The Attack of the Wastrel

An outsider?

Gu Lingzhi scoffed, if she was an outsider, then Rong Yuan was one too.

“I’m here to see His Highness, please get him to come out,” Gu Lingzhi decided to be straightforward. The bodyguard standing at the door looked at her pitifully, “The princess is injured and needs His Highness to care for her. I’m afraid he won’t be able to meet you.”

The other bodyguard cried out in laughter, “What’s the point of explaining things to her? It’s a matter of time before she finds out anyway. It is better for her to find out earlier than wait to be abandoned. What’s not yours will eventually have to be returned anyway, don’t you agree, Lady Gu?”

“Find out what exactly? What have I taken that’s not mine?” Gu Lingzhi mumbled to herself.

“Send for him now. I am his fiancée and I have the right to meet him.”

“Fiancée? Ha!” the second bodyguard scoffed, as if he had just heard a bad joke. He swept his eyes over her, “Someone like you is unworthy of being his fiancée.”

The bodyguard’s words caused a surge of rage to rush through Gu Lingzhi. At that moment, she could not care less about the bodyguard who seemed to have a much higher level of cultivation of her and slapped him with one swift motion.

A resounding noise then cut through the air and immediately, the surroundings fell silent. The bodyguard looked at Gu Lingzhi who had slapped him, enraged. He dashed forward and scolded her, “You bitch, you’re just a cheap woman who used your looks to seduce His Highness, how dare you hit me?”

There was no fear in her eyes when she stepped even closer to the bodyguard, daring him to do something to her. She had never made an enemy who was the level of a Martial Teacher. She might even get to learn something from this.

Seeing that the two people in front of her were about to start fighting, Wei Hanzi suddenly appeared by Gu Lingzhi’s side, unafraid that she would accidentally expose her true cultivation level. Her eyes were ice cold as she looked at the bodyguard.

“Whoever dares to hurt Lingzhi would be directly challenging the Royal Family of the Xia Kingdom.”

The first bodyguard had initially wanted to help his friend, but upon hearing Wei Hanzi’s words, he hesitated.

From their perspective, Gu Lingzhi was just someone who would be replaced by their clan’s princess. However, at this point of time, she was indeed still Rong Yuan’s fiancée which meant that she was part of the Royal Family. Even if they were not from the Xia Kingdom, they did not want to disrespect the Xia Kingdom’s Royal Family. Suddenly, none of them dared to come forward to fight.

“What’s happening here? What’s with the noise?” a bright but strict voice rang out from behind the doors as they flung open.

Ding Wei appeared from behind the doors. He paused for a moment when he saw Gu Lingzhi, smiling he then said, “Lady Gu, what brings you here? I heard that you were injured from the match yesterday, why aren’t you resting? It won’t be good if your injury worsens.”

Ding Wei’s words made it seem like he was concerned about Gu Lingzhi’s injuries, but he was actually mocking Gu Lingzhi for making a scene here even though she was injured. He did not even bother to mention the fact that Rong Yuan was here, almost as if she was unrelated to Rong Yuan in the first place.

Gu Lingzhi did not miss the underlying meaning in his words. The good impression that she had about him initially completely disappeared. His attitude only meant that he completely agreed with Ding Rou’s actions of snatching Rong Yuan away from her.

No, it was not snatching Rong Yuan away from her. They were just rekindling an old affair.

Gu Lingzhi scoffed to herself, not even bothering to argue any further. The commotion earlier had already drawn a crowd, and the people watching were constantly pointing at her. Some people who had witnessed the scene were silently rejoicing.

Not wanting to become a laughing stock, Gu Lingzhi turned around and walked away.

Before she reached her room, she saw Yan Liang hurriedly walking towards her. Though he always had a serious expression, he now looked rather agitated. He sighed a big sigh of relief as he saw Gu Lingzhi before asking, “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay now,” Gu Lingzhi laughed, “Don’t you have a match today? Why are you here?”

Yan Liang paused for a while, he did not think that Gu Lingzhi would remember that he had a match today. His gaze softened as he replied, “I’ve finished my match.”

Due to the competition, Yan Liang had remained in seclusion to condition himself. He had only heard about Gu Lingzhi’s injuries today, which caused him to go a little crazy with worry and win the match easily before leaving. He felt himself calm down only upon seeing Gu Lingzhi standing in front of him.

Gu Lingzhi saw the untidiness of his clothes and some parts were ripped open and she could make out the patches of blood underneath.

