57. A Little Cool
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The accusations swirled around Zhang Furen, and Sect Leader Xu sighed. "Zhang Furen, do you owe us an explanation?"
But Zhang Furen herself was severely shocked.
'How-?! How did they know?!!'
In the hunting plains, Zhang Cheng had indeed used an illegal summoning talisman to pull in four Sect Warriors, all under Zhang Furen's employ.
The whole thing had been secretly planned with two Xu Elders and the four Sect warriors...
As Zhang Cheng collected his wooden token, one of the Xu Elders secretly directed a spell at it, eliminating the tamper seal, and this allowed one of the Sect warriors to duplicate it.
Between Zhang Cheng, his partner Wei San, and four powerful Sect Warriors far above their level, it was only too easy to rack up the scores, and they consciously stopped at 383 so it wouldn't raise suspicion.
'It's not possible!' Zhang Furen currently shook her head in disbelief. 'No one else knew!'
Down on the platform, Luoyin's wide smile was a little too evil, his dimples deepening.
Zhang Furen had set up such an elaborate plan, but from the instant Luoyin heard about the Sect tournament, he fully expected Zhang Cheng to play dirty in some way.
This gave Luoyin months ahead to prepare, and in that time, he had asked Yinying to go invisible and follow Zhang Cheng and his mother as much as possible.
It wasn't too difficult to catch wind of Zhang Furen's plan, and at the wedding, confirming her as a grievance was the perfect bonus!
After that, it became a simple matter of getting someone to 'accidentally' pass on the information to specific highly moral Sect Elders, just before the competition.
At present, Zhang Furen got herself under control and rose to her feet. "I don't understand." She began, sending a kind smile at the elders. "If I've offended you, please make it clear, so I can make amends... Slandering me like this without proof is heart breaking."
"That's a simple matter!" The graying elder spoke. "Let's examine Zhang Cheng's token!"
"I agree!" Zhang Furen instantly nodded, but no one noticed her eyes quickly dart to and from a Xu elder, and the Xu elder held his fingers in a seal, directing a small spell towards Zhang Cheng to undo his tamper on the token.
Unfortunately, the spell hit an invisible barrier, and the graying elder smiled.
"Nice try! We noticed when you cast the spell yesterday... Wouldn't we take precautions now? I put up a barrier the instant I stood up to speak!"
And this was precisely why Luoyin had settled on telling the Sect Elders...
As Elders, they certainly wouldn't blindly believe such news, but Luoyin's information had stated what Zhang Furen intended to do with the token.
This would make the elders watch carefully, even if only to prove the news wrong.
Instead, they had seen it for themselves.
Luoyin had also expected the Sect Elders to remain silent, even if they were annoyed, so he had deliberately scored a high and unreasonable score, knowing full well that Zhang Cheng, Zhang Furen, and the Xu Elders wouldn't be able to resist accusing him.
Which would only annoy the Sect Elders into action!
And now, as everyone watched, Elder Zhou appeared next to Zhang Cheng and the wooden token zoomed into his hand.
"This token has indeed been tampered with!" He announced, but Zhang Furen quickly pointed at them.
"Lies! You gave A-Cheng a faulty token to frame us all!" She accused hotly. "My A-Cheng reached that score on his own!" She finished, completely forgetting the existence of Zhang Cheng's partner.
"Shameless woman!" Elder Zhou swivelled to her. "Do you think there's no record of what happened?!"
He waved a hand, and the score board vanished, replaced by visions from the hunting plains.
"Sects only stopped showing the hunt, because hunting is fundamentally different from duelling! A duel is mostly witnessed, but hunts are not, and quite a few cultivators underperform in hunts, if they're constantly being watched!'
'Pfft-!' Luoyin thought. 'The cultivators are shy??!'
Meanwhile, the audience was filled with a multitude of gasps as they watched the highlights of the top three hunts.
Of course everyone could see how impressive Weiyan and Du Wen were, with Weiyan perfectly utilizing Du Wen's ability to create targeted explosions, which she enhanced with her flames.
Then they watched in utter disappointment, as Zhang Cheng indeed summoned four Sect Warriors to hunt for him!
But by far the most surprising was...
'Th- These two...' Sect Leader Xu shook his head as they all watched glimpses of Luoyin and Xu Min drinking or lazing around as hours passed...
"I was right! He must have cheated!" Zhang Cheng accused, pointing at Luoyin, and even the Sect elders were beginning to eye Luoyin and Xu Min with suspicion.
But then, the instant Luoyin had burned the talisman...
"Wah!"
"Impossible!"
"What is this technique?!"
Everyone watched Luoyin activate the technique, and watched Xu Min go around delivering blows to the slow beasts.
Xu Min turned to Luoyin in utter shock.
Not one vision showed Luoyin's own attacks!
'But how??!!!' Xu Min wondered.
Luoyin simply grinned.
He had guessed from the start that the hunt would most likely be monitored, so he sensed out the air talismans and ensured he was always in their blind spots!
The visions ended and the score board reappeared.
Elder Zhou turned to Zhang Furen, who had turned completely white.
"Do you still dare quibble here?!"
"How disappointing!" Someone else commented
"To think Zhang Cheng was considered the best disciple just months ago!"
"Who knows what other ways he has been cheating?!"
"What a shameless family!"
Lord Zhang turned to Zhang Furen and delivered a swift slap across her face. "You stupid woman! You've harmed the Zhang family's face!"
