It’s over, Cen Yuchi thought. Seeing Wei Kong like this, it seemed Chen Chen had truly offended their forebears falling into her hands would likely spell disaster.
Sure enough, Wei Kong continued, “Peak Master, I just examined him carefully. This is indeed our sect’s renegade disciple, Chen Chen. Since he’s delivered himself to our door today, don’t blame me for enforcing the sect rules!” With that, Wei Kong stepped forward, as if to take the man away directly.
Seeing this, Yin Xiaoyang shielded Cen Yuchi entirely behind him, while Mu Linchuan hurriedly blocked Wei Kong, saying, “Uncle-Master Wei, please calm down. Why not hear what they have to say first?”
Wei Kong flew into a rage at this. “Does the Peak Master think my Ding-character Formula disciples are spouting nonsense?”
Mu Linchuan said, “I wouldn’t dare. It’s only that Xiaoyang is not one to cause trouble wantonly, there must be some misunderstanding here.”
Wei Kong clapped his hands and said approvingly, “Perfect, then. I’ll handle mine, you handle yours. I’ll take these unworthy disciples away with me now!” With that, he shot forward at incredible speed. Before Yin Xiaoyang could even assume a defensive stance, a force flung him aside. Cen Yuchi, unable to dodge in time, was seized by the collar and lifted up by Wei Kong.
The yanked collar pulled at his wound, and Cen Yuchi felt terrible, the pain mixed with a near-suffocating sensation made him instinctively cry out for help: “Senior Brother!”
“Wait!” Mu Linchuan shouted.
Cen Yuchi thought: This is bad.
“Uncle-Master Wei, please put him down first,” Mu Linchuan said.
“He’s injured!” Yin Xiaoyang scrambled up from the ground, shouting anxiously.
Wei Kong paused at this, as if only just noticing Cen Yuchi’s wounds. Frowning, he released his grip and used the momentum to shove the man forward. Yin Xiaoyang hurriedly caught him.
Still, he said, “What? I can’t even discipline my own disciple without the Peak Master interfering?”
Supported by Yin Xiaoyang, Cen Yuchi barely managed to stand. He noticed that none of those present seemed to react to his cry of “Senior Brother.” Thinking it over, Chen Chen had originally been a disciple under Wei Kong, and ten years ago when he left Immortal Feather Peak, Mu Linchuan probably hadn’t yet become Peak Master this “Senior Brother” was still an appropriate form of address, and he relaxed.
“Uncle-Master Wei,” Mu Linchuan said, “when Junior Brother Chen left Immortal Feather Peak back then, you yourself said that once he left, he would have nothing more to do with the Ding-character Formula. Now he has come to attend the banquet with an invitation, and neither of us has any right to make things difficult for him.”
“Are you suggesting, Peak Master, that I’m deliberately making things difficult for him? Fine! Back then, this Chen Chen violated our sect rules, and I should have purged him from our ranks but you came and pleaded with me in every way, and it was out of consideration for you and that Yin Family youngster that I spared his life. Today the Yin boy brings him into Immortal Feather Peak, and I ask a few questions, and suddenly I’m making things difficult for him?” Wei Kong snapped.
Although Cen Yuchi didn’t understand the full story, he had gotten the gist of it. Wei Kong’s fury was justified Chen Chen’s defection from his sect had already been a grave offense, and outside he had even used the Ding-character Formula’s techniques for petty thievery, which was truly disgraceful. Though Wei Kong had a bad temper, he was upright and acted with justice, unable to tolerate any filth in his sight. Sparing Chen Chen back then had already been an enormous favor to Mu Linchuan and Yin Yunluo, yet Chen Chen had gone on bouncing around the jianghu for ten years afterward. With all his words and deeds reaching Wei Kong’s ears, she had surely reached the limit of her patience probably not even Mu Lian coming to plead in person would help now.
At this moment, Yin Xiaoyang, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up: “It was clearly the two of them who struck first.”
“What?” Wei Kong asked.
By now Yin Xiaoyang had helped Cen Yuchi aside and settled him comfortably. Only then did he walk up to Wei Kong and salute with cupped hands.
“Martial Uncle Wei, Peak Master, since both of you are here today, I ask that you uphold justice for me.”
Wei Kong snorted with laughter at his words. “Oh my, has the Yin Family boy turned over a new leaf today? Usually his chin is raised to the heavens, but today he’s finally said something human even knows to call me Martial Uncle. But strange, I haven’t even settled accounts with you yet. What justice are you asking me to uphold for you? Let me ask you: was it you who brought this brat in here?”
“Yes,” Yin Xiaoyang answered.
“Fine! Since he came in following you, and I happened to run into him, if you don’t give me a satisfactory explanation today, I’ll take you back with him and give you both a proper lesson!”
Yin Xiaoyang clenched his fists. He had never defended himself before, nor did he deign to seemingly accustomed to swallowing his grievances, so that the vicious words and cold mockery could no longer hurt him. But…
Yin Xiaoyang glanced back at Cen Yuchi’s pale face and frowned.
“Martial Uncle Wei, I did bring him in, but the conflict just now with those two Ding-character Formula senior brothers wasn’t caused by him, nor did it start today.” Yin Xiaoyang glanced at the two Ding-character Formula disciples and, ignoring the warning in their eyes, continued: “Rather, my two senior brothers and I have clashed verbally many times in the past, and our grudges run deep. When we met today on Yike Peak, they were as harsh-tongued as ever, even going so far as to insult my Yin Family. As a disciple of Xianyu Peak, I should always keep the Xianyu sect rules in mind, but of all virtues in life, filial piety comes first. Facing such vicious slander, how could I endure it?”
