Chapter 262: Whereabouts of the Heavenly Peak Members

Translator: Minotauruz

Qin Shanshan’s words were borne out of curiosity, but Ye Xiuwen still had to give it some thought and consideration. After all, there was currently nobody within the Dawn Sect standing on the side of the Heavenly Peak’s faction. A single slip up on his part could reveal his identity to all, and it would completely dash any of his hopes of locating his master and the other disciples from the Heavenly Peak.

Ye Xiuwen firmly believed that Jun Linxuan and the rest were not dead. His conviction in this regard was not borne out of any evidence that they were alive. Rather, it was simply borne out of the fact that he might not be able to deal with the prospects of the entire Heavenly Peak being annihilated and massacred.

Furthermore, Qin Shanshan had dropped a small hint earlier that the Heavenly Peak had not been massacred, and it would be more accurate to describe them as in dire straits.

This was sufficient consolation to Ye Xiuwen. As long as there was even a single strand of hope, he would clutch tightly to it until the day he could rescue his master and fellow martial brothers.

Ye Xiuwen’s thoughts were all buried deep beneath the cold expressions of his. His mind churned, and he thought about the encounter just before falling into the Death’s Gorge.

At that time, he and Jun Xiaomo had stepped on the toes of one of the eight great sects, the Du Clan, and thus ended up being surrounded and attacked by the disciples of the Du Clan. A moment of folly at that time had caused him to slip and fall straight into the Death’s Gorge, where he would spend the next twelve years.

Perhaps I could use this incident as a base and create an identity for myself.

Ye Xiuwen lowered his eyes, took a sip of his tea, before calmly looking back at Qin Shanshan as he explained, “Actually, it’s nothing much. Twelve years ago, I was passing through the Mystic Woods when I encountered two Dawn Sect disciples, a man and a woman. We had our disagreements, yet because they were unable to defeat me in combat, they began to use their identity to threaten me. When the woman introduced her backers, she mentioned that she was the daughter of the Heavenly Peak’s Peakmaster, Jun Linxuan, and she even declared at that time that she was going to lead a team of her martial brothers to settle the score with me. Thus, over the last few years, I’d been wandering around the cultivation world alone, trying my best to avoid the Dawn Sect disciples just so that I could avoid another spate of conflict or attract the wrath of the Heavenly Peak. Now that I’ve heard rumours that the Heavenly Peak had been annihilated, I wanted to personally verify the veracity of the news.”

If it were Yu Wanrou or Qin Lingyu who had been around right now, they might not believe Ye Xiuwen’s spiel at this point in time. At the very least, they would not believe Ye Xiuwen so readily. This was because the two of them knew Jun Xiaomo extremely well – the odds that Jun Xiaomo would resort to using her identity to threaten others when she lost in combat was slim to none.

However, Qin Shanshan had known nothing but to use her identity as Qin Lingyu’s sister to threaten others, and she possessed neither Yu Wanrou’s wits nor Qin Lingyu’s craftiness. Thus, as soon as she heard Ye Xiuwen’s explanations, she wholeheartedly believed him. In fact, she even grew indignant for him, “Brother Jun, the person that you’d encountered is undoubtedly Jun Xiaomo! Twelve years ago, she snuck out of the Sect without telling anyone, and she got into all sorts of trouble outside. Not only did they end up offending the Grand Vizier of the Inferno Kingdom, they’d even offended the Du Clan of the eight great sects! Who would’ve thought that the list goes on and even includes brother Jun! As expected, people like Jun Xiaomo have such rotten character that they attract the hate and wrath of people wherever they go!”

Ye Xiuwen tightened his grip around his teacup and gritted his teeth as he remained silent.

Qin Shanshan did not notice Ye Xiuwen’s peculiar behaviour, and she only continued to flap her lips, “Fortunately, the heavens naturally deal with the wicked. I don’t know what kind of doggone fortune she’d come across to earn the favour of the Zephyr Sect’s Fifth Elder and become the Zephyr Sect’s formal disciple, but there, she offended someone whom she couldn’t afford to offend. In the end, she’s completely perished – there’s not even a single bit of her corpse left behind.”

Ye Xiuwen’s breath grew ragged for just one moment, and a ripple could be seen at the depths of his eyes, “She’s really...dead? ...”

