Rebirth Of A Villainess - Chapter 152

Behind her, Chen Yueming was dissipating, at around that time, the group of people from the other sects walked into the tragic event.

“Isn’t that Lady Li and Sect Leader Chen?!!”

The cultivators that gathered around began to whisper harshly amongst themselves, it was clear that the sight was a scandalous one, a highly esteemed maiden meeting with a sect leader in secret especially one that was married!

“Sect Leader Chen!”

The cultivators that secretly came to protect Chen Yueming ran to where he was and held on to him as they hopelessly watched him fade away into nothingness.

On hearing the name of his sect leader’s daughter, Fu Zian who was at the back pushed his way through and rushed over to where Xu Hui was, but couldn’t make it in time as she too began to disintegrate right in front of him.

“LADY LI!”

Fu Zian took what was left of Li Jiao and cried bitterly while holding on to the clothing and shoes of Li Jiao which was the only thing that was left of her. Within the crowd that gathered, the mistress of the WuYangChen sect silently left when she saw how disgraceful her husband had died. Another figure within the crowd held onto his chest as though his heart had been ripped apart.

Outside a burning room, a woman laughed maniacally as a baby wailed inside a smoke-filled room. With blood in her hands, Chen Liling held a sword which held blood stains from the servants that she had killed, the deranged wife of the late Chen Yueming continued to laugh as her baby burned to death. The barrier she had erected around the courtyard kept other cultivators from her sect from breaking in, the secret technique which was passed from one generation to the next generation’s successor was used to brutally end the Chen lineage.

“Chen Yueming! In the end I meant nothing to you!”

“Lady Chen! Lower the barrier! Please!”

Deaf to the pleas from the men that faithfully served under her, Chen Liling continued to laughed until she took final breath in the smoke laden air and when she did the barrier came down but it was already too late, both baby and mother died tragically in the early hours of the morning.

———————

Back at YuanLi sect, Fu Zian broke the news of Li Jiao’s passing to Li Guoliang, who thought that the sect leader had murdered his daughter in cold blood and was threatening retribution.

“Ready the men! We are going to destroy WuYangChen sect!”

“Sect Leader Li! Please, reconsider! The young mistress would never have wanted this!”

Physician Shen pleaded with Li Guoliang whom he knew was a peaceful man, but the death of his daughter had thrown his mind into a turmoil.

“Sect Leader Li stole my daughter from me! How can I keep quiet!”

Alone in the room together, Physician Shen deliberated whether to tell Li Guoliang what he knew of his ‘daughter’ whom he closely observed in the past.

“Sect Leader Li…there is something you need to know about the young mistress.”

Wearing a look of solemnity, the sect’s physician decided to come clean with the YuanLi sect leader.

“Yes?”

“Lady Li was not who you think she is, the day I attended to her. I felt a pulse that was not hers, in all my years as physician I know everyone by their pulse. The Lady Li’s resembled that of a young girl I treated long ago from BaoXu sect, her name is Xu Hui. If my guess is right, Lady Li died when she fell into the water that day and the girl, Xu Hui was the one living inside her body. I know you may find this unbelievable, but I could not bring myself to tell you the truth when you were so happy that Lady Li didn’t succumb to death during her fall. Born with a weak heart, Lady Li was moving nimbly during the sword fight and challenged the boys in a fight. I’m sorry to tell you this, but Lady Li died that day, the one you were with was Xu Hui.”

“No!!!!”

Right there, Li Guoliang collapsed while the two sat to talk. From that day onward, the YuanLi sect leader became apathic and didn’t eat until one day he died peacefully in his sleep.

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He pushed up from where he laid and began walking towards his master, with head hanging low to slowly approach a man of impressive bearing, he no longer wore the usual white robe that Han Hulin remembered from those years under him, instead he wore a green robe.

He didn’t know why, but all of a sudden he felt as though his heart had closed up, as tears burned at the back of his lids, threatening to fall at the slightest push. Han Hulin knew he had to face his fears and get used to the fact that his master was already a married man. Raising his head to see how he really looked, although time had passed, little if any had changed in Fan Qingshan, he still had the same air that he carried about with him, his countenance and the outward look was exactly the same.

