"Senior Brother Ji?" It took a moment for Tianyi to recall who Bai Weiwei was referring to. Suddenly, that peerlessly beautiful face flashed through Tianyi's mind. Why is a man so beautiful anyways?
Still, Tianyi was brought back to reality and gazed into Bai Weiwei's hate-filled eyes. It was a complete contrast to the clear and innocent eyes she previously had. "What do you mean I killed him?"
At that time, when he was attacked by Leviathan Ancestor's attack, he had focused most of his attention on teleporting Daoyi and Xi Ri away, so he didn't pay attention to anyone else. Even so, Tianyi didn't think that anyone died because Leviathan Ancestor's attack was directed at him. Were they truly so useless to be killed by the aftereffects of an attack, even if it was true demon's technique?
"Don't act like you don't know! You're so powerful. You must have been able to prevent his death! You must have done it on purpose. You killed Senior Brother Ji!" Bai Weiwei's voice was sharp and grating, and there was a sense of desolation hidden within that everyone could hear. It was as if the sky had collapsed for her.
"Wait, you haven't even explained everything. I don't even know what's going on." Tianyi said, feeling especially innocent. To him, it was as if Bai Weiwei had gone crazy and accused him out of nowhere. He remembered that he told everyone that there would be risks to the battle, so how could it be blamed on him?
Bai Weiwei continued to glare at Tianyi while tears streamed down her face. If no one knew the circumstances, it would appear Tianyi was bullying a weak girl.
Years ago, when she had been with Lai Erchu, she had happened to chance upon Ji Wutong and talked to him for a few moments, but because of that one instance, Lai Erchu felt she was unfaithful. As a result, the matter was blown up, and the female disciples who already didn't like her started to hate her even more.
Without Lai Erchu's protection, her situation became even worse. Pushed to the brink, Bai Weiwei searched for her old friends, but none of them wanted to help her. She couldn't understand why did everyone hated her. Why did her old friends only look coldly at her? Just what did she do wrong? Lai Erchu had thrown her away without reason, she was the victim!
Bai Weiwei felt as if the whole world had abandoned her. At that moment, Ji Wutong appeared like a savior and brought her out of the darkness. Bai Weiwei knew that her status and talent couldn't compare to Ji Wutong, so she didn't have thoughts of becoming dao companions. She stayed by his side, only wanting to repay the debt she owed him.
However, as time passed, Bai Weiwei's heart moved. Ji Wutong was a good man, treated her very well, and gave her numerous cultivation resources without expecting anything in return. Knowing that her debt was growing by the day, Bai Weiwei tried to refuse, but Ji Wutong didn't allow her to.
The intimacy between them only increased during their time in the Demon Cage Realm. Bing Huoyuan was a good brother figure, and he treated her even better than before, but Ji Wutong treated her even better than Bing Huoyuan. Ji Wutong even supported Bai Ningwei because of Bai Weiwei.
Under Ji Wutong's sweet actions, Bai Weiwei felt her heart move like never before. It was not that she had felt her heart move by men like Lai Erchu or others who swore to protect her, but it was only now that Bai Weiwei realized her feelings for Ji Wutong were different. Ji Wutong was unlike the men who distanced themselves from her after Lai Erchu accused her of being unfaithful.
He was different.
Bai Weiwei still had a modicum of logic, so she didn't act on those feelings, but with each passing day, she felt her defense against Ji Wutong weaken, and her feelings grew stronger. The final straw was when Ji Wutong used his body to shield her from the aftereffects of Leviathan Ancestor's attack.
Ji Wutong had spurt a mouthful of blood afterward, shocking Bai Weiwei. The sweet feeling she had in her heart immediately became panic. Her mind focused on bringing Ji Wutong to safety, completely forgetting about her sister and Bing Huoyuan.
Bai Weiwei tried numerous times to heal Ji Wutong's wounds, most of which consisted of feeding him all the healing pills she could. However, nothing worked. Ji Wutong just lay there in a daze with his eyes opened as if he had lost his soul.
Even so, Bai Weiwei thought that there was still a chance of saving Ji Wutong, but that all came collapsing down when everyone was teleported out of the Vast Heaven Islands. Ji Wutong lost all signs of life.
"How could you not know? You're Prince Xi, the son of the legendary Sword Empress!" Bai Weiwei said. In a way, this was her way of showing her faith in Tianyi.
In her eyes, Tianyi was infallible and undefeatable. This feeling started when Su Bojing saved her from the female disciple's bullying in the Heavenly Connection Gathering. This was further reinforced by Bai Ningwei's praise of Tianyi and solidified when she saw how Tianyi controlled the Vast Heaven Islands to kill thirty percent of the demon army in an instant. There was nothing he couldn't do, so when Ji Wutong died, Tianyi must have planned it!
