemate continued.

Ling Shu didn’t care to watch them anymore. She climbed a nearby tree to watch the show. As more students arrived, they all began hurting each other for that single chance at a perfect score. It was so boring that Ling Shu used her bag as a pillow and leaned back.

Suddenly, the Qilin’s eyelids flickered. It woke up. Seeing the crowd, it let out a roar like a massive bronze bell, a shockwave of wind sweeping everyone back. Ling Shu’s sleepiness vanished instantly.

The Qilin rose, standing nearly twenty feet tall. Its scales shimmered in the sun, and the flame patterns on its legs erupted into actual fire. It snarled, tossing people into the air, goring them with its horns, or kicking them. The flames on its legs set the cultivators’ robes ablaze.

Seven or eight people rolled on the ground trying to extinguish the fire, while others ran into the grass, causing the foliage to ignite.

“Terrifying, terrifying,” Ling Shu muttered. Seeing the fire spreading, she jumped down from the tree.

“Stop.” A soft, delicate voice came from above behind her. The voice was crystal clear in her ears, specifically calling to her.

Ling Shu bolted, but the earth trembled. The Qilin was chasing her.

No way! I didn’t even touch you! Is even spectating a crime now?!

“Who art thou?”

“I’m just an ordinary fox spirit!”

“How dost thou know my name?”

“I don’t even know what you’re called!”

“But thou didst call my name,” the Qilin leaped over her head, blocking her path. “The Immortal Lady said that whoever guesses my name shall receive the Music Jade.”

“?” Ling Shu paused. “So your name is… ‘Terrifying’?”

“Indeed, it is I.”

The Qilin looked solemn. It spat out a piece of raw, unpolished yellow jade. Despite coming from its mouth, the jade was perfectly dry—the mark of a divine beast. The Music Jade drifted slowly into Ling Shu’s palm.

Again, why refuse a freebie? She tucked it into her bag.

“Thank you! I’ll be going now,” Ling Shu said.

The Qilin didn’t move. Instead, it extinguished the flames on its legs and nudged Ling Shu’s hand with its head. Ling Shu hesitated. “You… want a head scratch?”

The Qilin wagged its tail and lowered its head. Ling Shu reached out; the fur was a bit coarse, but for the sake of the jade, she gave it a good rub. The Qilin purred in satisfaction while fires raged and screams echoed nearby.

“Actually,” the Qilin said, “thou already hast a piece of Music Jade on thee.”

Ling Shu looked at the emerald lotus-patterned jade pendant on her waist. “This?”

The Qilin let out a long, satisfied sigh. “Yes… that… is… it…”

So it really is such a precious treasure.

Ling Shu looked at the chaos in the distance and pulled her hand back. “How tragic.”

“They won’t die.” The Qilin nudged her again, wanting more pets, but Ling Shu was finished.

“I have to go.” Ling Shu waved and walked toward the nearest teleportation array. As it lit up, someone grabbed her arm.

“Don’t go in.” Li Chang appeared.

“Have you been following me?” Ling Shu teased.

“I have not! Don’t talk nonsense,” Li Chang huffed. Ling Shu smirked. “Fine, Eldest Miss just happened to be going the same way.”

Ling Shu jumped into the array. Immediately, red light flared and a cage rose from the ground—the familiar Meridian Killing Array.

Li Chang, for some reason, had jumped in after her. “Are you crazy?! Your acupoints are sealed and your magic is blocked! Why did you jump in? Do you want to die?!”

“You knew it was a killing array, so why did you jump in?” Ling Shu countered. “To die with me?”

Li Chang put her hands on her hips. “I am the Eldest Miss! If something happens to me, they will be held accountable. I would have jumped in for anyone!”

Ling Shu caught the slip. “They?”

Li Chang realized she’d said too much. “I meant the instructors in charge of the exam!”

Suddenly, Ling Shu began to sway and collapsed to the ground. Li Chang screamed, shaking her, but Ling Shu lay still like a dead fish. Li Chang frantically sent out distress signals before she, too, passed out.

The recovery room was filled with injured candidates. In the cultivation world, trials were fought with real blades.

