Demoness's Art of Vengeance

Jun Xiaomo discovered Qin Lingyu gazing meaningfully at her and she instinctively tensed up her hand that was holding the fan and slowed down her breathing.

She knew that Qin Lingyu and Ke Xinwen were very different. If Ke Xinwen were like a wild and hot-tempered lion, then Qin Lingyu would be more akin to a poisonous snake, coiled up, concealed in the ground and ready to strike at any time. While the lion’s attacks were powerful, its prey becomes aware of the lion’s presence once it attacks. On the other hand, the poisonous snake would bide its time to deliver a swift, deadly blow, and the prey would not even know what struck it before it dies.

It was just like that for Jun Xiaomo in her previous life – she only realized on her deathbed how thoroughly she had been schemed against all her life.

Therefore, faced with Qin Lingyu’s gaze today, Jun Xiaomo instinctively reacted by attempting to surmise what Qin Lingyu was plotting. However, Qin Lingyu was not the sort who gave away the head or tail of his schemes that easily. At the very least, Jun Xiaomo had no way of ascertaining what Qin Lingyu’s present thoughts were right now.

Jun Xiaomo was not afraid that Qin Lingyu would expose the fact that she had set up formation arrays against Ke Xinwen in her own room. What she was most afraid of was that Qin Lingyu would discover and expose her true identity.

If Qin Lingyu discovered her true identity, he was sure to make a huge brouhaha about it.

Just as Jun Xiaomo worked hard at maintaining her calm and composed appearances, a strong and firm hand set itself on her shoulder and patted her shoulder gently.

It’s martial brother… The billowing waves within Jun Xiaomo’s heart began to subside. With Ye Xiuwen beside her, she naturally felt much more at ease.

“Brother Yao, seems like you’re pretty chummy with our martial brother Ye, aren’t you? Who would’ve thought that you two would come back from outside at the same time this early on in the morning?” A bold martial brother asked curiously and ruefully.

After all, this was the cold, isolated Ye Xiuwen that everyone was talking about – who had ever seen him place a hand on the shoulder on another disciple of his own volition?

This type of behaviour was something that was more expected of a friendly martial brother like Ke Xinwen. But seeing Ye Xiuwen act this way…it was as rare as a blue moon! These represented the thoughts of most Dawn Sect disciples present.

Qin Lingyu’s eyes flickered meaningfully. He found Yao Mo to be a young man full of mystery, from the way he appeared in their entourage, to how he was unusually chummy with Ye Xiuwen.

Where exactly did this young man come from? Is his cultivation level really at the first level of Qi Mastery?

It even crossed Qin Lingyu’s mind that Ke Xinwen’s disappearance would be connected to this smiling young man. After all, the friction between Ke Xinwen and this young man had almost escalated to a full-blown altercation yesterday. With Qin Lingyu’s understanding of Ke Xinwen, he could very well have paid this young man a visit last night to settle their scores.

That’s right – Qin Lingyu had long since known that Ke Xinwen was in fact a rather narrow-minded person, and he was very well capable of killing Yao Mo at the earliest opportunity offered to him.

However, the fact that Yao Mo appeared safe and sound today, while Ke Xinwen vanished without a trace, was testament to how Ke Xinwen could well have failed in his attempt to settle the score and fallen at the hands of a sixteen years-old array master at the first level of Qi Mastery!

Qin Lingyu did not have a deep understanding of the workings of an array master, so he could not understand how this was possible. Therefore, he decided that he could only watch and see how things panned out.

In particular, Qin Lingyu hoped that Yao Mo’s abilities would not be too great, otherwise it might foil his plans in the near future – especially given how close Yao Mo was with Ye Xiuwen…

“I actually stayed together with brother Ye last night.” Jun Xiaomo smiled brightly as she fanned herself, “Yesterday brother Ye and I hit it off really well, so I had come over in the evening to have dinner and chat with him. Then, we lost track of time, and it was already so late by the time we ended that I decided to just stay here with brother Ye.”

Jun Xiaomo knew full well that Ke Xinwen could still be facing the tormenting effects of her formation arrays at the other inn right now, so she had to establish an alibi for herself. As to how the other martial brothers and sisters would look at her once her identity had been exposed, she would deal with that fact in future.

