Senior Sister Went Mad After My Fake Death Chapter 4

The tattered servant’s cry of “Young Master” stunned everyone present.
Most of the cultivators in the Bright Snow Sect knew of Zeng Jun’s origins.
The Zeng family were wealthy gentry with a cultivation background. That was how the mediocrely talented Zeng Jun had managed to enter the Bright Snow Sect first. His cultivation was, to put it bluntly, built on a mountain of medicinal pills.
He remained the same even after joining the sect. He made little progress in swordsmanship, so he switched to alchemy cultivation. Relying on his seniority, he managed to take charge of the alchemy courtyard and start his own business. His lifestyle was as extravagant as it had been in the mortal realm, and he even had family servants as sparring partners.
Zeng Jun narrowed his eyes, and a slow curve pulled at the corner of his mouth.
Compared to his natural expression from moments ago, his smile now looked as if it were frozen in place.
Mr. Xie stood to the side with his arms crossed, his narrow eyes glinting with triumph. At last, he spoke. “What’s the matter, Third Young Master Zeng? Don’t you even recognize your own family servant?”
When they were still on the mountainside, he hadn’t said much, letting his subordinates do the talking with Zeng Jun. He had wanted to see what his opponent’s next move would be.
But now, on Mist-Shrouded Mountain, after seeing the female cultivator who served as a witness, Zeng Jun’s demeanor hadn’t changed. So, Mr. Xie decided not to wait any longer.
It was time to make his move.
Hearing this, Zeng Jun’s expression turned grim, a flash of surprise in his eyes.
Huang Er, who had been arguing with him just moments before, now stood with his hands behind his back, shrinking away. His face was pale, and he said nothing, his gaze flitting about, refusing to land on him.
It seemed this Xie family of Renxiang was truly something else. They had bought off this peddler with a little money. Everything that had just happened was simply letting out a long line to catch a big fish.
He had fallen into their trap. This was not good.
Jiang Chunai, standing to the side, also frowned.
She remembered this servant. His surname was also Zeng, but it was a name he had been given later. It was because his family had served Zeng Jun diligently on the mountain for three generations that the Zeng family had mercifully bestowed this surname upon him.
From then on, this servant’s family would never have to worry about food or clothing.
Mr. Xie had been carefully observing Zeng Jun’s expression. Seeing that he remained silent, he spoke again. “What is it, Young Master Zeng? If you didn’t know him, you should have said so earlier, shouldn’t you? It’s probably too late to say you don’t know him now.”
“You and your junior sister are from the same sect, and you are her senior. To suddenly bring us here and have your junior sister testify to your alibi—is that really believable?” Mr. Xie said slowly.
Jiang Chunai suddenly spoke up. “Sir, if you believe there has been a mistake, you can go to the Sect Leader, rather than arguing outside the secret realm. Furthermore, your words need not be laced with such barbs.”
Mr. Xie paid her no mind. He wouldn’t bother with this nameless female cultivator.
Immediately, he kicked the kneeling servant and said coldly, “Zeng Fude, why don’t you tell us why I had to bring you here.”
“If you don’t speak up, your young master won’t even remember what you look like. He’s about to disown you.”
“Mr. Xie,” Zeng Jun began, taking a deep breath as if he were proactively shouldering the responsibility. “I admit, he is indeed my family servant.”
Everyone was stunned, including the servant kneeling on the ground.
Mr. Xie said, “It’s your turn.”
“Yes, yes, yes, sir,” the servant said, his tone timid. He didn’t even dare to look up at Zeng Jun. “That day, it was I who made the deal with your men, selling them the Soul Cohesion Pills…”
Zeng Jun’s throat bobbed. He glanced at Jiang Chunai and found that she was looking right back at him.
He had only told her to insist that he had been on duty.
Jiang Chunai is still Jiang Chunai, he thought, still simple and naive. Not only did she agree, but just now, she even tried to speak up for me.
Even now, her eyes are filled with worry.
She’s so naive it’s laughable.
“But, I did sell the Soul Cohesion Pills, but what happens in the alchemy furnace… sometimes due to the heat or the alchemist, the final product can have some differences. We didn’t know if there would be a problem when we sold them…” The servant was clearly scared out of his wits, his speech halting and jerky.
His words were a confused ramble, and for a long while, he failed to get to the point.
Finally, Mr. Xie said angrily, “I almost handed you over to the authorities. The outcome would not have been as easy as this. Zeng Fude, I will give you one more chance.”
“A few days ago, you took the pills from the alchemy room to harm someone, is that it? Now that your young master is here, I’d like to see what kind of story you can spin…”
Jiang Chunai’s brow furrowed even deeper. After last night, she was mentally and physically exhausted, wishing for nothing more than to find a quiet place to be alone. Now, these people had come and were vexing her to no end.
She looked worriedly at Zeng Jun. Was he really going to let these people continue to entangle him here?
Unexpectedly, after Mr. Xie finished speaking, it was not the servant who spoke first, but Zeng Jun. “Mr. Xie, I don’t know why you’ve brought my family servant here.”
