Senior Sister Went Mad After My Fake Death Chapter 3

Zeng Jun narrowed his eyes and sneered at the person beside him. “They’re just mortals. They don’t have the ability, yet they still want to cultivate immortality. Don’t blame the path for being uneven if you can’t walk it. Another family has come to find me!”
The person next to him stayed silent.
As the saying goes, if you often walk by the river, you’re bound to get your shoes wet. It wasn’t the first time this Senior Brother Zeng had run into trouble. However, no matter how aggressively his accusers came, he always managed to turn the situation around.
Based on experience, these people would come up the mountain at night and be sent back down by morning.
However, a man holding a torch in the distance kept craning his neck to look at him. “Mr. Xie, that man is Zeng Jun!”
The leader, “Mr. Xie,” was a middle-aged man stroking his short beard, his face still showing traces of lingering anger. “What else do you have to say for yourself? It’s only been two days! My nephew has been raised in the lap of luxury his whole life. He only just started practicing cultivation these past few days, and after taking the Soul Cohesion Pill you sold, he’s now fallen into a coma!”
“None of the famous doctors in the city could wake him, so I came directly to find you.”
Zeng Jun was still drunk. As he approached, Mr. Xie stopped him and interrogated him, “Please wait! Are you Zeng Jun?”
“Yes, I am Zeng Jun, the eldest disciple of Dao Lord Qiming of the Bright Snow Sect,” he said, his nose still red as he forced himself to look sober.
Before the middle-aged man could reply, Zeng Jun continued, “This may sound harsh, but cultivation has a high threshold. Forcing someone unsuitable to cultivate with spirit stones is sometimes no different from trying to help a seedling grow by pulling it up…”
He spoke with extreme fluency, as if he had already memorized this blame-shifting speech. Yan Linglong, who was listening from the side, felt a sense of shame for him.
By the time he finished, Mr. Xie’s face had darkened considerably. “So, you’re admitting that you were the one who sold him this Soul Cohesion Pill?”
“Not at all. It’s just that I am an alchemy cultivator and handle related matters. What I just said was merely an offhand comment,” Zeng Jun said. “May I ask who you are, sir?”
This man brought so many people to the sect… Hmph, it’s a pity the Dao Lord isn’t here.
“I am from the Xie family of Renxiang, Xie Buqi. You’re also from Renxiang, you couldn’t possibly not know, right?”
Zeng Jun’s heart skipped a beat. He thought to himself that it was a good thing his words had left some room for maneuvering.
Even his own family couldn’t afford to offend this one.
“I have long admired your name, Mr. Xie. I wonder if you came to find me today just for this matter?”
Mr. Xie repeated his complaint from earlier.
After listening, Zeng Jun showed a shocked expression. “You’re saying your nephew fell into a coma after taking a Soul Cohesion Pill?”
“Yes, that’s right. That’s why I came looking for you,” Mr. Xie said, still frowning. “Because the pill he took was a Soul Cohesion Pill refined by the Bright Snow Sect. I came to you, I didn’t find the wrong person, did I?”
Zeng Jun replied, “Mr. Xie, please calm down. As I said just now, the Soul Cohesion Pill is not suitable for everyone…”
“But it came from your hands,” Mr. Xie interrupted bluntly, his tone harsh. “Did you think I didn’t bring anyone with me?”
As he spoke, a familiar figure stumbled out from the crowd. It was Huang Er, the mortal peddler to whom Zeng Jun secretly sold his refined pills.
Huang Er was now black and blue, his face a patchwork of bruises. He came out begging for mercy. “Mr. Xie, the-the Soul Cohesion Pill the young master took was one I bought from him!”
“He does this business in secret. Because he used the sect’s materials without permission, he refuses to leave any evidence, but-but, Mr. Xie, I swear to the heavens, I bought it from him! It was the batch of Soul Cohesion Pills from four days ago. I sold them as soon as I got my hands on them… He was holding a box at the time and poured them into the box I brought.”
Mr. Xie stroked his stubble, looking coldly at Zeng Jun. “What do you think?”
Zeng Jun was now completely sober.
He smiled faintly. “Mr. Xie, we can discuss this properly, not like this, by finding some random person to slander me. He can’t produce any evidence, but I can.”
“According to this treacherous merchant, I should have been down the mountain a few days ago. But I only just returned this morning after swapping shifts for the secret realm with my junior sister. Do you think I can be in two places at once?”
“If you don’t believe me, you can come with me and ask my junior sister.”
“Purple Lightning Green Frost Sword—!” Jiang Chunai’s longsword cried out as she slashed, intending to destroy the tree demon before her.
Purple Lightning Green Frost was her master Immortal Lord Yang Nian’s secret technique. She had learned most of it and had never failed to defeat a demon with it. Encountering this tree demon, she used the technique as always.
The sword energy howled, soaring to the clouds, stirring the surrounding clouds and snow, and in an instant, it annihilated the tree demon layer by layer.
However, before Jiang Chunai could feel happy, the true face of Immortal Lord Yang Nian appeared amidst the flying dust.
Jiang Chunai froze. The Snow Camellia Sword clattered to the ground as she murmured in disbelief, “Master, why are you here…?”
The woman in white had a stern face, her brow furrowed as she shouted, “You audacious Jiang Chunai! You want to slay demons now, but why did you spare that fox demon in the Ice Soul Secret Realm back then?”
“The Ice Soul Secret Realm is a forbidden ground. Who gave you permission to enter?”
“Not only did you show mercy to a demon, you even did that kind of thing with a demon! Look at the great snow behind me. Are you worthy of your family, or of the teachings I gave you?!”
“I gave you my personal sword, Snow Camellia, yet you let it get chipped!”
