Chapter 78: Jun Xiaomo’s Trap, Public Condemnation

Translator: Minotauruz

Jun Xiaomo intentionally mimicked the way Ke Xinwen spoke to spite him – she loved provoking her enemies after all.

Ke Xinwen’s face turned red with fury, then pale, and then a sickly green. And these fluctuations in his facial expressions continued for a while until he finally managed to calm himself down.

“Hahaha, brother Yao loves to joke. How would I know what happened to you and martial brother Ye that caused both of you not to be able to return last night?” Ke Xinwen forcible eked a smile on his face and gnashed his teeth as he spoke.

“Oh. I was somehow under the impression that brother Ke seemed to know something about it, hmm...” Jun Xiaomo thought aloud to herself as she stared at Ke Xinwen meaningfully as though she had already discovered the truth of the matter.

In fact, they could tell from Ke Xinwen’s expressions right now that the incident to do with the Green Elder Python last night had something to do with him! Jun Xiaomo squinted her eyes as she analyzed the matter.

I want to spite and provoke you until you slip up and let the cat out of the bag!

Jun Xiaomo’s penetrating gaze caused Ke Xinwen to feel exposed and self-conscious. Ever since he failed in his ploy against Yao Mo the last time, and instead even got served his just desserts by Yao Mo’s formation arrays, Ke Xinwen would now feel a chip on his shoulder every time he faced Yao Mo.

He had never expected that a measly array master at the first level of Qi Mastery would be so formidable, to the extent that he would be forced to reveal his deepest, darkest secrets in open.

If not for the fact that Qin Lingyu thought of a way out for him, his folly would already have been reported to the Sect for their investigations. But the price of Qin Lingyu’s help was that he had now become Qin Lingyu’s puppet. Therefore, Ke Xinwen intensely hated the genesis of all his problems – Yao Mo!

No! I’m not going to walk into Yao Mo’s verbal traps once again! Since the two of them didn’t die, then what can they do even if they know I was the one who had schemed against them? As long as I refuse to admit it, there’s nothing they can do against me! Ke Xinwen gritted his teeth as he thought.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Once he made up his mind, Ke Xinwen forced himself to calm down and put on a false front of confidence as he looked at Jun Xiaomo and retorted, “Brother Yao, what do you mean by that?! I haven’t offended you at all, so don’t blame every unfortunate event you encounter on me! I can’t take responsibility for what I’ve not done!”

“Oh. So, it seems that brother Ke doesn’t know anything about it then...” Jun Xiaomo prodded her own chin with her fan as she calmly responded, “Since brother Ke doesn’t know anything, then why did you act all shocked when you saw brother Ye and myself return, as though us being alive was an extremely alarming thing? Your expression wouldn’t really make sense now, would it?”

“You...you guys hadn’t come back for the entire night, and I’ve guessed that you might have encountered some form of mishap or danger – isn’t this a very normal response?” Ke Xinwen stared viciously at Jun Xiaomo as he said.

“Alright, that sounds barely passable.” Jun Xiaomo nodded her head affirmatively. Just as Ke Xinwen heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that he had barely escaped the verbal trappings, Jun Xiaomo once again broke the silence and added, “It’s normal to feel alarmed, but brother Ke seemed to be rather nervous too... Could you explain to us, then, why our safe return to the camp site would cause you to feel so nervous?”

“Ner...nervous?” Ke Xinwen’s heart immediately constricted and his breathing slowed, before he immediately hollered, “How was I nervous! Nonsense! Don’t you dare say whatever comes to your mind without thinking about it!”

“Hehehe, brother Ke, don’t you think your current expression can be called nervous?” Jun Xiaomo took a few steps forward and circled Ke Xinwen as she said leisurely, “Right now, I see brother Ke’s tightly clenched fists; a full head of sweat; stammering at every statement you’re making, and even purposely raising your voice at me. These all seem to be very characteristic of a ‘nervous’ look, am I not right?”

“Pfft...” One of the disciples around could not help but burst out in laughter. That disciple knew that his laughter was rather inappropriate, but he couldn’t help it at all – Yao Mo’s description was spot on and matched every single one of Ke Xinwen’s actions right now. It was absolutely comical!

Ke Xinwen glared fiercely at the martial brother who had let out that spurt of laughter, causing that brother to immediately recoil in shock. That disciple instantly shut his mouth, and he dared not make another peep of sound.

Martial brother Ke looks really scary when he wears such a vicious expression on his face... That disciple thought to himself.

