Chapter 236 : A White Hair
When a matter becomes large enough, it's not so easy to bring it to a close.
From the beginning, Tiandao Sect had no intention of keeping a low profile when they came to demand accountability. With all the arguments and searching for witnesses that followed, news naturally leaked out. On Xuanqing Sect's territory, Xuanqing Sect members naturally protected their own, but without a definitive conclusion, this matter would eventually backfire and damage Yun Qingyue's prestige—after all, she was the senior disciple of Mount Mingxia and the future master of Mount Mingxia.
The three Peak Masters' patience had been exhausted, but faced with the Grand Elder of Tiandao Sect's relentless pursuit, they made one final compromise: "Very well, for the sake of Disciple Qingyue's reputation, this is the last time. But don't think Xuanqing Sect is afraid of you."
With these words, the two sides had practically torn off all pretenses of civility. Seeing this, Dharma Master Huiming couldn't help but sigh deeply.
The Grand Elder also sensed something was amiss. He glanced at his disciple, who immediately gave him a confident nod, which strengthened his resolve again—earlier, in the heat of the moment, he had partly wanted to shift blame and partly been provoked. Now he vaguely felt his actions were inappropriate, but Tiandao Sect members had always been self-righteous. Having gone this far, there was no turning back, so he might as well see it through to the end.
Having agreed on this side, Peak Master Qingyu turned to her disciple with some regret: "Qingyue, I believe in your innocence, but this time I've put you in a difficult position. Once this matter is resolved, the Sect Leader and I will definitely seek justice for you."
Yun Qingyue sighed, not knowing what to say: "I'll leave everything to Master's judgment."
Peak Master Qingyu patted her arm, then turned to address the Tiandao Sect members: "My disciple is a woman. Her quarters are not somewhere a group of men can casually enter and search. I will personally investigate—surely the Grand Elder doesn't suspect me as well?"
The Grand Elder's expression changed several times, feeling that Peak Master Qingyu's words carried implications, as if she feared Tiandao Sect might plant false evidence. After all, Tiandao Sect had female disciples too. But this argument was difficult to refute. The Grand Elder turned and scanned the crowd, quickly spotting Ruan Le's conspicuous presence among the male disciples, and pointed at her: "You go with her."
With these words, even the facade of calm was difficult to maintain. Peak Master Qingyu, never one to have a good temper, immediately snorted coldly, swishing her sleeves as she walked away without even glancing at Ruan Le.
Ruan Le felt extremely unfortunate, but having been selected by the Grand Elder, she could only reluctantly step forward.
Like You Yi, Ruan Le had also been saved by Xuanqing Sect disciples multiple times—more precisely, she had been rescued by Yun Qingyue several times. This debt of gratitude was significant. As she quickened her pace to catch up with Peak Master Qingyu, passing by Yun Qingyue, she lowered her voice and said: "Senior Sister Yun, I believe in you. It's going to be fine, I'm just going to take a look."
Ruan Le had kept her voice extremely low, but many powerful cultivators were present. Even if she had used voice transmission instead of merely lowering her voice, every word would have reached everyone's ears without missing a single syllable.
The Grand Elder's face immediately turned ashen with anger, while Peak Masters Qingxu and Qingyuan's anger slightly subsided, their expressions caught between smiling and not smiling.
Regardless of everyone's feelings, more than a hundred people moved toward the Xuanqing Sect compound in a grand procession.
Since Yun Qingyue had moved from the Spirit Boat relatively late, her temporary residence was somewhat remote. When the hundred-plus people arrived before the wooden cabin, they practically surrounded the entire structure. After landing, Peak Master Qingyu ignored everyone else, only turning to look at her disciple. Yun Qingyue pressed her lips together and stepped forward to open the door.
Some disciples were curious, craning their necks to peek inside, when a white figure flashed to the doorway, instantly transforming and blocking the entrance.
The White Tiger stood with head held high, blocking almost the entire doorway, clearly preventing outsiders from glimpsing her Senior Sister's privacy. If any disciple dared to look, she would bare her teeth at them, those sharp tiger fangs immediately dispelling any curiosity and bringing sobriety.
Yun Qingyue raised her hand to stroke the White Tiger, who now stood two heads taller than her. The tiger looked down at her, then reluctantly shifted her body, leaving a gap for Ruan Le to enter the cabin. As for the others, they could forget about it—including the two Peak Masters and the elders from the other two sects, who could only obediently wait outside.
Perhaps because Yun Qingyue's wooden cabin was too simple, Peak Master Qingyu and Ruan Le didn't take long inside, quickly completing their search.
The White Tiger felt someone pushing from behind and immediately moved away from the doorway to let the two out. She took the opportunity to glance back inside, seeing that the cabin was exceptionally tidy with no signs of being rummaged through—clearly, both her master and Ruan Le held goodwill toward Senior Sister. Besides, there wasn't much to search in this temporary residence, just a table, a chair, and a couch.
