Volume 3, Chapter 349 – A Fate Worse Than Death

When Chi Xiyan found Lu Zhuxin, the girl was clinging to the base of a pillar at the courtyard gate.

A ring of guards and household servants had gathered around her.

Chi Xiyan could hear the girl’s crying and shouting from quite a distance away.

“I want to see my sister! I want to see Elder Sister Xiyan!!”

“Stop pushing me!!”

“You’re all terrible people!”

“Don’t leave me locked up here alone!!”

This girl…

Chi Xiyan felt a dark wave of exasperation wash over her.

She quickened her pace and walked over.

“What is going on here? What is all this fuss about?”

The maids around them immediately bowed their heads and stepped aside at the sight of Chi Xiyan.

“Eldest Young Miss, the second young miss has been insisting on seeing you…”

Chi Xiyan’s face was cool. Her gaze moved past the parting crowd to the small figure clinging to the pillar.

She spoke. “What are you making a scene about?”

Everyone nearby could feel the weight of the pressure pressing down on them.

Had the eldest young miss gotten angry?!

“Sister?” Lu Zhuxin looked up and saw Chi Xiyan’s dark expression.

“Sister!”

She let go of the pillar and launched herself at Chi Xiyan like a small dog bounding toward its owner.

But before she could fling herself into Chi Xiyan’s arms, Chi Xiyan grabbed her up by the arm the way one might lift a chick by the scruff.

“Are you done?” Chi Xiyan said coldly. “How old do you think you are?”

“Sister…” Lu Zhuxin, dangling in her grip, hunched her shoulders and let her eyes dart away.

Seeing that, Chi Xiyan pressed on. “Did you think that because I haven’t been home these past few days, there’s really no one keeping an eye on you?”

“How many sword manuals have you read? Have you fully mastered the sword techniques I taught you?”

“Ugh!” Lu Zhuxin tucked her neck in like a little cat.

Chi Xiyan was about to say more, but she suddenly furrowed her brow and swept her gaze across the surrounding area.

Every servant nearby felt a chill run through them. They immediately dropped their eyes from the spectacle and bowed their heads, not daring to make a sound.

Chi Xiyan let out a quiet sound of displeasure, then dragged Lu Zhuxin by the arm into the courtyard.

There were no servants inside Lu Zhuxin’s small courtyard. Only the two of them.

Chi Xiyan dropped the girl into the courtyard. “Talk. What exactly is it you want?”

“Sister…” Lu Zhuxin pressed her lips together, her gaze wandering across Chi Xiyan’s face.

Chi Xiyan’s brow drew tighter.

She watched the girl’s hesitant expression, and something suddenly occurred to her.

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She feigned irritation and said, “It seems you’ve really gotten a little too comfortable with yourself these past few days.”

“Watch how I deal with you.”

As she spoke, she stepped forward, grabbed Lu Zhuxin’s arm, and marched her inside.

The door swung shut with a creak.

Chi Xiyan pulled Lu Zhuxin all the way to the middle of the room.

Several talismans flew from her sleeve and pressed themselves flat against the door panels. A pale blue curtain of light slowly spread across the entire room.

Once she was certain the space was completely sealed, Chi Xiyan released Lu Zhuxin’s arm.

Her brow was lightly furrowed.

“You’ve never acted like this before.”

“Talk. What is going on?”

Lu Zhuxin stepped to one side. The mischievous, willful look she had worn outside disappeared from her face entirely.

She looked at Chi Xiyan, her expression grave.

“Sister…” The girl bit her lower lip. “Sister, do you trust me?”

Chi Xiyan said nothing. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she studied the girl in front of her.

The girl’s expression held a trace of panic. Her hands were clasped restlessly against her chest. The corner of her lip had been bitten unconsciously to a vivid red.

“Sister…” she said quietly, a note of distress in her voice. “In this entire household, you are the only one I can trust.”

Chi Xiyan’s brow creased. “What happened? Is something wrong?”

Lu Zhuxin lowered her gaze and said softly, “The family head, he, he has placed me under house arrest here…”

“What?” Chi Xiyan’s brow tightened.

Her expression shifted. She released her spiritual consciousness and swept it across the surroundings.

She felt it then, the faint but unmistakable pressure emanating from the space around them.

The entire Chi Grand Mansion was enveloped by the household’s protective formation, but the formation around this particular courtyard was uniquely different from the rest.