“However, I have already admitted it. And now, I will say it again: this is my family servant,” Zeng Jun said. “This is a secret realm. It is against the rules to linger here for so long.”
Everyone present was stunned. For Senior Brother Zeng to admit this was his servant now, wasn’t that more or less taking the blame?
This Xie family was notoriously fierce. Offending them was asking for trouble.
After speaking, Zeng Jun moved to pull the servant up from the ground. The servant kept his head bowed low, his gaze meeting Zeng Jun’s through the strands of his dishevelled hair.
Before his hand could make contact, Mr. Xie unleashed a streak of sword energy that sent him flying back.
He said sternly, “Don’t even think about leaving.”
Jiang Chunai instinctively wanted to draw her sword but was stopped by a look from her senior brother.
It told her not to move.
Mr. Xie was relentless, insisting the servant tell his story.
Unable to move, Zeng Jun said in a pleasant tone, “Mr. Xie, please calm down. This servant has served me since he was a boy. He has never been educated and doesn’t understand anything. He won’t be able to explain things clearly… Besides, he wouldn’t dare do something like this on his own.”
“It is my failure to discipline him properly. Whatever has happened to your nephew, you can come and discuss it with me,” Zeng Jun said, a placid smile returning to his face. “Whatever compensation is required, I will do my best to provide it.”
A tall woman standing next to Mr. Xie heard this and said unhappily, “Compensate? Can you afford to? Even if you gave up your own pathetic life, it wouldn’t be enough for our young master!”
The young master was from the direct line of the Xie family, of the utmost nobility. How could his life be dismissed with a casual word like “compensation”? If this matter wasn’t settled and blew up, their family would likely join forces with the Mengling clan to cause trouble for the Bright Snow Sect!
Zeng Jun’s tone was firm. “I will certainly do my best.”
The atmosphere fell into a strange silence.
Jiang Chunai felt her head spin. The effects of the Passion Lure had not yet faded. This matter probably has nothing to do with me, right?
Although Senior Brother Zeng is lazy sometimes, he is still a good person. You can tell by how he’s willing to take responsibility for his servant now.
In the silence, the servant who had been kneeling all this time gritted his teeth and said loudly, “Young Master, Young Master, don’t say any more! Let me speak.”
Zeng Jun was surprised. “Ah, what are you saying?”
The servant, weeping, crawled to Zeng Jun’s knees and cried, “Young Master, it was I who had wicked thoughts! Because you rarely give me opportunities to trade and have so many restrictions, I got greedy. I came here on my own and found a cultivator on the mountain, and, and…”
As he spoke, he actually pulled out a piece of brocade.
Seeing this, Zeng Jun immediately formed a hand seal and struck the servant twice, cursing, “You bastard, where did you steal a sect Quiescence Brocade? And you’re spouting nonsense here, talking about colluding with a cultivator!”
The servant was only a mortal. The two blows knocked him out cold.
A clamor erupted from the crowd.
Zeng Jun immediately tried to hide the brocade, but Mr. Xie held out his hand. “Give it to me.”
Jiang Chunai’s breath caught in her throat as she vaguely remembered something.
This item was called a “Quiescence Brocade,” something unique to cultivators of the Bright Snow Sect. It was impossible to replicate because it required the cultivator’s spiritual soul and the spiritual energy of Mount Shu to be infused during its creation, revealing the owner’s true name. Within the Bright Snow Sect, it was a one-of-a-kind item used for identification.
If one were traveling and needed help, showing this item would grant them passage. However, Jiang Chunai spent most of her time slaying demons and rarely used such a token. Even though she had lost it, she hadn’t paid it much mind.
Zeng Jun was still trying to stall, but the situation forced his hand. In the end, he handed the Quiescence Brocade to Mr. Xie.
Mr. Xie didn’t know what it was, only understanding after a nearby cultivator explained it to him.
“Infuse it with spiritual energy, and the true name will appear,” he said, doing just that.
“Jiang Chunai. Who is Jiang Chunai?” he sneered, reading the name on the brocade, only to find the surroundings had fallen completely silent.
The unexpected had happened.
Someone in the crowd pointed to the female cultivator.
Mr. Xie’s face suddenly brightened with a mocking grin. “So that’s how it is. No wonder our Senior Brother Zeng would immediately admit to knowing his servant. Why was he so hasty?”
Jiang Chunai’s mind was a chaotic mess, and her heart was heavy. Now identified as the culprit, she was too dazed to know how to defend herself. She could only stand there, tongue-tied, unable to utter a single word.
Why is everyone else whispering? Are they talking about me and Senior Brother?
Or are they saying I’m the culprit?
Or… did they find out about what happened between me and the demon last night…?
Didn’t Senior Brother just say I only had to insist he was on duty?
“Junior Sister…” Zeng Jun looked at Jiang Chunai with a regretful expression, as if he had tried his best. “Senior Brother has already done all he can.”
