Chapter 104

Chapter 104: Burning Every Bridge, No Way Back

The four Confession Scrolls made the Disciples who had been condemning Shen Sang Ruo fall silent at once.

When they looked at Shen Sang Ruo again, their eyes had already grown complicated.

The Disciples standing near Feng He Yun and the others changed color and shivered.

Feeling all the open and hidden stares land on him, Feng He Yun clenched his teeth so hard they almost cracked, his face burning with embarrassment.

He wanted to defend himself, but every word on the Confession Scrolls was clear, so he could only blame the person who revealed them. He stared at Shen Sang Ruo in disbelief, thinking: [How could she make the Confession Scrolls public?]

[Does she really not care about our face at all?] It was not just their face on the line, but also Master Ling Xiao’s, and the honor of the whole Thunder-Scale Peak.

If the Confession Scrolls were shown, how would others see them? What would people say about Thunder-Scale Peak? Feng He Yun felt she was being completely unreasonable.

[How could she treat us like this? Is she not afraid that she will use up every last bit of our bond and never be able to come back?] He could not see what good any of this would do her.

Luo Chu also did not understand and muttered under his breath: “Shen Sang Ruo is too petty. She cannot take even a little grievance. We already apologized to her, yet she still did this.”

When Wen Xuan saw the Confession Scrolls, his face went pale. Now he dug his nails into his palm so hard that the pain was the only thing keeping him standing.

Shame flooded his heart, almost devouring him. The wrongs they had done to Little Ruo had been revealed to everyone after all.

He stared hard at Shen Sang Ruo, hoping to see even a trace of reluctance or hesitation on her face.

He found nothing. Her expression was cold.

[Little Ruo, are you really this heartless?] Wen Xuan’s nails nearly drew blood.

Lu Shi Qing seemed numb and lost, unable to react to anything. Nothing in the world mattered to him except Shen Sang Ruo. From the beginning to now, his eyes had held only her.

Even the Elders and Peak Masters were too shocked to speak and all turned to Master Ling Xiao.

Master Ling Xiao’s Thunder-Scale Peak had actually become like this.

The calm and disdain on Master Ling Xiao’s face were long gone.

He knew Shen Sang Ruo had Confession Scrolls, but he never thought she would bring them out, much less in such a public setting.

He was sure that even if she swallowed today’s loss, for his sake, for Feng He Yun and the others, and for Thunder-Scale Peak, she would not speak of it.

Even setting aside whether she could bear to put them in the wrong, making the Confession Scrolls public meant cutting herself off from Thunder-Scale Peak completely, maybe even becoming their enemy.

By driving things to the limit, she left no room to turn back between them.

How did she dare? Did she think that because Feng He Yun and the others wanted to win her back, she could act without fear? Did she think he would be like them and keep yielding to her?

Shen Dao Chen was thinking much the same. He believed Shen Sang Ruo would not bring out the Confession Scrolls.

But he leaned even more on this point: the Young Sect Master trials were underway. If she wanted to become Young Sect Master, she would never pick a fight with Thunder-Scale Peak.

Thunder-Scale Peak was the backbone of the Flying Cloud Sect. If she fell out with Thunder-Scale Peak, how could she hold the Young Sect Master’s seat steady?

No matter what they thought, Shen Sang Ruo’s actions were a hard slap to the face.

Anger flashed in Master Ling Xiao’s eyes.

He lifted his hand, and a fire dragon shot forth, blasting the four Confession Scrolls to dust.

Shen Sang Ruo had already made her point. The Confession Scrolls no longer mattered to her. She spoke evenly: “There is nothing Thunder-Scale Peak has done wrong to me? I believe everyone has seen the truth.”

Disciples murmured among themselves: “So it really was she who asked to leave Thunder-Scale Peak?” “Isn’t that obvious? Who could stay after suffering that?” “Then she was not some cast-out disciple at all.”

She gave a cold smile and said, “You say I could not accept the result, that I smeared Thunder-Scale Peak on purpose, that I held a grudge against the peak?”

Shen Sang Ruo pronounced each word clearly: “A Thunder-Scale Peak like this, what is there for me to miss?”

Across the stage, Feng He Yun and the others looked as if they had swallowed bitter herbs.

She lifted her gaze to Master Ling Xiao and asked, “You promised to explain the truth, so why did you speak so vaguely and let rumors grow in the sect?”

By now, many people had figured out what really happened when Shen Sang Ruo left Thunder-Scale Peak.

Master Ling Xiao had only needed one sentence to clear things up, yet he had let the rumor that she was expelled spread in the sect for so long.

Their most admired first Cultivator, Master Ling Xiao, could he also be someone with a shadowed heart? On top of that, his four Personal Disciples had all behaved poorly. One could be excused as a bad example, but all four? What did that say about Master Ling Xiao’s ability to manage his Disciples?

The way they looked at Master Ling Xiao changed.

The scene was clearly out of control.

Master Ling Xiao also understood that he could no longer sit high above and watch coldly.

The fire called “Shen Sang Ruo” had already reached the hem of his robe.

But the flames were still small. With one casual sweep, he could put them out.

“You mean that I, on purpose, let you drown in rumors?” Master Ling Xiao lifted his eyelids and gave a cold laugh as he said, “I do not have the extra energy to care about what gossip has been passing around the sect lately.”

With two light sentences, he brushed the matter aside. He did not pay attention to such small things, so how could he be targeting her? It sounded like he was mocking her for thinking too much of herself.

“But since you bring it up today, I will make it clear in front of everyone,” he said. “From this moment on, Shen Sang Ruo and Thunder-Scale Peak have no more ties.”

He added, “A new rule for Thunder-Scale Peak: anyone who leaves Thunder-Scale Peak can never return to Thunder-Scale Peak.”

The one most shaken by these words was not Shen Sang Ruo but Feng He Yun and his group.

They had barely recovered from the blow of the Confession Scrolls when they heard this new rule aimed straight at Shen Sang Ruo. It made clear that Master Ling Xiao would not allow her to come back. They all looked up at him in shock.

“Master, you must not!” Feng He Yun cried, his face crumpling as if he might burst into tears.

Shen Sang Ruo and Master Ling Xiao had both gone to extremes. The hope Feng He Yun had nursed for months of repairing their relationship was snuffed out by the two of them in an instant.

He could not accept such an ending.

Wen Xuan and Luo Chu were about to speak too, but Shen Dao Chen’s patience had reached its limit. He cut in, his voice tight with anger as he said, “Enough. Since the misunderstanding is cleared, we end it here.”

He followed with, “Anyone who brings up unrelated matters again will be punished by the sect rules.”

Then he declared, “The sect vote continues,” in a tone that would brook no argument.