"Zhang Guo!" Sect Leader Xu stepped in. "Not to intrude on your family's affairs, but please understand... As Sect Leader, I can't condone such blatant violence! As for this matter, all involved parties are to gather at the Xu Central Residence at once!"
He jutted his head at Elder Zhou, who recovered himself.
"Ah, Ahem! That brings us to the end of the First Round of the Junior segment! Those in the top half of the Score board automatically proceed to the Second Round! Thanks everyone!"
Sect Leader Xu, the Xu elders and Sect elders all vanished at once, and so did Lord Zhang and Zhang Furen. The disciples dispersed, with Zhang Cheng shooting Luoyin one last hate-filled glare, and the rest of the crowd left the Arena with several weeks worth of chatter and gossip!
On the platform, Luoyin felt the Spirit-binding seal twinge on his wrist, and he smiled.
'I will enjoy knocking those two from their heights!'
"2nd Disciple Zhang! That was a spectacular technique!" Xu Lin approached, sporting severely disheveled robes soaked in a strange brownish fluid. "Tch! Don't mind my appearance! I was swallowed!" He explained, waving away their questioning gazes.
Xu Wen eyed him, coming over as well. "Why didn't you do us the favour of staying swallowed and digested? Better than harming the Xu family's face like this."
"You -!!"
"Hmmmm?" A threatening aura made them turn to Xu Min, who was surrounded in his mild violet aura, and he raised a brow. "Are both of you volunteering for laundry duty?!"
"We're not fighting!" They quickly chorused.
Meanwhile,
"2nd Disciple Zhang! I knew you were spectacular!" Xu Lian slid over and boldly grabbed Luoyin's forearm. "Please teach me! I can come over to your house everyday and-!"
There was a sudden commotion.
"3rd disciple Xu! You're injured?!"
Luoyin snatched his arm away and swivelled to face Weiyan, just in time to see her vomit a spray of blood.
"3rd disciple Xu, I'm so sorry!" Du Wen apologized. "You got scratched by that poison monster while saving me!"
Weiyan simply hit two of her own accupoints, then wiped her mouth while turning to Du Wen. "It's not that serious. I already slowed down the Poison's flow, so I'll be f-."
She was cut off when someone grabbed her wrist, and she wasn't the only one who gasped to suddenly find Luoyin right beside her, a serious scowl on his face.
Luoyin himself wasn't sure how and when he moved, but his fingers now encircled Weiyan's wrist, with his index and middle finger settling right on her pulse.
'Tch! How careless!' He thought.
"Come with me." He said and turned, pulling her away from there, much to the bewilderment of everyone else.
"Wah! Am I the only one who suddenly thinks he's a little cool?!"
"How bold of him! He should be thankful she's not killing him!"
"Kill him? Isn't she following willingly?!"
A short distance away, Xu Min, Xu Wen, and Xu Lin shook their heads. There will be no end to the guesses and theories surrounding these newlyweds!
But Xu Lian stomped her foot in anger. 'Hmph! Sister Weiyan, don't be complacent! I won't easily give up!'
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A little later...
Weiyan was seated on her bed, staring at Luoyin in shock.
Back at the arena, the instant Luoyin had pulled her out of sight, his hand went about her waist, tugging her closer, which made her turn a severely bright shade of red.
But in the next instant she was suddenly pulled into a super fast quick step!
'Quick Step' was a technique which essentially utilized qinggong to elevate speed, allowing a cultivator to move in short bursts of speed which sometimes made it look like they were teleporting.
Weiyan certainly felt they might have teleported, as they appeared in the Yan house in mere seconds, and then at her courtyard in the split of a second!
'Is this really still Zhang Luoyin?!' She wondered, suddenly recalling a certain immortal with the same face.
Luoyin led her to the bed.
"Sit." He said, and Weiyan automatically obeyed, which in turn reminded her of the first day in Yin Bailong's garden.
"Are you tired of living?" Luoyin suddenly asked, pulling her from her thoughts.
"Ei?"
"I'm merely wondering..." He began, taking her wrist again and directing a flow of qi through her meridians.
Luoyin's qi was warm... almost soothing, but it was far more powerful than she expected, and she raised her eyes to meet his.
But he merely raised a brow, and she instantly swallowed the question on her tongue.
"Miss Wife, please try and care for yourself a little!" He complained, still channelling qi. "Though the poison itself isn't too deadly, you let your anger cause a rise in your qi, suddenly letting the poison enter your meridians!
"How can you let the likes of Zhang Furen or Zhang Cheng make you angry?! And then you carelessly stood there saying, 'It's not that serious'!"
He finally let go of her wrist, then held out a hand, making a small urn appear. He placed the urn in her hand, and then rose to his feet.
"If that poison didn't kill you in two days, it would've harmed your core! Do you want to retire and stay in the house? I don't mind, but won't Sect Leader Xu use my skin as an ornament?!"
He turned to leave. "Take one of those pills every few hours and don't move around for a while!"
He left the room, but all Weiyan could think was,
'He and Yin Bailong are too similar!'
This was similar to how Yin Bailong had admonished her for not taking those pills on Caoyang.
'Same face, same mannerism... Is it really a coincidence?'
But as she stared at the small urn, her mind turned to present matters, and she turned a bit red.
At the arena, she had indeed been angry at Zhang Furen and Zhang Cheng.
But her qi had only risen after Xu Lian had grabbed a certain someone's arm...
Weiyan sighed.
She knew she didn't deserve Zhang Luoyin, but she apparently could not stand seeing him with someone else!
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