The formation had been activated specifically to seal off Chi Muxue’s courtyard.

Chi Xiyan looked at Lu Zhuxin, her eyes full of questions.

“What is the meaning of this? Why would Father lock you in here?”

She had been out and about almost every day these past few days and had not been paying attention to what was happening inside the Chi Residence. Even the servants at her side had not told her a word of it.

“I’m not entirely sure…” Lu Zhuxin said. “These past few days, Elder Sister Wei has been coming to see me often…”

“She keeps finding roundabout ways to ask me strange questions…”

“She’s an inspector of the Demon Suppression Bureau, and she’s the one in charge of the Chi family’s case…”

As she spoke, Lu Zhuxin suddenly reached out and gripped Chi Xiyan’s arm tightly.

“Sister… what do you think is going on? What do the family head and Elder Sister Wei actually want?!”

Chi Xiyan said nothing. She pressed her hand over Lu Zhuxin’s.

Through those soft, slender fingers, she could feel the faint trembling running through the girl’s frame.

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“Muxue…” Chi Xiyan’s eyes dimmed slightly. “What are you thinking?”

In all the time she had spent with Chi Muxue, Chi Xiyan had come to understand that this girl was not as delicate as she appeared.

Her inner strength was, in truth, far greater than anyone had imagined.

Even after what had happened that night, she had been able to keep her emotions in check.

Any other girl might have already broken down, unable to bear it.

A girl like that would not show this kind of panic simply because she was under house arrest.

She had clearly been thinking about something, and that was what was driving her urgency.

Even to the point of creating this almost absurd scene just to bring Chi Xiyan back.

“Sister…” The girl’s eyes held a plea. “If I tell you, will you believe me?”

Chi Xiyan looked at her, the emotion in her gaze unreadable.

This was the second time the girl had asked her that question.

She was like a small rabbit that had not yet recovered from a shock, suspecting everything around her, with no sense of safety at all.

“Muxue.” Chi Xiyan let out a quiet sigh. “You have to tell me first. Then I can decide whether or not to believe it.”

“Sister…” The girl parted her lips, the red mark left from her biting fading. “Everything that has happened to the Chi family, it all started because of me…”

“Whether it was Song Shixuan’s wrongdoings inside the Chi family, or Lu Guan’s false accusations, all of it was directed at me.”

“For Lingxiao Sword Sect, one dead Sixth Realm sword cultivator holds no real value on his own. But his death can be used as leverage to extract the greatest possible benefit.”

“Right now, no one truly cares about how Lu Guan actually died. His death is nothing but a pretext, a reason to put pressure on the Chi family…”

“…” Chi Xiyan listened in silence.

Everything Chi Muxue was saying, she had already considered from the very beginning.

The running around she had been doing these past few days was precisely because of this.

Chi Muxue’s Sword Dao Sacred Physique was something that came along once in ten thousand years. Her appearing in the Chi family was the Chi family’s great fortune.

Her existence was simply too important to the Chi family.

One could say that the Chi family could afford to lose anyone, but Chi Muxue could not be allowed to come to harm.

And yet. In the Chi family’s time of crisis, not a single one of their longtime acquaintances had been willing to lend a hand.

These people did not know about Chi Muxue’s physique, nor did they understand her worth.

Lingxiao Sword Sect did know, however, and all of this was thanks to Song Shixuan.

The thought sent another shadow across Chi Xiyan’s eyes.

“Muxue, nothing will happen to you. If Lingxiao Sword Sect still wants to obtain the Sword Dao Sacred Physique, they will not let anyone else know about this.”

“Then what about the family head?” Lu Zhuxin raised her eyes. “The family head placed me under house arrest here. Was it truly to protect me?”

“Elder Sister Wei keeps coming to probe me. Could it be that she has noticed something from the attitudes of both the family head and Lingxiao Sword Sect…”

“Sister… you have been out and about these past few days. Have you not sensed anything unusual?”

Chi Xiyan’s breath caught. “Muxue… what are you referring to?”

“I don’t know…” Lu Zhuxin said softly. “I don’t know how to say it.”

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“I’ve been locked up in here all this time, unable to leave. I couldn’t even manage to see you.”

“The family head, since that day, has not come to check on me even once…”

After she said it, the girl lowered her head.

“…” Chi Xiyan understood now what she was trying to say.

Her little sister was clever. She had always been clever.

Even confined to this small courtyard, she had sensed the wrongness from the very beginning.

