Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Were You Acting on Master’s Orders?

“Disciple Li Ruo greets the Sect Master and all elders,” Li Ruo said, voice unsteady.

She knelt there, dazed. She didn’t know what had happened, but the expressions around her made her skin prickle with dread.

Instinctively, her eyes searched for someone familiar—someone safe.

Bai Yang.

For a moment, she clung to that single thread of hope.

Bai Yang turned his head aside, cold as stone, refusing to meet her gaze.

Her throat tightened. She looked to An Ze instead.

An Ze was glaring at her with naked hostility, as if he could cut her down with his eyes alone.

“Li Ruo,” An Ze demanded, not waiting for the Sect Master, “when you delivered the Thousand Mountains Spirit Springwater yesterday, did you add something to the alchemy cauldron?”

“What?” Li Ruo froze, her face blank with shock.

“You’re still pretending?” An Ze laughed harshly. “If you didn’t add something, then how could there be poison in the pill?”

He leaned closer, voice turning vicious. “Tell the truth—were you acting on Master’s orders?”

“She’s always targeted Senior Sister Ye in the past. Now she used a vile trick, poisoning an innocent disciple and leaving her unconscious.” His words came faster, sharper. “Confess now. If you kill a fellow disciple, you can just wait to be expelled from the sect!”

“Poison… in the pill?” Li Ruo went rigid.

Only then did she see Wu Dan lying unconscious, her face mottled with dark poison traces, and her stomach dropped.

And he was dragging Master into this?

Li Ruo’s expression changed instantly. “I didn’t!” she said, voice shaking with urgency. “Yesterday I followed your orders and brought the Thousand Mountains Spirit Springwater. When I got to the furnace room, there was no one inside. I put it down and left. I never opened the cauldron even once. How could I poison anything?”

“And Master has been in seclusion this whole time,” she added, fierce despite her trembling. “How can you drag Master into this for no reason?”

She stared stubbornly at An Ze, unable to understand why he was framing the very person who raised them.

What did he gain from dragging Master into trouble?

“You say you didn’t open it,” An Ze sneered. “Then explain the poison.”

His gaze raked over her with contempt. “With talent like yours, you still became Master’s true disciple. Who knows what kind of deal you made with her?”

Li Ruo’s face went white.

“You can’t deny this,” An Ze continued. “I thought you were honest, so I told you to deliver it. Who knew you’d hide such vicious intent and drag Senior Sister Ye into this?”

“If Senior Sister Ye is truly harmed because of this,” he spat, “then dying a hundred times still wouldn’t be enough.”

Then he kicked her.

Pain burst through Li Ruo’s chest. She gasped, body folding, her hands instinctively clutching where his foot had struck. When she looked up, her eyes were full of disbelief.

“Third Senior Brother…” Her voice cracked. “How can you suspect me like this?”

Her face was pale, but disappointment hit harder than pain. She’d known An Ze didn’t like her, but she never expected hatred like this.

Anger shook her small frame.

“For the past half year,” she said, voice trembling, “if you told me to go east, I didn’t dare go west.”

“You told me to hunt in the back mountains, cook for you, deliver things everywhere, clean rooms, plant flowers, tend spiritual fields…” Her breath hitched, but she forced the words out anyway. “I did it all because you’re my senior brother.”

“I thought… if I was obedient enough, you would accept me sooner or later.”

Tears gathered hot in her eyes. She blinked them back until her vision blurred, then swallowed them down.

“You can dislike me,” she said hoarsely, “but you can’t frame me like this—and you can’t frame Master.”

“Master is open and upright. She has never told me to set anyone up.” Her voice sharpened with desperation. “What right do you have to accuse her whenever you want?”

In that moment, Li Ruo hated An Ze from the bottom of her heart.

A third senior brother like that—she didn’t want him anymore.

“Master raised you,” she said, chin lifting despite the tremor in her body. “And you treat her like this for a woman. Aren’t you afraid karma will come for you?”

“Say that again?” An Ze’s face darkened.

Killing intent snapped onto Li Ruo like a chain. He raised his palm and slammed it toward her.

There was no restraint in that strike. Li Ruo couldn’t block it. If it landed, she would be dead—or crippled, her path severed.

At the last moment, Bai Yang moved and caught An Ze’s wrist.

“Eldest Senior Brother,” An Ze snarled, “why are you stopping me?”

Bai Yang’s voice was flat. “Question her properly first.”

Li Ruo stared at him, breath shaking. “Eldest Senior Brother… do you also think I did it?”

Her hands clenched in the dirt. She shook her head frantically. “It really has nothing to do with me. I didn’t poison anyone. Master didn’t order me either. I didn’t do anything. I really didn’t!”

Bai Yang looked at her without expression.

Li Ruo was small—just a child, her face smudged, her eyes bright with panic. Pitiful, any other day.

But Bai Yang felt no sympathy. Only a cold, persistent dislike he couldn’t even fully explain.

“This has nothing to do with Master, of course,” he said. “But whether you’re suspicious or not depends on questioning you.”

From start to finish, Bai Yang resisted Li Ruo’s existence. Even knowing he should help her, he remained unmoved.

He wanted to be selfish for once.

If Li Ruo could be expelled from the sect, that would be best.

Li Ruo’s body went slack, as if all strength had been drained out of her at once. She slumped back onto the ground, the last bit of light in her eyes going out.

No one believed her.

“Bai Yang,” the Second Elder snapped, unable to hold back any longer, “you’re fellow disciples from the same master!”

She could understand An Ze being a fool.

But Bai Yang shouldn’t be like this.

“I think all of you have been brainwashed by someone!” she said, voice rising. “Li Ruo did enter the furnace room, but who can prove she put poison into the cauldron?”

“I could just as easily say Ye Chu Xue added something by mistake during refinement!”

Right now, everyone sided with Ye Chu Xue. No one cared whether Li Ruo lived or died.

If the Second Elder didn’t speak now, that little girl would be pushed to death.

Ye Chu Xue’s eyes flickered. Then she stepped forward, face carefully composed into gentleness.

“Master,” she said softly to Gu Qing Yuan, “what the Second Elder says is right. Maybe it’s my fault. Please don’t make things difficult for Li Ruo.”

She bowed her head. “I’ll take full responsibility. Whatever punishment the sect decides, this disciple is willing to accept it.”

Retreat to advance.

If she didn’t, people would start saying she was forcing a little girl.

Sure enough, the moment she spoke, those who had begun to waver surged back to her side.

“Tsk. Senior Sister Ye is really generous. She even wants to take the blame for Li Ruo.”

“Li Ruo is too vile!”

“Senior Sister Ye is so good, and she still did this? She even dragged an innocent disciple into it. Kick her out of the sect!”

“Otherwise everyone will copy her later. Won’t the sect fall into chaos?”

“If even the Son of Heaven must answer to the law, how can she get special treatment just because she’s Grandmaster Song’s disciple?”

“That’s right! This must be handled seriously!”

Voices piled up, one after another, until Ye Chu Xue’s image in their hearts became towering and holy—untouchable.