Many disciples along with Han Yunxi found the voice very unfamiliar. Everyone seemed to turn as one towards the source, including Long Feiye. They saw a white robed figure drifting languidly down the peak, his robes and white hair floating about him in refinement. It gave people the impression of some sacred god descending to Earth. A sense of respect rose unbidden to Han Yunxi’s heart at the sight.

“Is there really an old god residing on top of the mountain?” she muttered to herself.

Very soon, the white-haired man came to a stop. He looked about sixty and was slim and very tall. His back was ramrod straight despite his years, belying his apparent age. His robes had wide sleeves without any ornamentation, simple and plain. Only a single white jade hair stick kept his hair neatly bound up in place.

Despite his aged and wrinkled skin, his looks were still pleasing to the eye. Without a doubt, he must have been a handsome man in his youth. His long face was pulled into a severe expression as he gazed at Han Yunxi. This was none other than the grandmaster of Celestial Mountain Sword Sect, Long Feiye’s master Li Jianxin.

The surrounding disciples all fell to their knees in respect, while the various elders paid obeisance with hands clasped in front, Cang Qiuzi included.

“Greetings to Grandmaster!”

“Greetings to senior brother, congratulations on smoothly emerging from your cultivation!”

Many of the disciples at the two Depositories and Courtyards had been here for years, but they’d never seen the grandmaster’s true face. Everyone was quaking with fear as they knelt on the ground. After all, this was the current sovereign of the martial arts world. He had no opponent who matched his skills.

Long Feiye also paid his respects with hands clasped before him. “Master.”

Han Yunxi was awed by the sight of the man, but finally recovered here to pay respects as well. “Han Yunxi gives greetings to elder sword sect master.”

The sword sect master only spared her an icy glance before resting his eyes on Long Feiye. He was about to speak when Cang Qiuzi shoutd, “Senior brother, you have to seek justice for me! This lass had the gall to perform physical assault on Celestial Mountain and poison me. Feiye’s been utterly infatuated with her charms to tell right from wrong. He almost started fighting with the rest of the disciples!”

Duanmu Yao had just stood up when she fell back to her knees again to burst into sobs. “Master, you’ve finally come out. Sobsob….Yao Yao was wronged! Yao Yao doesn’t want to live anymore!”

The sword sect master finally noticed her existence since her mask had made it difficult to recognize her at a glance. He knitted her brows and asked, “What’s happened to your face?”

Duanmu Yao’s sobs sounded absolutely wretched. “Yao Yao doesn’t want to live anymore! No more!” As the sword sect master walked over to remove her mask, she stubbornly pressed it against her face.

“Master, if you take off this mask today, Yao Yao will immediately leap off the mountain. Then you’ll never see Yao Yao again!”

A threat?

Han Yunxi was rather disturbed by the words. She knew the old sword sect master doted on Duanmu Yao, but never expected his favor to run so deep that she could openly menace him in front of everyone else. The sword sect master didn’t seem to mind Duanmu Yao’s blatant disrespect and simply straightened up to ask the servant girl, “Crying and weeping, whatever next? Hurry and bring her back, take good care of her.”

Seeing this, Han Yunxi knew that the sword sect master wanted to downplay the entire incident. As the leader of an entire sword sect, it was the wisest choice to make. After all, it involved his head elder and two personal disciples. No matter who was wrong or wrong, arguing in front of everyone else like this would not only lower their status, but have negative effects. If things went out of control, then it’d be impossible for him to keep one eye opened while the other closed. As the servant girl helped Duanmu Yao up, she tactfully relented and didn’t refuse. Han Yunxi didn’t want her to leave or downplay this incident, but she wasn’t impulsive enough to act out without knowing the sword sect master’s temper. All she could do was keep silent and let Long Feiye face the problem.

Although she wasn’t here to curry favor with the sword sect master, she couldn’t offend him carelessly, either! Long Feiye didn’t speak. Very soon, the servant girl supported Duanmu Yao to fly up the mountain as the sword sect master watched with creased brows. It was obvious that Duanmu Yao had lost her martial arts, or else she’d never need the help to fly back up. A flash of anger flitted past his eyes, but he remained expressionless. The entire time, Cang Qiuzi hadn’t stopped looking at the grandmaster, and now he shot a look at his daughter. He wouldn’t shout, but Cang Xiaoying could do it for him.

“Grandmaster, please save my father! Han Yunxi used a fatal poison on him!”

“Grandmaster, my father’s in so much pain that he can’t even speak. I’m begging you to save him!”

“There’s no one else who can deal with that demoness except for you. Even Senior Brother Feiye’s been bewitched to let her do as she likes!”

Han Yunxi assumed that the sword sect master would demand she hand over the antidote immediately, but he simply ignored Cang Xiaoying and her requests entirely. He examined her from head to toe before asking coldly, “So you’re Han Yunxi?”

“Precisely,” Han Yunxi admitted openly.

“You ambushed an elder on Celestial Mountain? Do you know the greatest punishment for such an act?” the sword sect master asked next.

“I wasn’t committing physical assault, I just wanted to prove that—”

“An ambush is an ambush! There’s no need for explanations!” the old man cut her off.

Long Feiye immediately came to her defense. “Master, it was I who let her use poison. If you need to punish anyone, punish this disciple. Your disciple is willing to accept.”

Han Yunxi only tugged unhappily at Long Feiye’s sleeve. They hadn’t done anything wrong and the truth about Grand Concubine Yi’s kidnapping was still up in the air. Why did they have to be punished now?