As Peak Master Qingyu and Ruan Le emerged, everyone's eyes fell on them. Then Peak Master Qingyu spoke coolly: "I have searched carefully, and there is nothing improper in this room."
Ruan Le felt many gazes from her sect members upon her, especially the Grand Elder looking her way, and hastily nodded in agreement.
The Xuanqing Sect members inexplicably breathed sighs of relief, then turned contemptuous gazes toward the Tiandao Sect members who had made trouble out of nothing. This time, Peak Master Qingxu didn't even bother with saving face and directly dismissed them: "We've investigated and searched. Since there's no problem, and everyone still has wounds that need urgent treatment, shouldn't the Grand Elder lead his disciples back?"
These words were clearly dismissive, but unexpectedly, the Grand Elder's gaze fell on Ruan Le and suddenly focused. He raised his hand and said: "Not so fast, look what I've found..."
As the words fell, he appeared before Ruan Le, pinching a white hair from her sleeve.
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The cultivation world was vast and boundless. Besides human cultivators, there were naturally other races that practiced cultivation—such as the divine beasts cherished by sects, the ghost cultivators transformed after death, and the demons and monstrous beasts that had stood as equals with human cultivators in ancient times.
Tens of thousands of years ago, both divine beasts and demons were extremely common in the cultivation world. Demons fed on humans; initially, when humans were weak, they could only endure. But later, as humans began cultivating and flourishing, they eventually reached a point where they could stand as equals with demons. A great war between humans and demons lasted for over a thousand years, until finally, humans allied with the neutral monstrous beast race, completely driving the demons out and sealing them in the demon realm.
This outcome seemed beautiful, but the destruction brought to the cultivation world by the thousand-year war was undeniable. From some unknown point, the once-ubiquitous divine beasts became increasingly rare, and the monstrous beast race vanished without a trace. It seemed as if the Heavenly Dao had withdrawn its favoritism.
In the vast cultivation world, only humans remained seemingly prosperous, but ascending to immortality became extremely difficult.
As time passed, human cultivators gradually became accustomed to all this, even completely forgetting the monstrous beast race. Though the monstrous beasts had disappeared without a trace, they had never truly vanished. They would occasionally appear, but those who knew their identities were always extremely few.
Unfortunately, the Grand Elder of Tiandao Sect knew such a secret—Zhu Baiyi, the Sect Leader of the Crimson Blood Sect from the demonic path, was not human, or at least not purely human. She was a mixed-blood born of a human and a monstrous beast. Because of this, she had extraordinary talent, reaching the Grand Achievement realm in just a few hundred years, with remarkable combat prowess, earning her the position of Crimson Blood Sect Leader.
This was a secret, but not a particularly important one. The demonic path had always valued strength above all else. Even if the Crimson Blood Sect Leader's bloodline were exposed, demonic cultivators wouldn't care. Since it wouldn't shake her position, there was no point in revealing it.
However, at this moment, this secret seemed to become significant again...
Under everyone's puzzled gazes, the Grand Elder of Tiandao Sect pinched the white hair from Ruan Le's sleeve. With blazing eyes and a certain tone, he asked Ruan Le: "Did you pick this up from that room?"
Ruan Le looked at the white hair somewhat bewildered, even turning back to glance at Jianbing who was still blocking the cabin door: "Perhaps... maybe? It's probably fur shed by Jianbing that I accidentally brushed against when I entered and exited?"
The White Tiger, not far away, heard this and her tiger eyes suddenly widened in shock. She hastily looked down at her own fur, feeling her entire tiger self about to collapse—though her body had grown larger, she was essentially still a tiger cub. Was she already shedding at such a young age? Wouldn't she soon become bald?!
Just as the White Tiger was filled with terror, calculating how many batches of hair-growth powder to ask Bai Xu to refine, she heard the Grand Elder firmly deny: "No, this is not tiger fur, nor is it from a divine beast. This is hair from a monstrous beast!"
With these words, everyone present was somewhat stunned. The younger ones had barely even heard of monstrous beasts.
Someone quietly asked a companion: "What monstrous beast? Does he mean demonic beasts?"
The companion, equally unclear, shook his head in confusion.
Though these younger disciples didn't know, figures at the level of Peak Masters and elders naturally did. Peak Master Qingyu's eyelashes trembled almost imperceptibly. Peak Masters Qingxu and Qingyuan also frowned, feeling that the matter was being dragged farther and farther off course, becoming completely incomprehensible. However, this time they didn't stop the Grand Elder from continuing.
Indeed, the Grand Elder didn't need anyone to question or remind him. He proactively formed a hand seal and cast it onto the white hair. It was a special technique for identifying monstrous beasts. When it landed on the white hair, the hair immediately radiated a dazzling white light.
In the distance, aboard the demonic sect's vessel, the Crimson Blood Sect Leader, who had been meditating with closed eyes, suddenly opened them.