The Sect Leader Raised a Fox to His Own Detriment - Chapter 9

“Hand that man… over…” “Dammit… that man deserves to die…” “I want to kill him!” “Kill him… for revenge…”

More and more women’s voices echoed in his mind. A-Yin covered his ears, but the voices didn’t fade; instead, they grew sharper and clearer. He looked at Zhan Ning, who was concentrating entirely on maintaining the barrier, clearly hearing nothing.

Could it be… that I’m the only one who can hear them?

As his head filled with the mermaids’ inner thoughts, A-Yin finally understood why the normally gentle mermaid tribe had turned so violent.

“Hey, A-Yin! Where are you going? Come back!” Zhan Ning shouted, but he was too late. A-Yin had already bolted out of the barrier.

Amidst the shockwaves of the ongoing battle, the rusty sword in A-Yin’s hand—already snapped in two—crumbled into shards. But he had reached his goal: the bow of the ship where Yue Xichen stood.

“Master!”

Seeing A-Yin rushing toward him in a panic, Yue Xichen instinctively reached out and pulled him to his side. The move was timely; a second later, and a mermaid would have likely torn a chunk of flesh from A-Yin’s shoulder.

“Master, the mermaids are looking for someone, a man…” A-Yin panted as he explained. “They’re attacking ships for revenge. A man tricked one of their sisters with false promises, kidnapped her, and brought her to shore just to harvest the priceless Ice Tear Beads…”

Yue Xichen’s brow knit slightly. “How… do you know this?”

“I… I don’t know why, but I can hear their hearts…”

“Nonsense!” Before A-Yin could finish, Elder Zhu Yan interrupted indignantly. “These mermaids are evil spirits, a plague! What do you mean ‘revenge’? You make it sound like if we just handed over a man, they’d stop attacking. What have we taught you? Mermaids excel at charm and deception. You’ve clearly been bewitched!”

A-Yin lowered his head under Zhu Yan’s scolding, but he didn’t feel bewitched at all. He was sober sober enough to hear the grief and hatred in their voices.

“Master, you… don’t believe me either, do you?” A-Yin murmured weakly. He felt as though he were sinking to the bottom of the river; the feeling of suffocation and helplessness left his fingertips cold.

When A-Yin looked up at Yue Xichen, his Master’s gaze had already shifted away. Yue Xichen looked at the disciples fighting for their lives and let out a soft sigh.

Suddenly, the Yinyue Sword left its scabbard. A silver light shot into the sky, making the deep night as bright as day and turning the dark river into a shimmering expanse of ripples. The disciples froze in awe, staring at Yue Xichen as he rose into the air, Yinyue in hand.

A-Yin stood with his mouth agape. Countless silver lights, like a meteor shower, converged on the raised blade. The power was comparable to heavenly thunder, yet as beautiful as a firework display. At this moment, A-Yin couldn’t find words; his Master looked like a god descended from the heavens.

Even with their deep hatred, the mermaids’ survival instincts took over, and they began to flee the ship in a frenzy. But it was too late.

True qi flooded the area. In an instant, the Yinyue Sword transformed into thousands of blades, flying through the air to seal the fleeing mermaids within a massive formation. The river surged, the white light flared, and the mermaids let out pained whimpers, believing their end had come.

“So powerful…” A-Yin watched with eyes full of worship. If Yue Xichen wanted to, he could turn the entire tribe to ash in a heartbeat.

However, just as the disciples expected him to wipe them out, Yue Xichen slowly descended.

“I will return shortly. Stay here and do not move until I come back.”

His other divine weapon, Luohua, flew from his waist—a scattering of pink light like a swarm of fireflies. A-Yin watched dazed as Yue Xichen stepped onto Luohua. The snow-white figure and the pink glow merged like twin dragons, vanishing into the sky above the Jing River.

“Master… where is he going?” A-Yin wondered aloud. The other disciples were equally confused.

The mermaids were suppressed by the Yinyue formation, like fish caught in a great net, struggling in vain. During Yue Xichen’s absence, Zhu Yan wanted to move in and finish them off several times to complete the Governor’s request and boost the sect’s fame. But he couldn’t break the formation. It seemed the barrier wasn’t just trapping them—it was protecting them.

The sky began to turn pale with dawn. On the boat that had drifted all night, the sound of snoring began to rise. Zhu Yan, Lin Fengfei, and the high-level disciples took refuge in the cabin, while the rest slept on the deck.

Only A-Yin remained awake. He was exhausted, but he forced himself to stay up, staring at the calm surface of the water where the sky met the river in lonely silence. He shivered, feeling a sudden void. Without Yue Xichen nearby, he felt no security.

“When is Master coming back?”

It wasn’t until the sun was high and the mermaids were nearly dried like sun-baked fish that A-Yin finally spotted that familiar flash of snow-white. Yue Xichen had returned, but he was not alone.