Chapter 107: Carrying Ginseng To Seek Vengeance
The buzzing murmurs rose from all around, like a swarm of flies drawn by the bloodstains buzzing chaotically, utterly annoying.
“I never expected that old dog Xiao Hu could go this far. What’s the point?”
“Could it be… what he said wasn’t false after all?”
Xiao Hu’s desperate death struggle, though still insufficient before the Third Calamity Immortal and failing to severely injure Ling Bai Quan, had successfully affected Ling Bai Quan.
Especially his actions today, which were tantamount to proving his innocence with death, using his own life to demonstrate the innocence of himself and his daughter.
Ling Bai Quan heard the voices around him and withdrew his attention from the wound on his neck. His expression changed slightly, then became even more furious.
The man looked up at the Dojo Master on the high platform and cried out in grief and indignation:
“Master, this old dog wants to block my path and prevent me from joining the Immortal Sect. Please stand up for me, Master!”
After shouting that, Ling Bai Quan urgently added from his mouth:
“It must be because the Spring Examination is approaching that someone wants to harm me secretly, disturb my mind, and ruin the dojo’s reputation.”
The Dojo Master heard his words, his face expressionless, and with a wave of his sleeve, he commanded:
“All idlers, withdraw.”
As his voice rang out, the muttering discussions around abruptly stopped. All the disciples, managers, menial laborers, and others in the dojo responded: “Yes.”
Like flowing water, the crowd retreated from the arena in a hubbub, but outside the arena after they left, it was bustling with voices and even more lively.
In the arena, only the Dojo Master on the high platform, Ling Bai Quan in the arena, and Xiao Hu’s broken corpse remained.
With only master and disciple left, Ling Bai Quan still wanted to say something, but he suddenly felt his vision blur, and the Dojo Master’s figure flashed right in front of him.
The old man’s face showed a sneer as he said coldly: “You wretch, still want to claim innocence?”
Ling Bai Quan’s words caught in his throat, and he urgently wanted to explain. But the Dojo Master’s next words came first:
“Hmph! Do you really think you’re someone important? Why would he use his life to frame you?”
This left Ling Bai Quan speechless for the moment.
Realizing that the Dojo Master had likely seen through the clues long ago, with no room left for explanation, the man covered his neck and stood obediently to the side.
The Dojo Master then squatted down, looking at Xiao Hu’s corpse on the ground with a wistful expression.
The man reached out to close Xiao Hu’s wide-open eyes, so he could rest with eyes closed.
But after he stroked them once, Xiao Hu’s eyelids seemed embedded in their sockets, unable to close.
This made the Dojo Master frown, so he hooked two fingers, poked them into Xiao Hu’s eye sockets, forcibly pried off the eyelids, and closed both eyes.
Then, the man stood up and let out a long breath: “Go to his room and help that Xiao Li Li with her corpse too.”
Ling Bai Quan’s face froze, and he subconsciously said: “Yesterday I still saw this old dog pushing his daughter out to sunbathe.”
But before the words left his mouth, Ling Bai Quan realized that unless his own daughter had died, Xiao Hu would never have gone so berserk, staking his life to spit that mouthful of blood at him.
This made Ling Bai Quan’s expression darken slightly, and he finally couldn’t help but grit his teeth darkly: “What a vile wench, couldn’t even pick a good day to die.”
These words made the Dojo Master turn his head and squint at him.
Ling Bai Quan immediately felt his words were inappropriate and fell silent. He cupped his hands at once, then rushed toward Xiao Hu’s room in the dojo.
Halfway there.
The hatred in Ling Bai Quan’s heart flared even more, tinged with some regret.
He had come to his senses, realizing that his momentum-building scheme today had been thoroughly ruined by Xiao Hu, and his neck now bore a temporary vital point.
The man regretted that if he had known this, he should have struck at Xiao Li Li earlier, letting the woman die a day sooner, sparing him from letting his guard down and being schemed against by this father-daughter pair.
However, the man had forgotten that he had indeed planned such a thing before.
But over the past half year, Xiao Hu had cared for his daughter without ever removing his robe, which was how his daughter Xiao Li Li had survived until now, never giving anyone else a chance to strike.
Bang!
The room thick with dense medicinal fumes had its door kicked open violently.
Ling Bai Quan burst into the room.
He saw the recumbent figure inside the bed curtains and without thinking, kicked out to shake the corpse loose and pick it up to leave.
But the next moment, something made his eyelids twitch violently.
The robe and quilt on the bed were scattered about, with no corpse jumping up—empty, no one there.
That Xiao Li Li was clearly not in the room.
“Damn it!” With no one around, Ling Bai Quan could no longer hold back and cursed loudly:
“A mere medicine slave, dares to deceive me!”
………………
More than an hour earlier.
When everyone in Shao Wei Guan had been summoned to the arena, a cloaked figure quietly left Shao Wei Guan.
The person’s figure was hunched, abdomen protruding, body swaying unsteadily, and emanating a thick medicinal smell.
If seen by passersby, no one would think she was a pregnant woman; they would only see her as a dying old woman gravely ill.
Xiao Li Li trembled all over. She endured the pain intensely, stepping out from Shao Wei Guan’s small door one step at a time, looking back constantly. She wanted to cry but had no extra energy for tears; only clear tears streamed down her pale, emaciated face.
While Ling Bai Quan was battling the many disciples in Shao Wei Guan, she forced herself on one last breath, running through Gu Ling Town.
Following her father’s instructions, she came to a certain dojo hoping to see her father’s old friend, but couldn’t even get past the dojo’s errand boy.
With no time to waste, Xiao Li Li turned and left.
She also found the doorway of one of Xiao Hu’s friends and successfully gained an audience, invited inside.
But just as she was about to cross the threshold, she noticed the man’s odd gaze. She bit her teeth and turned away, hurriedly blending into the crowd.
And so on.
Xiao Li Li wandered a full circle through Gu Ling Town but found no place that would let her in.
Suddenly.
She realized she had wandered back near Shao Wei Guan.
As she urgently wanted to leave, she spotted the gate of Du Gu Guan.
As if by some impulse, Xiao Li Li walked to the small door of Du Gu Guan.
The woman hesitated repeatedly, unsure whether to step forward, ask someone to pass word, and call out Du Yu Er for a talk.
A stench of foul fermented water rose, and just then someone came out to dump it. The person saw Xiao Li Li:
“Girl, are you here looking for someone?”
Xiao Li Li hesitated upon hearing this, bowed to the person, and turned to leave.
But as she looked up, she saw the speaker’s face, and her own half-face was seen by the man.
Called again by the man, Xiao Li Li’s lips trembled, and she softly called out:
“Uncle Yu Er…”
Not long after.
The Dojo Master, who had just finished selecting generals, learned from Du Yu Er that Xiao Li Li was lingering at the doorway.
After thinking it over, the old woman sighed lightly.
She instructed Du Yu Er to first bring the girl into the inner courtyard, planning to ask her intentions before deciding.
After repeated rejections, Xiao Li Li finally met a dojo master successfully.
As soon as she entered the hall, she removed her cloak, revealing her emaciated, no longer human-like figure.
The woman prostrated herself in a grand bow with difficulty and did not follow her father’s instructions to ask for shelter. She kowtowed repeatedly and sobbed:
“Xiao Li Li, daughter of Xiao Hu, pays respects to Grandma Du.
This slave offers the precious medicine in her body as stake and her flesh as payment, begging Grandma to avenge my father and right his wrongs!”
