Chapter 3
Chapter 3
My junior sisters immediately chimed in.
I could not help giving a bitter smile.
For decades, I had offered Xie Qingxing my whole heart.
I had forgotten that sincerity did not always earn sincerity in return.
Time after time, he abandoned me for Meng Zhiyuan.
Time after time, I forgave him.
Even after he left me in the wedding hall, my fellow disciples still feared that I would remain blindly devoted to him.
Xie Qingxing believed the same.
That was why he had left. Why he had told me to wait.
“All right.”
I pulled the dragon-and-phoenix hairpin from my hair and flung it to the floor. “I won’t marry him.”
I changed out of my wedding robes and asked Ning Buchen to take me to Qingwei Peak.
My youngest junior sister had arrived before us and was already giving an impassioned account in the main hall. A devoted woman, a faithless man—she told it so vividly that every disciple from Wuxiang Peak hung their head.
My master was even more direct. She pointed at Peak Master Xie and cursed him to his face.
“So this is the fine disciple you raised!”
Peak Master Xie and my master had always been at odds. This was the first time I had ever seen her berate him until his weathered face turned crimson without his attempting to argue back.
“Chunruo.”
The sect master raised a hand, silencing the whispers in the hall. “What do you intend to do?”
I walked to the center of the hall.
“Sect Master, Senior Brother Xie and I are not meant to be. Let the marriage end here.”
Two voices answered at once.
“Good!”
“Impossible!”
The first was my master.
The second belonged to Wen Shu, Xie Qingxing’s senior sister.
She stepped before the sect master with a frown. “Sect Master, everyone under heaven knows that Junior Sister Wei destroyed her meridians for Qingxing. If they break their engagement now, won’t the world take him for an ungrateful, faithless man?”
My youngest junior sister sneered. “Isn’t that exactly what he is?”
Wen Shu ignored her and turned to me.
“Junior Sister Wei, Qingxing was certainly at fault, but you should consider his reputation. First we should find some explanation that will silence the gossip, and then—”
A streak of snow-white sword light flashed past Wen Shu’s cheek.
She stared. “Junior Brother Ning?”
Ning Buchen stood with his sword drawn, his face cold as frost.
“Senior Sister Wen, mind your words.”
Recovering, she put her own hand on her hilt. “Wonderful. After all these years, you still bite the hand that feeds you and side with Yuzhao Peak!”
Ning Buchen answered coolly, “You are mistaken.”
“I am not siding with Yuzhao Peak.”
“I am siding with Senior Sister Wei.”
As he spoke, Ning Buchen shifted to stand in front of me.
He feared that Wen Shu might attack me without warning.
I watched his back, unable to name what I felt.
I was not oblivious.
It was only that my eyes had once followed Xie Qingxing alone. I had never noticed that the child I rescued with my own hands had come to harbor such feelings for me.
Wen Shu noticed too.
Her gaze moved between Ning Buchen and me. She gave a scornful laugh.
“So the two of you have been carrying on behind everyone’s backs! Junior Sister Wei, Yuzhao Peak keeps accusing my junior brother of ingratitude, but are you yourself so innocent?”
Ning Buchen’s overwhelming sword intent was his answer.
I pressed down on his sword arm.
“Senior Sister Wen, you defend Xie Qingxing with such passion. Have you been carrying on with him behind everyone’s backs?”
“Nonsense!”
“What impeccable logic. When Junior Brother Ning defends me, it proves we are having an affair. When you defend Xie Qingxing, it is only natural.”
“What? In your eyes, only the brothers and sisters of Wuxiang Peak count as fellow disciples? Those of us from Yuzhao Peak do not?”
Wen Shu opened her mouth, but no answer came.
Disciples of the same peak were naturally closer to one another.
But no one could say that aloud before the entire sect.
Peak Master Xie barked, “Wen Shu, stand down.”
He approached me slowly and sighed.
“Chunruo, Xie Qingxing has wronged you. If you wish to end the engagement, I will consent on his behalf. But Wen Shu is not entirely wrong. Xie Qingxing is one of Ziwei Sect’s finest. If this scandal spreads, Ziwei Sect will share in the disgrace.”
Ning Buchen looked at him in disbelief. “Master!”
“Let him finish,” my master said coldly.
Peak Master Xie gave her a rueful salute, then turned back to me.
“Chunruo, in my early years, I traveled through the Great Wilds and happened upon a supreme treasure called the Cloudweaving Shuttle. Paired with a Phoenix-Cry Flower from the Tianchi Realm, it may be able to restore your spirit meridians.”
He opened his palm. A shuttle carved from white jade floated above it.
“I had saved this for my own breakthrough into the Void-Returning realm. Now I offer it as compensation from Wuxiang Peak.”
At the words restore your spirit meridians, my hands tightened uncontrollably in my skirts.
Reputation? What use was reputation?
Ruining Xie Qingxing’s name would not make him apologize to my junior sister.
My sword could.