Just a moment ago, Qin Lingyu was still castigating Jun Xiaomo"s “traitorous behaviour” with righteous indignation. Yet in the very next moment when Jun Xiaomo set up an Authentication Array between the two of them, Qin Lingyu"s face immediately contorted slightly.
His heart had become undeniably anxious even though he tried his best to maintain a dignified appearance on his face. The end result was an expression that looked like a confluence of laughter, sorrow and fury. Even Qin Lingyu could hardly decipher the feelings in his heart right now.
Jun Xiaomo had already expected such a response from Qin Lingyu. She laughed sardonically as she pointed to the formation diagram lying between the two of them as she challenged, “What about it? Don"t dare? Or are you saying that you still suspect the veracity of this Authentication Array? Do you want to give the Threefold Empyrean Lightning a try?”
It was unclear what substance the formation diagram had been drawn with. Even though it was broad daylight right now, the formation diagram nevertheless glowed visibly with a soulless purple light. The patterns and inscriptions on the formation diagram were so complex that it dazzled everyone"s eyes. At one glance, n.o.body could tell whether the Authentication Array was real or not.
There were in fact some disciples who were initially curious about what an Authentication Array looked like. Therefore, they subconsciously took a few steps forward as they craned their necks over the top of the Authentication Array for a better perspective. Yet in that moment that Jun Xiaomo asked whether they wished to give it a try, the disciples immediately shrunk back to where they came from.
They slunk back behind Qin Lingyu, tacitly responding to Jun Xiaomo through their actions that they absolutely did not want to “try” the formation array.
None of the disciples found this to be a joking matter. After all, who wouldn"t have one or two secrets in their hearts that they did not wish for anybody to know about? What if these secrets were revealed by the Authentication Array? What were they going to do then?
Furthermore, the consequence of lying was a heavenly punishment – one would be struck by a bolt of the Threefold Empyrean Lightning. They would be grievously hurt after that, if not dead. It had to be said that the strength of the Threefold Empyrean Lightning lay in the fact that it could damage a cultivator"s soul. In serious cases, the damage caused to the soul could even be irreparable.
As for the formation diagram presented by Jun Xiaomo, none of them had ever doubted its veracity to begin with. After all, they had all witnessed “Yao Mo"s” prowess with his formation arrays and talismans. Since Yao Mo was none other than Jun Xiaomo, then it was hardly any cause for suspicion that she would possess such strange, formidable formation arrays at this moment.
Jun Xiaomo slowly took in the expressions of all the disciples around. Then, she curled her eyes into a squinch, and a smile crept up her lips as she said, “It seems that n.o.body has any objections as to the veracity of this formation array. Since that"s the case, martial brother Qin, you can rest a.s.sured, and we can finally resolve our dispute through a confrontation on the Authentication Array to determine who"s lying. The manner of confrontation is simple – we can each ask the other one question. What do you say?”
Of course not! Qin Lingyu bellowed in his heart as his facial expression contorted even more.
Now that things had come to this state, the other disciples began to grow suspicious of the true relations.h.i.+p between Qin Lingyu and Yu Wanrou. After all, if there was nothing furtive about their relations.h.i.+p, then why was there an obvious look of struggle and hesitation on Qin Lingyu"s face right now?
Jun Xiaomo waited for a few moments. Then, when she saw that Qin Lingyu remained taciturn, she decided to draw the flak over towards Yu Wanrou as she attempted to hide discreetly at the side.
“Since martial brother Qin isn"t willing to accept a confrontation on the Authentication Array, then why not you take the stand, martial sister Wanrou? How about it? The question that I was going to ask martial brother Qin is related to you, so it"s the same if you"re the one answering it.”
Jun Xiaomo raised her eyebrows languidly as she made her suggestion to Yu Wanrou.
Yu Wanrou had earlier been reeling from her shock at Ye Xiuwen"s appearances, and she had barely just managed to compose herself. Despite that, Jun Xiaomo had immediately followed up with yet another brutal blow to her. Her mind was instantly sent tumbling into a mess.
“No! No…” Yu Wanrou waved her hands about as she reflexively shrunk behind Qin Lingyu"s back.
