Chapter 238 : Sudden Developments
Yun Qingyue knew nothing, and faced with her master's inquiry, she didn't know what to say.
The White Tiger still shielded her completely from the front. With Yun Qingyue neither showing her face nor speaking, whispers immediately arose around them, and the atmosphere began to shift from subtle to tense.
It was Zhong Heng who first spoke up in her defense. He shot a fierce glare at the disciples, then stepped forward and bowed to Peak Master Qingyu: "Master, with how things have developed, whether true or false, I believe it cannot be blamed on Senior Sister. When you brought her back to the sect years ago, she was still in swaddling clothes, neither remembering nor able to speak. Even you didn't know her background, so how could she have known?"
Before Peak Master Qingyu could respond, someone from the Tiandao Sect crowd, whose face had been lost earlier, muttered loudly: "She may not have known then, but years have passed, and Immortal Maiden Qingyue has left the sect to train more than once. How do you know she hasn't contacted demonic cultivators?"
Zhong Heng grew angry, glaring furiously: "She is my Senior Sister. I know her character better than outsiders."
As soon as he finished, a contemptuous laugh was heard, clearly dismissing his argument. Due to the presence of many powerful seniors, the speaker didn't engage in further verbal sparring with Zhong Heng. But with this interruption, Zhong Heng's originally heartfelt words lost their footing—at this point, Xuanqing Sect couldn't even close their doors and handle the matter internally.
Hearing her junior brother's defense, Yun Qingyue finally composed herself and moved to step around the White Tiger to face everyone. But the White Tiger was even more nervous than her, fearing the righteous elders might strike at her, and refused to budge from her protective position.
The tiger cub she usually carried in her arms now stood like a small mountain in front of her. While Yun Qingyue didn't know whether to laugh or cry, she felt increasingly touched. She helplessly pushed the White Tiger's back and said calmly: "Jianbing, move aside a bit."
The White Tiger didn't move at all, turning her head to look at her, golden tiger eyes filled with disapproval.
Yun Qingyue reached out again, stroking the tiger's face, her tone softening further: "Be good, move aside."
Senior Sister was essentially a gentle person, but due to her reserved nature, these emotions rarely showed. When she spoke in such a tender voice, the White Tiger's heart softened considerably, but she still didn't dare move easily. Her increasingly massive tiger head stated solemnly: "I won't move. If you want to speak, you can speak like this. What if someone attacks you again?"
As she said the last sentence, she glanced pointedly at the Tiandao Sect, clearly holding a grudge for what happened earlier. The Tiandao Sect members felt irritated by her gaze, but looking at Yun Qingyue in the eye of the storm, they also felt a certain satisfaction at watching the spectacle.
Yun Qingyue was extremely helpless against the White Tiger's protection, but this was not the time to hide behind the White Tiger and pretend nothing was wrong.
She actively moved out from behind, too quick for the White Tiger to stop her, and knelt on one knee before her master, saying sincerely: "Master, I know nothing of my background. As for the Crimson Blood Sect Leader, I have only met her once before. I don't know why her traces would appear in my quarters, but I truly have never had any contact with her, nor have I done anything to betray the sect."
Peak Master Qingyu gazed at her disciple's familiar face and, whether due to psychological reasons or not, suddenly glimpsed a familiar shadow within it. Her emotions churned, her lips moved several times, but she couldn't find words to speak.
While the master and disciple faced each other wordlessly, the attitudes of the onlookers gradually underwent subtle changes—they had heard that this senior disciple of Mount Mingxia also possessed an ice spiritual root. Earlier, there had been incidents involving the Xuanqing Sect's wax ball message and the tragic death of the Guiyi Sect Leader, both allegedly connected to ice spiritual energy. There had been rumors implicating Peak Master Qingyu, but given her lofty position and venerable reputation, how could she do such things?
Most people hadn't believed those rumors, but now, if the matters were attributed to Yun Qingyue, it became much more convincing. After all, her background was problematic to begin with, and the human heart was always difficult to fathom.
And thus, Yun Qingyue's alleged collusion with the demonic path seemed to become an established fact.
Peak Master Qingyu's cultivation was profound, and Yun Qingyue's hearing was excellent; the master and disciple had heard almost all the whispers. But both had hearts far more steadfast than those gossipmongers, and they pretended not to hear.
Perhaps growing impatient with the lack of progress in this confrontation between master and disciple, a Tiandao Sect elder suddenly stepped forward and said: "Eliminating evil and upholding righteousness is our duty. Better to wrongly kill a hundred than let one escape. This disciple clearly has deep connections with the demonic path and should be seized for strict custody and interrogation. Is she to be let off merely because she is Peak Master Qingyu's disciple?!"
The Tiandao Sect had always been self-righteous, and their actions quite extreme—they truly were capable of following the principle of "better to kill wrongly than let escape." Thus, when he spoke these words, none of the Tiandao Sect members found them inappropriate, and they began to press the issue.
