Volume 3, Chapter 308 – Who Is the Abandoned Little Dog?

Chi Xiyan cast one cold glance at Lu Guan of Lingxiao Sword Sect, then gathered the thoroughly wrapped Lu Zhuxin into her arms and left the courtyard with quick, sharp steps.

Lu Guan stood with a darkened face, watching Chi Xiyan go.

Only after Chi Xiyan had disappeared from his sight did Lu Guan turn to Chi Jingwen. “Family Head Chi, I hope you will be able to give me a satisfying answer regarding tonight’s events.”

“Otherwise, both the Song family and Lingxiao Sword Sect will find it very difficult to continue placing their trust in the Chi family’s good name.”

Chi Jingwen’s expression did not waver. “That goes without saying. The Chi family will investigate tonight’s matter thoroughly. No innocent person will be made to carry an unjust burden, and no wrongdoer will be allowed to walk free.”

Seeing the sincerity in Chi Jingwen’s manner, Lu Guan’s expression eased slightly.

He gave a single nod, then led the dazed and hollow-eyed Song Shutao away.

Chi Zhong lowered his head, doing his utmost to shrink his presence down to nothing, and slipped out quietly behind the Lingxiao Sword Sect disciples.

Once everyone had gone, only the Chi family guards Chi Jingwen had brought with him remained in the courtyard.

“Seal this area off. No one is to approach without authorization.”

With that, Chi Jingwen walked over to the guard lying on the ground. “How is he?”

The physician at his side said, “The sword strike was extraordinarily precise. It pierced straight through the lung. Had it been angled even slightly higher, the sword qi would have ruptured the heart’s main vessel directly.”

“He is fortunate, however. He kept his life.”

“The wound has been sealed with a secret technique for now. It should not be long before he regains consciousness.”

“Only…” The physician hesitated.

“Speak plainly,” Chi Jingwen said.

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The physician was quiet for a moment. “Family Head, the wound… it bears the marks of Lingxiao Sword Sect’s exclusive sword art. There is residual sword qi from Lingxiao Sword Sect still present in the wound.”

Chi Jingwen’s expression darkened. After a long moment, he said, “Understood. Have him taken somewhere to rest.”

The physician nodded.

When everything had been attended to, Chi Jingwen stood in the courtyard, sinking into thought.

“This is the inner quarters. It is not a place guests would come on their own. So how did Lingxiao Sword Sect’s Lu Guan find his way here?”

***

Elsewhere, Chi Xiyan carried Lu Zhuxin back to her own quarters at a hurried pace.

Bu Lianshuang followed along behind them, watching the two with a complicated expression.

Wolf Clan senses were sharp. She understood more of what had happened than the humans back there.

For one, Bu Lianshuang knew that the Fox Lady had not actually done anything with that “Song Shixuan.”

Setting aside whether that “Song Shixuan,” with her body utterly steeped in the qi of death, had even been capable of such a thing, the Fox Lady carried none of the scent that followed genuine intimacy.

When a fox demon went into heat, the pheromones on their body could not be suppressed.

Taking everything into account, Bu Lianshuang knew that the Fox Lady had not truly done any such thing.

What she did not understand was why the Fox Lady had done what she did at all.

She had come to Chi Mansion and set her sights on Chi Xiyan. Was that not enough? She had to go after “Song Shixuan” as well?

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Of course, when Bu Lianshuang had seen the Fox Lady nestled in that “Song Shixuan’s” arms, all she had felt was a sharp prickling pain in her chest.

Tonight, the Fox Lady had deliberately sent her away.

Bu Lianshuang had never imagined that while she was risking exposure, putting herself in harm’s way for the Fox Lady’s sake, fighting a Sixth Realm cultivator hidden inside Chi Mansion… the Fox Lady had been curled up in another woman’s embrace, exchanging tender affections.

Everyone else could enjoy the Fox Lady’s warmth. Only she, Bu Lianshuang, could not.

Bu Lianshuang did not understand why the Fox Lady singled her out for this kind of treatment.

Even if the Fox Lady was simply using her, there ought to be some system of reward for her efforts, shouldn’t there?

Bu Lianshuang felt she did not even measure up to a dog at the Fox Lady’s feet.

A little dog could at least wag its tail and act spoiled to earn a small scrap of its master’s affection.

Bu Lianshuang had received nothing at all.

A sharp bang rang out.

Lost in her thoughts, Bu Lianshuang nearly walked straight into the door in front of her.

Chi Xiyan had shut the door. Without a single word, she had shut Bu Lianshuang out on the other side.

Bu Lianshuang stood there looking at the wooden door, a chill spreading slowly through her chest.

She was the Fox Lady’s personal maidservant. Was she no longer even permitted to enter her mistress’s room?

Bu Lianshuang felt like a little dog that had been abandoned by its owner. A sourness welled up from somewhere around her heart and rose all the way to the tip of her nose.

This wooden door was like a wall too high to scale, sealing off every path that led to the Fox Lady.

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Bu Lianshuang stood there, adrift and miserable, with nowhere to go.

She did not know what she was supposed to do. She stood in place like an irrelevant passerby, someone with no part to play in any of this.

She had followed the Fox Lady for so long, and yet she had never once managed to understand what the Fox Lady was thinking. She had never known what the Fox Lady truly wanted to do.

Whatever the Fox Lady did, she kept Bu Lianshuang outside of it.

‘Just what am I to you… Little Fox…’

***

Chi Xiyan carried Lu Zhuxin swiftly into the inner room.

She laid her down on the bed and unwound the cloak that had been wrapped around her.

Lu Zhuxin let out a small sound, and the moment the restraint was gone, she latched herself onto Chi Xiyan again like an octopus.

“What kind of poison is this?” Chi Xiyan pressed down on Lu Zhuxin with one hand to keep her still, and the expression on her face settled into something grave.

The moment she had noticed something was wrong with Lu Zhuxin, she had applied needles using a secret technique from Medical Immortal Valley.

Under ordinary circumstances, a standard aphrodisiac would have been suppressed by this needlework.

But Chi Xiyan found that her needles had no effect whatsoever on the girl in her arms.

“Mmm… it hurts…” Lu Zhuxin pressed herself toward Chi Xiyan with glazed, unfocused eyes, murmuring in a muddled voice, “Sister… save me… it hurts so much…”

She clutched Chi Xiyan’s sleeve and tugged at her clothes.

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Her cheeks were a deep, vivid red, and the breath that passed her lips was scalding hot.

“Sister… I’m so hot… help me take this off…”

Chi Xiyan kept her composure, expression unchanged.

In the middle of all this, she noticed it again. That bewitching scent rising from the girl’s body.

Chi Xiyan had had her suspicions about that scent before. Nothing like it appeared anywhere in the Chi family’s ancestral records.

But after discovering how unusual this girl’s constitution was, she had set the suspicion aside.

A Supreme Sword Dao Sacred Body being a little unusual was perfectly normal.

And now, breathing in that enticing fragrance, Chi Xiyan found a strange and inexplicable impulse stirring somewhere inside her.

She pressed her lips together and held her breath.

She reached out, took hold of the girl’s arm, and with a gentle twist, pressed her back down against the bed.

During her time studying at Medical Immortal Valley, Chi Xiyan had learned how to restrain patients who resisted unconsciously during treatment.

This was, however, the first time she had ever actually used it.

Silver light scattered across the bed as one needle after another found its way into the girl’s acupoints.

Chi Xiyan’s brow furrowed again.

“Chi Muxue… are you truly poisoned?”