Everyone froze in shock when they heard that Yao Mo had actually spent the night in the same room as Ye Xiuwen.

Of course, this was not because they had any deviant thoughts just because Ye Xiuwen and Yao Mo were both males. Rather, they simply wondered how Yao Mo could actually bear with that stifling, cold and isolated attitude of Ye Xiuwen. Not only that, he had even stayed the whole night and “hit it off” – this was completely outside their imagination of anything remotely possible.

At the very least, they knew that they would not be able to do this. After all, being located within a three-meter radius of Ye Xiuwen would already subconsciously cause them to put up their guard.

At the same time, Qin Lingyu simply continued to observe Jun Xiaomo’s every move and every action. This caused Jun Xiaomo so much frustration that she felt like taking some chopsticks and stabbing them straight into Qin Lingyu’s prying eyes! That would make him experience the torment of not being able to see at all.

At this moment, Jun Xiaomo sighed to herself, flicked open her fan and leisurely fanned herself, covering her face at the same time. Then, she spoke, “Brother Qin, I know I’m rather handsome, but you don’t have to keep staring at me like that. I would feel embarrassed if you keep it up.”

She continued to fan herself as she spoke.

Qin Lingyu and the other disciples around: ……

“Alright, we’re all hungry and haven’t eaten anything yet. Let’s not stand around chatting. We’ll wait for martial brother Ke while we eat.” Qin Lingyu said plainly as he retracted his gaze from Jun Xiaomo.

The truth was that he did not really bother about what kind of relationship Yao Mo had with Ye Xiuwen. He only wanted to know how strong Yao Mo’s abilities were, and whether he would threaten Qin Lingyu’s plans in future.

Qin Lingyu intended to probe about and uncover more information through this incident with Ke Xinwen. Even though Ke Xinwen’s disappearance was related to Yao Mo, he was certain that Ke Xinwen would still be alive. This was because Ke Xinwen was still a Dawn Sect disciple after all, and Qin Lingyu did not believe that a person without any sect backing him would dare to make an entire sect his enemy by taking the life of one of their disciples.

If Jun Xiaomo could hear Qin Lingyu’s conjectures at this moment, she would definitely laugh in his face.

She had not spared Ke Xinwen’s life because she was afraid of attracting the Sect’s ire against her. Rather, it was because she felt that allowing Ke Xinwen to die just like that was going too easy on him. In her previous life, Ke Xinwen had time and time again made attempts at Ye Xiuwen’s life; and last night he even tried to take her own life! Jun Xiaomo would not be able to live up to her name as the one and only Lady Demoness if she did not let Ke Xinwen experience the torment of a life worse than death.

At this moment, Jun Xiaomo felt much more at ease now that Qin Lingyu had retracted his vexing gaze from her body.

“Let’s eat, let’s eat. I haven’t eaten since early this morning. I’m super hungry right now.” Jun Xiaomo pulled Ye Xiuwen by the wrist as she squeezed into this table full of people.

Ye Xiuwen also allowed her to drag him along and did not wrest his hands free of her grasp. This once again shocked all of the Dawn Sect disciples present.

As they were mid-way through their breakfast, a rowdy group of guests made their way into the inn, and the originally peaceful great hall immediately burst out with a cacophony of chatter.

“Waiter, bring me a pot of Bi Luo Chun.”

“Ah~ Coming right up!” The waiter hastily picked up a pot of tea and walked over gingerly as he served them each a cup of tea. “Dear guests, please enjoy.” The waiter bowed before taking his leave and returning to serve the inn’s other guests.

“Hey, I’ve gotta say that this inn is pretty good, eh? It’s hardly like that other inn…tsk tsk, I’m not sure where that innkeeper got his dumb luck from, but he actually accepted a crazy guest to the inn.”

“Isn’t it? I hear that the guest was still fine yesterday. I wonder what made him go mad overnight. I mean just look at that innkeeper’s green and sickly face…hahaha, I think he must want to strangle that guest to death.”

