Seeing the raging fury burning in Qin Lingyu’s eyes, Jun Xiaomo’s heart skipped a beat in delight. In fact, she was so pleased at this moment that she wanted to throw her hands in the air and celebrate.
How should one describe this scene? This could be called delighting in his displeasure; and taking pleasure in his helplessness.
Jun Xiaomo knew that before Qin Lingyu could extract every bit of value he could from Jun Xiaomo, his greed would prevent him from rescinding this marriage agreement. Therefore, no matter how much he wanted to wave his sleeve and wash his hands off this detestable situation, he would still have to swallow this bitter pill, compose himself and try and ameliorate the situation. Of course, if Qin Lingyu agreed to rescind the marriage agreement, then Jun Xiaomo would not mind that outcome that either. After all, she had long since hoped for the same.
Qin Lingyu suppressed the raging fury in his heart, and with great difficulty eked out an awkward smile on his face, saying, “Xiaomo, the marriage agreement cannot be rescinded just like that. Earlier, I might have misspoken in a fit of anger. I’ve never thought for a moment that you were not qualified as a fiancée. Don’t say this type of things next time, alright? There’s no need to make both of us upset.”
Again, Jun Xiaomo raised her eyebrows in surprise. Was there going to be a blue moon today? Not only had Qin Lingyu time and time again apologized to her, he even eked out a smile on that frigid and cold face of his.
But to Jun Xiaomo, this smile of his was not much better than that usual cold and frigid look on his face. In fact, it might even be worse than Qin Lingyu’s usual look of indifference. After all, the cold look was an expression of Qin Lingyu’s true feelings, while this forcible smile had the word “hypocrite” written all over it.
Jun Xiaomo rolled her eyes at Qin Lingyu in her heart. She folded her arms, lifted her chin and looked straight at Qin Lingyu as she said, “Don’t spout nonsense. What are you here for today?”
She absolutely did not want to spend any more time as was necessary with this hypocrite. As such, she pressed him to get straight to the point.
When Qin Lingyu noticed that Jun Xiaomo’s att.i.tude towards himself had not taken any turn for the better, he could not help but worry about whether he could achieve his original intentions today. But regardless, he still had to try. He was banking on the fact that Jun Xiaomo’s feelings for him ran deeply, and she was only sulking and throwing a tantrum at this moment.
At the core of it all, Qin Lingyu did not believe that a person who seemed to love him more than herself would be able to forget these feelings overnight.
Qin Lingyu let out a histrionic sigh, saying to Jun Xiaomo reluctantly, “Xiaomo, I’m not sure whether you’re being so cold to me because you may have misunderstood me in any way. I’m about to travel out of the Sect for a mission very soon, and these missions have varying levels of difficulties. Let’s not talk about when I would be able to finish these missions and return to see you; I’m not even certain that I would be able to return to see you…”
It should be said that even though there were not many disciples who lost their lives while travelling out of the Sect for missions, there were still at least one or two each year on average. But with Qin Lingyu’s abilities, putting aside whether he was able to successfully complete the mission, he would certainly have no issues with preserving his own life. Rather, what he was trying to do right now was to gain Jun Xiaomo’s sympathy and concern for him, in the hope that this sympathy and concern would then turn into some form of benefit for himself.
Jun Xiaomo chuckled coldly, interrupting Qin Lingyu’s “performance” – Just say it directly if you’re looking for spirit tools and spirit medicines from me; why do you have to beat about the bush? Even I feel tired and exasperated listening to you.
In her previous life, whenever Qin Lingyu said that he was about to travel out of the Sect for a mission, Jun Xiaomo would immediately fork out a whole bunch of valuable spirit tools and spirit medicines as gifts to Qin Lingyu, even to the extent of emptying the contents of her Interspatial Ring. A good part of the gifts she had given to Qin Lingyu had even included things which Jun Linxuan and Liu Qingmei had painstakingly obtained for her cultivation or future use. To their horror, their daughter had instead willingly offered all of these to her sweetheart without a single thought given to their feelings.