Meanwhile, the murmurs in the crowd were incessant:
“My goodness, no wonder Senior Brother Zeng admitted that was his servant just now. Was he trying to take the blame himself so it wouldn’t affect Jiang Chunai?”
“Yes, and that servant was even thinking of his master. Senior Brother even tried to stop him from talking, tsk tsk!”
“What’s the situation with these two?”
…
Jiang Chunai stood there stunned. She wanted to speak, but Mr. Xie waved his hand, and a burst of spiritual energy pushed Zeng Jun aside. “Alright, move aside. Now, I’m taking that… Quiescence Brocade, and I’m taking this female cultivator with me!”
She should have felt distressed, but last night had thrown her into such turmoil that, at this moment, she actually wanted to go with Mr. Xie’s group.
The crowd was still jeering and gossiping. Jiang Chunai’s face burned, as if they were talking about her coupling with a demon in the secret realm.
She just wanted to take that Quiescence Brocade and leave.
But just as the brocade began to float up, a figure appeared before her.
A fragrance as cold and sharp as snow.
“Jiang Chunai is a cultivator of the Bright Snow Sect. Where do you intend to take her?”
Mr. Xie’s pupils dilated. As a fellow cultivator, he could sense Han Xiao’s power. Moreover, the surrounding cultivators immediately fell silent, their previous mockery of Jiang Chunai gone, replaced by solemn expressions.
He said cautiously, “I am Xie Buqi. My nephew fell ill after taking a Soul Cohesion Pill from your sect. I brought people up the mountain to investigate and, after some twists and turns, found this Quiescence…”
“Yes, a Quiescence Brocade,” Han Xiao interrupted coolly. Before everyone’s eyes, she flicked her sword, and about eighty-three snow-white brocades fell to the ground. “I also found eighty-three Quiescence Brocades. In Zeng Jun’s room.”
After speaking, Han Xiao turned her back and looked at Zeng Jun. “Among them, there is even one I just recently lost.”
“Huh? Eighty-three? My Quiescence Brocade! That one, the one with a bit of blood on it, that’s mine! Right in that spot!” a voice cried out, and someone rushed from the crowd to clutch their brocade. “Sob sob, I finally found you! I didn’t value you before, but now I know I can’t live without you…”
Besides her, other cultivators who had lost their brocades also rushed forward to find their own.
Cold sweat dripped from Zeng Jun’s forehead, and his legs trembled, but he still said, “Senior Sister, what kind of joke are you playing…”
“I am not joking with you,” Han Xiao said, reciting an incantation. “But as for that servant of yours, weren’t your hands a bit too heavy?”
Zeng Jun’s pupils shrank. He wanted to stop Han Xiao, but a sword was suddenly pressed against his neck.
“You killed him to cover your own tracks, so you could more easily harm your fellow disciples, did you not?”
Xie Buqi was stunned for a moment, then immediately ordered someone to wake the servant, only to find that the servant had long since stopped breathing.
The only one who had struck the servant was Zeng Jun. In other words, Zeng Jun had killed him.
Xie Buqi was still in shock. “Wh-what is going on?”
A female cultivator accompanying Han Xiao stepped forward and said, “The Quiescence Brocade, while it has no direct use, can prove our identity as Bright Snow Sect cultivators. However, in recent years, many in our sect have lost theirs… Coincidentally, Senior Brother Zeng’s Soul Cohesion Pill business has been doing better and better. Is it because you had these tokens as proof?”
Zeng Jun was about to argue, but he saw Han Xiao pick one out from the pile of white brocades on the ground. “Even mine is among them. Imagine, with a guarantee from Han Xiao, the first disciple of Immortal Lord Yang Nian, this business must be very popular, right?”
“My servant was spouting nonsense!” Zeng Jun argued. “I don’t know anything about those Quiescence Brocades! He’s the one who tidies my house. He was either bribed by someone to frame me, or he was trying to scam people for money…”
“I am not a fool,” Han Xiao said, not lowering her sword. “Then why did you have to kill him?”
“I didn’t control my strength…”
Someone in the crowd laughed. “Our great Senior Brother has cultivated for over two hundred years, yet he doesn’t know how to control his strength when harming a mortal!”
Zeng Jun clenched his fists.
Han Xiao continued, “He even shares your surname. His family has been tied to yours for generations. What kind of person could possibly bribe him?”
…
By now, Xie Buqi had understood. He stepped forward and grabbed Zeng Jun by the collar. “I knew of your wicked deeds when I came up the mountain! I thought I shouldn’t wrong you, but I never imagined you could be so heartless! To even harm your own fellow disciples!”
“For framing a fellow disciple, seeking personal profit, and damaging the sect’s reputation, you will be taken to the Disciplinary Hall to await judgment,” a deep, cold voice announced.
It said “await judgment” because there were still other crimes not yet listed. But the three Han Xiao had just named were enough to have his spiritual roots destroyed and have him expelled from the sect.
If it were serious, his life would be forfeit. And if his cultivation were crippled, the enemies he had made through his shady dealings would not let him go.
What was the difference between that and killing him?!
“No, don’t!”