Qin Shanshan thought that Ye Xiuwen’s reaction was borne out of joy, and she didn’t think too much of it as she snorted, “Isn’t it so? When news of her death spread to the Sect, Liu Qingmei nearly fainted there and then. Can this news be any less real? Oh, that’s right. Brother Jun doesn’t know who Liu Qingmei is, right? She’s none other than Jun Xiaomo’s mother. She’s a complete shrew. Every time Jun Xiaomo encounters a mishap, she would always cluck away incessantly like a mother hen, as though she were so afraid that her daughter would be humiliated or aggrieved in one way or another. If you ask me, the only reason why Jun Xiaomo had met with her fate right now was all due to her mother’s unbridled spoiling of her!”

The more Qin Shanshan spoke, the sharper and more vicious her tongue grew. Yet all this while, she failed to notice that Ye Xiuwen’s eyes had begun to roil with layers upon layers of a raging inferno of fury.

The person that Ye Xiuwen respected the most in his life, apart from the two masters who had taught him everything he knew, was his first master’s wife, Liu Qingmei. When he lost all his kin back when he was ten years of age, Liu Qingmei was the one who had extended to him the warmth of a mother’s love once more. Just as much as Liu Qingmei had already begun to see him as half a child to her, he had similarly also begun to see Liu Qingmei as an existence akin to half a mother.

In the end, the most respected lady in his eyes was described by Qin Shanshan as no more than a “shrew” or a “mother hen”. After the decline of the Heavenly Peak, Qin Shanshan had obviously felt that her personal stature within the Dawn Sect meant that she was far more high and mighty than people like Jun Linxuan and Liu Qingmei, which also meant that she was perfectly comfortable slandering and smearing their names without any restraint. Sometimes, when a person tells a lie too many times, they begin to become convicted of their own lies – this was such an instance; Qin Shanshan had already begun to feel convicted of her spiel.

In truth, those who knew Liu Qingmei’s personality would know that even though she did have her moments where her fiery temper burgeoned and blazed, she was at most times a very caring and warm person.

Otherwise, He Zhang would not have coveted Liu Qingmei for such a long time – to the extent that he still wanted to make her his own even after she had married and had children.

The teacup in Ye Xiuwen’s hand suddenly clinked, and a crack appeared on it. He took a sip of tea from it and worked hard to suppress the urge to slash Qin Shanshan’s throat right this moment.

“Where was I? Oh! That’s right, I’d been talking about how Jun Xiaomo had been killed as a result of offending the Greenwich Kingdom’s Princess Linglong.” Qin Shanshan hardly noticed the faint killing intent emanating from Ye Xiuwen’s body as she continued to quip in delight, as though she were delighting in Jun Xiaomo’s misery, “After Jun Xiaomo passed away, the Heavenly Peak was thrown into chaos for a long period of time, and everyone was in a slump. As a result, even Jun Linxuan failed to notice how his youngest disciple had changed and become a demonic cultivator.”

“Demonic cultivator?” Ye Xiuwen furrowed his brows.

“That’s right. Even brother Jun finds it hard to believe, huh? The Heavenly Peak’s Jun Linxuan had spent his entire life fishing for compliments and feigning righteousness. Who knew that when misfortune struck, it was in fact his own daughter and his youngest disciple, Wei Gaolang, who would tarnish and smear his name?” Qin Shanshan mocked contemptuously.

Ye Xiuwen thought about how his younger martial sister’s constitution changed to that of an acquired demonic body and was thus forced to become a demonic cultivator.

Perhaps there might be more than meets the eye as to why Gaolang had turned to demonic cultivation...

Having been reminded of Jun Xiaomo once more, Ye Xiuwen’s heart began to feel pangs of pain spreading through it. He had already known for a long time that he had feelings for Jun Xiaomo. But before he could reunite with his little martial sister, everything had changed.

Ye Xiuwen did all he could to still the roiling emotions in his heart. He knew that he still couldn’t afford to do anything against Qin Shanshan at this moment, because he needed to learn about his master and the rest of the Heavenly Peak disciples from the horse’s mouth.

If Jun Xiaomo were no longer living right now, the only thing that he could do was to help her protect those that mattered most to her. Thus, at the very least, he would have to rescue his master and the other disciples from their current predicament and bring them to a safe place.