Ke Xinwen took a deep breath as he strongly suppressed the urge to tear Yao Mo apart right this moment, before he changed his tone of voice and spoke warmly, “I’d just been extremely worried for you guys. And that’s why I was extremely moved and emotional to see you guys return safely. This was a look of emotional agitation on my face. Please don’t be mistaken, brother Yao.”

The muscles on Ke Xinwen’s face twitched slightly as he attempted to reveal a “friendly” expression on his face. But in the end, his hatred towards Jun Xiaomo ran too deep, and his expression turned out quite incongruous, as though his facial muscles were cramping up.

Jun Xiaomo flicked open her fan and fanned herself in a suave and charming manner as she replied, “I wish I could give you that indulgence and latitude to interpret your expression as ‘emotional agitation’. But I’m just not convinced that our relationship is at that level. Just a little while ago, there was even a fair bit of hostility and animosity between us. So, I really can’t understand why brother Ke would be so emotionally agitated to see that brother Ye and I returned safely. Shouldn’t you be hating us to the core, hoping that I would perish in the very next second instead? Am I not right, brother Ke?”

“You...you...” Jun Xiaomo had exposed Ke Xinwen’s innermost thoughts with her exposition, and this caused Ke Xinwen to temporarily become speechless.

Is this Yao Mo person just here to get under my skin and oppose me?! When I engaged in straight-talk with him, he would beat about the bush and entangle me with his wily words; and now when I want to speak with him in a more tactful manner, he decides to shed all pretense of civility!

Ke Xinwen was so enraged by Yao Mo that he almost experienced the onset of an aneurysm.

Jun Xiaomo continued to fan herself as she topped it all off with a final blow, articulating with a hint of profundity, “Truth be told, brother Ke, the way you’re acting right now makes me feel like a hypocrite...”

At this moment, Ke Xinwen was completely flabbergasted and speechless. He could only stare daggers at Jun Xiaomo with widened eyes that were bulging out so much that he looked almost like a cute little enraged frog.

Everyone’s eyes vacillated between Ke Xinwen and Yao Mo at this moment. On the one hand, everyone found Yao Mo’s explication rather reasonable and logical; while on the other hand, they also felt like they should not let an outsider sway their thoughts so much, even to the extent that they were starting to suspect their martial brother Ke!

Most importantly, if the reason why martial brother Ye and Yao Mo did not return last night was because of martial brother Ke, then martial brother Ke’s acting was simply too masterful! Yesterday, he had even remained silent and displayed a worried look on his face the entire night as he searched together with everyone else for Ye Xiuwen and Yao Mo.

These thoughts were running through the minds of several disciples right this instant.

While they felt bad for suspecting Ke Xinwen, they could not help but wonder what if Yao Mo’s exposition were true as well.

At this moment, the only thing that Ke Xinwen could think of was to seal up Yao Mo’s mouth so that he could no longer put him in a spot with his words; or perhaps even cut off Yao Mo’s tongue!

Why didn’t he die yesterday?! Ke Xinwen cursed in his heart as he glared viciously at them. If only Yao Mo and Ye Xiuwen perished last night, how great would that be?! That way, I won’t have to be subject to such torment anymore!

On the other hand, Qin Lingyu was quietly observing the discourse between Ye Xiuwen and Yao Mo. He did not want to interject if possible. After all, Yao Mo and Ye Xiuwen were only suspicious of Ke Xinwen for now, and there was no reason for him to draw any of their attention to himself.

Furthermore, he had always intended to use Ke Xinwen as his scapegoat so that his schemes could proceed much more smoothly. Even if something happened later on, he could simply volunteer Ke Xinwen to be his fall guy.

However, what he did not expect was how useless Ke Xinwen actually was – he had exposed himself with just the slightest of provocation on Yao Mo’s part! Right now, all of the Dawn Sect disciples were already growing suspicious of Ke Xinwen. Qin Lingyu knew that if he continued to observe without interjecting, then Ke Xinwen’s secrets may very well be fully exposed before all his martial brothers and sisters!

Qin Lingyu was not too concerned if Ke Xinwen was simply going to suffer on his own, but it would become a huge problem if Ke Xinwen somehow implicated him in all these as well. After all, Qin Lingyu and Ke Xinwen could be considered to be in the same boat right now.

Imbecile! Qin Lingyu cursed Ke Xinwen in his heart. But there was no other alternative right now – Qin Lingyu had to step in.

“Brother Yao, don’t be too anxious to pin the blame on brother Ke. I invite you to consider my views on this matter first.” Qin Lingyu calmly said to Jun Xiaomo.

Jun Xiaomo glanced over at Qin Lingyu, before squinting her eyes to hide the displeasure in her heart right now.