The family head’s attitude was off.

His attitude toward Muxue had always been strange.

Muxue was supposed to be his own flesh and blood, yet he had always been so cold and distant toward her.

And then this time…

Ever since the incident with Lu Guan, Chi Jingwen had not taken any real action.

He had been sitting there as though half-resigned to his fate, quietly waiting for the Demon Suppression Bureau’s investigation to run its course.

Was that normal? It was not.

Now, as Chi Muxue brought it to light again, Chi Xiyan suddenly realized something terrifying.

This was what Chi Muxue had truly wanted to say to her.

“Muxue…” Chi Xiyan’s voice came out strained. “You’re saying that the family head is prepared to give you up in exchange for the Chi family’s safety?”

“I, I don’t know…” Lu Zhuxin lowered her head.

Neither confirming it nor denying it.

At a moment like this, she naturally could not simply admit it outright.

What she needed to do was only to guide, to guide Chi Xiyan into drawing that “conclusion” herself.

Chi Xiyan drew a sharp breath, unable to accept the implication.

“That’s impossible…”

“You are the family head’s own daughter, and a Sword Dao Sacred Physique at that…”

“There is no reason for it!”

“And besides, the family head himself had me and you…”

Chi Xiyan’s words broke off abruptly.

Had Chi Jingwen ever truly treated Muxue as his own daughter?

If he had, why would he have said those things back then?

Chi Xiyan suddenly felt as though she could not breathe.

“This makes no sense… this makes no sense!!”

She demanded in a low, strained voice.

“Does Father not understand what the Sword Dao Sacred Physique means to the Chi family?!”

Sword Dao Sacred Physique. The reincarnation of a Sword Venerable.

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She would surely one day reach the Venerable Saint realm.

Lingxiao Sword Sect stood at the head of the Seven Sword Sects precisely because it had Immortal Venerable Qingzhi standing behind it.

If Chi Muxue truly became a Venerable Saint, the Chi family would rise overnight to become a power on par with Lingxiao Sword Sect.

Chi Jingwen could not possibly have failed to realize this.

So why…

Chi Xiyan could not understand it.

If the family head had already decided to give up Chi Muxue, then all her efforts over these past few days had been wasted from the very start.

“Sister…” Lu Zhuxin’s quiet voice reached her. “I am not some future Venerable Saint…”

“I’m just an ordinary farm girl…”

“And the Chi family is not Lingxiao Sword Sect…”

“…” Chi Xiyan felt a sudden buzzing fill her head.

In an instant, her expression became extremely grim.

There was something important she had been overlooking all along.

Chi Muxue was only a seed with the potential to one day become a Venerable Saint. The road from where she stood now to actually reaching that realm was a very long one.

But Lingxiao Sword Sect was different. Lingxiao Sword Sect was already one of the most powerful sects in the human lands.

Other than its wealth, the Chi family had absolutely no capital with which to stand against Lingxiao Sword Sect.

Even back when they had confronted Lu Guan, it was only because Wei Qingyu, an inspector of the Demon Suppression Bureau, had been present that Lu Guan had restrained himself at all.

In a world where strength was the supreme measure of all things, weakness was the original sin from which everything else followed.

Lu Zhuxin watched Chi Xiyan’s face cycle through shades of pale and ashen, and knew that she had arrived at exactly the understanding Lu Zhuxin had intended.

Inwardly, Lu Zhuxin felt a quiet satisfaction. But her voice carried a faint tremor of fear.

“Sister… what is going to happen to me?”

“If Lingxiao Sword Sect really takes me away, what will they do to me?”

The girl’s trembling voice plucked at the strings of Chi Xiyan’s heart.

If Chi Muxue was truly taken away by Lingxiao Sword Sect, what then?

Lingxiao Sword Sect had made an enemy of the Chi family. That alone would plant a seed of hatred in Muxue’s heart.

And Lingxiao Sword Sect would never allow that.

In the cultivation world, there were no shortage of ways to control a person’s mind.

The seed of a Sword Venerable, even without ever becoming one, would possess extraordinary power.

They might refine Chi Muxue into a puppet, make her the sharpest sword in Lingxiao Sword Sect’s arsenal, turn her into its most obedient hound.

Bind her forever, with no hope of ever breaking free.

For Muxue, a life like that would be a fate worse than death.

A dull ache pressed against Chi Xiyan’s chest.

She said through gritted teeth, “I will absolutely not let things come to that!”