As to what next, Ye Xiuwen truly didn’t know. His heart was incredibly stifled right now, and he could not find a direction in life at this moment.

One of the main fuels motivating him to push himself so hard to elevate his abilities was Jun Xiaomo. But now, hearing the news of Jun Xiaomo’s death felt as though one of the foundations of his heart had collapsed.

Qin Shanshan interpreted Ye Xiuwen’s sullenness as a form of affirmation and approval, so she raised her eyebrows in delight as she continued, “And also...ever since the discovery that Jun Linxuan’s youngest disciple had become a demonic cultivator, other spiritual cultivating sects began to lead a crusade against the entire Heavenly Peak – even some hidden sects were involved. Do you still remember the Du Clan? The clan that the evil Jun Xiaomo had offended – they were the ones who had declared to everyone that they had every intention to purge evil from the world and kill the demonic cultivator within the Heavenly Peak. Yet who would’ve thought that Jun Linxuan would be so stubborn in his desire to protect that disciple of his? Not only did he hide that disciple away, he even commanded all of the disciples within the Heavenly Peak to obstruct the march of the crusaders...and that only made things worse for them. Everyone from the Heavenly Peak involved were slapped with an additional charge of harbouring a demonic cultivator, and they were all doomed to be captured and destroyed.”

“Surrounded on all sides, huh...then, did they manage to escape?”

This was what Ye Xiuwen was most concerned about. He finally looked up once more and stared straight into Qin Shanshan’s eyes.

All these while, Qin Shanshan felt like she had been unable to get Ye Xiuwen’s attention. Thus, when Ye Xiuwen finally looked up at her, her heart immediately leapt with joy.

She couldn’t help but reveal a slightly abashed look on her flushed face as she continued, “That...they did manage to escape...”

Just a little while ago, she had still been speaking with conviction, as though with righteous indignation, yet now her attitude had completely changed to that of a demure, dainty young lady, causing all of the other male disciples sitting around the table to shudder in shock. They couldn’t take the stark contrast; and they couldn’t accept this new side to Qin Shanshan.

Was Qin Shanshan beautiful? Of course she was. Was Qin Shanshan of a high stature? Of course she was. However, if anyone asked whether any of these male disciples was willing to take Qin Shanshan as his wife, they would most certainly respond with, “Over my dead body”.

Qin Shanshan’s temper was far too unruly and headstrong, and she was used to doing what she wanted and getting her way simply by riding on her brother’s coattails. There was not a single male disciple in the Dawn Sect who had not been forced to treat her as though she were their ancestor.

Everyone was afraid of stepping on her toes, because that was only because everyone was afraid that she would report them to her brother.

Ye Xiuwen hardly concerned himself with Qin Shanshan’s demure temperament and her bashfulness, and he simply latched onto the most important detail – “They’ve escaped? Where did they escape to?”

Qin Shanshan’s fake bashfulness was completely lost on Ye Xiuwen’s blockheadedness, and she fired right back, “How would I know where they are?! I’m not sure when they managed to create a Teleportation Array out of nowhere, and they managed to give everyone the slip just as they were surrounded.”

Even though Qin Shanshan’s words were filled with annoyance, Ye Xiuwen remained completely unmoved.

He was finally relieved. As long as his master and the other disciples had made it out, that was enough.

However, Qin Shanshan’s next statement made Ye Xiuwen’s heart constrict once more.

“Hmph!” Qin Shanshan snorted, “But, not everyone managed to get out safely. With so many people surrounding them, wouldn’t master and the rest be absolutely disgraced if every single one of the Heavenly Peak disciples got out? There are over ten Heavenly Peak disciples who had been seriously wounded that have been detained by us, and we’ve kept them restrained within the Sect’s forbidden grounds. When Jun Linxuan and his disciples come over to rescue the remnant who had been detained, we’re going to activate the constriction array to bind all of them up in one fell swoop. At that time, not a single one of the Heavenly Peak members will be able to escape!”

Qin Shanshan ventilated all of her anger and frustrations on the Heavenly Peak disciples, and her words were vicious and incisive. It was as though she took pleasure in the Heavenly Peak’s misfortune.

Crack. Ye Xiuwen’s teacup emanated a clear and crisp cracking sound, and it finally shattered.