The night was eerily silent. It was so silent that even the usual chirruping of bugs in the middle of the night had completely vanished into thin air. The only sound that broke the stifling stillness in the air was the occasional gentle breeze that swept through the forest, stirring one"s soul with the suffocating sounds of rustling leaves.Jun Xiaomo was wide awake.She couldn"t understand why she was unable to rest properly over the last few nights. A niggling feeling with her heart troubled her to no end, giving her the inclination that something ma.s.sive was going to happen soon, keeping her awake at night, tossing and turning in bed in frustration.Her mind was filled with a particular incident in her previous life.In her previous life, Zhang Shuyue had tagged along with them as soon as she managed to obtain Ye Xiuwen"s trust. As she travelled alongside them, she would act as an informant and discreetly update her compatriots with their whereabouts. Thus, no matter how and where Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen hid, their persecutors would always discover and attack them.This time, she was sincerely reticent to have her martial brothers from the Heavenly Peak interact with Zhang Shuyue any more than was necessary. Zhang Shuyue was far too good an actress, and her Heavenly Peak martial brothers were regrettably cultivation fanatics who knew nothing about the intricacies and nuances of schemes and ploys. A simple, pitiful pretense on Zhang Shuyue"s part was already more than sufficient to fool them into confuse right from wrong.After all, this was exactly how Ye Xiuwen was fooled and tripped up in her previous life.Jun Xiaomo sincerely loathed the prospects of her Heavenly Peak martial brothers being led by the nose by Zhang Shuyue without even knowing it, and she abhorred the prospects that they might well only learn of her true colours just before their deathbeds. But, what could she possibly do to expose Zhang Shuyue"s rancid nature?It was incredibly frustrating.Just as Jun Xiaomo was wallowing deep in her bitter thoughts, she suddenly discovered the peculiar ripple of energy in the air. That said, such a movement of energy was not foreign to her at all. In her previous life, she had relied precisely on the ripples of such strange energies to evade the capture of persecutors and a.s.sailants on innumerable occasions.Something"s amiss!Jun Xiaomo hurriedly got out of bed and dressed herself properly. Then, after hesitating for a moment, she retrieved a Humanoid Puppet Talisman and dripped a drop of her own blood on it. When the Humanoid Puppet Talisman transformed into her image, she laid it carefully on the bed and covered it with her blanket. Finally, she applied an Invisibility Talisman on her own body before slipping out of her room under the cover of the night.Zhang Shuyue was wide awake as well. However, the reason for her insomnia was naturally vastly different from Jun Xiaomo. Jun Xiaomo was unable to sleep at night because of her keen premonition that danger was looming over her head; while Zhang Shuyue was simply too excited by the prospects of being reunited with her master Xiang Guqing and capturing all of the Heavenly Peak disciples in one fell swoop.Zhang Shuyue sat at the table in her room and contacted Xiang Guqing through her Transmittance Talisman.“Shuyue, did you manage to spike their food with the packet of powder?” This was something that Xiang Guqing was most concerned about at this point in time.“Most of them have eaten it, and none of them discovered anything amiss.” Zhang Shuyue claimed credit for the success of her mission, “However, Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen didn"t fall prey to this scheme.”“They didn"t eat the food? Why?” Xiang Guqing furrowed her brows.“Jun Xiaomo"s extremely guarded against me. Furthermore, she"s still harbouring some bitter resentment against the fact that I"d invited Ye Xiuwen for a "little chat" at the peach blossom woods, so she refused to accept the food which I had prepared.”“Then, what about Ye Xiuwen?”“Ye Xiuwen, he…” A trace of indignation flickered across the depths of Zhang Shuyue"s eyes, “He practically listens to everything Jun Xiaomo says. If Jun Xiaomo says not to eat it, then he wouldn"t eat it either.”“Hmph. How good can a man be if he only knows how to listen to a woman? Sounds like a completely useless person. Disciple, there"s no need to feel hurt about this incident. These men aren"t worth your efforts and time. Once you leave the valley, you"ll encounter many more men who are far more outstanding in all ways than Ye Xiuwen is. At that time, you"ll finally learn that all men are the same, and not a single one of them are deserving of your love and affection.” Xiang Guqing coldly remarked. Her voice was clearly laced with intense rancor and bitterness against all men.