The first people that Wen Xuan thought of were naturally the inner core disciples who were closer to him. In this situation when normal disciples treated him so obscurely, it’s likely only inner core disciples would still be willing to interact with him on equal grounds and give him the answer that he wanted.
Amongst them, Luo Qingquan found Wen Xuan disagreeable. Shi Buhui was usually wooden. Right now, his best option was his shimei Zhang Xiaoqing, who’s normally loved by the Sect Leader.
Wen Xuan immediately rushed over to Zhang Xiaoqing’s residence.
It was hard to say if it was fortunate or not, right along the way, he saw Zhao Xiaoqing and another shimei standing together, talking on the side of the road.
Wen Xuan usually had a pretty decent relationship with Zhang Xiaoqing. Immediately, he gained a smile as he headed over to greet the two people.
At this time, that other shimei just happened to raise her head and turn towards him. Face color changing immediately, she hastily gave Zhang Xiaoqing a nudge. Zhang Xiaoqing also raised her head to look. Seeing Wen Xuan, her face color changed drastically.
Wen Xuan felt his heart sink, already feeling this was not going to be good.
He saw the shock on Zhang Xiaoqing’s face gradually fade and turn into an inexplicably complicated expression. She just looked at Wen Xuan with this complicated expression. Then, seeing Wen Xuan about to come closer, she abruptly backed away. Together with her friend, they ran off like birds startled by the twang of a bow.
Wen Xuan reached where they stood just now, but only stopped there dumbfoundedly. Even his smile turned stiff on his face.
After a long while, Wen Xuan finally recovered and squeezed his fists tightly.
If the coldness of those disciples before only gave him a dull ache, Zhao Xiaoqing’s escape here, undoubtedly, was equivalent to stabbing him in the heart with a knife.
He still remembered back then when he chose to fall back into foundation building in order to advance even more, Zhang Xiaoqing had knelt in front of Chu Lian and pleaded for his sake. In the previous years, Zhang Xiaoqing also had a very good relationship with him. She was the shimei that he loved and protected very much. What exactly happened to make even her treat him like this?
After a long time, Wen Xuan regained his calm. Turning around, he considered who he should ask next. This thought process inevitably felt somewhat sluggish.
Perhaps because of this sluggishness, it wasn’t until Wen Xuan walked forward a few steps and stopped abruptly that he finally noticed that someone was secretly looking at him.
Actually ever since he returned, there were plenty of disciples who didn’t dare to greet him and secretly snuck glances behind his back. But this one felt especially heated. Other people at most only stole a glance or two before leaving, this one kept following him.
Wen Xuan attempted to walk forward two more steps. As expected, the gaze behind his back followed him relentlessly.
It was someone who just reached foundation building, very weak.
Wen Xuan made a decision internally, then his figure suddenly flashed. A dozen or so meters of distance were nothing. In the blink of an eye, he appeared in the location where that gaze came from.
The person secretly looking at him was an inner disciple of the Sect. Seeing Wen Xuan suddenly appear before his eyes, this disciple clearly had quite a scare. With a loud ‘ah,’ he backed away abruptly, tripped over a tree root in his carelessness, and was just about to fall over.
Wen Xuan reached out and grabbed his elbow, steadying him. At the same time, Wen Xuan examined this shidi briefly. Finally he recognized the other: “It’s you?”
Wen Xuan pretty much knew all of the inner disciples in the Water Cloud Sect. This one was naturally not an exception. However, the one before his eyes had a deeper impression in Wen Xuan’s memories. Back then, it was this disciple who was caught by Luo Qingquan for standing up for Wen Xuan. And because of his capture, it led to Wen Xuan and Luo Qingquan fighting another match, which resulted in his victory against Luo Qingquan and regaining his reputation.
This shidi already idolized him prior. At that time, after he was saved by Wen Xuan, he became even more grateful.
However, at this moment in time, this shidi also became just like the other people, unwilling to even talk to him and only watched him secretly from behind his back.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Wen Xuan let go of his elbow.
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Was there really no one willing to tell him? Wen Xuan was somewhat disappointed. He shook his head, didn’t persist, and turned around to leave. He felt like perhaps he should return back to his abode and rest a bit first.
“Wen shixiong!” That shidi saw he was about to go and finally couldn’t resist yelling hastily to stop him.
Wen Xuan stopped and looked back.
That shidi took a few huge breaths, the corner of his eyes suddenly turning a bit red. He seemed rather emotional as he asked: “Those people were all talking nonsense right? They were wrongfully accusing you, right?”
This question was asked rather interestingly. Wen Xuan felt a little shaken internally. He turned around to look at this person again while his expression remained very calm: “Those people? What did they say?”
This disciple’s lips trembled.
“If you don’t tell me, how can I answer you?” Wen Xuan asked him.