One shouted: "The mystical test has proven she has deep connections to the demonic sects. She cannot be allowed to escape!"
Another cried: "Demonic cultivators are cunning and full of schemes. If we don't seize her now, she'll escape!"
Some even shouted indiscriminately: "The demonic sects have killed many of our people. Now that we've caught this demonic spy, we must kill her to avenge our brothers!"
Word by word, they grew more excessive. Though Yun Qingyue had done nothing wrong, they acted as if she had desecrated their ancestors' graves. Even some Xuanqing Sect disciples, hearing their clamor and recalling the tragic deaths of familiar brothers, began to look at their senior sister with ambivalence. Meanwhile, another group of Xuanqing Sect disciples, hearing these arguments, felt offended.
They may not have had much interaction with Yun Qingyue, perhaps only knowing the name of this senior disciple of the five peaks, but being pressured like this, normal people would feel rebellious. Moreover, though Yun Qingyue's background was problematic, she herself had not been convicted of any crime.
Soon, these people with different stances began to argue, and as the arguments intensified, they even started to fight.
The White Tiger mingled among them, immediately fixing her gaze on the Tiandao Sect elder who had instigated the trouble—she was extremely annoyed with Tiandao Sect now, as they were always the ones causing problems and had step by step forced Senior Sister into danger.
Perhaps it was anger rising from her heart, or evil rising with courage. Since Senior Sister didn't want the White Tiger's protection, and since the White Tiger found that Tiandao Sect elder disagreeable, she simply flashed directly in front of him. Coincidentally, that elder's cultivation wasn't particularly high—also at the Void Crossing realm, with his precise level only two minor realms above the Little White Tiger. She faced him without the slightest hesitation, raising her paw to strike.
Feline animals are naturally agile, and a Void Crossing White Tiger was considerably faster than cultivators of the same realm. The elder only felt a blur before his eyes, then a massive tiger paw swung fiercely toward him.
This attack came so suddenly that the elder instinctively raised his arm to block, immediately receiving several bone-deep gashes.
His sect-mates, seeing this, couldn't allow him to die under the White Tiger's claws, so they all moved to intercept. Despite the White Tiger's ferocity, when facing a group of cultivators at or above her level, she couldn't break through them to inflict further harm.
The White Tiger fought with them, and the Tiandao Sect members neither let her leave nor dared to harm her easily. Just as both sides were fighting intensely, suddenly the elder whose arm the White Tiger had injured swayed and collapsed. The sensitive perception of high-level cultivators told them that the elder's vital signs had ceased—he was clearly dead.
A dignified elder, after saying just a few words, died just like that?!
The Tiandao Sect members couldn't believe it, and even the White Tiger raised her paw to examine it, wondering if her claws had been poisoned. But this was of course impossible—the White Tiger's claws were perfectly clean, only stained with some dark red blood.
"Jianbing killed Elder Qi!" a Tiandao Sect disciple suddenly shouted, his voice almost breaking.
This statement instantly reached the ears of everyone present. Those who had been fighting fiercely all stopped their actions and uniformly turned to look—truthfully, though they fought due to conflicting stances, none had intended to deliver fatal blows. After all, with external enemies at their doorstep, they needed to maintain basic unity despite their disagreements. But what was wrong with Jianbing, killing someone with one strike?!
The Xuanqing Sect disciples were dumbfounded, while the Tiandao Sect disciples' eyes reddened, looking as if they wanted to kill Jianbing immediately to avenge their elder.
The White Tiger didn't move for a moment. This wasn't her first time killing in the cultivation world, but this time something felt strange. She stared at the bloodstains on her claws for a long while, vaguely feeling that the blood was somehow wrong.
Unfortunately, the White Tiger wasn't given more time to think, as the system's alarm suddenly sounded in her mind. She looked up following the sound, just in time to see a black demonic energy appearing abruptly, then rapidly coiling toward Yun Qingyue.
At that moment, Peak Master Qingyu was standing in front of Yun Qingyue. Seeing this, she naturally moved immediately to intercept. As a Fusion realm cultivator, her power was far from insignificant—in the cultivation world, eight or nine out of ten beings would struggle to fare well against her. But this demonic energy was extremely domineering. Not only did Peak Master Qingyu fail to intercept it, but she was sent flying backward by a heavy blow.
The White Tiger's eyes widened, and Peak Masters Qingxu and Qingyuan also moved simultaneously, one to rescue and one to intercept. Unfortunately, even with both Peak Masters' intervention, they still failed to stop the demonic energy, watching helplessly as it enveloped Yun Qingyue and departed.
"Senior Sister!" the White Tiger called out, sprinting in pursuit. But how could she catch up to demonic energy that even Fusion realm cultivators couldn't intercept?