Shen Qian was startled by the sudden commotion.
When she recognized the newcomer as Ye Qingyi, her expression flickered, but she quickly resumed her gentle smile.
“So it’s Junior Sister Ye.”
She rose to her feet, brushed off some nonexistent dust from her skirt, and tilted her head with a sweet smile.
“What brings you to Senior Sister’s place?”
Ye Qingyi didn’t waste words.
She strode directly over and stopped just three feet away.
Crossing her arms over her chest, she lifted her chin slightly and stared at Shen Qian without blinking.
“Don’t pretend. I heard everything you two said!”
Shen Qian’s eyes flickered, but before she could speak, Ye Qingyi continued.
“Also, I’m a direct disciple, and you’re just an ordinary disciple.”
“So you’re the one who should be calling me Senior Sister.”
As Ye Qingyi spoke, she raised her chin even higher, practically aiming her nostrils at Shen Qian.
Her tone was brazenly self-righteous.
Ye Chu had said that when picking a fight, you had to project confidence—especially when you were in the right.
Shen Qian’s smile froze for a moment.
“What are you talking about, Junior Sister Ye?”
She tilted her head, her voice soft and tinged with just the right note of confusion, but her eyes avoided Ye Qingyi’s gaze as she looked down at the ground.
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“The stinky red paint you spilled in front of my cave dwelling.”
Ye Qingyi stared into her eyes.
“And sending Wang Xiu to trick me into going to the secret realm, just to teach me a lesson.”
“What other tricks do you have in store for me, Junior Sister Shen?”
Shen Qian’s smile vanished completely.
She raised her head and stared straight at Ye Qingyi.
Her gaze gradually turned icy, and her originally gentle face now seemed sharp and intimidating.
“Junior Sister Ye, you can eat whatever you want, but you can’t just say whatever you want. Do you have proof of any of this?”
“Proof? What proof do I need? I’m standing right in front of you now. All you have to do is pretend to attack me, and then I’ll obediently go along and attack you. That’s your goal, isn’t it?”
Ye Qingyi blinked her big, innocent eyes as she said this.
Shen Qian let out a cold laugh, crossing her arms and tapping her fingers impatiently on her elbow.
“Junior Sister, don’t take me for a fool with such nonsense.”
Ye Qingyi took a deep breath.
Smack!
Ye Qingyi raised her hand and slapped Shen Qian across the face.
The crisp sound echoed in the space.
Shen Qian covered her cheek, staring at Ye Qingyi in disbelief.
“You hit me?”
“That’s what you get.”
Ye Qingyi crossed her arms and continued looking down her nose at Shen Qian.
“The actor is in position. Please begin your performance.”
Shen Qian’s gentle mask was completely torn off.
Her eyes reddened, and she gritted her teeth, speaking each word slowly.
“Ye… Qing… Yi.”
Then she spun around, rushed to the door, and screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Help! A direct disciple is attacking someone!”
Ye Qingyi blinked.
In her sea of consciousness, Ye Chu laughed.
‘That’s so… unoriginal.’
No sooner had he spoken than footsteps sounded outside Shen Qian’s cave dwelling.
A dozen or so disciples surged in from all directions, surrounding Ye Qingyi.
The ones leading the group stared at her with hostile eyes.
Someone shouted loudly.
“Ye Qingyi is attacking people! She’s bullying Senior Sister Shen!”
“Senior Sister Shen has been in the sect for twenty-three years, working hard and never bullying anyone! Who does this newcomer think she is, hitting her!”
“We need an explanation!”
Ye Qingyi looked at the disciples who had gathered.
She understood that not all of them were Shen Qian’s people—some had just happened to pass by and were drawn by the noise, others had been arranged in advance by Shen Qian.
But no matter what, now everyone could see Shen Qian covering her cheek, her eyes red, standing there.
And Ye Qingyi was the one who had hit her.
Ye Chu: ‘I saw you being all bold. Are you planning to call your cheap master over to mediate?’
Ye Qingyi: ‘Of course!’
Ye Chu: ‘??? So this whole time you’ve just been pulling hair?’
Ye Qingyi: ‘What do you mean pulling hair! I’m just putting the conflict out in the open and letting Master judge. Otherwise, as a newcomer who doesn’t know anything, I’d be targeted for no reason, and I’d have to suffer in silence with no way to explain myself!’
‘Once the conflict is public, I can feel justified in isolating all of them and focus on my cultivation.’
Ye Chu: ‘Wow. I never knew your thought process was so bizarre.’
Ye Qingyi pulled out the communication jade slip that Feng Xianyun had left her and started calling.
Seeing this, Shen Qian sneered.
“So that’s it. Relying on Master’s favor to act with impunity?”
“Too bad. I already set up a formation long ago. Your transmission won’t reach Master.”
“Besides, this is Master’s meditation time. He won’t extend his divine sense during this period.”
“So you’re a turtle in a jar now, Ye Qingyi~.”
‘Oh crap?!’
‘Can I use the Divine Mask to call you out now?’
Ye Qingyi asked hurriedly in her mind.
‘I can’t fight so many people.’
‘I’m just a remnant soul residing in you. Letting me out carries too much risk, honestly. It’s not worth it for a bunch of small fries,’ Ye Chu replied.
Ye Qingyi panicked.
