"How did your apprentice's face get destroyed?"
The Sect Leader's question echoed through the mostly empty hall. He leaned back against the white throne and waited patiently for his junior sister to reply.
His eyes never left the face of the beautiful young woman in front of him as if searching for something in her gaze.
As if he could still see the innocent little girl who she once was.
There was a brief and terrible moment of silence.
Lei Ying's body literally froze as she heard the Sect Leader's question.
All she could hear was the frantic beating of her heart and it felt as though her organ was about to burst out of her chest.
How did he find out? How could he possibly have discovered her apprentice's secret?
How much did he know?
HOW MUCH DID HE KNOW?!
Did that brat Xu Lu also tell him about the other deeds that she had done as well?
After many decades of controlling her emotions, Lei Ying to her credit did not let any of the nervousness that she felt appear on her face.
First, she needed to find out more information about the situation. Discover just how much her senior brother knew and then act accordingly.
Calm down… calm down and think…
Lei Ying took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She could feel herself relaxing ever so slightly as she got her emotions under control.
"Senior brother… so you have seen her face," Lei Ying replied solemnly as she stepped forward and kneeled down near the throne.
"My dear apprentice… I covered her face with a mask because she is sensitive to the stares of others and did not want her secret to get out."
"I saw her face when I gave her a healing pill during our sparring session," Shi Jian calmly spoke as he watched his junior sister continue to bow her head.
"She told me that her injuries were your responsibility. That you intentionally let a demon cultivator bypass the defensive wards on the fifth peak."
"That you allowed her to be captured and suffer horrific torture that left her scarred and permanently mutilated."
"Is that true?"
"No," Lei Ying replied immediately as she raised up her head and faced her senior brother with determination in her gaze.
"My apprentice… her injuries were a result of an internal heart demon. When I came back one day from a mission, I discovered her face covered in blood."
"She had broken into my private storage room and stolen a rare toxin that I had gotten a few decades ago and smeared in on the tip of her blade."
"I don't know what the source of her inner demon was, but it drove her in that moment to destroy her own appearance."
"She caused her own injuries?" the Sect Leader questioned with a tinge of disbelief in his voice.
"Yes… the reason why I kept this matter a secret was that I feared that she would be overwhelmed by her inner demon again if the truth was revealed," Lei Ying replied solemnly.
There was no hint that she was lying.
Her voice was steady and unwavering. Shi Jian looked at his junior sister and felt an enormous weight slowly lift off his chest.
This explanation made sense… no it had to make sense... he refused to think about the possibility that his junior sister was lying.
The demon that Xu Lu was referring to must have been her own unstable mental state.
That meant that the rest of her story could be reinterpreted to find out the true version of events.
Lei Ying 'let' her be mutilated because she did not arrive in time and there was no wonder that Xu Lu felt misplaced resentment towards her master.
There was a small part of the Sect Leader that wanted to question his junior sister some more about the incident, but he pushed that feeling down.
At this point… the most convenient truth was the only thing that he could accept… for the good of the sect.
"I see…" Shi Jian slowly spoke.
"You do understand that such an unstable individual cannot be the saintess of our sect… she is ill-suited for the pressures of being a future successor."
"I know… but please give me a chance! I can help her!" Lei Ying protested, and one could see the anguish and worry in her eyes.
She gripped her heart as if she was in pain. As if somehow her apprentice being stripped of her title was enough to cause her to feel heartache.
"Where is she?" Lei Ying asked with concern evident in her voice.
"I… I have locked her away," Shi Jian let out a heavy sigh as he suddenly appeared several decades older.
"She was unstable and… her words would stoke divisiveness in the sect. I… I cannot allow any internal troubles before the central meeting."
"Please may I visit her?" Lei Ying pleaded desperately as she clasped her hands together and looked at the Sect Leader.
"You may… after the meeting…" Shi Jian reluctantly replied as he raised up his hands to the sides of his head and began to massage his temples.
What was he going to do with the insane saintess?
Little did the Sect Leader know that the decision to deal with the saintess was no longer in his hands…
.
.
.
.
(North Region- Unknown Location)
"Damn it!" Xu Lu cursed softly under her breath as she tilted her head to the side and narrowly avoided a sharp blade-like spine that whizzed past her body.
The former saintess of the Holy Sword Sect continued to run frantically while occasionally glancing backwards to look at her pursuers.
She was being followed by three enormous porcupine-like monsters with spikes on their upper backs that were capable of being shot at tremendous speeds.
She did not know where she was.
Xu Lu looked around but all she could see was a dense tropical forest with a thick underbrush, green vines, and numerous thorny plants.
She hissed in pain as her white robe tore on some of the spiky branches and the wooden splinters entered her flesh.
The pendant hanging around her chest began to glow with an eerie light.
The scarlet eye in the middle of the amulet blinked twice and Xu Lu could feel a surge of energy filling her dantian.
(Continue to run… north…)
A faint hoarse whisper entered her mind. Xu Lu was not sure if she had gone mad or somehow the pendant was able to talk to her.
Still with no other choice, the former saintess continued to run in the direction that the mysterious voice told her to.
Crash!
One of the monsters slammed headfirst into a sturdy oak tree in front of it with so much force that its skull split open.
The other monsters tossed back their heads and snarled angrily. Their eyes narrowed as they dug their paws into the ground and ran even faster than before.
"Come on! That wasn't even my fault!" Xu Lu yelled as she dove to the left just as a paw with wickedly sharp claws nearly took off the skin on her back.
She rolled ungracefully on the ground and quickly got up covered in a mixture of dirt and muck that stained her once white robes.
(Move to the left… several hundred metres…)
(Home… safety….)
Xu Lu gritted her teeth and flung her body to the side towards the direction that the voice wanted her to go.
She could only hope that this wasn't a trap.
This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by (f)reew𝒆b(n)ovel.com