Chapter 236: Zephyr Sect Fifth Elder’s Olive Branch

Translator: Minotauruz

As expected, just after having breakfast, Qin Lingyu spoke to Yu Wanrou with a low, soft voice, “Follow me.” Then, he grabbed her wrist tightly and dragged her to a quiet and secluded location. Once he plastered some Noise-Cancelling Talismans in the surroundings, he could no longer suppress the outburst from his heart and he glared at Yu Wanrou viciously, “What in the world did you do to me yesterday?!”

Even though Yu Wanrou had a thousand and one schemes in her heart, she knew that she should never reveal these things on her face.

Her face turned pale with shock as she hurriedly grabbed onto Qin Lingyu’s sleeves, “Lingyu, believe me, I really didn’t do anything to you...”

Qin Lingyu snorted as he wrested his sleeves free from Yu Wanrou’s grasp, “You didn’t do anything? Do you take me for a fool?! With my self-control, why would I possibly resort to such behaviour that paints me in a lascivious light to the public in broad daylight?! If you want me to bed you, you just have to say it. Why do you have to resort to these little actions behind my back and turn me into the greatest laughingstock of the entire Sect?!”

Qin Lingyu had said the word “bed” with such humiliating intent that Yu Wanrou’s heart felt like it had been punctured deep with an awl. Her heart had just been shattered into pieces.

She was truly fond of Qin Lingyu. Even though the display of her affection was aided by the implementation of some schemes, she could never deny the fact that she liked Qin Lingyu.

That said, Qin Lingyu had casually tossed around the word “bed” just like that. What did Qin Lingyu think she was – a prostitute that one could call upon at the back alleys of the street?!

Yu Wanrou’s eyes turned red and puffy. She looked at herself in shock and grew taciturn. Qin Lingyu’s fury burgeoned more as he continued, “What’s the matter? Do you think that I’ve humiliated you? When you came looking for me last night and schemed against me, why didn’t you consider the fact that I would get mad?!”

After ventilating his anger with a whole string of words, he suddenly thought about something, and a frigid smirk crept up the corner of his lips.

“Yu Wanrou, do you really have to use these measures to force me to bring you to the Limitless Sect? Let me tell you, fat hope! Even if these matters spread far and wide beyond the Dawn Sect, I will never bring you to the Limitless Sect with me. You can give up! Hah, do you think that I would have problems once everyone knows I’ve bedded you? It doesn’t prove anything! Even if I’ve bedded you a hundred times, as long as I don’t admit it, what can you do to me?!”

Qin Lingyu’s prideful ego refused to accept the fact that he had been successfully schemed against by a woman. Thus, he used the harshest and most vicious possible way he knew to tear down Yu Wanrou’s pride and trample on it. He wanted to feel powerful and in control again; he wanted the ventilate his infuriation that had been stifled for such a long time.

Yu Wanrou was also another person who boasted an enormous ego and placed herself on a pedestal to be worshipped by others. She took pride in her abilities to grasp men tightly in her palm and control them. But now that Qin Lingyu tossed her pride to the ground and trampled on it like that, how could she not be mad?

Yu Wanrou was not just mad; she was so mad that her entire face had become drained of colour. In fact, she had indeed been rather guilt-ridden by her actions to begin with. That said, her infuriation had well surpassed the extent of her guilt, and she flew into an uncontrollable hysteria –

“Enough! Qin Lingyu, whose fault is it that you weren’t vigilant and guarded enough? If you had been vigilant, would you have fallen prey to my schemes?”

“You’ve finally admitted it?” Qin Lingyu gritted his teeth as he glared back at Yu Wanrou.

“Don’t malign me, Qin Lingyu. I’ve only used some colourless and scentless aphrodisiacs. You were the one who had been unable to control yourself; what’s that got to do with me? Don’t preach to me about your self-control. In my eyes, your self-control is nothing more than a joke!” Yu Wanrou snapped back viciously.

Yu Wanrou’s words comprised some measure of truth. After all, there were no guarantees when a person used love drugs on another. As long as a person’s determination and willpower was strong enough, he would be able to overcome the effects of any love drugs.

Unfortunately, it was evident that Qin Lingyu’s rationality had almost instantaneously ceded control to his lustful desires.

Qin Lingyu knew these principles as well, but he would never admit to succumbing to his primal desires. He snorted and refuted, “Sophistry. Cut away all the bullshit. You’ve just admitted that you were a slut that craved a warm body beside you. Thus, you had resorted to these underhanded means to get me to bed you.”

Whether in her last life or her present life, Yu Wanrou had never experienced such extent of humiliation before.