"Junior Sister Bai, stop it. It's not Daoist Xi's fault. Senior Brother Ji wasn't the only one hurt." A Bright Ascension Sect disciple who couldn't bear to listen any longer stepped in.
Bai Weiwei turned her tearful eyes towards the male disciple who stepped out. She recalled that he was one that hadn't slighted her in any way, but she couldn't let the matter go simply. Suddenly an idea occurred to her. "Prince Xi, how are you going to account for all the other injured disciples! We all followed you because we trusted you!"
The Bright Ascension Sect disciple felt his scalp tingle. You idiot! Senior Brother Ji is an important disciple of our sect, but that is Daoist Xi, the son of the Sword Empress! He can take down over tens of thousands of demons and the Unity Realm level demons by himself. His potential is limitless! Even if he is responsible, what do you think we can do? Even if he won't dare to kill us because we are from different sects, this is sowing enmity! Once he attains a position of power, he'll remember this!
To be honest, the Bright Ascension Sect disciple also felt dissatisfied with Tianyi, but he knew it was on an emotional level. Tianyi informed everyone of the risks and gave them a chance to flee before waiting for the demons. So even if someone got injured or died, Tianyi would not be held accountable.
The Bright Ascension Sect disciple also had some bias towards Bai Weiwei, but as he was an unrelated person, so he could only keep a superficial politeness towards her. As a bystander, he saw it more clearly than others.
Bai Weiwei was an unlucky star.
Whichever male was closest to her would get bad luck. He only did some cursory investigation to discover this. Take Lai Erchu as an example. After he broke up with Bai Weiwei, he suffered a series of bad luck and lost his chance to attend the Demon Slaying Expedition, but this was actually all done by Ji Wutong.
The Bright Ascension Sect disciple didn't feel bad for Lai Erchu because Lai Erchu had done the same thing to his cousin, and the previous man Bai Weiwei was close to. All he could say was that it was karma.
Don't get him started on what happened to the females who bullied Bai Weiwei.
And now, Ji Wutong lost his life due to Bai Weiwei. Everyone who got close to Bai Weiwei suffered. The Bright Ascension Sect disciple didn't know the exact sequences of events that led to this, but he knew Bai Weiwei was somehow involved.
Xia Yushan watched this without saying anything. Logically speaking, as the Buzhou Immortal Sect's eldest senior brother, he should step up and back Tianyi up since Bai Weiwei wasn't attacking Tianyi but the Buzhou Immortal Sect's prestige at the same time. However, recalling that he also had to deal with such matters when Ragingflame Crow attacked, he didn't say anything.
It was better for Tianyi to learn from the experience and mature, or that was how Xia Yushan lied to himself. In truth, he just wanted company. Misery loves company.
Tianyi held his head, feeling a headache coming up. I should have never interacted with this girl at all. Not even her sister! Why did I ask Su Bojing to investigate the girl? Damn my curiosity! Eh, isn't this Su Bojing's fault? If he were a bit smarter, this girl would haven't known about me!
Tianyi knew he was a bit unreasonable towards Su Bojing. Since he was the person responsible for the Vast Heaven Islands, he had a large responsibility. Bai Weiwei would still blame him even if she had never interacted with him. He just never expected the demons to have a method to create talisman as well, and an immortal level one at that.
"Where are the injured disciples? Let me take a look." Tianyi finally said.
Hearing this, Bai Weiwei stopped and felt a spark of hope ignited inside of her. She quickly brought Ji Wutong's body forward and placed it in front of Tianyi. Aside from his unnatural pallor, Ji Wutong's body didn't seem to have any injuries.
The moment Tianyi saw him, he knew it was futile. Although the body seemed fine, the soul was already gone.
Not just Bai Weiwei, more and more injured disciples came forward. All of them looked worse than Ji Wutong, with wounds all over their bodies. Surprisingly, Ji Wutong was the only nascent soul grandmaster that died, while only five other core formation masters died. One of the core formation masters was from the Buzhou Immortal Sect.
Tapping his purple jade pendant, silver light erupted from it and engulfed everyone. Tianyi was using the sea of time's natural effects to enhance his spacetime technique. Under the influence of Tianyi's technique, the injuries on their bodies disappeared, and even their qi returned.
However, that didn't mean they were healed. Tianyi frowned as he detected this and sighed. "I can only heal the physical wounds. The attack also injured your soul. I can't help you with this."
