Chapter 122

Chapter 122: Three Questions

Li Shuang said calmly: “Never. I have never left Ye Zhao Zhao to die.”

The Xiezhi’s eyes glowed red again.

What Li Shuang said was true.

Many eyes turned at once to Ye Zhao Zhao.

Ye Zhao Zhao’s lips trembled. One second, two seconds passed, and lightning began to coil again around the Xiezhi’s single horn.

Startled, Ye Zhao Zhao cried in a sharp voice: “No, Li Shuang did not abandon me!”

The lightning faded.

A red light lit the Xiezhi’s other eye as well.

What Ye Zhao Zhao said was also true.

Since no bolt fell, Ye Zhao Zhao let out a breath without thinking. She was badly hurt and truly could not take another strike.

However.

Before that breath was all the way out, she seemed to remember something, and her face went white.

She looked down at the crowd with a helpless glance.

On the side of Ling Xu Peak, the looks aimed at her had grown very complicated.

Especially Immortal Ling Xu; his face was so dark it looked like it could drip water.

“I… I didn’t mean to lie, I only…” Ye Zhao Zhao started to defend herself.

But in the next instant, lightning flashed out again and struck her.

Shaking all over, she spat a mouthful of blood.

The Xiezhi watched her without expression: “On the Heart-Inquiry Platform, lies are not allowed.”

Ye Zhao Zhao’s heart quivered. [So it isn’t only during the answers. As long as you stand on the Heart-Inquiry Platform, no lie is allowed at all…]

“Extract the relevant memories from both sides and show them to all,” the Xiezhi declared.

A globe of light rose from Li Shuang and another from Ye Zhao Zhao, and images formed in the air.

The scene began from Ye Zhao Zhao’s view.

She hid in a corner, looking toward the peak.

A chill flashed through her eyes as she muttered: “If Li Shuang really gets the Tianshan Snow Lotus, that greedy Master of mine will treat her well again, won’t he?”

Immortal Ling Xu’s face went black. What did she mean by calling Master greedy?

All gazes swung to him. He loved his reputation, but now he felt it thrown to the floor and stomped again and again.

And the one who caused it was the disciple he had praised as most filial and most helpful to his face-saving: Ye Zhao Zhao.

Immortal Ling Xu’s eyes reddened.

On the Heart-Inquiry Platform, Ye Zhao Zhao lowered her head and did not dare lift it at all.

In the air, the image went on.

“And that waffling, fickle waste Sheng Yuan will probably trot after his First Senior Sister again,” Ye Zhao Zhao said in the image with a look of disgust.

Sheng Yuan fell silent. His expression went numb. [A waffling, fickle waste? I know I’m hesitant, but didn’t Junior Sister say I was the kind who thinks before acting?] [Where is the smiling Junior Sister who said she stayed up for over a month to write a good story to tell me?] [No… maybe she never existed at all.]

“Shen Yue is not a worry,” Ye Zhao Zhao went on: “He’s impulsive. A few words and his emotions flare. Used right, he’s a very handy blade.”

Shen Yue snapped his gaze to her. [Impulsive. A handy blade? That’s… her judgment of me?]

“Chang Le An is fine too. He thinks I can’t see his little thoughts, but really… isn’t he just a lapdog? A lapdog is a dog on my leash,” Ye Zhao Zhao said with a grin: “Don’t you think so?”

Chang Le An’s face turned gloomy. Lapdog. It was the first time he had heard the word, but he understood its meaning at once. [In her eyes, I’m just a dog.]

Li Shuang glanced at Ye Zhao Zhao with a strange look.

In the image, Ye Zhao Zhao seemed to be talking to someone, but no one else was there. What was going on? There was something truly odd about her.

The image continued.

After judging the people of Ling Xu Peak, Ye Zhao Zhao waved her hand. Snow slid down in sheets, drawing the notice of the nearby Snow Fiends.

Her expression changed, and she ran at once toward the path Li Shuang had taken up the mountain.

Silence fell over the field.

Back in the Langya Secret Realm, Ye Zhao Zhao had deliberately lured a Winged Lion Beast toward Li Shuang. It turned out that was not her first time. On the snowy mountain, she had already tried to do the same.

However, that time she did not succeed. In the wind and snow, the Snow Fiends moved far faster than she did and soon surrounded her.

At that moment, Li Shuang had just picked the Tianshan Snow Lotus.

Seeing Ye Zhao Zhao besieged, she rushed over without a second thought. These Snow Fiends would not be shaken off easily.

Li Shuang even handed the hard-won Snow Lotus straight to Ye Zhao Zhao.

“Master urgently needs the Snow Lotus to steady his mind. We can’t waste time here. Junior Sister, take the Snow Lotus and meet up with the Junior Brothers. Don’t worry about me. Get the Snow Lotus to Master first,” Li Shuang said coolly, though her concern for Immortal Ling Xu showed in every word.

Ye Zhao Zhao agreed at once and left with the Snow Lotus.

Li Shuang, alone, faced the Snow Fiends.

In the storm she swung her sword again and again. Threads of blood sprayed again and again. Her steps slowed. Her white clothes stained red.

The blowing snow slowly swallowed the scene.

The image ended.

Immortal Ling Xu stared blankly at the place where the image faded and did not recover for a long time.

His senior disciple had never been good with words. She could not charm him like Ye Zhao Zhao. Ye Zhao Zhao always racked her brains to find new things to please him. And Li Shuang? She seemed to have done nothing.

But thinking carefully now, it was true Li Shuang did not flatter him or bring novelties. Yet it was she who ran everything up and down Ling Xu Peak, and she who taught the disciples. Many duties that should have been his as Master, Li Shuang took on without complaint.

For so many years, Ling Xu Peak had been orderly, steady, and peaceful. Whose credit was that? Look at the mess after losing Li Shuang; the answer was plain.

Only, though she had done so much, she never showed off before others.

Quiet people are easy to overlook.

Only now did Immortal Ling Xu believe it: in the past, Li Shuang truly held him in filial respect. And he? He had struck her, driven her from Ling Xu Peak, and cut their bond of master and disciple. [What in the world have I done?]

On the Heart-Inquiry Platform, one last question remained.

The Xiezhi announced: “Third question. Long Yan the Sword Spirit, were you led by Ye Zhao Zhao to betray Li Shuang and, at the final moment, deliver a fatal strike to her? Respondents: Li Shuang, Ye Zhao Zhao, Long Yan.”

Long Yan’s Spirit Body was forced out of the Sword Spirit Space and appeared on the field, flustered and at a loss.