Wanxi Rebirth - Chapter 5

Inside the Azure Dawn Sect.

Since the sect leader’s new wife suddenly disappeared last night, the entire sect has been in an uproar.

People are spreading rumors that the usually stoic leader of the Azure Dawn Sect is, in fact, a “devoted lover.” After discovering his wife had vanished without a trace, he went mad, mobilizing elders, deacons, and elite disciples to search the sect all night.

Learning the search was fruitless, he locked himself in the Hall of Contrition before dawn the next day. He kowtowed to the memorial tablet of his foster father, repeatedly repenting and praying for the safety of his beloved new wife. He also refused to see any visitors.

The elder responsible for welcoming guests struggled to calm the visitors, spending a great deal of effort sugarcoating the disappearance as “newlywed bliss.” He was taken by surprise when the sect leader’s real fiancée showed up to break off the engagement, immediately feeling overwhelmed.

To make matters worse, the current heads of the Qin family—Madam Qin and Miss Qin—were sharp-tongued and resolute in their decision to annul the marriage. The elders who accompanied them were already in on their plan. If the Azure Dawn Sect leader didn’t provide a satisfactory explanation today, they might storm his private chambers and tear up the old marriage contract!

Facing the Qin family, who were gathered outside the guest hall with scowling faces, the welcoming elder couldn’t help but curse the sect leader under his breath.

Even if he truly found a soulmate, he should have at least made Miss Qin his official wife first! A few promised benefits to deceive them would have been enough to keep the woman and the Qin family’s power on their side!

He put on a smiling face for the many visitors, trying to use excuses to stall for time. However, most of the sect guests were shrewd individuals. While a few might have been successfully fooled by his “human nature” explanation, the majority were already weighing the pros and cons of continuing their alliance with the Azure Dawn Sect.

After all, if the current sect leader could abandon his influential childhood sweetheart and fiancée for an unknown woman—even going so far as to offend the Qin family—who’s to say he wouldn’t betray his other allies later for some equally trivial reason?

The welcoming elder was in a state of anxiety when he suddenly heard a weak but dignified voice from behind him: “Why are you just making people stand? Is this our sect’s way of hospitality?”

The newcomer was the sect leader’s younger sister, Lin Fengqing.

Lin Fengqing had been frail since childhood and coughed frequently when she spoke. Because of her deep knowledge of alchemy, she was indispensable to the swordsmen in the mountains. Many cultivators respected her, even secretly regarding her as the “vice sect leader.”

But to the white-bearded welcoming elder, she was just a woman—and a sickly one at that, who relied on elixirs to survive. Could she truly be the one to lead the sect?

He had intended to stay, thinking if Miss Lin spoke out of turn, he could correct her and try to salvage the marriage contract.

However, as soon as Lin Fengqing arrived, she firmly dismissed everyone. The Qin family had the same attitude. Since he couldn’t afford to offend either the sect leader’s sister, who had been close to him since childhood, or the Qin family, he had no choice but to retreat from the guest hall and anxiously await the outcome.

After setting up a soundproof barrier, Lin Fengqing said with a sigh, “Madam Qin, Miss Qin, elders, and seniors, please calm down. It’s not worth getting angry over my brother’s perfidy.”

Before the Qin family could speak, she took out a marriage contract carved into a spirit jade. Frowning, she coughed a few times before she had the strength to continue: “My brother… knows he has wronged Miss Qin, so he entrusted me with this marriage contract. As long as Miss Qin destroys it, the engagement between the Azure Dawn Sect and the Qin family will be over.”

“He caused such a scandal, yet he’s hiding like a coward and pushing you out to face us?” a frank-speaking female elder couldn’t help but scoff.

“…I don’t want to defend my brother. At this point, I don’t know what to do either,” Lin Fengqing murmured. She lowered her eyes to the marriage contract, sighed softly, and then looked up at Qin Suilu with a hesitant expression.

Seeing this, Qin Suilu said to her mother, “Mother, I’d like to talk to Sister Lin alone.”

Madam Qin, Lan Kongming, always respected her eldest daughter’s wishes. She nodded, patted her shoulder lightly, and led the elders out of the guest hall.

Once they left, the look in Lin Fengqing’s eyes changed.

She urgently grabbed Qin Suilu’s hand and said, “Sister Qin! My brother—he seems to have been possessed by something! I truly don’t know who to talk to about this! I’m afraid people will think I’m speaking nonsense! That I’m just trying to make excuses for my brother’s disgraceful actions!”

Qin Suilu had already anticipated what she was about to say. She patted the back of her hand twice to soothe her, calmly cutting her off: “When do you think this started?”

“Around last month, during the Qingming Festival!” Lin Fengqing gritted her teeth, let go of her hand, and sat back down. “A few days after my brother returned from our parents’ tomb, I didn’t notice anything at first, but later I realized something was wrong… He was still himself, but he wasn’t like himself!”

“Unfortunately, my old illness always relapses in the spring, so I had to go into seclusion in the Hundred Herbs Valley within the sect immediately. When I came out, I heard my brother was getting married to some unknown woman!”

“I wanted to come to you personally and explain everything, to ask for your help, but I was worried I wouldn’t be able to explain it clearly. After all… my brother has indeed done something to wrong you, and you might not have believed me. If it were me, I would have seen this explanation as an excuse to shirk responsibility! I might have even… cut ties with the person who said it…”

Her voice became softer as she spoke, as if she was ashamed for not visiting the Qin family as soon as she realized something was wrong.

Qin Suilu looked at her with pity and gently patted her back.

