Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Listening Snow Courtyard, where Feng Fulan used to live, had long since fallen into ruin.

As the courtyard gates were pushed open, a cloud of dust billowed out. Cobwebs hung from the rafters, yet one spot on the ground was exceptionally clean, as if it had been paced over repeatedly. Following that anomaly, Feng Fulan walked to the study desk and felt along the base of the legs. Sure enough, her fingers brushed against an incredibly fine hidden catch.

When the mechanism was triggered, a secret compartment popped out from under the desk. Inside lay an old notebook and half a blue Sword Tassel.

When Ning Changye saw the Sword Tassel, his pupils constricted.

That was Gui Zhishuang’s.

Feng Fulan flipped open the old notebook. It wasn’t a collection of love letters or a confession, but a series of extremely detailed records. It noted which days the demonic energy intensified, which seals were loosening, where the Abyss-Suppressing Lamp had been moved, how many times she had coughed up blood, and how the burning pain in her meridians felt during an onset. It was written like a medical log.

The more she read, the more silent she became.

The original owner of this body hadn’t been betraying the sect at all. She had been using her own body to withstand the leaking malevolent energy of the Demon Abyss. Fearing she would alarm others, she had secretly moved the Abyss-Suppressing Lamp beneath the herb garden to patch the formation. As for her supposed collusion with the Demon Abyss, it seemed more like she had been forced to descend into the abyss alone time and again to suppress the mutations within her body.

There was only one sentence at the end of the notebook.

“If I am ever convicted, ask Gui Zhishuang. Do not trust Ying Linyuan.”

Ning Changye stared at those words, his grip tightening inch by inch.

Ying Linyuan was the Head of the Qingheng Sect’s Punishment Hall, and the person who had most vehemently advocated for Feng Fulan’s severe punishment over the years.

“Impossible,” he said in a low voice, as if trying to convince himself. “Martial Elder has no reason…”

“He does,” Feng Fulan said, closing the notebook. “If he wanted everyone to hate me, my guilt had to be established by the most influential person possible. You are the Sword Venerable, and he is the one who upholds the sect rules. You were responsible for swinging the sword, and he was responsible for finding a ‘correct’ reason for that sword to strike.”

As she spoke, a thought suddenly occurred to her. She turned and ran toward the herb garden.

After digging three feet down beneath a withered plum tree, an old lamp was indeed found buried in the soil. The body of the lamp was cracked, yet the wick still held a faint glimmer of white light, firmly suppressing the black energy surging up from below.

When the crowd arrived, everyone fell silent.

The Abyss-Suppressing Lamp really was here.

It wasn’t in anyone’s storage bag.

Ying Linyuan arrived as well, his face wearing its usual gentle expression, but his look shifted for a fleeting second when he saw the lamp. It was so fast that others missed it, but Feng Fulan caught it.

“So you were the one who hid it here,” Ying Linyuan spoke first, his tone calm and unhurried. “Feng Fulan, you certainly know how to find excuses for yourself.”

Feng Fulan held the lamp and looked up with a smile. “Is the Head so quick to declare me guilty because you’re afraid I dug this up, or because you’re afraid I’ll dig even deeper?”

The air suddenly went still.

The gentleness in Ying Linyuan’s eyes finally thinned.

Ning Changye stepped in front of her and said coldly, “I will investigate this matter personally.”

Looking at his back, Feng Fulan felt for the first time that the chill radiating from this man was no longer entirely directed at her.