Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Clear Conscience

Luo Ming Yue had already brought Li Shuang to urgently request an audience with the Sect Master.

“Supreme Emotionless Art?” Meng Yi Fei showed a hint of surprise.

A thousand years had passed.

This was the first time he had heard of someone entering this art again.

Back then, the founding Ancestor of the Sword Sect used this art to suppress all rivals and dazzled an entire era. Only after that did the Sword Sect, as a new sect, force its way into the Six Righteous Sects.

After the Ancestor’s Ascension, the Sword Sect worked hard to study the Supreme Emotionless Art, hoping to create another peerless genius to amaze the world.

Yet they wasted a hundred years and could not produce even one disciple who could enter it.

Because of this, the Sword Sect’s standing fell sharply and it was on the verge of dropping out of the Six Righteous Sects.

People began to doubt whether the art could truly be cultivated and whether the manual left at the Ancestor’s Ascension was incomplete.

After fierce debate, the Sect Master of that time made a reluctant choice to abandon the Supreme Emotionless Art and switch to other paths.

With new methods, and relying on the Sword Pavilion unique to the Sword Sect, they barely held their ground, but for years remained last among the six.

Only the line of Emotionless Peak never gave up on the Supreme Emotionless Art and kept searching for a way to enter it.

Now, after a thousand years, someone in the Sword Sect had entered it again.

Meng Yi Fei’s eyes moved. The Ancestor had indeed been unmatched when he cultivated this secret art.

But was the Supreme Emotionless Art passed down today the same art the Ancestor had used? Was it truly as wondrous as the legends said? No one knew.

Even so, curiosity stirred in him.

He summoned Li Shuang and Luo Ming Yue.

In the Sect Master’s Hall, he looked at Li Shuang with interest and said: “Li Shuang? So you are the one who switched to the Supreme Emotionless Art?”

When she first entered the sect, her light was too bright to miss. Everyone knew the Sword Sect had produced a peerless genius. Even though she later went quiet, the Sect Master still remembered her.

Li Shuang nodded and said: “I did switch to the Supreme Emotionless Art. I came today to ask the Sect Master for—”

Before she could finish, someone announced from outside: “Sect Master, Immortal Ling Xu seeks an audience.”

Meng Yi Fei lifted a brow and said: “Invite him in.”

Li Shuang closed her mouth.

Soon, Immortal Ling Xu walked in with a blank face. Behind him came Sheng Yuan and Ye Zhao Zhao.

The moment Immortal Ling Xu entered, his overbearing divine sense pressed down on Li Shuang. Then he gave a cold laugh.

“Good. Very good. What a rebellious disciple. You truly switched arts.”

The Mirror Heart Art was his personal teaching. Even if one were to strip it away, it should be done by his own hand. How dared Li Shuang act on her own.

Meng Yi Fei asked mildly: “Immortal Ling Xu, what is this about?”

Immortal Ling Xu cupped his fists and said without hesitation: “Sect Master, Li Shuang is sly and vicious at heart. I believe we should destroy her meridians and expel her from the Sword Sect.”

“Master!” Sheng Yuan shuddered and cried out.

Break her meridians and expel her? He thought First Senior Sister was wrong, but he had never wanted it to go that far.

Immortal Ling Xu’s gaze was cold as he looked at Li Shuang. She had disappointed him for too many years.

Even so, he did not plan to drive her to the end at once.

He waited for Li Shuang to kneel and beg for mercy.

If she showed true repentance, he might give her another chance.

Luo Ming Yue tensed and stepped in front of Li Shuang without thinking.

[Are you kidding?] This was a treasure that came once in a thousand years. If Li Shuang was expelled, her own master would go mad.

Meng Yi Fei asked with real surprise: “Immortal Ling Xu, why do you say this?”

Immortal Ling Xu said flatly: “The Sect Master should know I have been somewhat unstable in spirit these last few days. My disciples heard that Tianshan Snow Lotus works wonders for this, so they went together to the snowy mountain to find it for me.”

Meng Yi Fei nodded: “Tianshan Snow Lotus does help steady the mind. Your disciples are very filial.”

Immortal Ling Xu glanced at Ye Zhao Zhao with a trace of softness and said: “My youngest disciple is indeed very dutiful. On the mountain, she braved hardship to pick the Snow Lotus but was accidentally trapped by a ring of Snow Fiends.”

Then his tone turned as he looked at Li Shuang, his eyes going cold: “Yet my First Disciple, whom I had placed so much hope in, saw her surrounded and, out of jealousy for Zhao Zhao’s talent, refused to save her and fled the battlefield instead. Such a heartless person is unfit to be my disciple.”

His words were sharp.

Luo Ming Yue frowned and asked: “How did you learn that Li Shuang fled? Did you see it yourself?”

Immortal Ling Xu knit his brows: “Zhao Zhao said it to me herself. How could that be false?”

“Yes, it cannot be false,” Sheng Yuan echoed.

Luo Ming Yue looked more puzzled and asked: “You were on the mountain too. Did you see it with your own eyes?”

“This…” Sheng Yuan hesitated and said: “We split up to search for the Snow Lotus, so we did not see it. But since Junior Sister said so, why would it be false?”

He sounded completely sure.

Luo Ming Yue was stunned. She asked in disbelief: “So this is only Ye Zhao Zhao’s one-sided story? Besides her words, do you have any other proof that Li Shuang fled?”

Sheng Yuan fell silent.

Immortal Ling Xu’s frown deepened.

[What is with this Luo Ming Yue?] Zhao Zhao was such a simple and kind child. How could she possibly lie?

Ye Zhao Zhao spoke in a small, wronged voice: “Everything I said is true. I have never blamed First Senior Sister for it. Master, please forgive her this once.”

Immortal Ling Xu’s brow eased. He glanced at Li Shuang and said coolly: “Your Junior Sister is still speaking for you at a time like this. Will you not admit what you did?”

Luo Ming Yue looked back at Li Shuang and said: “Are your fellow disciples even thinking straight?”

Li Shuang could not help but laugh.

She and Luo Ming Yue were not close, yet Luo Ming Yue’s first reaction was to ask whether Ye Zhao Zhao’s words were true and whether there was proof. What about the people of Ling Xu Peak?

They did not think for even a moment before believing Ye Zhao Zhao without question.

Once, she treated them as family.

And yet these supposed family members were not as good as someone who hardly knew her.

Li Shuang turned to the Sect Master and said calmly: “I did not abandon my peers. I picked the Tianshan Snow Lotus with my own hands and gave it to Ye Zhao Zhao so she could take it and regroup with the others. I returned late because I stayed behind to hold off the Snow Fiends. Everything I did leaves me with a clear conscience. I ask the Sect Master to judge.”

She had no wish to be tangled up with the people of Ling Xu Peak.

But the truth still had to be spoken.

They would not believe it. That did not matter.

She would simply say it all.