Although he said this, Tianyi felt that something was off. When he was blocking Leviathan Ancestor's attack, he hadn't felt his soul get injured at all, so how did these disciples get soul injuries? He didn't believe that his soul was strong enough to ignore a true demon level soul attack.
The disciples who had their physical injuries healed still thanked Tianyi. Healing their physical injuries was better than nothing. At this time, Tianyi glanced at Ji Wutong's body and closed his eyes. Life had returned to Ji Wutong's body, and his skin wasn't so pale anymore, but that was only superficial. Ji Wutong's soul was still gone.
In other words, Ji Wutong was still dead, and his body was pretty much a bag of flesh.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Prince Xi. I knew you could save Senior Brother Ji." Bai Weiwei said as she hugged Ji Wutong's body. She could feel the breath of life in Ji Wutong's body.
Tianyi felt uncomfortable at Bai Weiwei's words. It was as if he had healed everyone because Bai Weiwei forced him and not out of his own will, making him displeased. Still, he felt a bit bad for Bai Weiwei, but some things must be made clear. "Don't celebrate too soon. I said that I could heal physical wounds but not soul wounds. Daoist Ji's body is fine, but his soul has disappeared."
Bai Weiwei froze and looked up numbly at Tianyi, not comprehending his words. However, her eyes soon sharpened as they've never had before and stabbed into Tianyi like daggers. "Xi.Tian.Yi! How could you?!"
She had just experienced hope and happiness, but her happiness was suddenly knocked out of her by a sucker punch, catching her off guard. All the gratefulness towards Tianyi combined with the previous feelings of betrayal all transformed into hatred. "Is it fun? Is it fun to play with my feelings like this?!"
"Miss Bai, Senior Brother Xi isn't the one who killed Daoist Ji. Why are you directing your hatred at him? Shouldn't you hate the demons instead?" At this moment, Daoyi stepped out and spoke for Tianyi, catching Tianyi by surprise.
"Senior Sister Jiang is correct. Why are you blaming your ally instead of the murderer? Although we are from different sects, for the duration of the expedition, we are allies." Xi Ri also came up and supported Tianyi.
As if a dam had broken, those from the Buzhou Immortal Sect and those who had received Tianyi's aid began to speak up. Truthfully speaking, for six disciples to die from a true demon's attack was an incredibly low death rate, especially since the strongest cultivators were only at the Nascent Soul Realm. Compared to the assault in the Jade Rabbit Clan's territory, it was practically casualty-free.
Those that had taken some demon corpses from Tianyi's piles of demon also began to speak up. The casualty rate was too low, so many people hadn't noticed that there were any deaths until Bai Weiwei's cries. And since they received good things from Tianyi, it wasn't good for them to go against Tianyi.
Bai Weiwei's tears which had stopped, began to stream down even harder at so many people standing up for Tianyi. "You, You! You are all Buzhou Immortal Sect's loyal dogs!"
Hearing Bai Weiwei cursed them, even the people who sympathized with Bai Weiwei looked coldly at her, but the person herself hadn't noticed. "I know you all fear the Buzhou Immortal Sect. That's why you don't dare make Prince Xi take the blame. No, not Prince Xi, you don't dare to point at Xi Tianyi!"
"Senior Brother Ji's father is right. You are all afraid of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. But nothing is eternal, the Buzhou Immortal Sect will disappear one day, and you, their loyal dogs, will follow them!" At this, all the disciples' faces darkened.
It was true that they feared the Buzhou Immortal Sect and pledged allegiance to them because they had no other choice, but no one liked to be compared to a dog, especially these proud geniuses of their generation. Furthermore, Bai Weiwei's words hinted at a deeper meaning. If their sects were suspected of treason or rebellion, the Buzhou Immortal Sect would heartlessly eliminate them.
None hated Bai Weiwei more than the Bright Ascension Sect disciples at this moment. They all came forward and dragged Bai Weiwei back while apologizing to Tianyi and the other disciples, but Bai Weiwei was still shouting. "What's wrong? I'm just telling the truth! Not just Senior Brother Ji's father, but other elders are unhappy. The Buzhou Immortal Sect is an unqualified hegemon!"
At this, the Bright Ascension Sect disciples' faces dramatically paled.
The disciples of other sects began to sympathize with the Bright Ascension Sect at this point. They still hated Bai Weiwei, but that didn't stop them. They especially pitied Ji Wutong's father. His son had died, yet this brainless woman was bringing disaster to him.
Some things should be kept in the heart and not spoken aloud.
Now, no matter whether Tianyi was responsible or not didn't matter. What was more important was the question of Bright Ascension Sect's loyalty.