The person who carried Ling Shu in was masked. She was moved to a secluded room. After a long wait, footsteps approached. A hand glowing with golden spiritual power and lethal intent struck down at Ling Shu.

At the last second, Ling Shu’s eyes snapped open. She rolled aside as the wooden bed beneath her was smashed to splinters.

The attacker was masked, but her robes bore the flame embroidery of the Upper Clarity Sect. She was at the late Nascent Soul stage, smelled of medicine, and carried no sword. Seeing Ling Shu awake, she lunged with her fingers curved like claws, aiming for Ling Shu’s heart.

Ling Shu used her agility to lead the woman on a chase around the room, laughing. “Come catch your grandma! Come on, come on! Hahaha!”

The woman, enraged, stopped and performed a hand seal. “Clear Clouds, Open Disaster!”

Ling Shu stood on a table. “The Disaster Array? Impressive. You’re afraid of being caught using forbidden techniques, so you swapped the Meridian Killing Array for a trap meant for cultivators? Clever.” She clapped as red runes formed on the floor, circling her.

The woman spoke with a fake, gentle tone: “Die. No one will find you here.”

Ling Shu crossed her legs on the table. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

Ling Shu knew she had won the moment she opened her eyes; the attacker was already in a trap of Ling Shu’s design. “You aren’t the real mastermind. Is it worth throwing your life away for someone else?”

“The Great One has fought that Wang dog for years! As long as Wang lives, you are a threat. A half-demon mongrel like you will never take the Eldest Miss’s place!”

Creak— The door opened.

Zhao Chi stood there with the head instructors, blocking the exit. The woman tried to jump through the window, but it was instantly frozen shut.

“Who wants my disciple’s life?”

Zhuang Jinfu’s icy voice came from behind the crowd. The instructors parted to let her through. Beside her was a gentle-looking woman in green.

With a wave of Zhuang Jinfu’s hand, the Disaster Array shattered. The woman in green, Elder An Hong, stepped forward and ripped off the attacker’s mask, revealing a gaunt, haggard face.

Zhao Chi’s body trembled. Her lips turned pale as she whispered, “Master…”

Zhuang Jinfu walked up and slapped the woman across the face. “Shan Ji, you have utterly disgraced the Upper Clarity Sect!”

Zhuang Jinfu exposed her crimes before everyone. “Inciting Sun Wang, Zhou Qi, and Qian Yu to bully fellow disciples. Setting a trap in the Demon Valley by using Gourd Lotus pollen to drive beasts into a frenzy to kill Ling Shu—an act that caused countless casualties.

Forcing your own disciples to refine high-grade pills without pay for you to sell illegally at high prices. When a disciple threatened to expose you, you murdered them. Thirty-one disciples from your Medicine Branch have vanished without a trace. Which of these is not your crime?”

Shan Ji snarled, “Where is your proof?”

“Those three students belonged to Elder An Hong, not me! I have no grudge against Ling Shu, why would I kill her? As for the pills, do you have a ledger? And those thirty-one disciples—as an Elder, do you think I am not heartbroken by their disappearance?”

Elder An Hong’s face was dark. Sun Wang and his cronies were dead—dead men tell no tales. The trap in the valley was hard to link to her, and the missing disciples had left no trail.

“The ledger… I have it.” Zhao Chi stepped out from the shadows with a dark smile. She pulled a book from her robes and handed it to Zhuang Jinfu.

Zhuang Jinfu flipped through it, feeling a sense of relief that saving Zhao Chi had been worth it.

Elder An Hong stated, “According to sect law, the illegal sale of pills and spirit beasts is punishable by seventeen strikes of heavenly lightning for every two million spirit stones gained.”

Ling Shu thought to herself: Not enough. Seventeen strikes was a slap on the wrist for a Nascent Soul cultivator; she would recover and seek revenge. It didn’t pay for the missing disciples, for Zhao Chi’s suffering, or for the kick Ling Shu took from that “pig.”

Ling Shu suddenly raised her hand and shouted, “I have the confession Sun Wang and the others signed before they died!”

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