By the time I heard the rumors, the entire Xian Ling Sect already knew.
I didn’t believe them.
But my classmates at the academy began openly discussing the gossip, repeating things they had heard from who knows where. One senior brother said with great enthusiasm, “Last month, a disciple saw Xiao Yi Han in Mo Fang Town accepting something from a beautiful demoness. It looked like a talisman or some sort of magical artifact! I think Uncle Xiao really might be colluding with demons.”
Hearing this, I suddenly remembered the demoness Xiao Yi Han and I had encountered during that long-ago training expedition.
I lowered my head and stared at the book on my desk. After all these years of studying, it was the first time I felt as though I couldn’t recognize a single word.
A senior sister next to me noticed my daze and lightly tapped my arm.
When I turned to look at her, she asked, “Have you noticed anything strange about your master?”
I stared at her for a long moment before replying, “My master hasn’t done anything wrong.” Speaking almost word by word, I added firmly, “My master is a good person. He’s not the kind of man you’re describing.” I defended him as if protecting a sacred belief.
The senior sister looked stunned by my response, but the senior brother spreading the rumors scoffed. “Of course you’d defend him—he’s your master. But saying he isn’t colluding with demons doesn’t make it untrue.”
In my ten years at Xian Ling Sect, I had never argued with anyone like this. Even in disagreements, I would step back, letting others win to avoid conflict. My lack of security made me reluctant to offend anyone, even if they had little to do with me.
But this time was different. It felt as though all the defiance I had suppressed over the past decade erupted at once. Staring directly at the senior brother, I said, “If I say it isn’t true, then it isn’t true.”
“You don’t even know my master,” I continued, my voice unwavering. “How can you take baseless rumors and use them to slander a senior of the sect?”
The senior brother’s face flushed with anger. “A sect disciple witnessed him trading with a demoness! As a cultivator, he didn’t eliminate her but instead made a deal. If that’s not collusion, what is? How is that slander?”
“Then let him explain who witnessed it, where, and when. There are plenty of sect disciples—if it’s true, why all the secrecy? Why let idle gossip spread unchecked?”
My words struck a nerve. The senior brother slammed his hand on the table, shouting, “Who are you calling idle gossipers?” His stance made it clear he was ready for a fight.
By then, I wasn’t afraid. I thought to myself, even if we end up brawling, I won’t back down an inch.
Just as I was preparing for the worst, the academy instructor hurried into the room. “What’s all this shouting about?”
The moment he stepped in, I caught a glimpse of a familiar figure standing just outside the doorway. A person holding a wine jug, watching me silently. There was a loneliness to his posture, and his gaze seemed to carry a hint of emotion.
But as the instructor walked past me, the figure vanished in the blink of an eye. It was so fast I thought I might have imagined it.
The instructor’s arrival defused the tension. The senior brother sat down, the onlookers dispersed, and the instructor glanced at me briefly before beginning the lesson as usual.
The sunlight still poured into the academy, the sound of reading filled the air, and everything appeared normal. Yet beneath the surface, I could hear the murmured whispers hidden under the recitations, like threads of a spiderweb binding me, pulling me into an icy abyss from which there was no escape.
When class ended, I rushed back to our courtyard on my sword without a moment’s delay.
Before I even stepped inside, I heard a furious voice from within: “Do you understand what your actions mean?”
It was Grandmaster’s voice. Ever since Xiao Yi Han had taken me as his disciple and moved to his own courtyard, Grandmaster had stopped intervening in his affairs. The harsh reprimand reminded me of the first time I met Xiao Yi Han, overhearing his scolding on the street. But this time, Grandmaster’s voice carried a weight of sorrow and resignation I couldn’t understand.
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