She couldn’t accept it!

Long Feiye simply patted her hand to tell her to calm down. Despite the stifled feeling in her chest, she still ended up listening to him.

“Junior sister, what is the punishment according to sect rules?” the sword sect master asked.

Granny You’s eyes took on a complicated look as she paused. Finally she spoke. “According to sect rules, a minor punishment means one is to face the wall at Abstinence Courtyard for three years. A major one is expulsion from Celestial Mountain Sword Sect.”

Han Yunxi sucked in a cold breath. If they punished Long Feiye like that today, they might as well have a life-and-death struggle! She was seriously disappointed with the sword sect elder for being so unreasonable.

“Since it’s the first offense and done without intention, lighten it to facing the wall for a month,” the sword sect master said before waving a hand to dismiss everyone.

Cang Qiuzi was thrilled. Although he’d been poisoned, at least the queries for Grand Concubine Yi’s kidnapping had stopped. Long Feiye and Han Yunxi would be unable to publicly expose his lies either, so he’d escaped this time. Enduring the pain in his gut, he waited. Senior brother would definitely help him get the antidote.

As the crowd broke up, Long Feiye stood with his hooded eyes in silence. Han Yunxi couldn’t take it. Face the wall for a month? That’ll only delay Long Feiye’s plans on Celestial Mountain! Even if it doesn’t, why does he have to accept this punishment? This is so oppressive!

We could’ve proved that Cang Qiuzi was lying and working together with Duanmu Yao to kidnap Grand Concubine Yi! She’d poisoned him to prove that he couldn’t cute the toxin himself. How could he have ever gone past the maze pathway then? After all, she’d poisoned the way herself. When Lady Leng Yue escaped with Leng Shuangshuang and Cang Qiuzi rescued Duanmu Yao, she had wanted to stop them with poison fog, but the mysterious poisons expert had dispelled her toxins. Otherwise, neither party could have escaped.

It was obvious that Cang Qiuzi didn’t understand poisons at all, or that someone had saved him during his escape. That’s why his final account had this mistake. It was a huge hole in his story! Like Duanmu Yao, he’d been hiding by the lake the entire time, which was how he’d avoided getting poisoned in the matrix pathway. Everything he and Duanmu Yao blabbed just then, along with the servant girl’s testimony, were all lies!

Han Yunxi didn’t understand why Long Feiye wasn’t saying all this? As long as he did, her poisoning would be forgiven and Cang Qiuzi’s reputation, ruined. Moreover, they could take back the punishment from the Abstinence Courtyard. Seeing Long Feiye standing still, she coldly declared, “Each person should shoulder their own responsibilities! If you have to punish anyone, punish me! I was the one who set the poison and the Duke of Qin has no antidote. Elder sword sect master, it’s no use even if you penalize him!”

Most of the crowd had gone far by now, but were still shooting looks back. However, the sword sect master ignored her and told Granny You, “I’ll bring him over tonight. It’s been ages since this child came back, so this grandmaster would like to have a good talk with him.”

Hearing this, everyone knew the matter had been concluded. Grand Concubine Yi’s kidnapping must have been nothing more than old scores between Long Feiye and Duanmu Yao as martial siblings and nothing so severe. Once Elder Cang’s poison was cured and Long Feiye’s punishment ended, the sword sect master would wrap up the issues himself. What was going to be a good show had ended as soon as the old man showed up. Many people who had come to gloat over the unfortunate felt very dissatisfied by the results, especially Second and Third Elder.

“Long Feiye!” Han Yunxi grew desperate enough to take his hand and murmur, “You’re going to admit defeat just like that?”

“Don’t worry. Master has his reasons for acting this way,” Long Feiye muttered back.

“Are you sure?” Han Yunxi didn’t trust the sword sect master at all.

“Certain,” Long Feiye was steadfast.

Han Yunxi knitted her brows and stared at him, unable to accept such a reality. But in the end, she chose to believe him. She was certain that Long Feiye wouldn’t disappoint her, so she could only hope that the sword sect master wouldn’t disappoint Long Feiye, either.

Once everyone was completely gone, the sword sect master overlooked Han Yunxi and spoke directly to Long Feiye. “Come, over here.”

As he finished, he pushed off the ground and took lightly to the skies like a swallow heading for the peak.

“Senior brother, my antidote…” Cang Qiuzi yelled.

When the grandmaster didn’t reply, Cang Qiuzi shot a hateful glare towards Han Yunxi, who returned it with one of her own.

“This isn’t over!”

Long Feiye picked up Han Yunxi and went to chase after the sword sect master. Although the grandmaster hadn’t told Cang Qiuzi to join him, the man had no choice but to scale the peak if he wanted his poison cured. He didn’t complain about the pain, but his stomach was in such agony that even the slightest movement became unbearable. He could only let Cang Xiaoying support him and fly up. Cang Xiaoying didn’t know the true relationship between her father and Duanmu Yao, but she knew they had to have colluded together on the Grand Concubine Yi kidnapping.

“Father,” she said in a low voice, “What does…the grandmaster mean by this?”

“Heheh…even though he’s stopped overseeing things for years, he’s still so astute when it comes to taking charge… This isn’t over,” Cang Qiuzi muttered back. “Once you deliver me there, leave immediately. Go find your eldest senior brother and tell him to prepare everything.”

“What’s he preparing?” Cang Xiaoying didn’t know.

“Your eldest senior brother will understand,” Cang Qiuzi murmured back.

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