“Many people. Everyone is all saying this.” Finally, this shidi slowly began to talk, the corner of his eyes reddening even more: “They are all saying that you’re working together with demons and demonic beasts.”
With demons and demonic beasts? Wen Xuan was stunned. His first reaction was that this was all nonsense.
But then he quickly recalled that he was a half demonic beast. And then, he quickly recalled that he pleaded for mercy for that shadow attachment demon a few days ago. His heart abruptly sank.
However, as his thoughts churned, he felt that something wasn’t quite right.
If it was working together with demonic beasts, it probably referred to his birth history. If it was working together with demons, it probably referred to that shadow attachment demon. But working together with demons and demonic beasts, this wording was rather ambiguous and filled with suspicion.
“Do you believe it?” Wen Xuan didn’t answer but asked instead.
“I don’t want to believe it. I’ve been unwilling to believe it all this time, but……” This shidi’s eyes turned completely red: “Everyone is saying this. Every single person. Everyone. Is saying this.”
Wen Xuan comforted him briefly to let him calm down, then asked in more details about the situation.
The truth was somewhat beyond his expectations, but he wasn’t really surprised. This rumor about him working with demons and demonic beasts didn’t arise after he discovered his own birth history. Nor did it arise after the appearance of that huge demon. Rather, it was before that, arising from some unknown source a little bit after he left the Sect.
This wasn’t too unexpected. With Wen Xuan’s previous reputation in the Sect, there’s no way a rumor would reach this kind of magnitude if it’s only been around for a few days. In reality, when this rumor first started, most people thought it was complete nonsense and snorted disdainfully when hearing it.
However, how long has Wen Xuan been away from the Sect? At least over half a year.
In this half a year, people said this daily, people repeated this constantly. Unconsciously, everyone started saying it. Even if people didn’t want to listen to this rumour, it was impossible. There’s a saying: ‘Three people’s words can create a tiger.’ The power of repetition was frightening.
With how things stood now, even this very faithful believer was also swayed to this point.
Wen Xuan squeezed his fists tightly, the fury in his heart was hard to describe.
Now the truth was even more clear. That rumor actually had nothing to do with his birth history. And it had nothing to do with the shadow attachment demon. It was only a scheme to slander him. The person who designed this plan didn’t even need any evidence. They only needed to take advantage of the fact that he wasn’t present to let these words sink into people’s hearts. It was enough to hollow out the reputation he accumulated after all of these years in the Water Cloud Sect and make people alienate him completely.
“At first I didn’t believe it, but, but……” That shidi continued to say: “Just a few days ago, that demon was…… everyone all said it was all planned. That you collaborated with the demon, which is why you pretended that location was a good place and reported it to the Sect. When in actuality, it was just a ploy to let that demon out……”
Stunned, Wen Xuan felt like the blood in his body suddenly turned cold. The fury just now instantly turned into cold sweats, trickling down his body.
Wen Xuan abruptly sensed that actually what he was facing wasn’t a purely unsubstantial scheme to slander him, or else it wouldn’t be that much of a coincidence.
He suddenly remembered something Jian Yi said to him a few days ago: “Those people, which of them aren’t astute? Even if I didn’t say anything, would they not sense it? Shixiong, in comparison to us, they know much much more.”
And the most terrifying area of this pitfall was the fact that everything seemed to match up.
The other person had mixed demons and demonic beasts together in the rumor. It seemed ambiguous, but so what? Even if nine lies were mixed together with one truth, as long as something was true, as long as one thing can’t be denied, Wen Xuan was done.
And it just happened, the demonic bloodline in Wen Xuan’s body was the undeniable truth. It was the ironclad evidence.
“This rumor……” Wen Xuan’s mouth felt somewhat dry: “Where did it come from originally?”
The shidi shook his head. The rumor traveled too far, it was really too hard to find the origin at this point.
“However, there were a few people who were extremely annoying, and especially arrogant and unrestrained.” The shidi grinded his teeth viciously: “Half of the rumors were yelled out by them. They even made a statement saying if any of us thought they were speaking nonsense, we can wait for you to come back and have you confront them to see just who was correct.”
Then he reported these people’s names.
The more he heard, the more Wen Xuan felt numb. The more his heart turned cold.
He knew each and everyone of these people. They were all disciples or relatives of certain Elders of the Sect. They dared to be so unrestrained, undoubtedly, because they were encouraged by those Elders. Wen Xuan knew back then, in order to have Jian Yi enter the inner school, he really offended those Elders a lot. But just with the power of those Elders, it wasn’t enough to create this atmosphere. It wasn’t enough to lay down this huge set up.
“Wen shixiong,” This shidi was still looking at him very hopefully: “You will go confront them, right?”
