"Not good," Li Shiqing said without hesitation.
Sun Chongyang's face darkened.
He cursed Li Shiqing in his heart for being uncooperative. He had said so much, yet she still refused to let him go.
However, it was best to avoid fighting Li Shiqing if possible. The jade pendant was lost, and it must have been Zhan Jiuzhou's doing. Zhan Jiuzhou would definitely be looking for him everywhere. If he made a move, his whereabouts would be easily exposed.
Thinking this, Sun Chongyang took a deep breath and asked coldly, "Li Shiqing, don't you hate Bai Shengyi?"
As far as he knew, Li Shiqing had been very close to Bai Murong back then, and she was even engaged to Qing Buli.
"Don't you know that Bai Murong and Qing Buli both died at the hands of Bai Shengyi?"
Li Shiqing's hand holding the sword trembled slightly.
Looking up, all the complex emotions on her face vanished. She attacked without hesitation, accompanied by a barely audible voice.
"So what? Bai Murong and Qing Buli are traitors to the academy, just like you. They deserved to die."
A self-mocking smile touched her lips.
If she were to speak truly, it was she who owed Bai Shengyi.
She had mistakenly identified the young girl who saved her and Chu Tianle, and even went along with the mistake for a while...
Her long sword tore through the water vapor in the air, stirring up countless water arrows that shot towards Sun Chongyang. Sun Chongyang's eyes turned crimson with anger.
"You refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!" he exclaimed, spinning to dodge. He transformed into his snake form, and his massive snake tail whipped fiercely at Li Shiqing.
However, before the snake tail could touch Li Shiqing, a much faster and lighter sword light streaked through the air!
"Ah!"
Sun Chongyang cried out in pain. Half of his snake tail landed heavily on the ground, and within moments, it sank into the mud.
Blood stained the desert red.
"Sun Family Sword?" Sun Chongyang roared in disbelief, "Sun Ling! Are you crazy?"
A figure in green slowly emerged from behind a nearby hill. She did not use her spiritual power to create a barrier against the rain, allowing it to pour down on her, soaking her like a drowned rat.
Li Shiqing was startled when she saw Sun Ling.
However, she still held her sword, pursed her lips, and stood guard, blocking Sun Chongyang's escape route.
If Sun Ling intended to help Sun Chongyang, she would not allow it.
"Come back with me," Sun Ling said, pointing the tip of her sword at Sun Chongyang, her voice laced with suppressed rage.
She had actually met Bai Shengyi back on the grasslands, but due to the Sun family's affairs, she didn't know how to face Bai Shengyi for a while and hadn't joined up with her.
She knew that Bai Shengyi was not to blame for the Sun family's problems; it was their own doing. She also understood that the academy's continued permission for her and Sun Chongyang to participate in the competition meant that the academy did not lump them together with the rest of the Sun family.
Sun Ling was grateful for the academy's trust and was contemplating her future path. She didn't have much affection for the Sun family itself, but she couldn't abandon her relatives still within the family.
After seeing Bai Shengyi and Jing Fei join forces and enter the lakebed, she left alone to find Sun Chongyang.
News had spread from the Sun family that Sun Wuwei had died at Bai Shengyi's hands. If she could receive it, then Sun Chongyang definitely could too.
Sun Chongyang was different from her; he was a return to the ancestral form of the Heavenly Dragon Snake, with bestial instincts deep within him. Who knew if he might do something bad to Bai Shengyi if provoked?
She just hadn't expected to be a step too late.
Sun Ling looked up, gazing disappointedly at Sun Chongyang. "Come back with me, find the captain, then return to the academy and confess to the Dean."
"Tch!" Sun Chongyang looked at Sun Ling and scoffed. "Why should I?"
He said resentfully, "Sun Ling, have you forgotten that the Sun family raised you? You are of the Sun family in life and death! The Divine Revelation Academy only accepted you as an ordinary disciple, and you wag your tail like a dog, begging for favor. Have you no shame?"
"Then do the Sun family have shame? Do Sun Wuwei and Sun Yicai have shame?"
Sun Chongyang's words were like a fuse, igniting gunpowder. Sun Ling could no longer suppress the anger and hatred in her heart.