This fella is always out to ruin things! Jun Xiaomo knew the capabilities of this “fiancé” of hers, and she knew that it was very possible that he could turn the situation back around.

“Speak. I’m listening.” Jun Xiaomo raised her eyebrows as she put on an attentive look on her face.

Then, Qin Lingyu’s deep voice resounded with such gravitas that lent it great credibility, “Brother Yao, I think that what brother Ke’s referring to is not the same kind of ‘emotional agitation’ that you might be referring to. I think he’s just being muddleheaded and too ashamed to admit it. You might not know this, but brother Ke’s temper isn’t too great. And once he gets angry, he tends to blabber all sorts of nonsense.”

“Muddleheaded from anger? Why would he be muddleheaded from anger? I didn’t do anything to agitate him, did I?” Jun Xiaomo tapped her palm with her fan.

“I’m afraid brother Yao wouldn’t be aware of that. When brother Yao and martial brother Ye had both failed to return yesterday, we were all extremely worried, and we spent a good part of the day searching for both of you. Initially, our intentions were to continue our search for you today. But then both of you returned safely. Of course, it’s a great thing that brother Yao and martial brother Ye could return safely, and we’re all very happy for you. However, not only did brother Yao not account for where the two of you had been the entire night, you even started interrogating martial brother Ke at the very first opportunity, cornering him at every turn with your words and rendering him completely speechless. How could martial brother Ke not be angry at all this? Truth be told, even I, an observer on the sidelines, feel indignant for him. After all, martial brother Ke is still a martial brother of ours – how could we simply slap some baseless charges against him like that? Brother Yao, am I right?”

Qin Lingyu’s explanation of the situation was extremely masterful. With just those few words, he completely turned the tides and cleared Ke Xinwen of any earlier suspicions against him.

That’s right! What basis does Yao Mo have to make such allegations immediately upon his return? Who knows what he went through last night? And all martial brother Ke did was to reveal an expression of shock, and Yao Mo somehow managed to twist that expression into some form of “guilty conscience”. This is too laughable, isn’t it?!

And it’s true! Yao Mo didn’t even bother explaining where they’ve been! They’ve even caused everyone to spend so much time and energy combing the entire woods for them!

Several disciples immediately grew infuriated at Yao Mo after hearing Qin Lingyu’s explanation. They felt that Yao Mo was simply making baseless allegations and sowing discord among them – and they had almost fallen for his ploy!

At this moment, the disciples were all thrown into a chaotic uproar, as several disciples began to condemn Yao Mo’s actions –

“That’s right!! Martial brother Ke aside, I’m angry at you as well! You must think that our brother Ke is easy to bully just because he doesn’t have a tongue as sharp as yours, huh? Ah, we’ve truly wasted our time on you. We should have let you perish in the woods alone had we known you were this kind of person. You’re clearly repaying our kindness with evil!”

“If you say that martial brother Ke has the intention to harm you, then bring some hard evidence to prove it! You don’t even have any evidence, and yet you try and entrap our martial brother Ke like that? Despicable!”

“You’re clearly the one with ulterior motives, yet you try and find fault with martial brother Ke. Do you think the whole world is out to get you, huh?”

“You must be delusional! I’m speechless.”

“Your enmity with martial brother Ke isn’t that great – why do you have to torment him at every opportunity you have...”

“You’ve never once respected Dawn Sect!”

......

Jun Xiaomo maintained a calm expression as she received the condemnation of all these disciples. Then, she smiled sardonically as she thought to herself – these people are so protective of Ke Xinwen. But I wonder how much of that is going to be reciprocated by Ke Xinwen? If they encounter some real danger, how likely is it that Ke Xinwen would protect them?!

After all, it was evident from how Ke Xinwen had acted under the effects of the Nightmare Array that he was a seasoned hypocrite who repaid good with evil.

Jun Xiaomo had intended to wait for all these disciples to finish with their accusations before refuting each and every single one of them. Unexpectedly, a cold voice carrying a trace of indignation resounded from beside her –

“Enough!” Ye Xiuwen had remained silent all this while because he knew that Yao Mo had his own plans, and he did not want to disturb Yao Mo’s thoughts.

But now, he had reached his boiling point and was unable to stay silent anymore. He coldly articulated each and every single word he said, “Yao Mo is my friend, and I trust him. Besides, you don’t know what we’ve been through, so what basis do you have for your condemnation?!”

It had to be said that once Ye Xiuwen spoke, his voice was domineering and full of gravitas.

Everyone was immediately enraptured by his voice, and the whole place became dead silent.