Rong Yuying found Li Nanzhu increasingly adorable the more she looked at her, and her voice softened even further.
“Then tell me what happened.”
Li Nanzhu answered obediently.
“At the Immortal Ascension Assembly, I hadn’t yet decided where to go. She and her junior sister kept fanning the flames, and as a result Ling Xiao almost beat me to death. After my master spoke with Ling Xiao, I was given a mid-grade artifact as compensation. Everyone agreed to it. But today, when I ran into her, she insisted that I return it. My senior brother said a couple of words, and she immediately started crying, saying she didn’t look like a Sword Heart Sect disciple but like someone from the Hehuan Sect. Then she claimed she had been insulted.”
After speaking, Li Nanzhu glanced in Cang Dongqing’s direction and continued.
“Ling Xiao is not such a petty person. How could he possibly nitpick over giving a junior like me a single artifact? If you insist on taking it back now, wouldn’t that imply Ling Xiao is a small-minded villain?”
Cang Dongqing and Li Nanyi both went pale. They hadn’t thought that way—but they couldn’t control what others might spread.
Li Nanyi hurriedly defended himself. “We didn’t mean that. It’s just that day—”
“That day, everything was perfectly fine,” Li Nanzhu interrupted. “Ling Xiao is also a senior I deeply respect. ‘A gift from an elder must not be refused’—don’t you know this principle?”
Li Nanyi’s face twitched, but he didn’t dare say anything more.
When Rong Yuying heard Ling Xiao mentioned, her expression changed slightly. Still, she merely listened and did not interrupt.
This was precisely the effect Li Nanzhu wanted.
She had to borrow Ling Xiao’s authority. The item was given by Ling Xiao himself—these direct disciples had no standing to interfere. Once it was brought into the open, even a fool would know this matter could not continue.
Regardless of who was right or wrong at the start, it could no longer be brought up. The only thing left to discuss was the later issue involving the Hehuan Sect.
Compared to that, the Hehuan Sect matter was trivial.
After all, Cang Dongqing’s words hadn’t been very explicit. The issue could be made big or small.
And right now, what the Hehuan Sect needed was merely a way out. Li Nanzhu only had to offer one.
“So in the end, this is just your private grievance?” Rong Yuying asked after a moment of silence.
“Yes,” Li Nanzhu replied sweetly. “My senior brother just thought your junior sister cried beautifully, so he said she looked like someone from the Hehuan Sect. After all, aren’t all disciples who enter the Hehuan Sect beautiful? Senior Brother, isn’t that right?”
As she spoke, Li Nanzhu shot Duan Xianxing a look.
Though Duan Xianxing usually appeared a bit foolish, he was clear-headed when it mattered. He could tell that Rong Yuying didn’t want conflict either, so he nodded along.
No matter how aggrieved Cang Dongqing felt, she could only grit her teeth and accept it.
“It’s our private conflict. I alone wanted to take back what my master gave. It has nothing to do with my master.”
“And the feeling of being insulted afterward was just your misunderstanding, then?” Li Nanzhu pressed.
“It was my misunderstanding,” Cang Dongqing said through clenched teeth. “Personally, I also think the disciples of the Hehuan Sect are very good-looking.”
“Then Senior Sister Rong is prettier than you, right?”
Cang Dongqing wanted to say no—but she had no other choice.
“Yes. Senior Sister Rong is indeed prettier than me.”
Rong Yuying felt utterly delighted hearing this, and she grew even more fond of Li Nanzhu.
Cang Dongqing no longer wanted to stay a second longer and tried to pull Li Nanyi away.
But this time, just as she wanted to leave, Li Nanzhu stopped her.
“Wait. You tried to snatch my belongings and now you’re just leaving like that? Ten mid-grade spirit stones—compensation for emotional distress.”
“You—don’t push it too far!” Cang Dongqing finally lost control of her expression. Ten mid-grade spirit stones were practically her entire savings. If she gave them away, how was she supposed to cultivate?
But when she saw Rong Yuying staring calmly at her, she knew the other woman was firmly on Li Nanzhu’s side. And Rong Yuying hadn’t said she forgave her either. If this really escalated to the elders…
Cang Dongqing could only grit her teeth and say, “I only have four mid-grade spirit stones. Take them or leave them!”
