Chapter 5

I settled the six girls on Morningcloud Peak.

Qin Rou was making life difficult for her six senior brothers.

She didn’t dare openly say she wanted the newcomers gone. Instead, she said, “Did Second Sister give the Jade Buddha Fungus to someone else on purpose because she dislikes me?”

Third Brother immediately came to make trouble for me, burning with anger.

The six girls surrounded him.

“Oh! Is this Third Brother? Greetings, Senior Brother!”

They bowed in unison, bright and beautiful, every face smiling.

However furious he was, Third Brother couldn’t vent it on them. He could only demand to see me by name.

I coughed softly and went out, deathly pale, with a crimson trace of blood at my lips.

Third Brother looked displeased.

“What’s the matter with you?”

I sighed.

“You won’t even call me Senior Sister anymore? I thought we didn’t hold grudges.”

“If you hadn’t hurt our youngest sister, I’d gladly address you respectfully. But you…”

“Third Brother, I’m right here. I’m perfectly fine. No one’s hurt me.”

Among the girls, our youngest sister blinked her clear, innocent eyes, looking especially sweet and soft.

She studied him, let out a little “oh” as though she had understood something, and promptly reddened her eyes.

“Third Brother, I’ve been on Morningcloud Peak all this time, and you still don’t consider me your junior sister? I knew it. You only have eyes for Eighth Sister. The rest of us don’t matter.”

Her tears came at once. Even I felt sorry for her.

Third Brother panicked.

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Then why won’t you call me Youngest Sister? I must not be as pretty as Eighth Sister, or as understanding, or as powerful. You look down on me, don’t you?”

“I don’t.”

“Then call me Youngest Sister.”

“Youngest… Sister.”

“You’re so kind, Third Brother.”

She gazed at him in open admiration.

His ears reddened, and he gave ground again and again. First he agreed to teach her cultivation techniques. Then, as the others called him Senior Brother in their sweet voices, he lost his bearings entirely, giving away magical treasures and spirit stones. He was still dazed when he left, having almost forgotten he’d come to demand an explanation.

I stopped him.

“Wait, Third Brother. Did you come because of Eighth Sister’s injury?”

He frowned at me, clearly still nursing resentment. “Yes.”

“If I’d known she was injured, I would certainly have saved some of the fungus. Unfortunately, I used it to save our other sisters. If only we had another one, or some Harp Grass. But even one such treasure is hard to find. There’s nothing I can do. Cough… cough…”

I spat blood again.

The girls looked at me anxiously.

“Senior Sister, you still haven’t recovered from the Waters of Sin. Please rest.”

Third Brother’s expression softened. For once, he told me to take care before leaving.

Watching him go, I curved my lips in a cool smile.

Retribution would come in its own time.

To be everyone’s darling, you needed people to dote on you and no one to compete with you.

Now I would give her competition, and destroy every person who doted on her.

Before long, a rumor spread that Harp Grass had appeared on Wavecrest Mountain.

Desperate, Third Brother went to seize it himself. After finally reaching its territory and defeating the many other contenders, he was bitten by the spirit beast guarding it.

He lost an arm. Worse, bandits robbed him of the grass on his way back. Left with nothing, he became so enraged that he fainted. Luo Qingzhu eventually rescued him.

That night,

I smiled at the Harp Grass, glowing purple and brimming with spiritual energy, and shared it with my six sisters.

The instant I swallowed it, a surge of energy flooded every part of my body, slowly nourishing the spiritual meridians corroded by the Waters of Sin. When I opened my eyes, my cultivation had risen another level.

But I quickly swallowed a vermilion fruit and made myself sickly and coughing blood again.

When Luo Qingzhu came to scold me for being indifferent to Third Brother’s injury, I sprayed a mouthful of blood over his snow-white lapel.

The six girls were furious.

“Eldest Brother, I used to think you were the fairest of all. So you only see Third Brother and Eighth Sister after all. Second Sister’s been ill for so long. You never visit her or heal her, yet the moment anything happens, you blame her. What has she done to deserve this?”

For one instant, Luo Qingzhu looked alarmed. Then suspicion replaced it.

“Let me see.” He reached for my wrist.

I swept my sleeve aside. “There’s no need.”

But he shifted position in a blur and seized my wrist, pressing his fingers to my pulse. A moment later, he let go in shock.

“Why didn’t you say you were hurt this badly?”

I looked at him silently.

Something seemed to occur to him. “It isn’t that I don’t care about you. It’s just that Sister Qin is so ill…”

I cut him off coldly. “You don’t have to explain, Senior Brother. I understand. Sister Qin does need more care than I do. Youngest Sister, I’m tired. See our guest out.”

With her little hands on her hips, our youngest sister said angrily, “Please leave, Eldest Brother. You’re not welcome here.”

“Don’t be rude,” I reminded her between soft coughs.

She stamped her foot. “Second Sister, he’s the one bullying you! He doesn’t come for ten days or half a month, and when he finally does, he only shouts at you. He doesn’t care about you at all, and you’re still defending him. I’m not speaking to you!”

She ran off in tears.

The others went after her.

I smiled apologetically at Luo Qingzhu, then abandoned him too and followed our youngest sister.

At that moment, I imagined Luo Qingzhu must be questioning everything. All seven of us thought he was wrong. Would he begin to think so too?

That was how I had been.

When all my fellow disciples suspected me of framing Qin Rou out of jealousy, I had doubted myself too.

Those doubts had kept me tossing and turning through sleepless nights.

I admitted I had envied her.

But that envy was never enough to make me surrender my pride and dignity or betray my principles.

I had wanted to tell them at the top of my voice that I, Huaiyue, would never stoop to such schemes. Yet I knew protesting would do no good. It would only bring harsher accusations.

That realization broke me. At last, I gave up on every one of them.

Now Luo Qingzhu’s experience so closely resembled mine.

Would he doubt himself, tear himself apart, and rebuild, as I had?

I didn’t know.

But I hoped he would, if he had any decency or conscience left.