“He still as handsome as ever!”

The thought went straight through the head of Han Hulin, looking in disbelief that the looks of his master had not waned with time. As he kept walking his mind kept spacing out, feeling as though it was only filled with air and nothing else.

“Why is he here? I feel so happy I could run and scream in joy! May be something important must have forced him to come see me, is that the reason why he is here?”

Putting one foot in front of the other, until he got to a respectfully close distance from where Fan Qingshan stood. “Lin’er, why does it feel as though you are unhappy I came to see you?”

Hearing the voice of Fan Qingshan threw Han Hulin back to the past again, where they both ate together, trained together, went to the mortal realm together, did almost everything together, which was what other masters and junior disciples did, but he didn’t know why those moments felt more to him than just the routine life of a cultivator. The exception being taking baths and going to sect meetings where other sect leaders gathered to discuss matters of great importance.

Nothing in Fan Qingshan’s expression made him, think that his disciple harbored anything, but admiration as Han Hulin kept it all in his heart, to say a word about it would only lead to an early exit out of the hall of Solitude and permanently shunned by the cultivation world. Han Hulin knew that his master was waiting on his reply, when he hadn’t spoken.

“I’m not displeased to see you, the hall of solitude is yours and I’m only here for the time being until a new spirit master is elected.”

As Han Hulin spoke, his fingers played with the silver pendant that hung from his robes, this wasn’t unnoticed by Fan Qingshan whose lips curved up in a small smile, as it also reminded him of a peculiar nature of his disciple.

“A-Lin, come here!”

Han Hulin thought that he was close enough to his master, but hearing the command to draw closer, made his heart skip many beats, even though he wasn’t sure how he will all turn out, Han Hulin did as asked and closed the gap between him and his master.

Han Hulin felt his stomach somersault, but he knew that it wasn’t from hunger, he could see the clear iris of Fan Qingshan, the light colored eyes served as a trap, luring the soul of his disciple. Not that he knew the impact of what their close proximity was doing to Han Hulin, he took it a notch further by patting the other on the head, while that went on Han Hulin tried his hardest not to squirm at what his master was doing to him.

“It looks like you have grown an inch taller, but you need to do something about your body, you look too skinny!”

“…”

His senses was on high alert, as a faint blush spread across his face, puzzled by what he saw, Fan Qingshan said, “Why? What is the matter? Are you still reading those books again?”

Clearly misinterpreting the cause of his disciple’s discomfort, it wasn’t that he was thinking of the illustrated erotic book his master caught him reading, one time during an unannounced visit to his room at the hall of Solitude, but because his mind and heart was ensnared by Fan Qingshan!

“No…I don’t read them anymore….ever since you warned me against it.”

The look on Fan Qingshan’s face showed that he doubted what his disciple said, but decided not to pursue it further, instead he switched the conversation to a different direction.

“Truth be told, I didn’t just come to see how you are doing. I need a favor of you, can you look after Ruo’er? It’s only for a few days while I go along with other sect leaders down the mountain to tackle the rising tension between immortals and mortals. I know it is asking too much of you, but you are the only one that I trust to look after Ruo’er, her mother is on a night hunt with other female cultivators, you were the first person that came to mind.”

From the time Fan Qingshan lightly touched the head of his disciple, Han Hulin struggled to steady his heart from beating too fast, nothing worked faster in bringing him back to his senses, at the mention of the child belonging to his master, Fan Ruo. Han Hulin didn’t know what to feel at that moment, he wanted to throw his head back and laugh bitterly, the words that echoed in his mind over and again was, “He only sought me out to keep an eye on his daughter, that’s all I am to him? Where hr mother’s family?”

Unlike Fan Qingshan, his wife was a woman he met during one of those times they visited the mortal realm together, although the cultivation world didn’t look favorably on a union between a mortal and immortal, yet he still went ahead and brought her with the permission of her parents to world of cultivation, after performing a simple wedding in the presence of her parents in the mortal realm. Although none of the cultivators showed up at the earthly wedding, but many came to the one held at Zhai mountain.. Han Hulin kept looking at his master, unsure of how to respond to such a request.