“Martial Brother Yin, if anything we said was improper and displeased you, you could have simply pointed it out to our faces, and we would be more careful in the future. But there’s no need to twist the facts like this, is there?” said the sixth-rank Ding-character Formula disciple.
“Whether it’s the facts or not, you two know perfectly well,” Yin Xiaoyang said coldly.
The fifth-rank disciple was the aggressive one, and immediately shouted: “Then go ahead and tell us, how exactly did we slander you!”
Yin Xiaoyang had steeled himself to lay this matter bare with them today, but he was still a young man, thin-skinned, and no matter how tightly he clenched his teeth, he couldn’t bring himself to utter those unspeakable words.
Cen Yuchi couldn’t care less about any of that. The ugly faces these two little punks had just made were truly vile and disgusting. Was the Yin Family something they could mock at will? They had even bullied the Yin Family’s dear nephew. With Yin Yunluo, his actual uncle, not present, today Uncle Cen would vent this grievance on his behalf! Clapping his hands, he said, “What remarkable memories you two senior brothers have. Just now you were making up stories about how I stole things at the Yin Family’s behest, and now you can’t remember a single word of it. I wonder if you’re this selective with everyone remembering only the good, never the bad.”
Those two Ding-character Formula disciples were evidently used to bullying people, and they were even more convinced that Yin Xiaoyang would never gossip about this. But they never imagined they’d run into Cen Yuchi, someone who never lets an advantage slip. The sixth-rank disciple pointed at Cen Yuchi and said, “Chen Chen, don’t spout nonsense! When did we ever say such a thing!”
“Oh, right! I suppose that’s not quite how you put it. What you said was something about ‘who’s protecting whom,’ something about ‘keeping company with treacherous people,’ something about ‘cut from the same cloth,’ something about ‘performing rites to summon souls’! I wonder who you were hinting at!”
The moment these words came out, everyone present changed color even Mu Linchuan’s face darkened. The fifth-rank disciple was clearly panicking and blurted out recklessly, “I was only reminding Junior Brother Yin not to mix with you! Besides, isn’t the Yin Family just,”
“Wei Zixu!” the sixth-rank disciple cut him off.
Cen Yuchi raised an eyebrow. So these two little bastards were from the Wei Family, no wonder they were so arrogant and domineering.
Wei Zixu also realized he had misspoken and hastily shut his mouth, his eyes darting anxiously between Mu Linchuan and Wei Kong. But the words were already out, confirming that they had indeed made disrespectful remarks about the Yin Family earlier. Cen Yuchi hadn’t expected to trick it out of him with just a couple of sentences either that “cut from the same cloth” remark had touched someone’s sore spot, or this Wei Zixu was simply stupid enough.
“Master, Junior Brother may have spoken and acted improperly just now, but it was all with good intentions. Honest advice grates on the ear there really shouldn’t be such a deep misunderstanding over this.”
Wei Kong’s expression grew worse and worse, until finally he snorted and said, “Enough, no need to explain! You two, get back there at once to receive your punishment! Stop standing here making fools of yourselves!”
But Wei Zixu still seemed unconvinced and said, “Even if I really did say something inappropriate, wasn’t it only because Yin Xiaoyang is with this piece of trash? Doesn’t that mean he’s at fault too? Why don’t you ask him why he brought Chen Chen to Immortal Feather Peak! What exactly is he scheming!”
Hearing this, Yin Xiaoyang first bowed to Mu Linchuan, then said, “I met Chen Chen by chance on the road, and for certain reasons we traveled together. When passing through a mountain town, we encountered danger, and Chen Chen was injured while saving someone. Senior Brother Su Yuan, Senior Sister Gong… and Senior Brother Mu Linyuan can all attest to this. His wounds had not yet healed and he had nowhere to go, so we discussed bringing him back to Immortal Feather Peak to recover. Today the five of us returned to the peak together. Senior Brother Su Yuan and the others were called away by Senior Brother Chu at the gate to Morning Sun Peak to await the Peak Master’s deliberations, so I took it upon myself to bring him to Yike Peak first to get him settled. I never expected to run into the Peak Master and Uncle-Master Wei here.”
Yin Xiaoyang paused, then said, “Besides, even if I hadn’t run into you two here, when you met with the senior brothers and sisters later, they would have reported this matter to you anyway.”
“So that brat Su Yuan is mixed up in this too? Fine, in a moment I’ll question him thoroughly and see if his story matches what you’ve told me!” With that, Wei Kong flicked his sleeve, and together with the two Ding-character Formula disciples, vanished from before everyone’s eyes.
But upon hearing Yin Xiaoyang’s words, Mu Linchuan stepped forward with great concern, asking anxiously, “Where are you hurt? Let me see.”
Cen Yuchi hadn’t felt much at first, but now that it was brought up, his chest felt increasingly tight and painful.
Cen Yuchi had originally suffered from a heart ailment his chest often felt as if weighed down by a thousand pounds, and occasional pangs of pain were frequent. Having swapped into a healthy body, he hadn’t yet fully adjusted; though he’d felt some discomfort along the way, he hadn’t paid it much mind.
In truth, a mere wooden splinter was hardly a life-threatening injury for a cultivator, and after Gong Zhizhi’s treatment it had already healed considerably; the remaining superficial wounds would be fine with some slow recuperation.
The trouble was that he had just inadvertently taken a palm strike from Wei Zixu turning an external injury into an internal one, piling a serious ailment atop a minor one. The atmosphere had been tense during the standoff with the Wei master and disciples, and now that things had relaxed, he suddenly felt his legs go weak and his head spin. Before he could even say “no need to trouble yourself, Peak Master,” his vision went black and he fainted.