Put another way, the former Jun Xiaomo could be considered a “loaded idiot” – she took so much trouble to present good gifts to cajole some ingrates who subsequently repaid her good with their evil, scheming against her and harming her.
However, the present Jun Xiaomo who had been sharpened by her demonic energy for nearly a hundred years had long discarded that old, naïve and foolish self of hers. The Jun Xiaomo now would not only be much more circ.u.mspect with who she treated well; if anyone wished to draw her blood, they would be wise to beware her bite. She was raring to sink her fangs deep into the skin of any perpetrators, inflicting as much pain on them as she could!
On the other hand, Qin Lingyu was neither blind nor a fool. Jun Xiaomo’s disdain for him was so obvious at this point that even Qin Lingyu could not bring himself to ignore it. After deliberating for a moment, the only reasonable explanation he could find was that Jun Xiaomo’s mind was obsessed over the matters she had heard about himself and Yu Wanrou.
Therefore, Qin Lingyu no longer avoided the elephant in the room, and he decided to address it.
“Xiaomo, is this all because of some rumours you’ve heard? Your att.i.tude towards me today has been quite unusual.” Qin Lingyu plainly asked, staring intently at Jun Xiaomo’s reactions.
What now? Are you here to sound me out on whether I know of your filthy rendezvous with Yu Wanrou? Jun Xiaomo mockingly thought. That’s fine as well. I want to know how much of the truth I can elicit from the horse’s mouth.
“Yeah, I’m a little miffed about certain things I’ve heard through the grapevine. Could martial brother Qin clarify what exactly you may be referring to?” Jun Xiaomo leisurely responded, intentionally keeping her response vague.
Qin Lingyu almost choked on Jun Xiaomo’s response, and he found himself lost for words momentarily. After all, directly mentioning “that matter between himself and Yu Wanrou” seemed almost akin to an admission.
The fact of the matter was that there were presently no rumours regarding Qin Lingyu and Yu Wanrou spreading within the Sect. Therefore, Qin Lingyu was absolutely confuddled on where exactly Jun Xiaomo had heard about these things from.
But he very quickly found a reasonable response, and used this as an excuse to broach the subject for discussion, “I heard from martial sister Wanrou that you beat her up because you suspected that there was something going on between martial sister Wanrou and I. Xiaomo, where did you come hear such rumours from?”
“Oh? She said that, huh…” Jun Xiaomo nodded her head as though her interest had been piqued. Then, she asked bluntly, “But, wasn’t I earlier absolved of all liability and suspicion for beating up Yu Wanrou during the Penal Hall inquest? What’s this then – are you saying that you believe the account of a third party over and above your fiancée’s?”
Jun Xiaomo looked straight into Qin Lingyu’s eyes with a derisory gaze.
“No, no, that’s not it. I was only trying to say…” Qin Lingyu very quickly found his segue not as brilliant as he initially thought it was, and he tried to find another way to approach the subject.
“Or do you think I should once again explain myself at the Penal Hall?” Jun Xiaomo ruthlessly cut off Qin Lingyu’s explanations.
“It’s not…”
“It’s not what? The truth is that you resolutely believed the words of a distant and absolutely unrelated martial sister; yet you refused to place a single bit of trust in your own fiancée – do you agree or not?!” Jun Xiaomo stepped forward aggressively as she rebuked Qin Lingyu, and the sharp, penetrating gaze in her eyes was so imposing that Qin Lingyu even almost took a step back reflexively.
As the Lady Demoness, the former Jun Xiaomo had spent her whole life rebuking the entire cultivation world, and that imposing and ruthless temperament of hers had long since penetrated her marrows and fused with her soul. While this ruthlessness was now well concealed when Jun Xiaomo was calm and composed; but once she erupted with fury, how could a meagre twenty-three years-old sprout who had not travelled out of the Sect on his own match up to her imposing att.i.tude at all?
