12
The image of a familiar white-bearded old man suddenly came to mind.
The sect leader… Lục Trầm Mặc’s master—was he murdered last night?
How could that be? He was still laughing and talking with me just the other day.
He clearly had profound cultivation, and the sect leader’s residence was heavily guarded.
I instinctively looked toward Lục Trầm Mặc. Sure enough, his expression was grim, and his eyes were unmistakably red.
Lục Trầm Mặc was devastated.
How could he not be? The old man was Lục Trầm Mặc’s only master, the one who had led him onto the path of immortality, and the only family he had left after losing his own…
I still remembered the old man sitting beside the little pond on the main peak, teasing Lục Trầm Mặc and me when we returned from a mission:
“Have you two paid your respects to Heaven and Earth yet?”
“No, no. It doesn’t count until you’ve paid your respects to me, your elder.”
“In two years, once Lục Trầm Mặc forms his golden core, I’ll arrange a wedding for you two. I’ll make you a body without a soul, and you can inhabit it. Then you can have a child together soon.”
Sadly, the immortal realm was soon swept up in turmoil, and the old man never had time to make me a body.
We never got the chance to pay our respects to our elder, either.
Lục Trầm Mặc and I weren’t the only ones grieving here.
Along with their grief was an irrepressible fury.
The sect leader had been murdered, and they were desperate to find the culprit.
What’s more, after the sect leader was murdered, his residence had been ransacked.
The culprit had been searching for something, and they were eager to find out what it was, too.
I never expected them to turn their suspicions on me.
But thinking it over, it made sense. In the past half month, I was the only outsider to visit the sect.
By any measure, I was the most suspicious person.
Before they led me away, I looked toward Lục Trầm Mặc once more.
It didn’t matter if the others misunderstood me. I could take my time figuring out how to handle things; I was sure I could resolve this.
But Lục Trầm Mặc… I didn’t want him to misunderstand me even a little.
I hoped to see even a hint of trust in his eyes.
But when I looked over, he had already turned away.
13
In the sect’s main hall, where I was being tried, I did my best to explain myself.
But I let something slip in front of the storyteller.
In front of the elders, the storyteller recounted what I had told him that day.
It was the chance I’d had to climb Thiên Kiếm Mountain.
When he got to the part where Lục Trầm Mặc narrowly won by a single move and attained the rank of Immortal Venerable, Lục Trầm Mặc stepped forward.
An elder asked him, “Does this story resemble the Immortal Venerable’s own experience?”
Lục Trầm Mặc was silent.
“The Immortal Venerable once said that at the time, only three people were on Lục Xuất Peak: the Immortal Venerable, his beloved, and the Demon Lord Bách Lý Hứa.”
“So how did Miss Lý Miên Ý know exactly what happened then, as if she’d witnessed it herself?”
The elder was practically accusing me outright of having ties to the Demon Lord Bách Lý Hứa.
So the sect leader of Thiên Kiếm Mountain was murdered as soon as I arrived.
I tried to defend myself, but the other party asked, “Then tell us, Miss Lý—how do you know what happened at Cang Mountain?”
In the distance, Đồng Đồng clenched her fists.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I know about the battle at Cang Mountain because I am the real Miss Đồng Đồng.”
Lục Trầm Mặc suddenly looked over.
“Lục Trầm Mặc, back then, I was on the verge of having my soul scattered, but I lied to you and said I wanted to break things off with you.”
“You asked me, ‘With mountains stretching far and rivers flowing wide, when will we meet again?’”
“I only pointed to the bell at your side and said, ‘When it rings, that’s when I’ll return.’”
Back then, I truly thought I would never see you again.
14
But I still couldn’t prove that I was the real Đồng Đồng.
Even after I told them everything about my past with Lục Trầm Mặc.
The elders didn’t believe me. Not even Lục Trầm Mặc believed me.
“Everyone knows Bách Lý Hứa excels at illusions. The Immortal Venerable once entered one of his illusions, so perhaps he secretly stole his memories.”
Memories could be secretly observed, and people could lie.
But magical treasures couldn’t.
“Miss Đồng Đồng” had been reincarnated and had no memories of her previous life, but that bell recognized her soul.
“Sixteen years ago, the Immortal Venerable sent Miss Đồng Đồng’s soul into reincarnation.”
“But your bone age is only fourteen.”
“Besides,” the elder continued, “you said the bell would ring when you returned. So let’s see—will it ring now?”
The bell wouldn’t ring.
It wouldn’t ring even if I went closer.
But everyone in the sect knew that whenever “Miss Đồng Đồng” approached Lục Trầm Mặc, the bell at his side would ring.
There was no way to argue my case.
The elder asked me, “Speak. Why did you kill the sect leader? What did you take?”
“What is your connection to Bách Lý Hứa?”
“Lục Trầm Mặc,” I asked him, “you don’t believe me either?”
Lục Trầm Mặc said, “Of course I only believe the person I love.”
15
“Fine, fine.” I suddenly broke free of my bonds and attacked the woman calling herself Miss Đồng Đồng, the one nearest to me.
Luckily, they thought I was a mortal, so they’d only tied me up with a fairly loose rope and hadn’t cast any spells on me.