Her chest heaved with anger, and she gritted her teeth. "Knowing that the outer continent has done so many bad things to our Divine Revelation Continent, knowing that some things are forbidden, why did they insist on doing them?"
"Sun Chongyang, tell me, why?" Sun Ling sneered, "Isn't it all for their selfish desires? Decades ago, they could collude with the Lou family to eliminate Sun Ying. Decades later, they are willing to abandon us juniors of the clan. For such a family, why should I seek revenge for the Sun family!"
"And you, learning the academy's sword techniques, using the academy's spiritual skills, yet you come to harm your own people. Are you even human?"
Sun Ling said coldly, "It seems you are unwilling to return willingly. If that's the case, don't blame me for disregarding our family ties."
As her voice fell, the sword in her hand was drawn like a fierce gust of wind.
Sun Chongyang had already paid a great price to escape from Zhan Jiuzhou and the others, barely managing to fight Li Shiqing to a draw. Now, with Sun Ling, who understood him intimately, added to the fray, Sun Chongyang was soon forced into a defensive posture.
"Swish!"
Sun Ling's sword was at Sun Chongyang's dantian, and Li Shiqing's sword was at his throat.
Li Shiqing's expression changed slightly. "You've actually fallen into demonic cultivation!"
She sensed the demonic energy emanating from Sun Chongyang, yet it felt strangely familiar.
Sun Ling directly destroyed Sun Chongyang's dantian, feeling even more disappointed. "I thought you could transform into a dragon, but I didn't expect you to go astray."
Sun Chongyang kept his lips and eyes tightly closed, as if unwilling to say a word.
However, Sun Ling knew him too well. "Let me guess, you definitely wouldn't bear to kill yourself or cut off your own retreat... So, you cooperated with Yun Youyue from the beginning, didn't you? Yun Youyue could increase your cultivation, but the price was falling into demonic cultivation."
Sun Chongyang's brow twitched, but he remained silent.
Sun Ling knew she had guessed correctly.
"Let's go, we need to find Senior Brother Zhan quickly," Sun Ling turned and said to Li Shiqing.
...
In An Yang Village, a middle-aged woman was twisting a middle-aged man's ear as she walked him towards the back mountain, chattering.
"I told you to go out early, but you didn't believe me. Look at this sky, it's about to snow any minute now. If you don't gather enough firewood, you'll have to pick it yourself..."
The middle-aged man didn't get angry, letting her scold him, occasionally nodding with an "mm."
The middle-aged woman grew even more annoyed. Just as she was about to speak, a gust of cold wind blew. The dry grass in the distance swayed, faintly revealing a patch of soiled fabric.
"Huh?" The middle-aged woman released her grip, walked forward a few steps, then immediately beckoned to the man, exclaiming in surprise, "Old Xu, there's someone here! Hurry and help!"
The two of them helped the person up and discovered that the unconscious person was actually a young girl.
"Oh my! This little girl is so pretty! Why are her face all scratched? What a terrible thing!" Seeing that the young girl was still breathing, the middle-aged woman urged Old Xu, "Hurry, carry her down and ask Doctor Liu to take a look!"
Neither of them made any attempt to conceal their actions, and it was the afternoon, when the village was crowded. In no time, the entire An Yang Village was abuzz.
"Oh, Old Xu and Zhang Fang must be desperate for a child to go find such a grown girl to raise?"
"Exactly. If you ask me, the old couple should have gone to the temple to pray for a boy! This girl looks like she'll be married off soon, and then she won't even be able to help the family. What's the use?"
"Don't talk nonsense. That girl was rescued by them on the mountain. Old Xu went to get Doctor Liu earlier, and I followed him. Tsk, the girl's injuries are truly horrific!"
"Could she be a runaway female slave from some temple?" the person next to them changed their expression. "No, I need to go tell the village chief quickly."
Meanwhile, the girl being so hotly discussed, Bai Shengyi, finally regained a sliver of consciousness under the persistent calls of the Qing Meng Vine.
She heard people nearby, talking about "doctor" something, and subconsciously felt relieved, then fell into a deep sleep again.
Before drifting off completely, she only managed to release the Qing Meng Vine from her contract space.