Therefore, despite the fact that Jun Xiaomo was merely a “useless” person at the first level of Qi Mastery, Qin Lingyu who stood at the peak twelfth level of Qi Mastery was subconsciously intimidated by Jun Xiaomo’s cold, soulless glare!
Qin Lingyu’s haughty and insufferably arrogant expression finally cracked. That day in the Penal Hall, when Jun Xiaomo angered Qin Shanshan so much that she fainted, and when Jun Xiaomo also angered Yu Wanrou so much that she fell sick, Qin Lingyu merely stood there observing the entire proceedings without revealing any trace of emotion at all. But this time, under the relentless battering of Jun Xiaomo’s allegations, he finally caved in. He also finally realized how much Jun Xiaomo had changed.
The previous Jun Xiaomo had sometimes thrown a tantrum as a result of being spoilt by her parents; but she had never relentlessly provoked or cornered anyone with such sharp, incisive allegations before.
Is this person really the same Jun Xiaomo who used to give me anything I asked for? Qin Lingyu thought to himself uneasily.
Seeing that Qin Lingyu was left speechless by all these, Jun Xiaomo smiled widely at him. She flippantly coiled the hair draped around her shoulders around her snowy-white fingers as she changed the subject, “Martial brother Qin, actually…I’m also not such an unforgiving person. After all, you were the one who had rescued martial sister Wanrou. Seeing that her injuries were so severe and adding the fact that she led you on with a few false allegations, having your judgment hampered is a very natural thing.”
Qin Lingyu felt that Jun Xiaomo’s explanations were more than meets the eye; and they seemed to be implying something or luring him to a trap.
Jun Xiaomo’s fingers momentarily stopped, as she hooked her lips, saying, “How about this? Martial brother Qin could ask Yu Wanrou to apologize to me for straining the relations.h.i.+p that we have; and then I will give you the spirit tools, talismans and medicine within my Interspatial Ring that you can use. How does this sound?”
“Xiaomo, there’s really nothing going on between martial sister Wanrou and myself. The reason why I misspoke earlier was because there are so many things occupying my mind right now, and I momentarily lost control.” Qin Lingyu spoke with much less confidence right now because of Jun Xiaomo’s imposing att.i.tude earlier. As it was right now, he was simply working hard at salvaging his appearances and trying to avoid being labelled as a hypocrite.
“I’m not alluding to anything going on between the two of you. I only feel upset that Yu Wanrou’s slanderous allegations caused me to be summoned to the Penal Hall, so I want her to come and apologize to me. Also, I’m not sure who it is who’s always been talking behind my back, saying that I’ve been bullying her. At first, I couldn’t be bothered too much about this; but now that martial brother Qin you have grown biased towards her as a result, I cannot swallow this bitter pill any further. Therefore, I want an apology from her, and it would be best if she could even issue a written apology, pledging that if she slanders me again, she shall be punished. How about it?”
“Xiaomo, this is a matter between the two of us. Do we really have to implicate outsiders?” Qin Lingyu attempted to dispel Jun Xiaomo’s plans in a roundabout manner.
“To me, she’s not considered an outsider.” Jun Xiaomo gave Qin Lingyu a meaningful look as she added in her heart – Because you are absolutely not considered part of my inner circle in the first place.
On the other hand, Qin Lingyu interpreted this statement as “Yu Wanrou is the third wheel in this relations.h.i.+p”.
Evidently, people with a guilty conscience always perceive the facts differently.
At this point, Qin Lingyu could not ascertain whether Jun Xiaomo knew about the affair between him and Yu Wanrou, but he decided not to press the issue any further. As things were, the present Jun Xiaomo knew how to give vague and crafty responses, and he feared that if he pressed the issue, he might be the one divulging even more secrets to Jun Xiaomo instead.