“Sigh, and you didn’t mention that the mad man might not even be the inn’s guest! I heard that the person who booked the room was someone else…”

“Who cares! Whatever it is, the fact is that there is a madman in that inn. I even heard several guests looking for a refund because they are afraid that the madman has some disease that they might catch!”

“Sigh, it’s so tragic, so tragic. Actually, the innkeeper is a victim of the situation after all.”

“Isn’t it? Oh yes, and it seems like that madman still has some identity token on him, like he’s from a reputable sect or something.”

“What’s the sect called?”

“I think it was…Dawn…Dawn…Dawn something.”

“Dawn Sect! You idiot – you can’t even remember such a simple name. How did you even know this was a reputable sect?!”

The rowdy group of people all had loud voices, and every single word they said could be clearly heard by everyone in the great hall. At the same time, because there weren’t many guests around this early in the morning, everyone’s gazes were naturally fixed on this group of people.

The people at Jun Xiaomo’s table had initially been disinterested in that rowdy group’s conversations. However, in that moment that they mentioned “Dawn Sect”, everyone froze in place and stopped eating at the same time.

Dawn Sect! How could it be Dawn Sect?! They looked at each other dumbfounded, and no matter how hard they tried, they just could not link “Dawn Sect” and “madman” together.

Their Sect was ranked among the top three of all the mid-tier sects after all! So, how could they have a madman among their midst? This person must be an imposter!

Among everyone seated at their table, only three of them managed to remain calm – Jun Xiaomo, Ye Xiuwen and Qin Lingyu. Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen had long since guessed that the madman referred to in the other table’s gossip could very well have been Ke Xinwen, so they calmly accepted that fact. On the other hand, even though Qin Lingyu did not know the exact details of what had happened, he had nevertheless made head and tail of the situation, and thus he also kept his cool.

At this moment, the other riled up disciples looked at the composed Ye Xiuwen and Qin Lingyu intently, not speaking a single word. They wanted very much to pay a visit to the other inn and see what exactly was going on. However, among all who were present, it was only their team leaders, Ye Xiuwen and Qin Lingyu, who had the authority to call the shots.

Therefore, they waited in anticipation for Ye Xiuwen or Qin Lingyu to speak up and give instructions to them.

As Qin Lingyu slowly finished up the last dumpling in his bowl, he calmly said, “Come on, let’s go to the other inn and take a look and see which “madman” of Dawn Sect it is.”

The other disciples nodded in acknowledgement, as their faces were all plastered with indignation at this moment. Once they find out who this imposter was, they would let him have it!

Jun Xiaomo glanced over at each of these disciples’ looks of indignation, and she could not help but press her lips together tightly in order to stifle her burst of laughter.

I wonder what expressions these guys would make once they discovered that this “madman” is actually their favourite chummy martial brother, Ke Xinwen!

As to how this incident would harm the Sect’s reputation, this was completely outside of Jun Xiaomo’s consideration. This was because in her previous life, it was precisely this reputable and upstanding Dawn Sect that had forced Heavenly Peak into a corner!

Since Dawn Sect was not a good place to begin with, why would she bother helping them keep up their appearances? Jun Xiaomo was merely doing them a favour right now by helping them to remove that false façade of theirs.

Jun Xiaomo smirked to herself.

On the other hand, Ye Xiuwen was rather hesitant about all these. This was because Ke Xinwen had gone crazy in Jun Xiaomo’s room in that inn. There was no concealing this fact once the martial disciples all went over to the other inn.

Jun Xiaomo also guessed Ye Xiuwen’s concerns here, so she turned her head to Ye Xiuwen and secretly whispered, “It’s fine. I never intended to conceal this.”

Hearing this, Ye Xiuwen furrowed his brows and looked curiously at Jun Xiaomo. He had initially thought that this young man intended to deal with this troublemaker Ke Xinwen discreetly. But who knew that Yao Mo had never intended to conceal this fact? What exactly was he thinking?

Jun Xiaomo smiled as she patted Ye Xiuwen’s arm as she shook her finger at Ye Xiuwen –

You’ll find out later. Jun Xiaomo mouthed these words silently to Ye Xiuwen.