That was how I managed to wriggle free, relying on the little bit of magic power I’d just cultivated.
All I had to do was get Đồng Đồng out of the way…
“Ah!” Đồng Đồng cried out. She neither dodged nor tried to evade, and the next moment she took my palm strike squarely.
I had never seen Lục Trầm Mặc so panicked.
He rushed straight to Đồng Đồng, caught her as she fell, and carefully gathered her into his arms.
“Đồng Đồng… are you all right?”
“Đồng Đồng…”
He frantically sent one healing spell after another into Đồng Đồng.
A little while later, Đồng Đồng finally stopped coughing up blood:
Lục Trầm Mặc strode angrily toward me.
“I’ve been far too lenient with you,” he said coldly. “Haven’t I?”
He raised his hand, preparing to bring down a bolt of lightning on me.
If it hit me, I would surely be gravely injured—or I might even die.
But I didn’t dodge, and I didn’t want to. Only one thought remained in my mind:
Lục Trầm Mặc—did he want to hurt me?
Lục Trầm Mặc… did he really want to hurt me?
Just as the danger reached its peak,
“Stop,” a clear voice rang out.
There were only three people who could make Lục Trầm Mặc stop when he was enraged.
First was the late sect leader, his master.
Second was me, now Miss Đồng Đồng.
The last was the immortal lord who had just entered the main hall—Lục Trầm Mặc’s senior fellow disciple, Thẩm Khứ Chu, the first disciple of the sect leader of Thiên Kiếm Mountain.
16
“The case is still unclear. Don’t act rashly.”
Thẩm Khứ Chu said, his expression hardly any better than Lục Trầm Mặc’s.
He had just lost his master, too.
When the sect leader was murdered, Thẩm Khứ Chu had been away training. As soon as he heard the news, he hurried back…
The moment he entered the sect, he saw the elders interrogating me.
He said the case was unclear because no evidence had been left at the scene, nothing to prove that I was the one who had murdered the sect leader.
But everyone was convinced I was connected to the Demon Lord, Bách Lý Hứa.
As for Lục Trầm Mặc, his eyes were filled with hatred when he looked at me.
I tried to explain. “Miss Đồng Đồng went out alone last night. She has spiritual power.”
But no one was willing to believe me:
“If she had spiritual power, why couldn’t she dodge your palm strike?”
With Lục Trầm Mặc held back and unable to do anything to me, he could only wave over a female disciple and have her take Đồng Đồng back to Lục Xuất Peak.
I watched Đồng Đồng leave.
She turned to face me and, when no one was looking, gave me a small, triumphant smile.
As for Lục Trầm Mặc, he went into the inner chamber by himself, to the side of the old sect leader’s corpse.
He truly hated me to the bone.
And he truly didn’t believe that I was the girl from his jade pendant.
I was the only one left, waiting before the elders for the trial to come.
Some hated me to the bone and wanted revenge for the sect leader.
Others were more levelheaded, but still insisted on locking me in the water prison, saying that sooner or later I’d break.
The sides argued, but no one could reach a conclusion.
Until Thẩm Khứ Chu spoke up:
“Lock her up at Kỳ Lân Nhai. I’ll oversee the interrogation myself. Ten years, eight years—I don’t believe we won’t get the truth out of her.”
Kỳ Lân Nhai was a brutal place. It opened once every ten years, and only the most heinous criminals were sent there.
Thẩm Khứ Chu was mild-mannered, but his methods were exceedingly ruthless. When he was in charge of the punishment hall, the sect’s disciples gave it a wide berth whenever they passed by.
Thẩm Khứ Chu and Kỳ Lân Nhai together were a hundred times more cruel than the water prison.
Besides, Thẩm Khứ Chu was the sect leader’s disciple. No one could hate the person who murdered the sect leader more than he did.
So after some discussion, the elders really did hand me over to Thẩm Khứ Chu.
As Thẩm Khứ Chu escorted me to Kỳ Lân Nhai, I didn’t move at all.
But even when I left the sect’s main hall, Lục Trầm Mặc didn’t come out to look at me—not even once.
17
How could Lục Trầm Mặc not recognize me?
How could Lục Trầm Mặc lay a hand on me and protect someone else?
Before Kỳ Lân Nhai, I was too distracted to fear the demons in the cave. I could only keep asking myself the same questions.
“You have ten days,” Thẩm Khứ Chu said, tossing me down by the cave entrance. “Tell me how you murdered my master, and I’ll take you down from here. You’ll be spared the torture, too.”
Bound tightly, I landed flat on my back. “Thẩm Khứ Chu, that’s not how you interrogate a prisoner. Starting out merciful will only waste time. You should hit them hard right from the start—hard enough that no one can stand it…”
Thẩm Khứ Chu sat up straight.
My words had gotten a reaction out of him. They should have.
Because I had said those words to him before.
“Bách Lý Hứa, you pervert. You didn’t just probe Lục Trầm Mặc’s memories—you probed mine, too, didn’t you?” Thẩm Khứ Chu said.
This is… insane.
I laughed.
Thẩm Khứ Chu, your acting is as terrible as ever—nowhere near as good as Lục Trầm Mặc’s.