"Halt, I feel as the Eldest Senior Brother, I need to hear Miss Bai out and report it to the Sect Master." Xia Yushan took this time to step out and speak, his face impassive and without a hint of emotion. Despite this, the people who saw his expression paled, especially the Bright Ascension Sect disciples.
"Since we are unqualified, we should learn from our mistakes and change." Xia Yushan's voice was deceptively calm and even held a hint of mockery, but no one dared to speak up.
The Bright Ascension Sect disciples all froze as if someone held a knife to their throats. They were unsure of what to do. Should they follow Xia Yushan's orders? No, definitely not. If they let Bai Weiwei speak anymore, it would only make matters worse.
Right now, many people who had grievances with Bai Weiwei hated that they hadn't dealt with her, fearing the consequences of offending Ji Wutong. If they only knew what she would do, even if they had to suffer punishment and offend Ji Wutong, they would cleanly eliminate her before she had the chance to bring disaster to the sect, but hindsight was twenty-twenty.
At this moment, Bing Huoyuan stepped out with Bai Ningwei behind him. Both of them glanced with worry at Bai Weiwei before Bing Huoyuan turned towards Xia Yushan and cupped his fist into his palm. "Daoist Xia, please forgive Miss Bai for her offense. The shock of losing her senior brother made her speak muddied words."
"Muddied words? Why do I feel that her words and clear and direct with no other meanings?" Xia Yushan coldly said, causing Bing Huoyuan to grimace.
At this time, the Bright Ascension Sect disciples sent a grateful look towards Bing Huoyuan. No one else chose to speak up at this time, so they were especially thankful. As expected of someone who would become their ally through a marriage alliance!
"Brother Bing, why are you bowing. When someone is at fault, they should pay for their crimes, shouldn't they? If it weren't for the Buzhou Immortal Sect, Senior Brother Ji wouldn't have died." Too bad a certain someone had a chance to speak with the Bright Ascension Sect disciple's relaxing their guard.
Bing Huoyuan looked at Bai Weiwei with disappointment. He knew that Bai Weiwei was naive and innocent, but did she really not understand the gravity of her words? If she continued, not just Ji Wutong, but the whole Bright Ascension Sect might be buried with her.
Granted, the Buzhou Immortal Sect was unlikely to exterminate a whole sect because of an inner disciple's words, but punishment was a must. If the Buzhou Immortal Sect allowed a mere core formation master to speak ill of them, where would their prestige go? It can already be imagined that the Bright Ascension Sect would shed a layer of skin because of this incident.
"Daoist Xia, right now, the situation isn't the right time. Although your sect's Daoist Xi had eliminated the dangers, but we can't lower our guard. What if we are attacked by a true demon level move? We must move to a safer place before discussing."
Xia Yushan wanted to speak more, but he stopped. He looked at Tianyi. "Junior Brother Xi, what do you think?"
If there weren't the danger of a true demon's attack, he would have rather settled the case with her and raised his prestige and influence. He also didn't like Bing Huoyuan because he gave the most credit to Tianyi for eliminating them. Xia Yushan briefly wondered if Bing Huoyuan wanted to sow discord; two tigers can't share a mountain, after all.
"I feel that it is better to leave for now." Tianyi didn't say this without reason. After seeing Leviathan Ancestor's attack, he knew that the true demon hadn't given up on retrieving the dragon egg, or rather, Dandan. He wasn't confident that Leviathan Ancestor didn't have a backup plan, so it was better to leave quickly.
Xia Yushan inwardly nodded. "Fine, but this matter isn't settled. Let's leave!"
Under Xia Yushan's order, the disciples began to prepare to leave for the Descending Immortal Embassy. Since they could be attacked by a true demon's power once, then it could happen a second time.
After Xia Yushan ordered everyone to prepare, he naturally left Bai Weiwei alone, and Tianyi also left, not wanting to bother with Bai Weiwei. So once they left, the Bright Ascension Sect disciples released a sigh of relief. Originally, they wanted to lock Bai Weiwei up before she could cause any more trouble and maybe even kill her to quench everyone's anger, but under Bing Huoyuan's words, acquiesced to releasing her.
"Weiwei..." Bai Ningwei's eyes started to become wet upon seeing how shabby Bai Weiwei looked. She moved to embrace her sister, who had suffered through heartbreak.
Slap!
But Bai Weiwei pushed her away and slapped Bai Ningwei's face, stunning Bai Ningwei. It wasn't just her, but Bing Huoyuan and the remaining Bright Ascension Sect disciples were also stunned.