Li Nanzhu raised an eyebrow. Not bad. As expected of the female lead—though she herself was rich, for someone who had joined the sect barely two months ago to have this many spirit stones was already impressive. Even a direct disciple wouldn’t normally have it so easy.
The female lead really was never poor.
So when Cang Dongqing took out four mid-grade spirit stones, Li Nanzhu accepted them without hesitation. Watching her money disappear, Cang Dongqing finally snapped, storming off alone in fury.
She didn’t even wait for Li Nanyi. And the Shenmu Sect disciples she had wanted to befriend had long since disappeared when the Hehuan Sect showed up.
Li Nanzhu immediately handed the four mid-grade spirit stones to Rong Yuying.
Rong Yuying hadn’t expected the little girl to be so generous. For someone who had only recently taken a master, four mid-grade spirit stones were a massive sum. To give them away so readily—either she was extremely wealthy, or she wanted to use this to form a good relationship.
Rong Yuying leaned toward the latter.
So she accepted the stones without ceremony and smiled as she patted Li Nanzhu on the head.
“Thank you, little one. I don’t even know your name yet. I’m Rong Yuying. And you?”
“My name is Li Nanzhu. Your name is very pretty too, big sister.”
Li Nanzhu smiled as she replied—while her heart churned with shock.
Rong Yuying?
If she remembered correctly, this woman was the biggest vicious female supporting character in the early part of the book.
She constantly opposed and targeted the female lead, and even tried to steal one of the female lead’s devoted admirers. Though it wasn’t really stealing—after all, that admirer was originally her fiancé.
As the sect master’s direct disciple—and the sect master’s own granddaughter—Rong Yuying wasn’t someone who would settle for just anyone. Her cultivation method involved dual cultivation, but only with her future Dao partner.
Yet that Dao partner became someone else’s devoted follower and even turned around to claim that all disciples of the Hehuan Sect were promiscuous.
Who could endure that?
Naturally, Cang Dongqing’s instigation played a role throughout.
Thus, Rong Yuying walked further and further down the path of a vicious supporting character.
Perhaps influenced by the female lead’s plot armor, Rong Yuying’s actions grew increasingly irrational—bordering on insanity. She even attempted to kill the female lead in front of everyone.
Unfortunately, the female lead’s plot armor was too strong. Rong Yuying was discovered the moment she made a move.
In the end, the Hehuan Sect Master, Rong Lingmeng, personally intervened. Only after paying a tremendous price—and imprisoning Rong Yuying in the Hehuan Sect’s forbidden grounds for one hundred years—was the matter settled.
But no one knew what happened in between.
Rong Yuying later escaped from the forbidden grounds and met her former fiancé. She was deceived into falling into a trap laid specifically for her. Her Golden Core peak cultivation was completely destroyed, and even her meridians were severed. She was then thrown into the mortal world.
If she had died then, it would have been one thing.
But she didn’t.
She was picked up by a brothel madam and truly became the “promiscuous woman” they accused her of being.
By the time she was finally found, she had been tortured beyond recognition. And even then, Cang Dongqing said that perhaps Rong Yuying had enjoyed it.
Despite Rong Lingmeng exhausting every effort, Rong Yuying soon died after being brought back.
Upon investigation, Rong Lingmeng discovered that Cang Dongqing was also involved. From then on, Sword Heart Sect and Hehuan Sect became mortal enemies.
But they were facing someone protected by the female lead’s plot armor.
By the end, Rong Lingmeng was killed by the female lead. The Hehuan Sect was reduced to only a handful of survivors and was effectively erased from the ranks of the Eight Great Sects.
Li Nanzhu knew Rong Yuying’s fate—but she had no way to speak of it.
They had only just met. Her fiancé had known her for decades. What right did Li Nanzhu have to warn her?
She didn’t even know whether she could save her own senior brother—let alone someone else.
Including herself.
In the end, she said nothing.
After chatting briefly, she bid farewell to the Hehuan Sect and left.
Rate on N.U.
