I Find Her Disgusting Chapter 9

…She turned around, bending over slightly so the Sect Master could see clearly.
“It’s thin, alright.” Jiang Xidai’s gaze swept over the work, pointing out its flaws. “But why isn’t this edge very neat? Any tool can be a sword. Is this how I usually teach you swordsmanship?”
“Sect Master, this time it will be better.”
“…Not bad.”
Jiang Xidai smiled. “A reward.”
Encouraged by the first person’s success, the disciples who followed seemed to grasp the key points, each one eagerly stepping up to try. A bustling crowd of figures gathered and formed a long line.
After a while, the Sect Master grew tired of watching. Too lazy to stand, she had someone bring over the pear-wood soft couch she usually rested on. She leaned back against it.
Beside her, a large chest was placed, filled with gold, silver, and treasures. When she saw a technique she liked, she would toss a few pieces down, watching the disciples joyfully pick them up, as if she were feeding fish in a lake.
Li Xinghe’s miserable screams sounded particularly jarring amidst the cheerful chorus of “Thank you for the reward, Sect Master.”
Yan Huirou watched everything, the incessant screams grating on her nerves, making it unbearable to listen any longer.
She wanted to speak, but the crowd around her was already lost in a frenzy over the high rewards, trying everything in their power to win their Sect Master’s favor.
A high wall had been built here, isolating her, the “outsider.”
Until a clang sounded in her ear.
A delicate, blood-stained dagger had somehow flown out and landed at her feet with a roll.
In that instant, the entire hall fell silent.
“Have you seen enough?” Jiang Xidai tilted her head. “Don’t you want to try?”
Those charming eyes curved slightly, holding a look that Yan Huirou was familiar with. She was smiling again.
“Not interested in gold and silver? Not interested in magic artifacts either? True, someone who has escaped death probably wouldn’t care for such worldly things.”
Yan Huirou shook her head, though she wasn’t sure what she was refuting.
“In that case—”
“How about I reward you with your freedom? Since the founding of my Shasheng Sect, aside from my own disciples, no one has ever left here alive.” She was in a good mood, even showing a bit more patience as she coaxed her. “Perhaps you will be the first. Hmm?”
Yan Huirou’s brows knitted together slightly.
Jiang Xidai watched her with great interest, seeming to want to know what choice she would make.
There was no other meaning to it; Jiang Xidai simply found it amusing.
She was guessing.
For someone who had been in a cave prison for so long, who had never seen the light of day, perhaps what they craved most were those two simple words.
Freedom is something you squander freely when you have it, perhaps even ignore it, yet it is something you desperately seek and can never obtain once it’s truly lost. Even if you have to pay with your life.
What’s more, the price was just a small part of a strange man’s life. It was a sure bet. If one were to truly test human nature, this was a trivial matter.
Hearing this, Yan Huirou did indeed pick up the dagger on the ground. The blood on it stained her slightly pale fingertips red.
She walked up to Li Xinghe, her thumb gradually tightening its grip on the dagger.
The man who had been wailing in agony had already passed out from the pain and was only just regaining consciousness. The moment he opened his eyes, he was met with the dagger again, and his whole body began to tense and tremble. Experiencing such pain once was unforgettable, let alone the fact that he didn’t even know how many times he had been cut. He had been fed hemostatic pills midway through, forcibly keeping him alive until this moment.
Under such torture, any semblance of heroism would be worn away. Besides, he was just a young man who had yet to suffer much physical hardship in his life.
“No…” Li Xinghe mumbled, pleading with the gentle and harmless-looking young woman before him. He had a gut feeling that she was not like Jiang Xidai.
Yan Huirou looked at him with pity, but she raised the dagger in her hand.
The cold, sharp blade was aimed at him, making his pupils shrink.
Li Xinghe’s body began to tremble subconsciously.
Yan Huirou closed her eyes, holding the dagger up for a long time.
Finally, she took a deep breath, gripped the dagger tightly, and plunged it down with all her might.
The dagger was meant for slicing, but she used it to stab.
Her target was not his flesh, but directly at his throat!
A jade bead, shot from who knows where, was faster. It whistled through the air and struck the tip of Yan Huirou’s already trembling dagger.
Yan Huirou’s hand loosened, and the dagger fell.
She, too, was knocked back by the staggering force.
Losing her balance, she fell to the ground.
Jiang Xidai was toying with a jade bead she had taken from the nearby chest. She had just thrown one, and now there was one left. She carelessly tossed the remaining one back into the chest, where it clinked against the other jewels.
“You… wanted to kill him?”
In the pause between the clinking of the jade beads, the woman’s whisper sounded even more contemptuous. “That won’t do. Yan Huirou, I finally found some fun, and I’m not done enjoying myself yet.”
Her gaze followed her own fingertips, glancing at Yan Huirou kneeling on the ground, and she let out a cold sneer.
A terrifying pressure descended.
Seeing that the Sect Master’s expression had soured, the disciples present all knelt. The hall fell silent in an instant, so quiet you could likely hear a pin drop. Wen Xianyin knew this was bad. She frowned, stepped forward to help Yan Huirou up, and then pressed her down to kneel properly, pleading for mercy first. “Sect Master, please calm your anger.”
Yan Huirou knelt quietly in the crowd, but everyone else had their heads bowed, seemingly trying their best to reduce their presence to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
Only Yan Huirou, though kneeling, had her head raised, meeting Jiang Xidai’s gaze.
The beautiful young woman in the pale yellow dress frowned imperceptibly. “…A person at the mercy of others is no different from fish on a chopping block. They are essentially just flesh and blood, smelly and dirty. The Sect Master is worldly and wise; surely you can’t derive any pleasure from this.”
“And just now, the Sect Master was focused on my reaction, so I must be what you find interesting. Since the crux of the matter is me, then this person is irrelevant. What difference does it make if he lives or dies?”
“As for me, as the Sect Master can see, the only thing I can do for a stranger is to perform an act of kindness and end their suffering. As for freedom…”
Yan Huirou looked at Jiang Xidai and shook her head gently. “I have no family here. The Shasheng Sect saved me. It is fine for me to stay in the Shasheng Sect.”
“Huirou does not dare to ask for more.”