She knew what kind of person Lin Fengqing was. She had come here not just to break the engagement but also to try her luck at seeing her.

— In her past life, at this time, she was young and hot-tempered. She was so furious that Lin Chaoyao had done something like this, believing he had betrayed the alliance of their two families and disrespected the Qin family’s dignity. In a fit of anger, she immediately went on a long journey to discuss business with a frequently collaborating medicine valley.

When she returned, the Qin family was in chaos, plagued by scandalous rumors about her own lack of virtue, spread by who knows whom.

Afterward, she sent a request to the Azure Dawn Sect under the name of the Qin family more than once, wanting to talk to her old friend Lin Fengqing and figure out what was going on. But her requests were repeatedly denied. Unable to swallow her anger, she simply cut off all ties with the Azure Dawn Sect.

Two years later…

The Qin family was annihilated. Even her younger sister, who was not yet of age, fell in a pool of blood that night, her eyes wide open in death.

She was unfortunately thrown into the demonic realm. As she struggled to survive, she thought about it carefully. She realized that it was probably because she had noticed “Lin Chaoyao’s” change. Her identity as Lin Chaoyao’s fiancée meant that, if nothing went wrong, she would have to marry him according to the “marriage contract,” which was actually an “alliance contract.” The possessor, fearing she would expose them, must have orchestrated the annihilation of the entire Qin family.

— Without a high-level “Soul Caller” to drive a zombie and make a corpse speak, no one could have made the truth known.

“What’s done is done. Instead of blaming ourselves, let’s find a way to take down the possessor as soon as possible,” Qin Suilu said, pulling her thoughts back together and comforting Lin Fengqing. “No matter how the possessor acts, we must find proof so that the elders of the Immortal Alliance can intervene. Otherwise, it will be rumored by those with ulterior motives that we have committed fratricide and murder!”

Lin Fengqing nodded eagerly: “Sister Qin, don’t worry. I’ll immediately start an investigation within the Azure Dawn Sect. If I find anything, I’ll inform you right away…”

She didn’t finish her sentence and was seized by a violent coughing fit from speaking too quickly.

Qin Suilu patted her back to help her catch her breath. When she had recovered, she warned her: “You must also be careful and don’t overexert yourself.”

Then she opened her palm and a gray moth appeared. She used spiritual power to wrap it and handed it to Lin Fengqing. “This is a secret technique I developed myself. Touching the moth will make you invisible so that someone with your brother’s cultivation level won’t discover you. However, it can only be used nine times. If you use them all, come find me.”

This gray moth was no ordinary object. It was a special power given to her by a space filled with dark golden words. That’s why she was so confident in her promise to Yue Tingxi last night.

Lin Fengqing nodded silently, carefully put away the gray moth, and then said, “There’s one more thing. I wonder if Sister Qin and I are thinking the same thing.”

“It’s alright, tell me,” Qin Suilu said, watching her.

“Sister Qin, you came here to break off the engagement, so you must be serious, right?” Lin Fengqing asked. “Even if marrying another woman was the possessor’s doing, in the eyes of outsiders and the Qin family, it’s still my brother who broke his vow. This is an undeniable fact.”

“I am willing to use a memory pearl to record Sister Qin’s annulment and the evidence of the possessor’s betrayal. Then I will tear up the marriage contract sealed in the spirit jade. This way, Sister Qin will regain her freedom. If something happens to the Azure Dawn Sect, the Qin family won’t have to help us out of a sense of past loyalty.”

At the same moment, Yue Tingxi, who was getting familiar with the Qin manor with Qin Yingguang, suddenly sneezed. She instinctively looked at the fragrant flowers she had just passed.

Under the lush green leaves, there was a cluster of small white flowers. Their scent was like jasmine, elegant and pleasant, making her feel refreshed.

“Those are the Nine Li Fragrance flowers that my older sister planted herself. She brought them back from the deep mountains, I think,” Qin Yingguang explained, gesturing. “There were only one or two plants initially, but they grew into this large patch under the sun!”

Yue Tingxi responded with a dazed “Oh,” her mind wandering. She was thinking of the patch of Nine Li Fragrance flowers she had planted on her own stream mountain.

She remembered watering them one last time before she was taken away. She wondered how they were doing now, whether the naughty little demons had picked all the leaves.

Twenty years ago, a little girl who had lost her way came to the mountain. She treasured the Nine Li Fragrance flowers even more than she did and tended to them a few times. She would also fiercely shoo away any demons who tried to steal them.

If she saw Miss Qin’s patch of Nine Li Fragrance flowers, she would surely be happy and wave her arms in a little dance. Alas, after she safely saw her off the stream mountain, she never saw her again.

Seeing that Yue Tingxi was captivated by the flowers, Qin Yingguang didn’t continue the tour. She just told her not to water the flowers.

“The gardener has already watered them enough for the day,” Qin Yingguang said. “If you like, why don’t you stay here and admire them? I’ll go see if Mother and Sister have returned.”

With that, she even moved a chair over. Before Yue Tingxi could say anything, she rushed out of the courtyard.

Yue Tingxi accepted her kindness and sat down. She closed her eyes and quietly inhaled the scent of the Nine Li Fragrance flowers. She felt content and a mix of emotions.

She missed home so much. Whenever she encountered something that also existed on her stream mountain, she couldn’t bring herself to move on.

She rested with her eyes closed for about an hour, accompanied by the floral scent, before she heard Qin Yingguang’s excited chattering from outside.

“The engagement is really off? That’s great! If that dog Lin ever has the audacity to come begging, I’ll give him a few thousand lashes to knock some sense into him!”

Support Wanxi Rebirth