“Jiang Chunai, do you have even a sliver of your Dao heart left?”
…
The demonic voice pierced her ears. Jiang Chunai could only try desperately to explain, “It’s not like that, it’s not like that! Master, please listen to my explanation!”
As she spoke, Jiang Chunai started to crawl forward on her knees, begging for her master’s forgiveness. But in a moment, the falling snow and the woman in white both vanished.
Jiang Chunai stood frozen in place, only then realizing it had been a nightmare.
She was trapped in a nightmare.
Ever since she had come out of the secret realm, she had been trapped.
The day her junior sister came by was the best she had felt. After that, she grew more and more listless.
Back then, she had thought she would never come to the Ice Soul Secret Realm again. But now, it was different. She wanted to do more than just leave the secret realm.
A sense of self-loathing had taken root in her, and she drifted through her days in a daze, resigned to her fate.
She lost track of time, of day and night, until another group of people arrived on Mist-Shrouded Mountain.
She recognized the person in the lead. It was Dao Lord Qiming’s eldest disciple, Zeng Jun. But why were there so many people following him?
Jiang Chunai had some impression of those people, but not much.
After that night, her spirit was completely broken. Her spiritual energy and vitality had been mostly depleted.
“Senior Brother,” she murmured to Zeng Jun.
Zeng Jun hummed in acknowledgment and said warmly, “Junior Sister, have you been well outside the secret realm these past few days?”
Well? Jiang Chunai only felt a sharp pain in her head. The matter in the secret realm, her master’s interrogation—every single thing made her ashamed to be a person.
I feel like I shouldn’t be here. Today is the last day of my shift. After today, I can leave, Jiang Chunai thought.
She had never liked to make others worry about her.
“I’m fine, same as usual,” Jiang Chunai said. “Nothing has happened here. It’s been very quiet these past few days.”
She saw the crowd behind Zeng Jun, but she didn’t care. Perhaps her senior brother had brought some people for a tour.
What’s so interesting about the Ice Soul Secret Realm? If they want to look, let them look.
Anyway, I’m never coming back here again.
“Junior Sister, how long have you been here? Senior Brother sees that you look exhausted. Didn’t you rest well?” Zeng Jun’s tone was kind and coaxing. “Have these five days been tiring for you? A few days ago, when you took over from me, you weren’t like this!”
Five days? Was it less, or more?
“Junior Sister, do you remember?”
Jiang Chunai’s lips moved. She was about to deny it, but then she remembered the promise she had made to Zeng Jun. Fine, I did promise him. It’s just a few extra days of guard duty.
One extra day won’t matter, and one less day won’t matter either. Besides, I don’t have the extra energy to argue right now.
So she went along with Zeng Jun’s words. “Yes, these five days have been tiring.”
This senior brother’s talent is average, and he loves to be praised. I wonder who those people behind him are.
Thinking of this, Jiang Chunai subconsciously added, “But thankfully, Senior Brother guarded it well before me. Nothing happened during my few days here.”
After speaking, she even forced a smile.
However, to her surprise, the senior brother who had just been so kind and gentle suddenly hardened his expression and shouted to the people behind him, “Mr. Xie, did you hear what my junior sister just said?”
The crowd behind Zeng Jun suddenly erupted. Jiang Chunai was still completely bewildered.
I didn’t say anything wrong, did I? It was just a shift change. I didn’t think it was a big deal, so I covered for him. This time is no exception.
Mr. Xie’s brow furrowed, but the peddler Huang Er was the first to speak. “Th-this can’t be just what the two of them say it is! This Zeng Jun and this female cultivator are both from the Bright Snow Sect. If they wanted to, wouldn’t it be common for them to cover for each other?”
“Who knows if your sect rules are just something you made up on the spot!” he yelled, craning his neck.
Taking advantage of the moment, Zeng Jun quickly whispered a few words to Jiang Chunai.
Only then did Jiang Chunai understand the situation. It turned out this peddler had sold some bad Soul Cohesion Pills, angered the Xie family of Renxiang, and had come up Mount Shu to find someone to take the blame.
“Don’t worry, Junior Sister. You just need to insist that I was on duty for the full five days,” Zeng Jun said in a low voice.
Jiang Chunai numbly hummed in agreement, her mind still muddled by her encounter in the secret realm that night.
In this state, it would be good if I could still be of help to someone else.
The crowd grew more agitated. There were also cultivators from the Bright Snow Sect among the onlookers. Hearing the peddler speak ill of their sect, they immediately began to point fingers at him. Huang Er could only shrink back behind the Xie family members.
Zeng Jun smiled. “My good sir, I don’t know you, and I don’t know why you wish to slander me… but our sect’s rules are set in stone. The Ice Soul Secret Realm is guarded by a capable cultivator for five days at a time. You can ask any cultivator present to confirm the situation.”
Huang Er was stunned. He actually went and asked a few people who looked like cultivators. To his surprise, the response he got from all of them was “yes.”
Zeng Jun’s smile grew wider. “I think this is all a misunderstanding. If the young master is truly unwell, our sect can send someone to have a look, instead of this farce…”
“After all this, it’s all just talk,” Mr. Xie, who had been silent, suddenly spoke. “I don’t care about your ethereal sect rules. You just need to explain this to me.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a young servant with a gag in his mouth was brought forward on his knees. The moment he saw the servant’s face, Zeng Jun also froze.
Mr. Xie’s tone was cold. “I heard that Senior Brother Zeng’s business is booming, and sometimes when you’re too busy, you even have a confidant help you. Is that right?”
The gag was pulled away. The servant lowered his head and, trembling, called out, “…Young… Young Master.”