“Lin…Qiu?” Wang Han Tan said slowly, and his face slowly widened into a wry smile.
Lin Jiu gave a small smile in return. “Since you are an ordinary disciple of the Wang Clan, then you should address me as Sect Mistress or Lady Sword Monarch. Since you are young, I’ll let you off this one time.”
As soon as she finished taunting them, thin strands of malice began slithering out not only from Wang Han Tan’s body, but strangely enough, also from behind her. They gathered into the lotus petal, whose beauty lingered on the boundaries of reality and illusion, which gradually spread open from eighty percent to ninety percent.
Lin Jjiu glanced backwards, unable to decipher which one or ones of those Thousand Divine Swords sect’s disciples it was. She smiled carelessly—since the Red Lotus required malice, she was destined to walk on this road of infamy for the rest of her life.
Wang Han Tan dragged out a woman from the crowd. She had a beautiful face, but there were dark bruises beneath her eyes from weariness. Wang Han Tan pointed accusingly at Lin Jiu.
“Jiao’Er, take a look at this ‘wife’ of Wei Liang’s. Isn’t she that Lin Jiu who wanted to enter the household and take a share of my love from you?”
The woman pursed her lips and nodded.
Wang Han Tan grinned, revealing his dark and yellow teeth. “Tsk tsk, just like a bird flying up and becoming a phoenix! This woman who gifted her undergarments to me just a few days ago has now latched onto the thigh of the Ten Thousand Retreat Sect. Simply amazing! I won’t even dare use those undergarments as rags anymore. I’ll have to hang it up for worship when I return!”
Her undergarments! There it was!
Lin Jiu sighed. “To tell you the truth, after my father’s passing, my mother has become so worried that she began suffering ailments of the mind. The undergarments she gave you were actually the old pairs she wore when she was young. She heard much of your Wang Clan’s righteousness and felt sure that you would not mess with those undergarments. So, if I may please ask that they be returned as soon as possible back to the Qing Yin Sect, otherwise, I will have to suspect that you harbor some ill intentions towards my mother.”
Lin Qiu lifted her sleeve and wiped fake tears from her eyes. “I should have taken the blame for my mother as her child. The demonic cultivators have yet to be eradicated. Your Wang Clan is also a member of the righteous dao, and yet you are eyeing my Thousand Divine Swords sect and trying to stir up trouble. For the sake of all under the heavens, I must speak the truth! My father had sacrificed himself to rid the world of evil, so I believe he must understand me. All in the Lin Clan believe in giving care to the people, so this would be a loss to our reputation!”
Lin Jiu technically did not tell a falsehood to Zheng Zi Yu either. In the original story, the vicious villainess Lin Jiu had taken off her undergarments in front of Zheng Zi Yu, revealing the so-called piece that her mother so favored in her younger years.
Wang Han Tan’s mouth twitched.
He had known that Zheng Zi Yu was shameless, but to think that her daughter would be a cut above her in terms of shamelessness! Even worse was that he knew she was talking nonsense, and yet he could not say anything to refute it.
“So,” Lin Jiu said, staring at Wang Han Tan, her face earnest, “this gentleman of the Wang Clan must not have ill intentions towards my mother, right? For the sake of my mother’s innocence, I will try to find a few respected female seniors to witness the event where the undergarments are returned. If Gentleman Wang has already done something bad to the undergarments…”
She covered her hands over her face in an exaggerated manner and cried, “Then you would really be losing face!”
This matter was Zheng Zi Yu’s own fault to begin with, but Lin Jiu dumped all the blame on her with no hesitation whatsoever.
“…”
Wang Han Tan remained mute.
“Shameful cur!” Wang Tian Po yelled. He had wanted to watch a good show from Wei Liang, but he didn’t expect things to twist around this way.
Crack!
He gave Wang Han Tan a stinging slap across his face. “What are you still standing around there for! Go back, shut yourself inside, and think about what happened!”
The slap was so sharp that Wang Han Tan’s cheek quickly swelled up, squeezing his eye into a slit. As soon as he opened his mouth, four teeth fell out.
Wang Han Tan suddenly looked up and glared at Lin Jiu, his eyes filled with resentment.
Meanwhile, Lin Jiu watched as the second lotus petal bloomed fully. An even more powerful warm current gushed out from her consciousness, frantically rushing through her meridians, and that intense spiritual energy crashed around her elixir core caused her meridians and core to swell painfully as if she was going to burst open.
Lin Jiu turned her head dazedly to look at Wei Liang.
She was daydreaming again. She had no idea whether it was an illusion, but Lin Jiu caught a glimpse of killing intent in his eyes that had yet to dissipate.
Wei Liang seemed to sense Lin Jiu’s gaze, and he moved forward to hold her shoulder to stabilize her, before turning over to glance coldly at Wang Tian Po.
Wang Tian Po did not dare to stay any longer and hurriedly excused himself to leave.
The disciples of the Thousand Divine Swords sect watched with complicated expressions as Wei Liang helped Lin Jiu to sit over at the wide whitestone platform at the side, and chanted a spell to help her.
His voice was steady, and each of his words led Lin Jiu into forming her core.
Lin Jiu was capable of inner view at this moment. Enduring the pain coursing inside her, she modulated the surging spiritual energy inside of her meridians and allowed them to run according to Wei Liang’s guidance.