“Disciple understands Master"s teachings. Would the fact that Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen didn"t consume the medicine affect Master"s plans tonight?”“Don"t worry, your master isn"t so useless that she can"t even deal with two fledgling cultivators. Besides, Master has brought an entourage of people with her, all of whom harbour immense hatred for the two of them. With their help, I don"t believe that Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen would be able to survive the intense onslaught awaiting them tonight!” Xiang Guqing barked with a vicious gleam in her eyes. She would get an intense urge to torment Jun Xiaomo and tear her to shreds whenever she was reminded of how Jun Xiaomo had injured her most beloved disciple!Zhang Shuyue felt much more appeased with her master"s rea.s.surance. It seems that her guess was right – the medicinal powder was simply employed in order to smoothen the operation that would be carried out tonight. Things would hardly change much even if Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen did not consume it.Then, as Zhang Shuyue turned her mind to consider how Jun Xiaomo would later lay prostrate on the ground, begging for her life like a dog, a sick sense of joy and delight began to creep up from the inner crevices of her heart – Jun Xiaomo, you"ve embarra.s.sed and tormented me in front of so many people…I"m never going to let you die such a simple death!On the other side, as soon as Zhang Shuyue and her master ended their communication through the Transmittance Talisman, Xiang Guqing turned around and looked at the entourage of people behind her, “You"ve heard it for yourselves, haven"t you? Right now, Jun Xiaomo, Ye Xiuwen and the other traitors are all residing within my valley. If you want me to open the path for your entry into the valley so that you can personally capture them, you"d best bring out some tokens of your sincerity for me.”Xiang Guqing was no fool. Even though she was incensed by the fact that Jun Xiaomo had injured Zhang Shuyue, she had never considered doing such menial, laborious work on her own. If not for the fact that Ye Xiuwen had also betrayed Zhang Shuyue"s affection and hurt her, she would never have harboured such intense hatred for the group of Heavenly Peak disciples, and she would never have considered doing so much just to put them to death.That said, she had to give credit where credit was due – the entire Heavenly Peak appeared to be incredibly adept at making enemies wherever they went. In fact, it practically seemed as though the entire spiritual cultivation world was against them, and there were innumerable people who were willing to spend a substantial amount of money and resources for the mere opportunity to take their lives.In particular, the ones who appeared to hate Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen the most included the Sect that the Heavenly Peak originated from, the Dawn Sect, as well as their rivals, the Eternal Summit Sect.Jun Xiaomo had led a band of Heavenly Peak disciples and utterly defeated and humiliated the Eternal Summit Sect in the Secondary Inter-Sect Compet.i.tion some years ago. This naturally resulted in a deep grievance and resentment for Jun Xiaomo.Therefore, as soon as they heard the news that Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen were still alive, and that they had even rescued a group of Heavenly Peak disciples from right under the Dawn Sect"s noses, they immediately announced that they were putting up a bounty for Jun Xiaomo"s head!Xiang Guqing had responded precisely to this bounty, inviting the members of the Eternal Summit Sect to her valley with the intention of launching a sneak attack on Jun Xiaomo and the rest of the Heavenly Peak disciples under the cover of night.“Don"t worry.” The Grand Elder of the Eternal Summit Sect, Dai Yanfeng, remarked dispa.s.sionately, “The Eternal Summit Sect is a sect that keeps its word. The reward that we"ll be giving has already been posted on the bounty that we had earlier announced to the rest of the spiritual cultivation world. There"s no way we can renege on that agreement.”“Hmph. That would be for the best.” Xiang Guqing harboured a peculiar distrust for men in general, and she naturally couldn"t find it within her to trust Dai Yanfeng"s words. Fortunately, the bounties announced to the rest of the spiritual cultivation world were all invariably imbued with formation arrays. If Dai Yanfeng failed to keep his promise, the consequences for him would indubitably be dire.Thus, under Xiang Guqing"s leaders.h.i.+p, the entourage of people walked through a shortcut and made their way into the depths of the valley. According to Xiang Guqing, the shortcut would take them into the heart of the valley within one hour"s time.Naturally, they would need to carefully follow Xiang Guqing"s guidance in this regard. Otherwise, even leaving the valley would be nigh an impossible task, because even a single misstep along the way could mean the difference between life and death.Xiang Guqing cautioned the entire entourage about these matters with a wry smile on her lips, sending s.h.i.