HPLFK 11

Chapter – 11

Oh No, Your Wife Is Being Interrogated in the Main Hall

A-Shang didn’t look good at the moment. First, she had been humiliated by He Zong and his two companions using the Demon Binding Rope. She barely escaped, only to injure her leg and fall off a cliff, then had to fight that demon beast.

Her hair was a mess, her once-white Daoist robe was now filthy and torn, her body covered in wounds and bruises, and she was limping. Pitiful was the only word to describe her.

The moment the girl appeared, Xie Hengyu had already sensed the overwhelming demonic aura radiating from her, as well as the fully naked man lying on the grass with a look of utter satisfaction.

The air around them instantly turned cold. Wu Zhu, who had just fed and was hoping for a little dessert but was denied by his master, instinctively sensed the killing intent in the air.

The next second, a sword wreathed in a cyan glow and biting cold shot straight toward him.

A-Shang hadn’t expected Xie Hengyu to be provoked into killing Wu Zhu. Seeing his lifebound sword, Qing Shuang, flying toward Wu Zhu, she rushed to block in front of him. “Don’t!”

Qing Shuang stopped a hair’s breadth from A-Shang’s chest.

A-Shang stared at the sword so close to her. Its faint cyan glow carried a piercing chill that frostied her eyelashes.

“Don’t?” Xie Hengyu fixed his gaze on A-Shang, who had recklessly thrown herself in front of that demon to shield it, a hint of displeasure creasing his brow.

Having been his cultivation partner for five years in her past life, A-Shang could see the frost spreading across the grass around him. She knew this was a sign that Xie Hengyu was angry.

A-Shang didn’t understand why he would try to kill Wu Zhu the moment they met—until she looked into his cold, merciless eyes. Then it hit her.

Xie Hengyu had always harbored a deep intolerance for demons. In her past life, countless demons had fallen to his sword. His name alone was enough to make all manner of monsters tremble in fear throughout the demon realm. He was even infamous among demons as the “Butcher of the Immortal Sects.”

A-Shang had often thought in her past life—if she had been a pure-blooded fox demon, after that one night of passion with him, she would likely have become another soul beneath his blade.

Sensing the killing intent radiating from Xie Hengyu, A-Shang spoke to Wu Zhu without turning around. “Go. Find somewhere to hide.”

She didn’t want the very first spirit she had contracted to die by Xie Hengyu’s sword.

Wu Zhu was also fond of his own life. He had been imprisoned in the Abyss of Ten Thousand Spirits for eons, enduring millennia of solitude. The last thing he wanted was to be obliterated on his very first day out.

Ten thousand years ago, he wouldn’t have feared a cultivator like this. But now, without a physical body and nothing but a wisp of a soul, and with his contractor being a half-demon of low cultivation, he knew he was no match for the man before him.

Hearing A-Shang tell him to find a place to hide, Wu Zhu didn’t disappoint. He vanished in a flash.

A-Shang let out a sigh of relief, but before she could catch her breath, Xie Hengyu, who had been standing a short distance away, was suddenly right in front of her. His tall frame blocked the light before her.

Then his hand closed around A-Shang’s neck. He didn’t apply pressure, but the grip was possessive, forcing her to tilt her head back and meet his eyes.

“A-Shang.” Xie Hengyu spoke her name, his voice icy cold, his gaze dark and unreadable.

A-Shang was startled to hear him call her name suddenly—it felt like the first time he had said it in the days since she’d been reborn.

Xie Hengyu stared at her grimy little face. So close now, he could see the blood mark on her lip—as if someone had bitten her.

It was somewhat displeasing to the eye.

The hand gripping the girl’s neck suddenly tightened. A-Shang immediately felt the suffocation, frowning as she reached up to grab his wrist.

Just then, noises came from behind—a group of sect disciples had arrived.

“A-Shang, come back to the sect with us!”

The leading disciple held a piece of paper in his hand, and on it was her portrait.

A-Shang recognized it at a glance—it was the sect’s wanted notice.

*

**The Immortal Sect**

**Main Hall of Lingguang Palace.**

Silver Spirit-Binding Rings were coiled around A-Shang’s wrists. When the two disciples led her inside, the hall was already filled with quite a number of people—all sect disciples.

As she entered, everyone turned their eyes toward her.

When He Zong and Lu Si, who were standing not far away, saw that A-Shang had actually returned alive, their expressions shifted involuntarily. Though their hearts were trembling with fear, they figured that even if she told the truth, no one would believe her anyway.

With that thought, they immediately straightened their backs, looking confident and self-assured.

A-Shang had just reached the center of the hall when a harsh scolding voice rang out from above:

“Vile creature! Kneel!”

At the head of the hall sat several elders of the Immortal Sect. The sect had a total of five elders; today, three had come. The one who had just ordered her to kneel was none other than the Fifth Elder, True Man Lingfeng.

In response to the Fifth Elder’s reprimand, A-Shang lifted her gaze calmly and said, “This disciple has done nothing wrong. Why should I kneel?”

Everyone present was shocked by her words. She had personally killed a fellow disciple, and yet she still claimed she was not at fault.

“Bring up Zhong Hua’s body!” No sooner had the Fifth Elder spoken than two disciples carried a corpse into the hall.

The Fifth Elder said, “You claim you’ve done nothing wrong. Then let me ask you—did you or did you not kill Zhong Hua?”

A-Shang looked at the corpse beside her. The body was pale and deathly white, the blood at the neck already dried—a gruesome sight. It was indeed a wound inflicted by her dagger.

A-Shang admitted it: “Yes, I killed him.”

As soon as A-Shang said this, the crowd erupted in murmurs.

“A traitorous disciple! Utterly traitorous! Murdering a fellow disciple is a grave offense, and yet she shows not a shred of remorse!” The Fifth Elder, seeing A-Shang’s unyielding and unapologetic demeanor, pointed at her and roared:

“When Changxuan first proposed admitting a half-demon into the sect, I was utterly against it. Now look—look for yourselves! This is the disciple our Immortal Sect has taken in, this half-demon disciple! First she used despicable means to become Yan Zhi’s cultivation partner, and now she has murdered a fellow disciple. If we keep such a vile creature in the sect, even greater calamities will follow!”

Hearing this, the disciples in attendance also began to whisper among themselves.

“Qingyu.” The Fifth Elder turned his gaze toward the Second Elder beside him and spoke: “Tell me, this vile creature is your good disciple’s cultivation partner, is she not? Now that she has killed someone, how should this be handled?!”

True Man Qingyu, who had been called out, opened his eyes. His sharp gaze fell upon A-Shang below.

A-Shang met his eyes—that look of contempt was one she had seen many times in her past life. Even as she lay dying, Xie Hengyu’s master, True Man Qingyu, had still looked at her with that same disdain.

A man of his supreme status, a Sword Venerable, held nothing but scorn in his bones for a half-demon like her. Especially after learning that she had defiled his beloved disciple, his contempt had deepened into utter hatred.

A murderous glint flickered in True Man Qingyu’s eyes. If it weren’t for the fact that Yan Zhi was bound to this vile creature by a love gu, their fates intertwined in life and death, he would have drawn his sword and struck off her head himself.