Wen Xuan remained where he stood, silent and wordless.
“You will prove that they’re all speaking nonsense, right?”
“Sun shidi,” Wen Xuan finally said: “I’m somewhat tired. You should head back and get some rest as well.”
Saying this, he turned and went back, leaving behind this shidi who remained stunned where he stood, watching Wen Xuan’s back, completely dumbfounded.
Until Wen Xuan walked far away, that shidi finally recovered and yelled hysterically: “Wen shixiong! What do you mean by this! Aren’t those people talking nonsense all this time! Why aren’t you confronting them! Why don’t you prove your innocence! Why!”
Wen Xuan felt that if his heart continued to hurt like this, on and on, perhaps it’ll become numb.
The only person he felt bad for, was actually this shidi who still wanted to believe him.
Then Wen Xuan got some other ideas, and continued to investigate this matter a bit more. In the end, he found those arrogant people who called for his confrontation and went to take a listen.
As he suspected, that shidi didn’t say everything completely.
Because in those people’s arrogant hoots, there were clearly more words within: “Do you think he’d really dare to come? Haha, If he really came, he better think it through. The unspeakable secrets regarding him don’t just stop here! We’re only spreading this little out at the moment to save him some face!”
This was a threat. A very clear and obvious threat.
Yet Wen Xuan, who was eavesdropping to the side, can only laugh at himself. Because this was a rather effective threat.
In comparison to the so-called working together with demons and demonic beast, the demonic beast blood that flowed through his body was an even more deadly truth. At the moment, they declared they were saving him face. It’s even more impossible for Wen Xuan to brave the dangers of being exposed by confronting them head on.
But was it really to save him face? No. For the head disciple of the Sect to actually be a half demonic beast, this truth would not only ruin Wen Xuan, it’d cause huge damage to the Water Cloud Sect’s reputation. If this weren’t the case, they wouldn’t have even left this face for him, probably.
Wen Xuan returned to his abode. Grinding his teeth, he couldn’t hold back from curling up his fist and smashing the wall viciously.
Lifting his head, he turned his practically blood filled eyes towards a direction outside of his abode.
At the Big Hall that was located on a high mountain peak.
The Sect Leader, Jizi Ang!
That’s right. The person who was capable of doing all of this could only be Jizi Ang. When did Jizi Ang know about Wen Xuan’s birth history as a half demonic beast? Perhaps since the start, when Chu Lian first brought him back, the Sect Leader already knew.
Otherwise, why would he dare to use Wen Xuan like that despite Chu Lian’s cold attitude towards him? How could he attempt such schemes on Wen Xuan? That’s right. Wen Xuan should have thought of it much earlier. Many things that he originally felt incredulous were answered easily after uncovering his birth history.
Wen Xuan temporarily left the Sect countless times before, but Jizi Ang had never done anything to him. He even safeguarded Wen Xuan in all sorts of manners. But that was all because, at that time, Jizi Ang coveted Wen Xuan’s top quality water root and still counted on Wen Xuan to cultivate the method he provided. Until that day when Wen Xuan chose to return to foundation building and obtained Ye ShengGe’s cultivation method from Chu Lian. That was when he completely lost all value to Jizi Ang and became only a troublesome eyesore.
Wen Xuan withdrew his somewhat aching fist and scoffed.
He felt such hatred.
He always thought of the Water Cloud Sect as his family. Before even though Jizi Ang tricked him like that, he only thought he finally saw clearly an elder he had trusted. But now, Jizi Ang has used this kind of method and destroyed his entire family.
But after this hatred, what can he do?
Wen Xuan sat down in his house. He looked at the blue sky and greenery outside, just sitting by his lonesome. He knew he couldn’t win against Jizi Ang. But what was even harder to contend against was the blood that flowed within his veins.
If he wanted to carry his bloodline and move forward, this was the pain he had to endure.
Just as he felt most downhearted and discouraged, the sound of familiar footsteps appeared outside the door.
Wen Xuan looked. It was Jian Yi walking over with a smiling face: “Shixiong, sorry, I came late. That shifu of mine hasn’t seen me for so long, he couldn’t bear to let me go.”
Like history repeating itself, a familiar warmth flowed through Wen Xuan’s heart.
Thank You for the chapter (๑•͈ᴗ•͈) ♡♡♡
QAQ I actually wanna punch someone rn. Aiming for sect leader, but will settle for one of his shitty disciples. Also nooooo Zhang Xiaoqing! You were the chosen one… 😫 Why have you abandoned our baby MC? 😔 Jian Yi, plz give him all the comfort us readers can’t..
I’m also most disappointed in how she was swayed. I thought she’d be smarter but her shifu is the ahole sect leader after all.
First time I’m glad I’m seeing a character blackening. Give them hell, WX (๑˘︶˘๑)