+vers down the backs of the Eternal Summit Sect disciples – It seems like this woman isn"t someone easy to deal with, much less swindle. I just hope that the Grand Elder doesn"t offend her. Otherwise, the consequences could truly be dire.After taking a few steps, Xiang Guqing turned around and addressed Dai Yanfeng once more, “Leave Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen"s lives to me. I"ve already decided their fate on behalf of my disciple. You can deal with the rest of them however you wish.”Dai Yanfeng immediately furrowed his brows, “I don"t care about what happens to Ye Xiuwen, but I want to take Jun Xiaomo captive for my daughter"s sake.”After all, Jun Xiaomo had crippled Dai Yue"s cultivation during their last encounter at the Secondary Inter-Sect Compet.i.tion, and Dai Yue"s cultivation levels were still languis.h.i.+ng in the rut to date. Since then, whenever Dai Yanfeng witnessed his beloved daughter bawling and wailing as she smashed everything around her in resentment, he would be unable to repress the desire to incapacitate Jun Xiaomo and reduce to her final breaths, before capturing and presenting her to Dai Yue as a gift just so that Dai Yue could ventilate her emotions on Jun Xiaomo.Then, when Dai Yanfeng first learnt that Jun Xiaomo had already perished, he hastily broke the news to his daughter with a skip in his step, and his daughter"s emotional trauma appeared to show signs of marked improvements over the next few years. Unexpectedly, Jun Xiaomo was far more resilient than he had ever expected her to be, so much so that even the relentless persecution of the Zephyr Sect was unable to wipe her off the surface of the cultivation world!Thus, he resolved in his heart that the Eternal Summit Sect was going to finish what the Zephyr Sect was unable to. After all, he didn"t believe that someone of his strength and abilities would not be able to take care of a rotten brat like Jun Xiaomo!Most importantly, Jun Linxuan was not around right now. There was undoubtedly no better chance to get rid of the group of Heavenly Peak disciples than now.Having heard Dai Yanfeng"s response, Xiang Guqing slowly furrowed her brows as she turned around, “Elder Dai, I think we should set things straight from the onset – Jun Xiaomo"s life is for my disciple to take. This is the only way my disciple can resolve her hatred for the humiliation Jun Xiaomo had dished out upon her.“Sect Leader Xiang, I know that you"re infuriated that your disciple has been bullied by Jun Xiaomo, but my disciple has equally suffered under the hands of this rotten brat Jun Xiaomo as well. In fact, her cultivation had been completely crippled by Jun Xiaomo! If you wish to discuss the hatred in their hearts, my daughter"s hatred for Jun Xiaomo runs straight through her marrows. She"s the one who has the right to take Jun Xiaomo"s life.”n.o.body around could ever have expected Dai Yanfeng and Xiang Guqing to clash over who should possess the right to take Jun Xiaomo"s life. In fact, they were already starting to show signs of a breakdown in their partners.h.i.+p over this unusual dispute.This was the last thing that the Eternal Summit Sect disciples wanted to see right now. They were already mid-way through their journey through the shortcut into the heart of the valley. If Xiang Guqing decided to abandon them in a fit of anger as a result of this dispute, they would undoubtedly be the ones holding the shorter end of the stick.Thus, an Eternal Summit Sect disciple mustered all of his courage and stepped forward. Then, with some trepidation in his voice, he suggested, “Grand Elder, senior Xiang, if…if junior may speak his mind, why don"t both of you take Jun Xiaomo"s life jointly? This way, there"s no need to fight over this matter anymore.”“Jointly take her life? How can one possibly take a person"s life together with another?” Dai Yanfeng furrowed his brows.Xiang Guqing pondered for a moment, before she chuckled heartily, “That"s not a bad suggestion. Since we both hate this rotten brat to the marrow, why not torment her together and see just how much of it she can withstand?”Dai Yanfeng shut his eyes and deliberated for a moment before concluding that there was no reason not to accept this suggestion. It was a good idea after all.With that, both leaders had finally seen eye to eye, and they continued to lead their entourage into the depths of the valley.At the back of the entire entourage, a tall and well-built man wearing the Eternal Summit Sect disciples" clothing kept his head low the entire time, keeping his presence to a minimum.He had heard the entire conversation between Xiang Guqing and Dai Yanfeng earlier, and a bright gleam of light flickered across the depths of his eyes discreetly.
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