In her previous life, her mother was the mistress of another man, and she was an illegitimate daughter born out of wedlock. That said, she had been able to obtain everything that she had always wanted. She lacked nothing, and her father had never scolded her mother using such humiliating and derisory words.

Back then, there was one instance when her father’s wife had managed to locate her mother. At that time, she did scold her mother for being a vixen and being a cheap slut. However, Yu Wanrou had always felt that all of this was attributable to the fact that her father’s real wife had no ability to keep her husband under check. What was the use of scolding her mother, the mistress, so much? At the end of the day, her father’s heart was still with her own mother.

Despite all of that, Yu Wanrou had never expected to hear such derisory words of humiliation coming out from the mouths of the man that she was wholeheartedly fond of. And such words were even directed straight at herself!

“Qin Lingyu, have you said enough?!” Yu Wanrou’s face was completely white as she slowly articulated each word with despondence, “Yes, I crave men. But even if I crave men in future, I’ll never come looking for you again. How’s that? Happy? Qin Lingyu, I hate you!”

After Yu Wanrou was finished with her outburst, she turned around and ran back to where she came from with tears in her eyes.

Qin Lingyu remained taciturn as he stared at Yu Wanrou’s back. Moments later, he chuckled sardonically, before he turned and walked away in another direction.

Jun Xiaomo would never have thought that the “loving couple” from her previous life would actually experience such a massive rift in their relationship this early on in her present lifetime.

By now, Yu Wanrou was already thoroughly disappointed with Qin Lingyu. She had already known that Qin Lingyu was not a person who had much feelings to begin with. But even then, she had sincerely hoped that she held a special place in his heart.

After returning to her own room, she cried for the entire afternoon. Then, as Yu Wanrou slowly wiped off her tears, gritted her teeth and thought to herself – Since the path with Qin Lingyu is such a difficult path to take, why don’t I look for another man instead?

After all, the cultivation world out there was massive. There had to be innumerable male cultivators with talents that were better than Qin Lingyu.

Thus, Yu Wanrou traversed in her mind each and every male cultivator she knew and assessed their abilities. In the end, the only other male cultivator that she deemed to be sufficiently talented and outstanding was...the man beside Jun Xiaomo right now, Rong Ruihan; as well as the disfigured man who had vanished without a trace, Ye Xiuwen.

As she thought about these things, Yu Wanrou’s heart swelled with yet even more infuriation and jealousy that practically consumed her rationality.

She began to smash everything in her room that she could lay her hands on, and her entire room became a horrid mess.

“Jun. Xiao. Mo!” Yu Wanrou gnashed her teeth as she glared at the broken bits and pieces on the floor as though she were staring at her nemesis, “Why do you have to be better than me at everything?! Why can’t I, for once, be the person who got to know the first prince of the Inferno Kingdom?! I can’t stand it! I just can’t take this!!!”

As she lamented, she lashed out at the broken bits and pieces on the floor with her whip and smashed all of them into smithereens.

Smashed into smithereens – just like the hope in her heart; just like how Jun Xiaomo’s fate ought to be.

On the other side, after having her dinner, Jun Xiaomo suddenly felt a shiver go down her spine, before she sneezed lightly. She took out her handkerchief and wiped her nose. Just as she was about to store her handkerchief, a small Messenger Paper Crane landed on her arm and pecked lightly on the back of her hand.

“This is...?” Jun Xiaomo looked at the emblem on the Messenger Paper Crane, and she discovered that she had never seen such an emblem before.

The emblem looked almost like a cloud that was floating in the blue sky.

Jun Xiaomo furrowed her brows while she considered whether she should open the Messenger Paper Crane or not. Her previous life’s experience told her that it would be prudent to inspect the Messenger Paper Crane closely before opening it. Otherwise, the consequences could very well be dire.

However, this Messenger Paper Crane evidently had no patience for any of that. Apart form pecking at the back of her hand, it even began to flap its wings impatiently.

Jun Xiaomo had never seen such spiritually aware Messenger Paper Cranes before, and she couldn’t help but chuckle lightheartedly with bemusement.

She thought for a moment, but she still decided to err on the side of caution and do a closer inspection of the Messenger Paper Crane. Then, she finally found two small words written on the underside of the Messenger Paper Crane’s wings – Zephyr Sect.

“Zephyr Sect?” Jun Xiaomo was puzzled.

Having lived for two whole lifetimes, she naturally knew what and where the Zephyr Sect was – it was none other than a Greater Sect that was only second to the Limitless Sect and the Frozen Sword Sect. However, she had never had any dealings with the Zephyr Sect, so why would a Zephyr Sect Messenger Paper Crane find its way over towards her?