‘But this is life and death! I really can’t beat them, and I can’t call Master. I don’t know what they’ll do to me.’
‘Why was it okay when it was Qin Qiwu, but not now?’
‘Because Qin Qiwu had set up a barrier to block detection, so I could safely come out. And that situation was way more dangerous than this!’
‘Relax. They can’t hurt you. Your attacks might not land, but your defense is correspondingly high.’
‘They’re all at Foundation Establishment, not a single Golden Core. They can’t break through your defense.’
Ye Qingyi: ‘Really? I don’t believe you!’
Ye Chu: ‘Don’t believe me? Then I’ll teach you another method.’
‘“If everyone gives a little love, the world will be a better place.”’
‘Don’t think about attacking. Think about love and peace. Think about giving them a loving hug!’
Ye Qingyi blinked: ‘…Huh?’
Ye Chu: ‘You lovingly hug them, you’re too emotional, you use too much strength, and you accidentally break a few of their ribs. Makes perfect sense, right?’
‘If that’s not enough, I can also teach you the Lin Daiyu Upside-Down Willow Uprooting, or finish her off with a Batista Bomb.’
With that, Ye Chu transmitted the visual memory of those two moves to Ye Qingyi.
It didn’t matter if she didn’t know the exact technique and couldn’t learn them—as long as she could mimic the motions, that was fine.
Ye Qingyi was pure brute strength.
Ye Qingyi: ‘Isn’t that too cruel? Will I kill Shen Qian?’
Ye Chu: ‘Then go easy on her, won’t you?’
Ye Qingyi: ‘Okay!’
Ye Qingyi looked at Shen Qian, spread her arms, and charged at her while shouting, “Senior Sister Shen, I know I was wrong! Let’s hug and make up!”
Shen Qian: ‘???’
She had no idea what Ye Qingyi was up to, but her instincts screamed that something was wrong.
“Stop her!”
Two disciples rushed forward to grab Ye Qingyi.
And then—they flew.
Qingyi just “accidentally” bumped into them, and the two were sent flying like they’d been hit by a train, crashing into the wall, sliding down, and unable to get up for a while.
“What the hell?!”
“How is she so strong?!”
“A body cultivator?! She’s a body cultivator?!”
“Are body cultivators this strong?”
The surrounding disciples backed away.
Some had their mouths hanging open, some instinctively hid behind their companions, and some started edging toward the cave entrance.
Shen Qian also scrambled to retreat, stepping backward on her tiptoes, her skirt fluttering.
But she found that for every step she took back, Ye Qingyi took two forward, far outpacing her.
Her expression shifted from calm to shock, and from shock to terror.
Even the hand she used to form seals was trembling.
All she could do was watch helplessly as Ye Qingyi’s arms opened wide, like two iron pincers, reaching out to embrace her.
Sunlight slanted in from outside, casting a long shadow behind Ye Qingyi that enveloped Shen Qian entirely.
And then?
There was no “then.”
What difference was there between a frail Qi Refining mage being closed in on by a body cultivator at the peak of Golden Core and an egg hitting a rock?
The moment Ye Qingyi’s arms wrapped around Shen Qian’s proudly slim waist, Shen Qian’s entire body stiffened as if crushed by a mountain.
Her eyes bulged, her mouth opened wide but no sound came out.
Then..
Crack.
A very light, very crisp sound.
The light in Shen Qian’s eyes went out.
Her pupils dilated, her head lolled to one side, and her entire body went limp, like a broken willow branch collapsing in Ye Qingyi’s arms.
Startled, Ye Qingyi quickly loosened her grip.
With one arm she held Shen Qian to keep her from falling to the ground, and with the other she fumbled through her storage pouch for healing pills.
Popping the cork, she poured them straight into Shen Qian’s mouth.
Then she thought better of it and felt a pang of reluctance.
How could she use the life-saving pills Master had given her for cultivation to save someone who wanted to harm her?
But she’d already fed them.
The more Ye Qingyi thought about it, the more bitter she felt.
Then she remembered how Ye Chu had once, without her knowledge, looted the belongings of disciples from the other three factions…
So, under everyone’s stunned gaze, she gently laid Shen Qian on the ground, pinched the ribbon of Shen Qian’s storage pouch between two fingers, and gave it a light tug.
The pouch came away in her hand.
She weighed it in her hand, tucked it into her sleeve, stood up, brushed the dust off her knees, and swept a righteous look over the dumbfounded disciples around her.
“Senior Sister fainted. I’m holding onto her belongings for safekeeping. I’ll give them back when she wakes up. That’s perfectly reasonable, right?”
Her face was pure innocence, her eyes clear as a spring, as if she were genuinely doing a good deed.
Ye Chu was speechless. ‘This kid learns fast!’
‘…When did you learn to steal from the thieves?’
Ye Qingyi’s lips curled almost imperceptibly as she replied in her mind, ‘From you.’
‘When did I ever teach you that?!’
‘Your actions taught me.’
‘That’s too heavy a pot to pin on an old man like me.’
Just as the scene fell into an awkward silence, Qin Qiwu appeared.
“How lively! Can you tell me what happened?”
“Do you need my help?”
As Qin Qiwu asked, her eyes stared directly at Ye Chu.
Ye Chu immediately got a very bad feeling about this.