Jun Xiaomo squinted her eyes as she looked meaningfully at Yu Wanrou"s appearances right now. She smacked her lips as she thought – What a rare sight! To think that I would actually see the day when the widely acclaimed lotus fairy would reveal such a tragic expression on her face!
In her previous life, Yu Wanrou had surrounded herself with a huge following of male cultivators. Their relations.h.i.+p was exceptionally messy and convoluted. Yet Yu Wanrou still took pride in this as though her honour and glory were built on it. In fact, there were even rumours being spread that only the blind would choose other females over this “lotus fairy”.
Who would have thought that Yu Wanrou would actually be shunning the “glory” of such relations.h.i.+ps right now? What"s the cause for this change? Jun Xiaomo wracked her brain as she sought out the reason behind all of this.
Yu Wanrou was not aware that Jun Xiaomo had time and again glanced at her with an inquisitive gaze. Rather, what she was most concerned about at this moment were the suspicious gazes cast on her by the other disciples from Dawn Sect.
After all, Yu Wanrou had always maintained a reputation of being a warm, considerate and pure lady, just like the dazzling and glowing snow lotus that blossomed in the midst of winter. One could only admire its beauty from afar, and not touch it with wanton disrespect.
There were several disciples in their midst who were secretly fond of Yu Wanrou as well. However, given how close Yu Wanrou and Ke Xinwen seemed to be, as well as the fact that their abilities were a far cry from Ke Xinwen"s abilities, they knew that they could only shelf such intentions for now.
But at this moment, Yu Wanrou and Qin Lingyu"s expressions seemed to be a tacit admission of the allegations levied by Jun Xiaomo – the latter had hesitated to step into the heart of the Authenticity Array for a confrontation, while the former had hurriedly rejected Jun Xiaomo"s suggestions.
This was highly suspicious no matter how one looked at it!
She had seduced a man who had already entered a marriage arrangement, and even lured him to her own bed. Could this truly and sincerely be described as a “snow lotus”? To do so might be an insult to the snow lotus instead!
The disciples" chatter started to grow as they watched on in excitement at unexpected twist of this unfolding drama.
Yu Wanrou saw the looks of suspicion, disdain and disappointment coming from the other disciples. At this moment, she truly wished to lock herself up in a cave and hide from the world!
In particular, there were two especially harsh lines of sight that Yu Wanrou wished to avoid –
The first line of sight came from Zhong Ruolan. Her gaze was filled with indignation and even nefarious desires that only caused Yu Wanrou to shudder. Zhong Ruolan had never hidden her ambitions to win over Qin Lingyu"s heart. Not only had she been unable to successfully win him over, she had even just learnt that Qin Lingyu"s heart had been stolen by a measly little girl at the fifth level of Qi Mastery. How could she not be furious?!
The other line of sight came from Ke Xinwen. His gaze was filled with shock, grief, rage, and a series of other similar emotions. If n.o.body else were around right now, perhaps Ke Xinwen might already have thrown caution to the wind, held Yu Wanrou by the neck and demanded an explanation from her.
After all that was said and done, he was the one who had been thoroughly used by Yu Wanrou.
But perhaps this might have been a fortuitous turn of events for Ke Xinwen. In Jun Xiaomo"s previous life, he had been so thoroughly manipulated by Yu Wanrou that he died in order to do her bidding. Even at the end of his life, he had not been able to wise up to Yu Wanrou"s true nature.
Then, when Jun Xiaomo had thoroughly taken in everyone"s expressions, she suddenly twitched her wrist and waved her hand slightly. In the blink of an eye, she retrieved what looked to be a small, black pellet from her Interspatial Ring.
Before the rest of the disciples could react, she flicked that small pellet towards where the other disciples were located.
Bang! A large explosion erupted at the point of impact, and several disciples who failed to retreat on time were injured by the blast.
That said, even those who managed to retreat in time did not find themselves in a much better state. One would be wise not to underestimate that pellet just because it was small. After it exploded, it followed to emit a thick, billowing smoke that obscured everyone"s vision.