It was ironic that when she was hurt, her fiancée had gone to take care of some other girl while Yan Liang who had been rejected a countless number of times by her was taking care of her instead.

“Lingzhi, so you’ve been here the entire time!”

It was Tianfeng Jin. The worry on her face was evident. She hurried towards Gu Lingzhi to take a closer look at her.

“What’s wrong?” Gu Lingzhi forced a smile, “If it’s about my injuries, I am fine now. What about you, don’t you have a match later on? What are you still doing here?”

“I…” Tianfeng Jin pursed her lips. She hesitated upon seeing that Gu Lingzhi was acting too normal, “Lingzhi, since you don’t have a match these few days, why don’t you stay here and recuperate for the next few days? When the finals are here, we can go draw lots together.”

Gu Lingzhi raised her eyebrows in suspicion, “What happened? It’s unlike you to act so cautiously around me.

She could already walk around fine on her own, why would she stay in her room to recuperate? Both Yan Liang and Tianfeng Jin looked apprehensive and restless.

She could easily guess that they had both rushed over not only because of her injuries, but there was definitely another reason.

Could it be that… they had already heard about Rong Yuan staying over at the Dayin Kingdom’s dorms last night? 

She knew that she had guessed wrongly when a female student from the First School walked past them and pointed at her and said, “Look, isn’t that the fiancée of the Xia Kingdom’s Third Prince? She looks decent, who knew that she would have such an evil heart? How could she bear to hurt her little sister?”

The female student did not bother to lower her voice and everyone around her could clearly hear what she said. Tianfeng Jin and Yan Liang’s face changed in an instance. They glanced at Gu Lingzhi for a moment before turning to retort.

“Shut up! Lingzhi is nothing like what you say.”

“Whoa, there’s someone who’s actually speaking up for her,” the female student exclaimed. She thought about how all of them were in the First School’s campus, before straightening her shoulders and sneered, “What? If she has the guts to do something so horrible, why would she be afraid that others would talk about it?”

Another girl beside her chimed in, “Exactly. Aren’t you scared of being betrayed by someone who would even plot against her younger sister?”

“Shut up! How dare you slander Lingzhi! I’ll… I’ll…” Yan Liang stammered. He did not know how to handle the two girls as he was never good at words.

The two girls then interrupted him, “You’ll what? This is the First School, not the Royal School. Let’s see what you can do.”

With a sharp sound, Tianfeng Jin brandished her sword in front of the two girls before coldly retorting, “I’ll cut off your tongues if you say another word.”

The look in her eyes made it clear that she was not joking.

The two girls who were just low-grade Martial Practitioners were frightened and kept silent for a while. The female student who had spoken first clenched her teeth and said, “So what if you cut our tongues? You can’t cut the tongues of all the students in the First School. Everyone knows now that Gu Lingzhi is a…”

Before she could finish her sentence, Tianfeng Jin pointed her sword at the student’s throat in one swift motion. The female student swallowed her saliva, cowering in front of Tianfeng Jin.

“Don’t… don’t be rash. I haven’t even said anything yet.”

Tianfeng Jin had no intention of keeping her sword, until she saw that the female student’s clothes were covered in cold sweat. She slowly put her sword back in the sheath, before shouting, “Scram!”

The female student hurriedly turned to leave.

Although the female student was confident that the school would uphold justice for her, there was no compensation for her if Tianfeng Jin had really cut her tongue off.

The other female student followed suit and left as well. They had decided to spread this incident to others and exaggerate it. They would find a way to tarnish Gu Lingzhi’s reputation after what Tianfeng Jin had done to her.

After the two students left, Gu Lingzhi turned to look at Tianfeng Jin and Yan Liang.

“What happened exactly? Can you tell me now?”

“Well…” Tianfeng Jin and Yan Liang looked at each other for a moment before finally deciding to tell Gu Lingzhi why they had come to pay a visit.

Ever since she had beaten Senior Zhuang in the match yesterday, there were loads of rumors that surfaced about her.

Half of them were true while half of them were false, but they all narrated how Gu Lingzhi had come to meet Rong Yuan after awakening her Spiritual Roots and how they had become engaged.

Due to all these rumors, Gu Lingzhi had suddenly become an evil woman who would use any means to get what she wanted overnight. As for Gu Linglong and Tianfeng Wei, they had suddenly become the innocent victims. The rumors spread like wildfire – in under a day, the whole student body of the First School had heard about it.

People who did not know the truth were easily misled by these rumors. Yet, the main point was not that people believed these rumors, but rather the sudden appearance of Lang Jingchen.