I’ll just let sleeping dogs lie.
Once Qin Lingyu made up his mind, he said to Jun Xiaomo, “Xiaomo, I still feel that you’re too deeply fixated on that last incident. That’s why I wanted to check on you today, and at the same time inform you that I’ll be leaving the Sect for a mission in a while. Anyhow, it’s getting late now, so I shall take my leave.”
Jun Xiaomo looked silently with bemus.e.m.e.nt at this man who was about to leave without having achieved any of his objectives.
Qin Lingyu noticed Jun Xiaomo’s silence as well, and he made a “goodbye” gesture as he swiftly motioned to leave.
Yet, when Qin Lingyu turned around to leave, Jun Xiaomo slowly spoke once more, “Martial brother Qin, I’m not lying to you. I do intend to give about half of the contents of my Interspatial Ring if you get Yu Wanrou to apologize to me. These would include spirit tools, talismans and medicinal pills, of which there are even two fifth-grade Energy Rejuvenation Pills! Do consider my proposition.”
“Fifth-grade Energy Rejuvenation Pills?” Qin Lingyu paused in his steps as he turned back.
Jun Xiaomo smiled and looked at Qin Lingyu with a profound look, “Yes, fifth-grade Energy Rejuvenation Pills.”
Energy Rejuvenation Pills and Energy Recovery Pills are both used to treat injuries, but the difference between the two were vast as heaven and earth. The former could be used to quickly bring a person back from the gates of h.e.l.l to good health as long as one still had a single breath of life left within him; while the latter could only be used to treat the more generic internal and external injuries, and its healing effects were much, much weaker.
Furthermore, the higher the grade of the Energy Rejuvenation Pills, the stronger its healing effects. In this regard, a fifth-grade Energy Rejuvenation Pills could even act as an antidote to some deadly poisons; this pill was highly coveted and could hardly be found on the market. Having one of these Energy Rejuvenation Pills was tantamount to having an additional life! Now that Jun Xiaomo was dangling two fifth-grade Energy Rejuvenation Pills in front of Qin Lingyu, how could he not be tempted?
In fact, this was precisely her goal - Jun Xiaomo also wanted him to be tempted! Once the bait has been taken and the fish has been hooked, things would be much more exciting.
“Martial brother Qin, my request isn’t too difficult. Right now, I’m only asking Yu Wanrou to apologize to me – is this something impossible?” As Jun Xiaomo finished the sentence, she even laced her words with a trace of ignominy.
She knew that Qin Lingyu liked hearing such pleading words and lilts in ladies’ voices. Therefore, even though this disgusted her, she acted as though she were aggrieved by the situation in order to securely hook this fish that had taken the bait.
“Alright, I’ll go ask her. After all, she was the one at fault in the first place. Xiaomo, don’t let your imaginations run wild anymore. I’m only treating her as a regular martial sister, and the relations.h.i.+p we have between us doesn’t extend beyond that of Sect-mates. After this matter is resolved, let’s put it entirely behind us, alright?” Qin Lingyu consoled and a.s.sured Jun Xiaomo as he was once again filled with confidence.
For the sake of the resources in Jun Xiaomo’s hands, he had to go all out to dispel Jun Xiaomo’s suspicions about his relations.h.i.+p with Yu Wanrou.
Of course, he would also have to get Yu Wanrou to apologize to Jun Xiaomo. These were fifth-grade Energy Rejuvenation Pills after all!
Jun Xiaomo turned her head away and silently nodded, putting on the perfect pretense for a sulky look.
Qin Lingyu patted her shoulder gently before he promptly departed – he had to quickly convince Yu Wanrou to apologize to Jun Xiaomo.
After Qin Lingyu left, Jun Xiaomo turned back and looked in the direction of Qin Lingyu’s departure as she burst out into laughter. How could she have been aggrieved?
Just how angry was Yu Wanrou going to be this time?