It was unclear what that black smoke had been created with, but the disciples were unable to disperse it no matter what they tried to do. At this moment, there was n.o.body around who could still see where Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen were located.
On the other hand, when Jun Xiaomo first flung out that black pellet, she had quickly pulled Ye Xiuwen by the hand and left the scene.
Ye Xiuwen had not expected that Jun Xiaomo would play her cards in such an unruly and abrupt fas.h.i.+on. It was only after they had run for some distance that he had managed to collect his thoughts and realize what she had just done.
“Hang on, Xiaomo.” Ye Xiuwen tugged at Jun Xiaomo"s hand, motioning for her to stop for a moment.
Jun Xiaomo paused in her steps and blink at Ye Xiuwen curiously.
“Xiaomo, are you really going to discard that Authentication Array just like that?” Ye Xiuwen asked helplessly.
The ability to call upon the power of the Threefold Empyrean Lightning meant that the quality of the Authentication Array was at least of the sixth-grade, upper-tier. After Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo pored through the belongings left by senior Jiang Yutong, they had only managed to locate one such Authentication Array. Therefore, he never expected Jun Xiaomo to abandon it just like that.
“Ah, that thing? …” Jun Xiaomo rubbed her chin in embarra.s.sment as she explained, “Actually, that formation diagram isn"t the one left behind by senior Jiang Yutong. That thing is nothing more than my feeble attempt at replicating senior Jiang Yutong"s Authentication Array. It"s only a half-finished product. Furthermore, I haven"t imbued any spiritual energy into it yet, so it can"t be used at all.”
Ye Xiuwen: ……
After a moment of brief silence, Ye Xiuwen slowly collected himself as he responded, “Are you saying that from the start, you"ve intended to use a fake formation array to fool the other disciples?”
Jun Xiaomo stuck out her tongue cheekily as she stubbornly maintained, “That"s right. It was pretty effective, wasn"t it? It"s their fault for being so timid that they didn"t even dare to ascertain that the formation array was real. Furthermore, I"ve even secretly recorded the entire scene earlier with my Mirror of a Thousand Reflections. If my mother still insists that I marry Qin Lingyu next time, I can show her legitimate proof for rescinding the marriage arrangement.”
As she finished speaking, Jun Xiaomo stretched out her lips and plastered a mischievous grin on her face.
With this, Ye Xiuwen finally realized that, at this moment, Jun Xiaomo no longer possessed a single trace of feelings for Qin Lingyu.
Ye Xiuwen was unable to tell whether that slight, subtle emotion that had just flitted across his heart could be considered “joy”. Regardless, Ye Xiuwen calmly accepted this reality that Jun Xiaomo had presented to him.
He patted Jun Xiaomo"s head as he said, “Alright. That black pellet was also something that we"ve obtained from senior Jiang Yutong, wasn"t it? I think its effects last for only one hour. We"d better get going in the meantime.”
“That"s right, that"s right!” Jun Xiaomo tugged at Ye Xiuwen"s hands as she motioned to run forward.
Ye Xiuwen chuckled lightheartedly as he patted her shoulder, commenting, “How long are we going to have to keep running if we keep going like that? How about this, let me carry you while I run along using Windwalk?”
“That…that, huh…”
Jun Xiaomo began stammering once again.
In fact, she noticed that ever since her ident.i.ty had been revealed, there were so many more instances where she found herself stammering than before. Yet she could not pinpoint the reason for this. She only felt that her interactions with her martial brother were no longer as natural as before.
Ye Xiuwen did not say much more. He walked in front of Jun Xiaomo and bent down, beckoning her to climb onto his back.
Jun Xiaomo"s ears immediately grew slightly flushed. She hesitated for a moment, before she slowly clambered onto his back and held tightly onto his shoulders.
Then, Ye Xiuwen lifted Jun Xiaomo up and began sprinting forward as he operated his Windwalk.
As expected, their speed increased by at least twentyfold with the a.s.sistance of Ye Xiuwen"s Windwalk.
But after they had run along for some distance, Jun Xiaomo suddenly smacked her head as she cried out anxiously, “It"s a disaster! Martial brother, my little packrat and the first prince might still be trapped in the Mistlands!”