With such thoughts on her mind, Jun Xiaomo finally decided to open the Messenger Paper Crane. There, she saw a string of words written on it –

“Hello, dear cultivator, Jun Xiaomo, I’m the Zephyr Sect’s Fifth Elder, Tong Ruizhen. Your performance at the Secondary Inter-Sect Competitions have left an indelible mark in my heart, and I firmly believe that you’re a talented young sprout, especially in the realms of formation arrays and talismans. I wonder if you have any intentions of being my disciple and coming to the Zephyr Sect to learn more about formation arrays and talismans? If you agree to this, you may write the words ‘I agree’ on the underside of this paper crane; and if you disagree, I would also request that you leave your reasons on the underside of this paper crane. Yours truly, Tong Ruizhen.”

Jun Xiaomo’s lips stretched out in slight astonishment, while her facial expressions grew sullen.

Being extended an olive branch by an elder of a Greater Sect while she was only at the sixth level of Qi Master was undoubtedly an immeasurably delightful thing. If Jun Xiaomo had been a mere seventeen years-old lady, she might have immediately agreed to his request.

However, she was no longer that naïve seventeen years-old lady from her past. There was a soul that was hundreds of years-old trapped within her seventeen years-old physical body. Thus, her considerations were naturally far more meticulous than that of a mere seventeen years-old lady.

The first thing that she thought about was what would happen to her parents if she went to the Zephyr Sect now? What would happen to her martial brothers and sisters from the Heavenly Peak? They did not possess her previous lifetime of experience. Notwithstanding the fact that her parents were now at loggerheads with He Zhang and no longer trusted him, she still knew the full extent of how crafty He Zhang could be. Who knows whether anything would happen in the interim?

Furthermore, all of the other members of the Heavenly Peak were practically spitting images of Jun Linxuan – all of them were cultivation fanatics that had devoted their hearts and minds to their own cultivation, to the exclusion of other things such as the nuances of human relations, schemes and ploys. None of them would be able to hold a candle against He Zhang’s vicious and crafty methods.

The massacre of the Heavenly Peak in her previous life was like a nightmare to Jun Xiaomo. If the same exact incident occurred again in this previous life, Jun Xiaomo might well and truly go mad.

And then, there was Ye Xiuwen.

Ye Xiuwen was one of the other reasons holding Jun Xiaomo back from the Zephyr Sect. She had always clung tightly onto that thread of hope that Ye Xiuwen was still alive. She had hoped that one day Ye Xiuwen would show up at the foot of the Heavenly Peak’s doorstep dragging his weary and dirty feet yet presenting himself with that pair of ever-warm and unchanging eyes.

The sight of Ye Xiuwen’s return had appeared in Jun Xiaomo’s dreams countless times. Yet every time she aroused from her dreams, she would be met with the harsh disappointment of reality.

Jun Xiaomo wanted to remain at the Heavenly Peak to protect her parents; to protect her martial brothers and sisters from the Heavenly Peak, and to wait for Ye Xiuwen’s return.

That said, she knew that these were not matters she could write onto the Messenger Paper Crane. Thus, she thought about it, before she began to pen down her reasons –

“Junior thanks senior for his vote of approval. However, this junior’s performance during the Secondary Inter-Sect Competition had been nothing more than a fluke. Sect Elder Tong’s high praise makes me feel slightly embarrassed about myself. Junior sincerely believes that she does not truly possess any talents for formation arrays or talismans. Junior had only had the fortune of being pointed in the right direction by an expert, and thus learnt a little trick or two which turned out to be useful during the group battles. Fortunately, everything went according to plan. After much consideration, this junior firmly believes that Sect Elder Tong deserves much better disciples rather than someone like junior whose cultivation level is low and whose aptitude is no more than mediocre. Once again, junior thanks Sect Elder Tong for showing interest in her. Yours sincerely, Jun Xiaomo.”

After she finished writing the letter, she looked through the contents of what she had written once more and changed a line or two. Once she was satisfied that the message was sufficiently tactful and would not attract Tong Ruizhen’s ire and wrath, she sent the Messenger Paper Crane on its way.

As the Messenger Paper Crane disappeared into the horizon, Jun Xiaomo heaved a sigh of resignation, shook her head and returned to her room.

The Messenger Paper Crane was one that had specially been made by Tong Ruizhen. Thus, as soon as Jun Xiaomo had penned in her response, he received news from her in practically the next moment.

He stroked his beard and chuckled to himself, “This young lady is rather special. But that’s what makes it all more interesting, isn’t it? Seems like I’ll have to make a trip personally.”

After thinking aloud, he hailed his mount – a ninth-grade Heavenly Crane.

Tong Ruizhen hollered once, and the Heavenly Crane immediately soared into the air and flew gracefully towards where the Dawn Sect was located.