37. What a Huge Mess!
Silence descended.
Bodies lay scattered everywhere.
Only Miss Gong, her two disciples, a still-living Elder Yan, and perhaps a few of his guards who were merely poisoned remained.
Gong Yiling confirmed the two idiots weren’t faking and scratched her head in exasperation.
What was this?
They hadn’t done anything, and yet these two… somehow ended up fighting each other to the death. How absurd!
“Oh! Chun Lian understands!” Chun Lian exclaimed after getting up, suddenly enlightened. “They had a falling out!”
Yes, it was so obvious they had a falling out. Chun Lian was so smart!
Gong Yiling mocked her internally.
Recalling the events, she figured out why they suddenly turned on each other. Simply put, they overthought things.
Lacking trust, they assumed any unusual activity was the other’s doing.
Neither of them considered who captured Yan Wuying or how.
This led to a rather awkward situation.
“Master… what should we do now?” Qiu Shui asked.
“If you ask me, I also—”
Just as Gong Yiling was about to answer, she heard a series of coughs.
Elder Yan, his blood pressure probably back to normal, coughed up blood and opened his eyes with difficulty, struggling to sit up.
His mind was still foggy. After closing his eyes for a moment, he suddenly remembered.
“It’s… the Hehuan Sect!”
He opened his eyes and looked around, then froze—dead, all dead, everyone was dead!
The Hehuan Sect, his rebellious son, his guards, all dead.
His youngest son was still lying unconscious near the cave entrance, and… three people were still standing.
Gong Yiling and her two disciples.
“Hello—”
“Immortal Master!”
Elder Yan suddenly cried out, rushing towards Gong Yiling and kneeling. “Thank you, Immortal Master, for saving my life!”
Gong Yiling: “Huh?”
Elder Yan: “Not only did you find my youngest son, but you also punished evil, slaying the Left Protector of the Hehuan Sect, my rebellious son, and their lackeys, saving my Dongyang Sect! I, Yan Wanqiu, am eternally grateful for your great kindness!”
Gong Yiling: “Wait, did I do that? Did I really do that? What did I do?”
And how old was this man? Calling her “junior”? He was old enough to be her grandfather!
Elder Yan gestured dramatically. “Immortal Master, there’s no need for modesty. Besides you and your… disciples, there’s no one else here. If it wasn’t you and your disciples, then who else could it be?”
Gong Yiling: “…”
If she told him they killed each other, would he believe her?
Elder Yan continued, “I know that for a wandering immortal like you, traveling with your disciples, such a trivial matter is nothing, but please accept my gratitude.”
Gong Yiling: “You finally got one thing right.”
She was indeed traveling with her disciples.
Elder Yan quickly added, “I wonder if Immortal Master would honor me with a visit to my humble abode, the Dongyang Sect—
(I don’t want to go at all.)
—Although you probably lack nothing, I still wish to offer you some compensation…”
Gong Yiling immediately said with a straight face, “Yes, I did it. Killed them with one palm strike each. So, what’s the compensation?”
Qiu Shui and Chun Lian stared at Gong Yiling, dumbfounded.
“But Master, we didn’t—”
Just as Chun Lian was about to speak, Gong Yiling quickly covered her mouth. Her intentions were clear.
The culprits were dead, and they were villains. Taking credit for their deaths wasn’t a big deal.
Besides…
“You are the one who deserves the most credit.”
On the carriage back to town, Gong Yiling patted Chun Lian’s shoulder solemnly.
“Me???”
“Yes.” Since there were no outsiders around, Gong Yiling explained, “Your talismans caused their internal conflict, so the credit is yours.”
“Really? Mine?” Chun Lian thought about it. “That seems to make sense.”
“Right? Chun Lian is so amazing!”
“I’m actually that amazing?”
Seeing Chun Lian puffing out her chest with pride, her eyes sparkling, Gong Yiling and Qiu Shui couldn’t help but laugh.
However, this dramatic turn of events made Gong Yiling wonder what would happen next…
She soon learned the consequences of taking the credit.
Back at the Dongyang Sect in the city, after settling Miss Gong and her disciples, Elder Yan immediately began spreading the news.
He swiftly eradicated his second son’s influence, restoring his youngest son’s reputation. Then, he publicly announced that Left Protector Qiu Sihai of the Hehuan Sect had been killed by an immortal master, and that Yan Danyang, the true culprit behind dozens of murders, had also died at her hands.
This news caused a sensation.
That afternoon, the Dongyang Sect’s gates were almost trampled by people coming to express their gratitude. They were mostly family and friends of the murder victims, weeping tears of joy. Miss Gong, overwhelmed, could only stand there stiffly, pretending to be a transcendent expert unaffected by worldly affairs.
“Immortal Master, you are our savior! My son and daughter-in-law can finally rest in peace!”
“And as expected of a true expert, she doesn’t even speak.”
“Yes, she killed even the Hehuan Sect members without batting an eye. That was the Left Protector, the third most powerful person in the Hehuan Sect!”
“Look at her demeanor, her control over true essence. She’s only at the Core Formation stage, truly remarkable!”
“And her disciples are all exceptional, not only beautiful but also elegant. Especially this one, so young yet able to completely conceal her true essence. She has a bright future!”
“Yes, yes…”
Hearing these praises, Gong Yiling could only stand there awkwardly, cursing Elder Yan’s ancestors.
She should have just stabbed him or refused to take the credit. This was so troublesome.
And it didn’t end there.
Somehow, the story became even more exaggerated as it spread.
Eventually, she became a centuries-old Grand Elder of the Hundred Paths Mountain who had single-handedly eradicated the entire Hehuan Sect.
What the hell was going on!?
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